Estate Planning: Build a Legacy That Lasts
Estate planning is more than just drafting a will—it’s about creating a thoughtful, well-documented legacy plan that simplifies the role of your executor, reduces unnecessary taxes, and ensures your wishes are carried out with clarity and care.
As a Certified Financial Planner, I specialize in helping clients build estate plans that integrate financial strategies with personal values. While we are not lawyers and cannot draft legal documents such as wills or powers of attorney, we can guide you through the financial components of your legacy and connect you with the right resources.
Why Work with a Financial Planner?
A Financial Planner plays a key role in helping you:
- Avoid Probate: Use segregated funds to bypass the estate process and ensure assets are paid directly to beneficiaries—quickly and privately.
- Reduce Taxes: Strategically incorporate charitable donations to minimize estate taxes and create lasting impact.
- Align Beneficiaries: Ensure your investment and insurance beneficiary designations match your will to avoid conflicts and delays.
- Simplify Executor Duties: Provide your executor with a clear roadmap, reducing stress and confusion during a difficult time.
Featured Resources
We offer a suite of tools to help you build your legacy plan:
Legacy Planning Checklist
A comprehensive guide to help you gather and organize all the documents and details your executor will need. From wills and POAs to funeral preferences and digital assets, this checklist ensures nothing is overlooked. Click here to download.
Personal Records Organizers
Choose from two organizer formats to document your financial accounts, insurance policies, passwords, and more. These booklets are designed to give your executor everything they need to settle your estate efficiently. Canada Life Organizer Download | Sun Life Organizer Download
Will Planning Worksheet
While we do not draft legal documents, we provide a worksheet to help you outline your wishes before meeting with a lawyer. This can help reduce legal costs and ensure your intentions are clearly communicated. Click here to download.
Planning for your Digital Assets
We have two worksheets to help ensure you don’t overlook documenting your digital assets:
Estate Planning in the Cyber Age
Planning for Digital Assets Worksheet
Videos & Blogs
Explore our growing library of estate planning content:
Estate Planning Strategies: Learn how segregated funds, insurance, and charitable giving can enhance your legacy.
- How to Leave a Tax Efficient Estate Click here to watch video.
- What are Segregated Funds? Click here to watch video.
- The Forgotten Estate Benefits: Discover overlooked survivor benefits and group insurance claims. Click here to watch video.
Estate Planning Opportunities: Charitable Giving can be a great way to reduce taxes while have an impact on charities and causes you care about. Charitable Giving Page.
Blog Articles
“How to Reduce the Emotional and Financial Burden of Settling Your Estate” This article highlights all the features and benefits of using Segregated Funds in your estate planning. It also provides some creative ways to leave a legacy with different estate settlement options.
“Executor Essentials: Navigating Your Responsibilities with Confidence” This helpful article shares tips and trick to help your executor work through the journey of settling your estate with ease.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can you help me write my will or power of attorney?
No. We are not lawyers and cannot draft legal documents. However, we can help you prepare and organize your thoughts before meeting with a legal professional.
Q: What is estate planning?
Estate planning involves making arrangements for the management and disposal of your estate during your life and after death.
Q: Why is estate planning important?
It ensures that your assets are distributed according to your wishes, minimizes taxes, and provides for your loved ones.
Q: How can a Financial Planner help me with my Estate Planning?
A Financial Planner can assist with your Estate Planning in several ways. They can provide strategies to reduce probate costs, ensuring that your assets are transferred smoothly and efficiently. They can also offer insurance solutions to enhance the value of your estate, making sure that your loved ones are well taken care of. Additionally, they can suggest innovative estate settlement approaches to simplify the process. Lastly, they can help you make tax-efficient charitable contributions, allowing you to support causes you care about while minimizing your tax burden.
Q: What are segregated funds and how do they help?
Segregated funds are investment portfolios offered by insurance companies. They allow you to name beneficiaries directly, bypassing probate and offering guarantees and potential creditor protection[1].
Q: How do charitable donations reduce taxes?
Charitable giving can be structured to maximize tax credits and reduce estate taxes. We can help you align your philanthropic goals with your financial plan[2].
Q: How can I include charitable giving in my estate plan?
Charitable Bequests: You can include donations to charities in your will. This allows you to specify a particular amount or a percentage of your estate to be given to a charity of your choice. You can also donate appreciated investments to avoid having to pay tax on the taxable gains.
- Donor Advised Funds: Setting up a Donor Advised Fund is like establishing your own personal foundation, but without all the administrative headaches. This allows you to provide ongoing support to your chosen charities and create a lasting legacy.
- Beneficiary Designations: You can name a charity as a beneficiary of your life insurance or investment accounts. This is a straightforward way to ensure that a portion of your assets goes to a charitable cause.
These options not only support causes you care about but can also provide tax benefits and help minimize your estate taxes. See more details and options on our Charitable Giving page.
Q: What should I include in my legacy plan?
Your plan should include legal documents, financial summaries, digital asset access, funeral preferences, and personal touches like letters or keepsakes. Our checklist and organizers will guide you through the process.
Q: How can I make the Executor’s job easier?
Here are some tips to simplify the role of an executor:
- Organize Documents: Keep all important documents, such as the will, insurance policies, and financial statements, in one place. This will help the executor quickly locate everything they need.
- Communicate Clearly: Provide clear instructions and communicate your wishes to your executor. This ensures that they understand your intentions and can carry them out accurately. It is also wise to talk to your executor about your wishes.
Seek Professional Help: Encourage your executor to seek professional help, such as legal or financial advice, if needed. This can help them navigate complex situations and make informed decisions
Q: How much does an Executor get paid?
The compensation for an executor can vary depending on the jurisdiction and the complexity of the estate. Generally, executors are entitled to a fee for their services, which can be a percentage of the estate’s value or a flat fee. This fee is often in the 2-5% range, and can be specified in the will. Executors can also be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred while managing the estate. The executor fee is a taxable benefit, unless it is left as a bequest in the will or as a beneficiary designation in a Segregated fund.