Estate planning is one of the best investments you will ever make. A few dollars spent will usually save thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars that would otherwise be lost to taxes, attorney fees, court costs of nursing homes.

1. The Indispensable
Checklist of Estate
Planning
Estate planning is one of the best investments you will ever make. A
few dollars spent will usually save thousands or hundreds of thousands
of dollars that would otherwise be lost to taxes, attorney fees, court
costs of nursing homes. it does not need to be complicated in most
instances and provides you with the great piece of mind. While meeting
with you, we discuss your goals and concerns. You will be educated on
various legal “tools” available to accomplish your goals and the
advantages and disadvantages of each.

2. Understand the Family Dynamics
The initial step in an estate matter is to understand your values, your
family situation and what constitutes your estate. We provide a holistic
look at all related matters and concerns including for example
protecting assets from nursing home expenses, avoiding probate,
protecting beneficiaries assets from outside parties such as divorces
and lawsuits, minimizing or eliminating taxes, charitable giving,
eliminating or minimizing any attorney fees both on front-end and at
time of passing. The initial meeting is called our “discovery” process
whereby we discover your values and goals and you discover what your
options are and the advantages/disadvantages of each option.
Review Existing Estate Planning Documents
We review the existing estate documents to determine whether these
are legally adequate to accomplish your goals. In addition, we examine
other related issues, for example:
 Whether you are expecting to receive an inheritance?
 Are you concerned with protecting your assets if your spouse
outlives you and remarries?
 Do you have long-term care insurance? If yes, we can examine the
policy and see how it can be used to leverage protection of your
assets and enhance care choices.
 Do you have a need for financial planning? Many clients who
come to me either have never taken any professional advice or
are disappointed with their current advisors. You might need help
understanding the assets you have or organizing and merging
them for the ease of management. You may be paying excessive

3. hidden fees. You may also be concerned with not having enough
income to last for the rest of your life. At Elder Law Center of
Wisconsin, LLC we can refer you to an experienced certified
financial planner. The financial planner can provide you advice/
asset management for a fee (not a commission -not trying to sell
you something).
 Are your documents based on old law which has changed?
 Do your current documents authorize someone to protect your
assets from nursing home or care costs? Most do not.
 Does your current plan offer you and your beneficiaries maximum
opportunity to eliminate or avoid taxes?
 Do you have IRAs going directly to beneficiaries with no asset
protection and no income tax minimization strategy?
 Do your assets go directly to beneficiaries (children for example)
knowing that if that child later goes through a divorce half of it
could go to the out-law (former in-law)?
Review the Client Assets
The next step is to review a complete list of your assets. By reviewing
this information, I can determine whether you and/or your
beneficiaries and/or your estate could be subject to estate taxes,
income taxes, capital gains taxes, and other taxes, both federal and
state. We can then formulate a strategy to eliminate or reduce these
taxes.
Implementing and Maintaining the Plan
During the implementation process, all documents are reviewed,
explained and questions are answered. The plan is then put into place

4. to provide you with piece of mind and assure your goals are met. If
there are items you can handle yourself, we will instruct you how to do
it to keep legal fees to a minimum. An effective plan keeps you in
control for as long as you desire, minimizes fees and taxes, incorporates
your values and keeps things as simple as possible while accomplishing
your intended goals. It should also provide flexibility allowing you to
make changes, as desired as you progress through life.
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