ESTATE PLANNING
What is Estate Planning?
They are carefully considered plans that take care of you (Settlor) and your loved ones (Desired Beneficiaries) in the event of becoming incapacitated and/or upon death. It contains detailed instructions for the easy transfer of assets to beneficiaries in the most effective and hassle-free manner. There are two tools through which this can be achieved:
Will
A Will is one of the most important traditional Estate Planning legal document you can have. It allows you (Settlor) prescribe Beneficiaries to inherit your assets, entitlement and possession and thereby avoid the intestate process through which a court becomes involved in distributing your assets.
Living Trust
A Living Trust is an Estate Planning tool in which a person called ‘the Settlor’ in his lifetime, sets it up for his own benefit and/or for the benefit of named beneficiaries and thereafter transfers the assets comprised in the Trust to dependents/beneficiaries named therein without going through the process of writing a Will and subsequent probate.
You will need a Will:
- If you are an employee contributing to Pensions or a retired worker drawing Pension under the Contributory Pension Scheme.
- If you have assets: – Cash, real and personal property, pension contribution, interest in companies etc and desire that only persons named by you should have access to them when you pass on.
- If you have minor children or children out of wedlock and would want to plan for their education and upkeep such that they maintain the same status even when you pass on.
- If you do not want your hard-earned assets to be distributed according to native law and custom or the courts.
- If you do not want inter-loopers, busy-bodies and unintended beneficiaries to have access to your assets when you pass on.
How Living Trust Works
A Living Trust is deemed constituted when a Settlor enters into an agreement with a Trustee agreeing to transfer legal title to some or all his assets into a Trust to be held and managed by the Trustee on his behalf and/or named beneficiaries during his lifetime and thereafter distribute same before or after his demise according to his wishes as contained in a Trust Deed.
Why have a Living Trust?
- Most or all the expenses and delay of probate is avoided. The disposition of all your property has been planned in advance by you and takes place automatically.
- You decide how your estate is distributed and to whom. It prevents your property from being distributed according to native law and custom.
- If you have minor children, a Children’s Trust can be set up within the living trust and the assets administered by a Trustee until the minor attains maturity.
- For assets outside your state of residence, the use of Living Trust allows that real estate to be passed to your beneficiary without an out-of-state proceeding.
- If you become incapacitated, a living Trust allows your chosen Trustee to manage your property.
- The details of your estate plan remains confidential. Only your chosen Trustee will need to know the actual specifics of your intentions.
- The Living Trust can be revoked or amended at any time during your lifetime
- No third party is necessary to handle the distribution of your assets upon death.
Our Will Services
A Will as an Estate Planning tool is not an exclusive preserve of the rich and wealthy. We offer our services to individuals from every social class under the following heads: