Estate Planning (Wealth Transfer Planning)

Mezrah Financial’s focus on accumulating and building wealth for its clients is complemented by its expertise in preserving wealth and transferring it to the next generation without tax consequence.

Estate Planning is not just for the wealthy; it is for everybody who owns assets and who wants to have a say in who receives that property at the owner’s death and in what form it will be received. Estate Planning does not exist in a vacuum. It is closely related to many other aspects of an individual’s economic and personal planning.

When the topic of Estate Planning comes up, most people think of it as an opportunity to reduce taxes and other expenses that would be due at death and to maximize the amount available to the family and other beneficiaries.

  • Estate and Gift Taxes can consume up to 55% of the property you spent a lifetime accumulating.
  • The executor may be forced to sell assets, often at a loss to provide the required cash, further diminishing assets available to provide income for your family.
  • Estate Planning can reduce the size of the tax bite, but it is our belief that these taxes are voluntary taxes that can be eliminated or neutralized through proper planning.
  • Planning can guarantee your property will be passed on to those individuals you wish to benefit in the proportion or amounts decided upon during your lifetime.
  • Without planning, your property can pass to individuals you would not have chosen.
  • Proper planning will provide for continued management of assets, to protect them from the estate beneficiaries’ lack of business or investment experience or to free the beneficiaries from the responsibility of day-to-day investment decisions.
  • Trusts created during your lifetime or through your will can provide for this kind of management

A variety of planning solutions and techniques can be used to secure assets including stock with little to no basis and large real estate holdings, creating a myriad of tax benefits and inherent savings. Such planning tools may include:

  • Capital gain by-pass trusts
  • Grantor retained annuity trusts (GRAT)
  • Family limited partnerships (FLP)
  • Qualified plan distribution programs
  • Charitable remainder unitrusts (CRUT)
  • Charitable lead trusts (CLT)
  • Insurance trusts (ILIT)

As a successful individual, you understand the effort involved in creating and maintaining personal wealth. Yet, you may not realize how quickly estate taxes could sweep half of this wealth away. Your assets can only go to three places: your family, a charity or other designated beneficiaries, or the Internal Revenue Service.

Our specialized assessment methods and techniques allow you to:

  • Design and document a plan to ensure proper timing and amount of distributions to your chosen beneficiaries:
    • Provide sufficient income for a spouse or other dependents
    • Take maximum advantage of annual and lifetime gift exclusions
    • Establish gifting programs to transfer assets and provide financial security for children or grandchildren
    • Establish charitable foundations
  • Maximize your ability to give to charity while reducing taxes and potentially increasing current income.
  • Equalize distributions of estate and business interests between children working in the family business and those not active in the company; reduce or eliminate estate taxes.
  • Properly fund any remaining tax liability through the most efficient and cost-effective methods.

We are committed to working with our clients to help them determine their long-term personal financial goals. In addition we work with our clients in structuring their estate assets to minimize tax liabilities and maximize value to future generations. Our professional team will assist you in hiring an attorney and/or accountant or will work with your existing attorney and/or accountant to develop a plan of action and legal documentation. Periodically, we will review your plan to help you continue moving towards your long-term objectives.

Many families have seen over half the family assets confiscated by federal and state inheritance tax. Banking relationships have become severely strained and real estate is often sold at below market prices in order to finance these estate taxes.

Our goal is to assure our clients that all prudent steps have been taken to reduce their tax liabilities and to create the most effective means to finance whatever tax liabilities remain.

What would you pay in estate taxes? Click here to find out!