Basic Estate Planning

Overview/Description
 Most people don't like to think about dying, but it is something that everyone has to face. What will happen to the money you worked hard to save? Who will get your house? Although not a pleasant subject, these are things that should be decided now. Most people put off planning their estate, but putting off these decisions can cost your heirs considerable money and anguish. In order to ensure that your wishes about who should get what are heeded and that costs and inconveniences of probate and estate taxes are avoided after your death, it is critical to do estate planning now. This course will help you to understand the types of estate planning moves that are most likely to be helpful for many people. Proper estate planning takes a relatively short time, but will give you and your heirs tremendous peace of mind. Throughout this course, the tax rules or tax values provided in the examples and calculations are based on the year 2001 tax guide

Target Audience
 General American audience

Expected Duration
2.5 hours

Lesson Objectives:

Planning Your Estate

  • recognize the benefits of understanding estate planning.
  • identify the features of a will.
  • identify examples of advantages and disadvantages of a living trust, in a given scenario.
  • identify examples of the variables for estimating estate value.
  • estimate the value of a given estate.
  • identify the formula required to calculate actual federal estate taxes on an estate.
  • calculate the actual federal estate taxes, in a given scenario.

    • Estate Planning Maneuvers

  • recognize the benefits of knowing how to minimize estate taxes.
  • match gift rules to examples.
  • identify the reasons for using a bypass trust, given examples.
  • choose an appropriate course of action for a married couple who want to use a bypass trust to avoid federal estate taxes.
  • identify the characteristics of a QTIP trust.
  • identify examples of the rules for using a QTIP trust appropriately.
  • identify examples of the advantages and disadvantages of irrevocable life insurance trusts.
  • select the characteristics of a marital trust.
  • identify asset management considerations for minimizing estate tax.
  • select examples of the estate tax advantages of a Roth IRA.

    • Course Number: PD0149