Everything A Baby Boomer Should Know -- An Insider's Guide To Estate Planning
This is called a "guidebook" because it is meant to guide you through the "exotic" world of estate planning. It is designed to be read from beginning to end as easily as it can be read from the middle to the beginning. The short chapters with topical headings make it easier to jump from one subject to another.
There is no beginning, middle and end to estate planning. It goes on for generations and everything leads to something else you should know. However, it is best to start at the beginning to become familiar with the new lexicon (vocabulary). From there, you can best decide what to do with the information.
The other reason for this shotgun format is that not everyone is interested in the same things. For some, the reading can get technical and make you feel overwhelmed. Those people need to jump to another section that is more passionate about things closer to their heart, such as why you want to avoid a conservatorship, or how to pick a guardian.
But for those that really want to understand what a “three-way formula split with a nonmarital pecuniary formula clause” is, there is sufficient information in this guidebook to give you an understanding – not an education, but an understanding so you will know how to analyze the trust documents and ask questions about how they work.
For others not so keen on reading and understanding every word, you may want to finger through the book to that section explaining how to save your family $920,000 in taxes.
For the reader that is married, you need to know what the nonmarital tax exemption is over the next five years in order to plan for its potential affect on your family’s inheritance.
There are many, many “terms of art” in this book that every Baby Boomer must know to speak the language of estate planning. In fact, because this guidebook has in it everything a Baby Boomer should know, it is therefore titled to that effect. (Did you know that in the year 2006, there are 7,918 Baby Boomers turning 60 every day?)
In the end you should be able to identify the parts of an average Baby Boomer’s estate plan and know how they work. That is one purpose of this guidebook.
Another purpose is to bring awareness to the human side of decision making for estate planning. All the “terms of art” and illustrations of tax exemption techniques cannot help explain your family dynamic. The primary function of estate planning is preserving and distributing your family’s legacy. That cannot be accomplished without a serious look at how your family functions, or in some cases, dysfunctions.
This guidebook breaks down the entire system of estate planning so anybody between the ages of 45 and 65 can read it, walk into an attorney’s office and, if not tell them exactly what they want, at least be able to discuss the subject intelligently.
It is time for every Baby Boomer, whether you like the moniker or not, to create an estate plan – no more putting it off. You have spent your entire life working; now spend more than a few hours deciding how to distribute your hard earned assets to your loved ones, or your favorite causes.
There's much more...
An Insider's Guide to Estate Planning
TO ESTATE PLANNING:
KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!
Why pay money so an attorney can try and explain the difference between a Bypass Trust and a QTIP Trust, when this book will answer that question long before you have to pay for a consultation?
This guidebook helps you map out your estate plan so it goes exactly where you want it to go. It explains the tools you need to give away or preserve your money, homes, businesses, heirlooms, cars, boats, jewelry, tools, art, memorabilia, and every other artifact of life you have accumulated over the last 45 to 65 baby booming years.
Mark S. Cornwall, Esq.
210 E. Figueroa Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101