The Woeful Inadequacies of Traditional Estate Planning: The Four Critical Questions You Need To Ask Yourself

by

Mark Kaizerman

When I mention the words, estate planning, most people think of meeting with an attorney and drafting legal documents. Traditionally, those documents include a will, durable power of attorney, health care proxy and perhaps a trust. After you draft these documents, you meet to sign them, then you put them somewhere safe, cut a check to the attorney and breathe a sigh of relief because you finally have things covered. All is well and your estate is perfectly in order, right? WRONG!

Too often the drafting of legal documents is confused with developing an estate plan. Sure, legal documents are part of an estate plan, but they are not the estate plan. You need to make sure that you have everything in one spot. If not, you could cause yourself some real problems. Thats why 98% of all estate plans fall short. Thats why you have debacles like the Terry Schiavo case and the Ted Williams dispute. In order to make sure that these sort of things dont happen to you, you have to have a plan. Most people plan out what should happen in the event of their deaths. What if you are disabled or mentally incapacitated? Effective estate plans must be drafted in order to account for these kinds of contingencies.

If you wish to have an effective estate plan, you must answer four extremely critical questions:

1. What documents do I need?

You need a will, durable power of attorney, and health care proxy. Additionally, you need an original marriage certificate, military discharge paperwork, health and life insurance information, beneficiary designation forms, deeds, and appraisals. Another necessity you need to have is a listing of important contacts with telephone numbers.

2. How will my beneficiaries find these documents?

We all have our own personal and unique filing system that has worked well for us over the years. Thats fine. You should use your own unique filing system, whatever works for you. However, you do need to create a system that unlocks your personal filing system. For example, if something ever happened to you, how would your beneficiaries even know you had a safety deposit box, let alone the location of the bank or key?

3. Who should have access to these documents and when?

I know thats actually two questions camouflaged as one. Remember, these documents are personal and confidential. Today, we are all too aware of the very real threat of identity theft. Safeguarding these documents and making them available, under specific circumstances, to a select group of individuals will allow you to protect your privacy while still preparing an effective estate plan.

4. Who will best advise my beneficiaries?

Your estate plan needs to address not only your financial assets, but also your dreams, wishes, and values. You need to designate that one person who can capture all these characteristics of your life, someone with whom you have shared those most personal thoughts. At you or your beneficiaries time of need, who should be that one call?

Dont confuse proper estate planning with simply drafting the needed documents or purchasing an insurance policy or special investment product. An effective estate plan can only be accomplished with a well thought out approach that is designed to protect your most important information and guide your heirs. Only then will you have peace of mind in knowing that youve done your best for your loved ones and nothing important will be overlooked.

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For a review copy of the book or to set up an interview with Mark H. Kaizerman for a story, please contact Jay Wilke at 727-443-7115, ext. 223 or at jayw@event-management.com.

Mark H. Kaizerman, CPA/PFS, CFP, ChFC is a financial advisor and author of the Beneficiary Directory—Your Personal System to Organize Your Important Documents and Guide Your Beneficiaries.For more information, please see www.beneficiarydirectory.com

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The Woeful Inadequacies of Traditional Estate Planning: The Four Critical Questions You Need To Ask Yourself}

Options to beginning home investments

by

Michael C. Miller

Here we want to discuss six investment tips for investing in real estate which will assist anyone in getting started to launch a real estate investment business.

1. Try and develop a proper attitude First and foremost, if you want to achieve success in property investing, you should keep it in mind that it is a business and you become its CEO on starting this business. It is important to build a proper mindset about investment in business of real estate.To successfully invest in real estate, you should not get turned off by a property’s floor plan, its neighborhood or amenities but should count on the property’s financial prospects at present and in future. That should be the basis of your decision.2. You should develop meaningful objectives Meaningful set of objectives which help you formulate your strategy for investment is most vital fundamental for a good investment.Some of these objectives can be:Amount of cash you can invest in property deals? What return rate you plan to generate? How long do you plan to hold on to the investment?3. Do some serious market research You should do market research to acquaint yourself about the values of a property, rents or occupancy rates in your area. If you are better informed on these topics then you are more like to recognize a good or a bad deal.4. Calculate the cash flow Take pains to do some calculation on the cash flow of the property, profitability and its return rate as they are very important for a successful business in property development. As a CEO you must know as to what you intend to purchase, this is more so if you have to select the most profitable deal from the several placed before you.5. Develop a relationship with a good property professional You should develop relations with qualified professionals working in this field to get started with this business of real estate investing. This is so because an experienced person can make you sensitive to conditions in local markets and may recommend some properties which meet your purchase criteria.However you must make sure that the agent has a firm grip on the important financial mechanisms which are inherent to investing in real estate. Last thing you would ever want is getting involved with an agent who would not even blink in throwing you under the bus just to make some commission!You can even interview the agent. You can ask him the cap rate, request Performa invoice statement or APOD, cash-on-cash return. If they stare with a blank face, then you better find another agent.6. Begin investing and grow Now that’s it! Time has come for you to start your business. Here comes your real estate investment business with all successes.

Michael enjoys writing and has made a career writing helping others learn useful information. Read his most popular website where he writes about

retirement investing

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Options to beginning home investments}