There are a number of ways to leave property to those you want to have it after your death. The peculiarities of our system of inheritance mean that substantial amounts of money and time can often be saved if property is labeled and transferred by certain legal methods rather than others. But to choose wisely among these methods, you must first clearly define your estate planning goals.
The learning objective of t his course is to demonstrate how to set estate planning goals, and then structure the estate to meet these goals.
Lesson and Objectives |
Reading
Assignment |
| Plan Your Estate |
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1. Selecting Your Estate Planning Goals |
Chapter 1 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Setting your goals
- Laying the groundwork
- Children
- Wills
- Probate and how to avoid it
- Understanding estate and gift taxes
- Reducing or eliminating estate taxes
- Imposing controls over property
- Taking care of personal issues
- Family business estate planning
- Going further
- Sample estate plans
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| 2. Personal Concerns and Estate Planning |
Chapter 2 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Avoiding conflict
- Leaving unequal amounts of property to children
- Providing care for minor children
- Subsequent marriages
- Long-term care for a child with special needs
- Concerns of unmarried couples
- Worries about the effect of inheriting money
- Disinheriting people, including children
- Communicating your decisions to family and friends
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| 3. Special Property Ownership Rules for Married People |
Chapter 3 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- What you need to know
- Martial property in community property states
- Martial property in common law states
- Moving to a different state
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| 4. Inventorying Your Property |
Chapter 4 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Instructions for the property inventory worksheet
- Your property worksheet
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| 5. Your Beneficiaries |
Chapter 5 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Types of beneficiaries
- Primary beneficiaries
- Life estate beneficiaries and final beneficiaries
- Alternate beneficiaries
- Residuary beneficiaries
- Gifts shared by more than one beneficiary
- Establishing a survivorship period
- Explanations and commentary accompanying gifts
- Disinheritance
- Simuiltaneous death
- Property you give away by will or trust that you no longer own at your death
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| 6. Children |
Chapter 6 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Naming someone to take custody of your minor children
- Naming an adulet to manage your childs property
- How your children's property should be managed
- Tax saving educational investment plans
- Naming children as beneficiaries of life insurance
- Leaving property to children who are not your own
- Disinheritance
- Children conceived after a parent dies
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| 7. Wills |
Chapter 7 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- A will as the centerpiece of your estate plan
- A backup will with a comprehensive estate plan
- What makes a will legal
- Types of wills
- What property cannot be transferred by will?
- Explanatory letter accompanying your will
- Can my will be successfully challenged?
- Keeping your will up to date
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| 8. Probate and Why You Want to Avoid It |
Chapter 8 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- What is probate?
- Probate fees
- Avoiding probate
- When you may want probate
- Debts, taxes, and probate avoidance
- Probate reform
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| 9. Living Trusts |
Chapter 9 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Does everyone need a living trust?
- Living trusts
- Major decisions in creating a living trust
- Creating a valid living trust
- Keeping your living trust up to date
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| 10. Joint Tenancy and Tenancy by the Entirety |
Chapter 10 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- What is joint tenancy?
- Joint tenancy bank accounts
- Joint tenancy save deposit boxes
- Tenancy by the entirety
- Joint tenancy in community property states
- Tax concerns affecting joint tenancy
- Drawbacks of joint tenancy
- When joint tenancy makes sense
- Creating a joint tenancy for property with documents of title
- Creating joint tenancy for personal property without documents of title.
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| 11. Pay-On-Death Designations |
Chapter 11 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Choosing beneficiaries
- Pay-on-death bank accounts
- Naming a pay-on-death beneficiary for government securities
- Naming a beneficiary for stocks and bonds
- Vehicle registration
- Transfer-on-death deeds for real estate
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| 12. Life Insurance |
Chapter 12 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Do you need live insurance?
- Types of life insurance
- Life insurance and probate
- Choosing life insurance beneficiaries
- Reducing estate tax by transferring ownership of life insurance policies
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| 13. Retirement Benefits |
Chapter 13 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Social security
- Individual retirement plans
- Pensions
- When you retire
- Choosing beneficiaries for your retirment plans
- Using disclaimers for retirement accounts
- Probate and taxes
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14. State Law Exemptions From Normal Probate |
Chapter 14 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Will your estate qualify?
- Using theses rules to plan
- Summary of state law exceptions to normal probate
- California exemptions from normal probate
- New York exemptions from normal probate
- Texas exemptions from normal probate
- Florida exemptions from normal probate
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| 15.Estate Taxes |
Chapter 15 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Federal estate tax exemptions
- Estate and gift taxes
- Will your estate have to pay taxes?
- Calculating and paying estate taxes
- Reducing federal estate taxes
- The federal income tax basis of inherited property
- State inheritance and estate taxes
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| 16.Gifts and Gift Taxes |
Chapter 16 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- The federal gift tax
- What is a gift?
- How federal gift tax works
- Using gifts to reduce estate taxes
- When not to give property away
- Using gifts to reduce income taxes
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| 17.Ongoing Trusts |
Chapter 17 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Trusts to reduce estate taxes
- Ongoing trusts used to control property
- Ongoing trusts and avoiding probate
- What ongoing trusts can't do
- When ongoing trusts begin and end
- The trustee
- Taxation of ongoing trusts
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| 18.Estate Tax-Saving Bypass Trusts |
Chapter 18 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Bypass trusts
- IRS restrictions on bypass trusts
- AB trusts
- Bypass tursts for unmarried people
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| 19.Other Estate Tax-Saving Marital Trusts |
Chapter 19 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- QTIP trusts
- Trusts for noncitizen spouses: QDOTS
- Marital deduction trusts
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| 20. Charitable Trusts |
Chapter 20 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Charitable trusts
- The income tax deduction
- Charitable remainder trusts
- Charitable lead trusts
- Types of charitable trusts
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| 21. Other Estate Tax-Saving Trusts |
Chapter 21 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Generation-skipping trusts
- Irrevocable life insurance trusts
- Grantor-retained interest trusts
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| 22. Disclaimers: After-Death Tax Planning |
Chapter 22 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Advantages of disclaimers
- Couples and disclaimers
- IRS rules and disclaimers
- Disclaimers and living trusts
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| 23. Combining Estate Tax-Saving Trusts |
Chapter 23 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Combining two estate tax-saving trusts
- Cobining a charitable trust with other estate tax-saving trusts
- Combining three different estate tax-saving trusts
- Using ongoing trusts and gift-giving to reduce estate tax
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| 24. Property Control Trusts for Second or Subsequent Marriages |
Chapter 24 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Evaluating your situation
- How a marital property control trust works
- Restricting the surviving spouse's rights over trust property
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| 25. Trusts and Other Devices for Imposing Controls Over Property |
Chapter 25 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Educational trusts
- Trusts for people with special needs
- Spendthrift trusts
- Sprinkling Trusts
- Trusts to manage your own property
- Powers of appointment
- Combining a property control trust with estate tax-saving trusts
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| 26. Incapacity: Making Medical and Financial Decisions |
Chapter 26 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Medical decisions
- Financial decisions
- Guardianships and Conservatorships
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| 27. Body and Organ Donation, Funerals, and Burials |
Chapter 27 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Making your own choices
- Leaving written instructions
- Donating your body or organs
- death notices
- Services and cermonies following a death
- Funerals
- Cremation
- Burials
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| 28. Family Business Estate Plannning |
Chapter 28 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Operation of the business
- Reducing estate taxes
- Avoiding probate of a family business
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| 29. Using Lawyers |
Chapter 29 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Hiring a lawyer
- Doing your own research
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| 30. After You Complete Your Estate Plan |
Chapter 30 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Storing your estate planning documents
- Revising you estate plan
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| 31. After a Death Occurs |
Chapter 31 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:
- Wills
- Probate-avoidance living trusts
- Ongoing trusts for estate tax savings or property management
- Preparing and filing tax returns
- Trustee's reports to beneficiaries
- Collecting the proceeds of a life insurance policy
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| 32. Some Estate Plans |
Chapter 32 |
The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of the plans of:
- A prosperous couple in their 60s and 70s
- A wealthy couple in their 70s
- A single man in his 60s
- A younger couple
- A single woman in her 30s
- A widow in her 80s
- A couple in their 60s, in a second marriage
- An unmarried couple in their 40s
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96. By combining a formula AB trust with a QTIP trust, you can determine who will ultimately receive all property in your AB and QTIP trusts, after your surviving spouse dies.
97. Provisions in an insurance trust that allow gifts to a charitable trust to qualify for the annual gift tax exclusion of $10,000 per person, for each of the insurance trust's beneficiaries, are called:
