Estate planning works differently when there are many high net-worth assets at stake. Many traditional strategies don’t work as well because of the complex issues and family dynamics involved.

Estate Planning Goals, Trustees and Family Roles

Here are are a few ways to navigate those issues in Washington while protecting your assets, your relationships and your family dynamics.

• Understand your estate’s goals and values. Make sure your adviser is familiar with what the missions of your trusts are, and what your goals are as a family, whether it’s to provide for the next generation, fund a new business or dream, or simply to avoid giving up as much as possible. When your adviser knows where you are coming from and where you want to go, they can get you there more effectively.
• Develop smart criteria for trustees. When your family has several trusts to manage, you may not be thinking through your criteria for trustees if you feel you are running out of people to choose from. Come up with the criteria you feel is important in a trustee, and then look for someone who fits that picture.
• Define everyone’s role clearly. Your financial adviser should know who is responsible for what and what everyone in the family’s interests are. This way, duties are assigned appropriately, and family members are only taking on as much as they can handle.
• Think About Possibly Discuss issues as a group. While it is true when you do a trust, the trust is private and confidential, in certain situations you may want to disclose certain key components with someone. The great thing about trust and estate planning is that if you want to keep everything private, you can. If you want to share some details and not others, that is your choice also. However, with a Will and Probate, the whole World knows all of your assets and liabilities because a probate is a judicial proceeding and open to the public.
• Get to know your wealth manager on a personal level. Although there is not much that’s more personal than talking about your finances to someone, making sure your wealth manager understand you, your dreams, and your passions can help them help you take advantage of opportunities, risks and rewards that you may have not known were possible. Longevity in a financial management situation is the best possible outcome, so get to know each other as people, not just clients, and you can work together better.

Discuss Your Estate Planning Goals

Over the past 34 years, the Law Offices of Christopher A. Benson has helped clients with estate planning. Contact our Federal Way office for a free initial consultation to discuss your goals and planning options.