Dedon on Estate Planning

Planning For The Future - The Future Future

In December 2008, I was asked by Terasem Movement, Inc., a 501(c)(3) tax exempt charity endowed for the purpose of educating the public on the practicality and necessity of extending human life, to present legal arguments supporting the rights of people in and revived from cryonic preservation.  My PowerPoint presentation is set forth below.

Download Terasem movement inc 12-10-08

Getting Started

I am often asked, "what should I do before our first appointment and what should I bring?" In order to help you prepare, I recommend you do the following:

• Watch this video I  have createrd to provide an overview of the issues we will discuss when we meet.
  
  
• Print the pre-interview form, complete the first page, and bring it with you.
  
  
• While optional for our first meeting, the second page of the pre-interview form, item two above, is a Financial Statement Summary table. Funding Revocable Trusts for probate avoidance and to balance the assets for estate tax purposes often is an important part of the planning. Although a list of assets is not necessary for our first meeting, ultimately it will be important to review the assets’ value and ownership.
  

Below is an example of how to complete the Financial Statement Summary. Assuming you are married, you may prepare a financial statement listing across the top of the page these three types of ownership:

Mr.                 Mrs.                 Joint

Listed down the page will be the assets by general categories. Almost all clients will have real estate (one or more homes); retirement assets (IRA, 401(k), etc); other liquid assets (stocks, mutual funds, bank accounts) and life insurance. In addition, there may be closely held business interests or investment properties.