Tag: Advisor Enablement

Estate Planning for Crypto & Digital Assets with special guest Tyrone Ross Jr.

Hosts Anne Rhodes & Thomas Kopelman are joined by Tyrone Ross Jr. — CEO and co-founder of Turnqey Labs and 401 Financial, Strategic Advisor to wealth.com — to discuss the unique landscape of Estate Planning for cryptocurrency and digital assets.

In this episode:

  • Tyrone breaks down why Estate Planning in crypto is a massive opportunity for advisors to add value.
  • A practical overview of how crypto & digital assets function uniquely as an asset within estate plans.
  • Scenarios and examples of why estate planning for unique digital assets is so valuable.
  • Insightful discussion of client and advisor behaviors regarding crypto and how estate planning can be a helpful context for client discussions.

Watch or stream wherever you get your podcasts.

Trust for Descendant Explained

What is a Trust for Descendant?

A Trust for Descendant is a type of sub-trust that specifically benefits a child (or a more remote descendant), who is called the “primary beneficiary.”

More generally, a sub-trust is a type of trust that is “created under” another main document, which is usually a Revocable Trust or a Will. A sub-trust continues beyond the period of time that is required for estate or trust administration after your passing; the sub-trust ensures your wishes and objectives are met even long after you are gone.

How does a Trust for Descendant work?

This type of sub-trust allows you to pass assets to specific beneficiaries under conditions you stipulate, so that the beneficiary is protected and your wishes for how those assets are used cannot be altered.

For example, if you create an Individual Revocable Trust, you can direct that all assets passing to your minor child be held in a sub-trust trust — i.e., a Trust for Descendant — until the child reaches age 25.

Trusts for Descendant are set up for three primary reasons:

1. Control over assets.

2. Tax planning (keeping assets outside your beneficiary’s taxable estate at their death).

3. Asset protection (from the beneficiary’s creditors and divorce, for example).

Even if you trust your children to manage their own financial affairs, the last two reasons may still apply to your situation.

NOTE: You can name someone to help the primary beneficiary manage their inheritance until the primary beneficiary reaches a specific age or passes away, or the Trust is too small to make it worthwhile to keep.

Key Benefits

Customize Beneficiaries

You can choose which descendants will receive their inheritance from you in trust. The primary beneficiary’s own living descendants are also beneficiaries of the trust, but the trustee is directed to prioritize the primary beneficiary’s interests.

Power of Appointment

You can choose to provide the primary beneficiary with the ability to redistribute the trust assets. This power is often included if controlling how the primary beneficiary spends their inheritance is less important to you. This power allows the primary beneficiary to account for a large difference in financial resources among your descendants, to provide for a beloved spouse after their own death, or to reduce income or estate taxes.

Determine the Termination Event

You have the ability to decide when the trust should end. You are also able to grant the primary beneficiary an earlier withdrawal right; the beneficiary can demand from the trustee a fraction of the trust at an interim age before the trust ends.

Who is a Trust for Descendant for?

This type of sub-trust is useful for someone who worries that their child needs help managing their inheritance, is concerned about family assets being gifted away or taken away by individuals outside the family, or worries about estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes.

What happens when the Trust ends?

When the Trust ends, the trustee will distribute the remaining assets in accordance with the terms of the trust agreement, subject to any powers of appointment you have given to the primary beneficiary of the terminating Trust. If the Trust ended because the primary beneficiary attained the milestone birthday you chose, any assets remaining in the trust will be transferred to the primary beneficiary.

If the Trust ended because the primary beneficiary passed away, the trust assets will be distributed to the primary beneficiary’s own descendants, otherwise to your other descendants, following a default hierarchy that prioritizes individuals who are more closely related to the primary beneficiary in your family tree. These distributions can be made directly to these individuals, or in further trust following your wishes for when all Trusts for Descendants will end.

Can I change my mind and add or remove a Trust for Descendant at a later date?

If you decide to create a Trust for your descendant, that Trust will be drafted into your documents. As long as you have at least a child or grandchild, it is possible for you to have a descendant who is a minor at the time you pass away. For this reason, consider including a Trust for Descendant as a default. You should always plan using the most accurate information you have, both currently and in the future. If your family situation changes in the future, update your estate plan to match your current needs.

Save this Trust for Descendant Explainer in PDF form

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*Disclaimer: wealth.com is not a law firm and is not practicing law. That said, our platform is maintained with care by attorneys who used to practice at the top trust & estate law firms in the U.S. so you can be sure each legal document created with Wealth.com is of the highest quality and is legally valid and optimized for its state, covering all 50 of the United States and Washington D.C.

Intro to Revocable Trusts vs Irrevocable Trusts

In this episode of The Practical Planner, hosts Anne Rhodes & Thomas Kopelman dive deeper into the world of trusts, giving nuanced definitions of what differentiates a revocable trust from an irrevocable trust and providing advisors with the knowledge they need to discuss the functionality and benefits with their clients.

Watch or stream wherever you get your podcasts.

Marital Trust: A Practical Explainer

What is a Marital Trust?

The common name for a trust that benefits the trust creator’s spouse. A sub-trust is a type of trust that is “created under” another Trust (or a “trust within a trust”).

Who Typically Uses a Marital Trust?

  • Blended families.
  • High net worth families (i.e., estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes).
  • Families with assets to be kept within the family (e.g., family business).

A Marital Trust is useful for someone who has children from a previous relationship, worries about someone influencing their spouse to disinherit their beneficiaries, or is wealthy enough to worry about the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes.

How Does a Marital Trust Work?

They receive a deceased spouse’s assets for the benefit of the surviving spouse. They generally protect assets from creditors while preserving the deceased spouse’s wishes for how their assets will be distributed and used, including at the surviving spouse’s death. When properly structured for tax planning purposes, they can preserve the deceased spouse’s generation-skipping transfer tax exemption amount without jeopardizing the unlimited marital deduction.

A diagram showing how assets are distributed when a marital trust is used, and when one is not.

5 Key Features of the wealth.com Marital Trust

There are many ways to design a Marital Trust. If you want your spouse’s inheritance to qualify for a benefit called the “unlimited marital deduction” (i.e., passing an unlimited amount of property at your death to your spouse completely free of estate tax and without using your estate tax exemption), the Tax Code has stringent requirements for the design of this Trust. The Trust must qualify as a “qualified terminable interest property” (or QTIP) Trust. The wealth.com Marital Trust is this type of Trust.

  1. Only your spouse can be the beneficiary of the Marital Trust.
  2. The Trustee must distribute any “income” generated inside the Marital Trust (e.g., rent if the Marital Trust owns a rental unit) at least once a year, but can do so more frequently if desired.
  3. The Trustee can make distributions for your spouse’s health, education, maintenance, or support. If the distribution is for any other reason, an independent trustee (who cannot be your spouse) should be appointed to provide checks and balances.
  4. You can choose whether your spouse may serve as trustee. If you are concerned about your spouse serving as trustee (e.g., because your spouse will be unable to manage the inherited assets or you would like checks and balances on your spouse’s ability to spend the inheritance), you will be able to prohibit your spouse from serving as the trustee and appoint someone else as the trustee.
  5. You can always change your mind about including the Marital Trust. This flexibility is built into the wealth.com platform for maximum personalization as your life circumstances change.

Download A Printable Version of this Marital Trust Guide

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*Disclaimer: wealth.com is not a law firm and is not practicing law. That said, our platform is maintained with care by attorneys who used to practice at the top trust & estate law firms in the U.S. so you can be sure each legal document created with Wealth.com is of the highest quality and is legally valid and optimized for its state, covering all 50 of the United States and Washington D.C.

Beneficiary Designation Explained

How This Crucial Aspect of Estate Planning Works

A good estate plan allows you to understand what happens to your assets when you pass away.

Generally speaking, there are three factors that can impact what happens to your assets at death:

  1. How your asset is owned.
  2. Your estate planning documents.
  3. Whether or not you have designated beneficiaries.

It is not commonly understood that there are certain assets, such as a 401k, with beneficiary distribution rules that can override what is outlined in a Will or Trust.

This means that understanding the totality of various beneficiary designations is crucial to your estate plan functioning as you intend.

If that seems daunting, you’re not wrong. Trying to consolidate and manage everything that requires beneficiary designation manually can be tricky, especially as your life circumstances change over time. Fortunately, the wealth.com platform makes all of this easier to manage.

More on that in a bit — first we further explain how beneficiary designations function within optimized estate planning.

Beneficiary Designations

Many types of assets allow for a formal “beneficiary designation,” which directs where that asset will go upon your death regardless of the terms of a Will or Trust. Common examples of such assets include retirement accounts and life insurance policies. .

A closely related cousin of the beneficiary designation is a “pay on death” (POD) or “transfer on death” (TOD) designation. The same idea applies: if you pass away, your designation will bypass your Will or your Trust. Some states allow vehicles, personal objects, and real estate to pass through TOD, but the documentation must be carefully prepared to meet the legal requirements. Bank and brokerage accounts, closely-held stock and other securities may also pass by POD or TOD depending on the bank or custodian that maintains the account for you.

Typically, beneficiary designations are made through the institution where the asset is held (a custodian or administrator). Once a beneficiary designation has been made through the institution, it is important to keep track of who you designated as beneficiary for each asset so it aligns with and does not contradict how you want asset distribution to go in your estate planning documents.

Not all assets are eligible to have a designated, POD or TOD beneficiary. For example, there is currently no cryptocurrency exchange or investment platform that will allow you to designate a beneficiary for your crypto assets. It turns out a Will or Trust is one of the best ways to make sure your crypto will go where you want them to at your death.

Type of Ownership

Your assets can be owned in different ways. You can own them jointly with others and the titling carries implications for the designation upon death, or through an entity like a trust or corporation.

Certain ownership types, like “With Right of Survivorship,” “Joint Tenancy” or “Tenancy by the Entirety,” legally indicate that at one of the joint owner’s death, the other surviving joint owner(s) will automatically inherit the asset. In that case, the last survivor takes the entire asset and will be able to pass the asset to their beneficiaries through their Will or Trust. These forms of titling are especially common when you purchase real property with someone else.

The automatic transfer on death processes supersede any beneficiary designation or terms in your Will or Trust.

If you own an asset through an entity or arrangement governed by an agreement, the agreement may specify what your rights and restrictions are upon death. For example, you may own real property through an LLC.

The operating agreement for the LLC may contain provisions restricting your ability to transfer your LLC interests to your own beneficiaries upon your death, or give a right of first refusal to the other LLC members to purchase your interests.

If post-death rights are not spelled out, those LLC interests would likely default into your estate and pass to your beneficiaries through your Will or Trust.

Estate Plan Documents

Finally, many assets do not transfer to someone else automatically upon your death, as outlined in the two categories above.

These assets typically pass pursuant to your Will or Trust.

Conclusion

These three methods of asset distribution can work together as part of your overall estate plan to dictate where your assets will go upon your death.

However, understanding which assets have beneficiary designations and whether how you have titled the asset affects the default rights upon your death can be difficult because they are often disaggregated.

This is where the wealth.com platform comes in: our Asset Aggregation and Ownership Balance Sheet tools help record how you own your assets and what their various beneficiary designations are all in one place.

This information at the asset by asset level can be seamlessly paired with your estate planning documents to give you an understanding of how your assets will be distributed and with whom they will end up after your death.

Wealth.com helps you create and maintain a cohesive estate plan — providing the peace of mind that comes from knowing the friction your heirs will experience is minimized and your estate will be administered correctly when the time comes.

Note: Recording or updating beneficiary designations in the wealth.com platform does not alter your beneficiary designations; instead, we make recording all of your externally designated beneficiaries simple which helps maintain updated records and aids in the estate administration process.

Estate Administration Checklist

The Checklist available for download below is designed to help people understand their responsibilities and organize tasks following the death of an individual who asked them to administer an estate.

Advisors can use this as a general guide to help clients navigate the administration of an estate through to its conclusion.

Estate Administration Checklist Download PDF

Trusts vs. Wills

What is the difference between a trust and a will? This is one of the top questions in estate planning, but finding a clear answer isn’t always easy.

In this episode of The Practical Planner, Anne & Thomas dispel common misconceptions through straightforward discussion of the differences between wills and trusts, both definitionally and in practice — providing advisors with an actionable basis for estate planning conversations with their clients.

Watch or stream wherever you get your podcasts.

Estate and Wealth Planning Checklist

Adding value to a client doesn’t have to be complicated; sometimes, it’s as simple as making sure your client’s loved ones are taken care of if something were to happen to your client.

The checklists available to download below can be used to help clients optimize their planning — wherever they are in their estate planning journey.

But first, what is estate planning?

Estate planning encompasses two types of planning:

  1. Foundational estate planning, which is a “starter pack” of legal documents in case the client is incapacitated, unavailable, or has passed away.
  2. Wealth or tax planning, which is tax- or control-driven transfers into trusts, entities or accounts.

Every single one of your clients needs a foundational estate plan – and knows it. You can deliver massive value just by helping them check that box off. Then, you can graduate your client into the more complex transfers if they need it.

What Comprises the Foundational Estate Plan?

  1. Will
  2. Revocable or Living Trust
  3. Advance Directive Over Health Care Matters
  4. Durable Power of Attorney Over Financial Matters

Review the legal documents alongside all beneficiary designations (e.g., IRAs, 401 (k)s and life insurance) and right of survivorship designations (e.g., WROS on financial accounts and real estate). These designations override the Will or Trust, which may come as a surprise to your client. Designations are often used as stop gap solutions until someone has a proper Will or Trust, at which point the designations may be removed in favor of the estate or be “funded” (i.e., transferred) into the Trust.

*An attorney or digital estate planning platform like wealth.com can help your client determine if a Trust is more appropriate than a standalone Will. The key consideration is whether avoiding a full-blown probate process, including privacy, is important to your client.

Case Study

How often do you find wrong or missing beneficiaries when you go over the Will or Trust of a client (or potential client)?

Our partner Retirement Tax Services found that over 60% of prospective clients have wrong or missing beneficiaries, when they have an estate plan at all. That means the prospective client would be leaving assets to someone they didn’t expect at all. This is when the client has that “aha” or “I can’t believe this” moment.

Using the checklists included in the PDF below can help advisors create these “aha” moments and improve their clients overall financial wellbeing with better estate planning.

Estate Planning Checklist

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Latest Integrations in Wealth.com

Providing our advisors with a seamless experience is central to what we do. We are proud to launch two new CRM system integrations with Redtail and Wealthbox.

For our advisor partners who use either Redtail or Wealthbox as their CRM, they now have visibility into their client’s estate planning progress directly from their CRM.

In Wealthbox and Redtail, advisors will have the ability to see into the status of their clients’ account creation, plan selection, progress in drafting estate planning documents, as well as other updates regarding their clients’ activity.

Wealth.com will be hosting a webinar with Wealthbox on Thursday, September 28th at 2PM ET / 11AM PT to showcase the integration for our advisor partners. Sign up here

How Advisors Use Wealth.com + Wealthbox to Provide a Reimagined Approach to Estate Planning
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If you would like to learn more about how we partner with financial advisors, please reach out to [email protected].

What Estate Planning Really Is: An Essential Overview

TL/DR: Estate planning isn’t as complex as it may seem and you don’t need a legal degree to create one. In short, estate planning is simply recording your wishes for what happens if you’re unable to manage your own affairs. This quick and comprehensive overview will give you a working understanding of the estate planning basics.

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No one likes to think about death, especially their own. But think about this: What will happen to your stuff—money, family heirlooms, even a pet—if something happens to you? If you haven’t created a document that tells your loved ones who should get what, and who should sign off on those decisions and do all the paperwork, your loved ones will have to decide for (and potentially argue among) themselves. You can provide for your family’s needs, ensure your wishes are honored, and save your loved ones a lot of anguish during an already stressful time by creating an estate plan.

Although estate planning is essential for ensuring your money and property are distributed in exactly the way you want, only one-third of adults in the U.S. have a Will. That overall number has fallen steadily over the past five years, but the COVID-19 pandemic did inspire those ages 18 to 34 to write a Will—63% more people in that age group created a Will in 2021 than in 2020.

So why don’t more people do it? The five main reasons are:

  • I just haven’t gotten around to it.
  • I don’t have enough money saved.
  • I don’t know how to begin.
  • I don’t know anything about it.
  • I don’t own anything valuable.

Unfortunately, these misconceptions are preventing people from putting even a basic plan in place. People perceive estate planning to be complicated, scary, or simply not relevant to them. The reality is, you don’t have to be a millionaire or own multiple homes to benefit from an estate plan.

You need an estate plan if:

  • You worry that your pet(s) could be given to a shelter
  • You want to make a final gift to a grandchild, niece, or nephew, or a friend or charity at your death
  • You have specific wishes about your health care and end-of-life care
  • You feel strongly about who should manage your affairs if you were unable to do so yourself
  • You really want your children to end up with your assets, if there is anything left after your spouse passes away
  • Some of your family members don’t get along and might disagree about who gets what or who should manage your affairs
  • You do not want a certain family member to receive your assets, to make health care decisions for you, or to manage your affairs
  • You own a significant amount of cryptocurrency

Do any of these sound like you? Because most everyone can benefit from the peace of mind an estate plan brings, we want to demystify the process so everyone—yes, even those without a law degree—can see that it’s simpler and more accessible than they think. And, hopefully, the information in this guide will equip you with enough information to quit putting off this important task.

Parents sorting their legal documents with their son.

Getting Started: Estate Planning Documents

At its most basic level, estate planning is making preparations for when you’re no longer able to make decisions for yourself. It requires creating and signing a few legal documents; but more importantly, it requires thoughtful decisions so that the money and possessions you have earned and accumulated can be passed down to your family or whomever you choose.

Let’s talk about what you’ll put in place as part of a basic estate plan. The legal documents are:

  • Last Will and testament: This document, which becomes active after you die, expresses your wishes for how to divide up your property and possessions and names the people you prefer to manage your financial affairs (the “executor”) and take care for your children who are minors or have special needs (the “guardian”). A revocable Trust can offer some advantages over a Will (more on Trusts vs. Wills here). However, you can only designate an executor or a guardian through a Will, not a Trust. For this reason, you still need a short Will (called a “pourover Will”), even if the centerpiece of your estate plan is a Trust.
  • Financial power of attorney: Think of this document as a permission slip that gives the person you name (the “agent”) the ability to conduct financial transactions, sign documents, and make other legal decisions as if they were you. In most states, you can choose if your agent has this permission immediately after you sign or only once you are incapacitated. This document terminates at your death.
  • Advance health care directive: This document empowers the person you name to make decisions about your medical treatment, symptom management, and end-of-life care. Depending on your home state, this document may go by a variety of different names, including a health care power of attorney or proxy. The document usually includes or is paired with a living will, which are your written instructions for health care providers about the type of life-prolonging medical care you want to receive if you are unable to make decisions for yourself.
  • Trust: A Trust is created by a contract or agreement and acts like a bucket of “stuff.” The Trust agreement is the set of rules that the creator of the Trust puts in place for the trustee who oversees the Trust. The rules include what powers the trustee has over the Trust, to whom and under what circumstances the trustee can give assets out of the Trust. After you create a Trust, you can transfer your assets into the Trust right away, before you die. There are many types of Trusts that accomplish different goals. If you create a Trust as the centerpiece of your estate plan instead of a Will (more on Trusts vs. Wills here), you will set up a type of Trust called a “revocable Trust” or “living Trust.” You will be the trustee of your revocable Trust in the beginning. You can also designate the person who will step in for you as trustee so that when you are unable to manage your own affairs eventually, that successor trustee can distribute your stuff according to your instructions. Unlike a Will, a Trust is active the day it is created, which means that your successor trustee can also help you manage the stuff inside of your Trust in case you are incapacitated.

There are two types of Trusts.

  • Revocable or living Trusts can be altered at any time by the creator of the Trust (you). These Trusts are often used as a substitute for a Will in estate planning.
  • Irrevocable Trusts are difficult and expensive to alter once created. They can be used to achieve many types of goals, including minimizing taxes protecting assets from creditors, naming an adult to manage property for children before they reach a certain age, and ensuring that assets stay within the same family. In your Will or your revocable Trust, you can instruct your executor or trustee to create an irrevocable Trust to take advantage of the benefits of irrevocable Trusts.

Why Do I Need an Estate Plan?

No one needs an estate plan. That is, unless you want to avoid confusion, chaos, hurt feelings, family drama, and delayed distribution due to probate. So, maybe you do need one?

An estate plan lets you give the gift of clarity to your loved ones—and does all the legal heavy lifting so they don’t have to. When you spell out your wishes in the legal documents listed above, there’s less second-guessing about your intentions for how your stuff should be distributed.

The opposite is true if you die without a Will or Trust in place. Legally, you are dying intestate, and your home state’s succession laws will determine how your assets will be distributed and to whom. These succession laws differ from state to state, but were likely drafted a long time ago, based on the most common wishes of a typical, American nuclear family, and likely do not reflect the complexities of your family and cultural heritage.

By not creating an estate plan, you are just letting the state legislature from decades ago take a guess as to what your wishes are. This is especially true if you’re single and don’t have dependents.

You may own assets that will not pass through your estate, either because of the title on the asset or because you designated a beneficiary. For example, jointly owned property–real estate, a car, or bank account–will automatically pass to the survivor, or you may have designated a beneficiary for a life insurance policy or retirement account. However, it is still important to have a Will or a Trust for several reasons. Certain assets must pass through your estate (for example, personal objects or cryptocurrency), so the only way to direct where they go at your death is through a legal document. Having no assets in your estate will make it difficult to pay for your last expenses, including funeral costs, legal fees, and any taxes.

Who’s Involved in an Estate Plan?

Now that we’ve looked at the important reasons why to have an estate plan, it’s time to turn to the who in an estate plan.

The most important person is you, the creator of the Will (testator) or Trust (called grantor, settlor, or trustor–not to be confused with the trustee!). By taking the time for careful consideration and creating various legal documents, you are establishing clear expectations for how you want your money and property to be handled upon your death.

The other essential players involved in estate planning include:

Beneficiaries: These are family members, loved ones, or charitable organizations—anyone who receives an asset of yours in your Will or Trust. Assets can include cash, real estate, or that piano you inherited from your grandparents.

Heirs: If you die without an estate plan (or all the beneficiaries you listed in your estate plan have passed away or otherwise do not qualify to receive your assets), the people who will receive your assets are known as your heirs. Your heirs are determined under default succession laws. They are not necessarily the people you would have named as your beneficiaries.

Executor: If you create a Will, you will name an executor (sometimes called an administrator or personal representative) to manage your affairs after you die. This person will collect your property, pay any debts and taxes, and distribute the remaining property according to the terms of your Will. This often takes a bit of legwork, including contacting banks, investment and insurance companies, and appraisers.

Trustee: When the centerpiece of your estate plan is a Trust rather than a Will, this person manages your affairs just like an executor would. Because the roles are so similar, generally the same person is named in the role of successor trustee and executor. Moreover, if you put assets into your Trust during life, the trustee can manage them during your incapacity, instead of relying on a financial power of attorney.

Agent or attorney-in-fact: Not to be confused with an actual lawyer, this is the person you named in your financial or health care power of attorney to act or make decisions on your behalf.

Guardian: If you have children who are minors or have special needs, this is the person you name to care for the wellbeing in case both you and the other parent are unable to care for those children.

If you’re wondering whether a lawyer is also part of this list, it depends. Most people can set up and manage their estate plan on their own using online tools, like Wealth, which are backed by extensive legal expertise.

When you put together the what, why, and who behind estate planning, you can see it really boils down to thinking about and documenting your final wishes, then appointing someone you trust to be in charge of executing those wishes after you die. It’s a simple, thoughtful act that protects your family and your legacy.

We hope these explanations have shown that estate planning is important but not impossible. Like death itself, it’s not something people talk about much, which has led to a myth that it’s too complicated for the average person to tackle. The reality is, estate planning takes time and consideration, but it’s time well spent to safeguard your loved ones’ wellbeing.

Is Digital Estate Planning Safe and Practical?

TL/DR: Digital online estate planning can be safe, easy, and practical. Common questions about the process are discussed below.

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Online options for things we once did in person are on the rise, and estate planning is no exception. Inexpensive and easy-to-use digital planning tools now allow you to create your Will, Advance Health Care Directive, and other estate planning documents at a fraction of the cost of hiring an attorney. But how do you know if digital estate planning is the right choice for you?

Below we answer common questions regarding ease of use, privacy, and security considerations when selecting a digital estate planning platform.

Q: Does the digital estate planning platform keep my information secure?

A: An online estate planning service should maintain rigorous security standards to protect user privacy. Wealth uses multi-factor authentication and bank-level encryption to secure all data from any potential breach.

Q: Is my situation too complicated for online estate planning?

A: Most online estate planning platforms work well for uncomplicated family and financial situations. The Wealth platform provides for unique situations, including blended families, gifts of specific items, creation of estate tax-exempt Trusts (e.g., the credit shelter or bypass Trust), and family-owned businesses. If you have any questions regarding your estate, you should consult a qualified attorney. Even if you’ve already created a Will or Trust with an attorney, you can still use online estate planning to modify those documents and manage your estate plan and keep track of your Trust assets.

Q: What are the pros and cons of digital estate planning?

A: Online digital estate planning can be much less expensive than meeting with an estate attorney in person. Additionally, you can revise your estate documents if you change your mind about gifts, agents, or if your life circumstances change. Digital estate documents do not include legal advice specific to your situation. If you have any questions about your estate documents, you should speak to a qualified attorney.

Q: What information do I need to get started with my digital estate plan?

A: You can start your digital estate plan by simply providing your contact information and creating an online account. Once your account has been set up, Wealth will guide you step by step through the process of adding family members, beneficiaries, assets, gifts you would like to give, etc. Wealth provides guidance on how to select trusted agents, validate documents, and alerts you when issues might arise when transferring property or giving gifts.

Q: How do I know my digital estate planning documents are valid?

A: Each state has its own laws about signing, witnessing, and notarizing estate planning documents. Wealth provides signature pages that are valid in your state of residence. Additionally, your Wealth documents will include detailed signing instructions and will alert you if a notary and/or witness(es) is required at the time of signing.

Q: I’m ready to begin my online estate plan. Why should I choose Wealth?

A: Wealth estate planning documents have been customized for the laws of your state and have been reviewed by a licensed attorney in your state.  Wealth uses multi-factor authentication and bank-level encryption to secure your data from any potential breach. You can revise your documents at any time on your Wealth Portal online account. For an additional fee, an attorney licensed in your state is available to answer questions specific to your estate needs.

Ready to begin creating your estate plan? Click here to get started.

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