You don?t need a lawyer to create an estate plan.? A Consumer Reports investigation recently found that online resources to draft wills and other estate planning documents usually don?t work well for most people.? This is because everyone?s situation is different, and most online services don?t take this into account.? To create an effective Maryland estate plan, you should consult with an Annapolis estate planning attorney.
You have to use a trust to avoid probate.? While trusts are a great way to avoid the time and expense of probate and keep your financial information private, there are other ways to avoid probate.? For retirement accounts, annuities, life insurance and bank accounts, you can avoid probate by listing beneficiaries for each account.? Maryland allows you to add a payable-on-death designation to bank accounts and CDs and a transfer-on-death registration for securities.? Maryland does not allow for transfer-on-death deeds for real estate or a transfer-on-death registration for vehicles.? For real estate, property held in joint tenancy (or tenancy by the entirety for married couples) passes automatically to the surviving owner without probate in Maryland.
Trusts avoid estate tax.? Certain trusts can be used to reduce or even eliminate estate tax liability, but all trusts in and of themselves do not automatically provide protection against estate taxes.
My estate is too small to worry about the estate tax.? That may be true today, when the estate tax exemption is $5.12 million for individuals and $10.24 for married couples.? But this exemption is set to expire on Jan. 1, 2013, when estate and gift tax exemptions are scheduled to revert back to $1 million.? When you add up the value of your property, life insurance, retirement accounts and other assets, the $1 million exemption may look a lot smaller.
Gift taxes are due on gifts to anyone over $13,000.? Gifts to anyone over $13,000 simply reduce your lifetime gift and estate tax exclusion amount ($5.12 million in 2012; $1 million in 2013).? You will only owe gift taxes once you exceed the entire exclusion amount.? You still have to file a gift tax return so the IRS (and you) can keep track.
An experienced Annapolis estate planning attorney can help you understand all your options for estate planning.? Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Seth B. Zirkle can discuss all your options and create a plan with you.? Call Mr. Zirkle at Hyatt & Weber, P.A. today at 410-505-4553.
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