{"id":3129,"date":"2012-08-26T13:14:16","date_gmt":"2012-08-26T20:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/?p=3129"},"modified":"2012-09-17T06:55:21","modified_gmt":"2012-09-17T13:55:21","slug":"estate-planning-beyond-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/estate-planning-beyond-taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Estate Planning is Not Just About Taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It seems that many families are motivated to do estate planning only when they think a lot of their estate will be lost to taxes. \u00a0Sadly, this leaves many families without an estate plan when it&#8217;s needed most. \u00a0And unfortunately, many times their family is left with a mess due to lack of planning . . . no matter how &#8220;small&#8221; their &#8220;estate&#8221; may be. \u00a0I can&#8217;t overemphasize how important it is to remember that an &#8220;estate&#8221; is not what you think it is \u00a0&#8211; read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/?p=2190\" target=\"_blank\">this post<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/?p=2218\" target=\"_blank\">this post<\/a> to find out what an estate really is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The great news is that this fact is become more of a &#8220;known&#8221; than an &#8220;unknown.&#8221; \u00a0Proof is in <a href=\"http:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/5-estate-planning-tasks-shouldnt-110000251.html\" target=\"_blank\">this Yahoo! Finance article<\/a> I came across last week. \u00a0It&#8217;s a short read and certainly worth your time. \u00a0The article points out that, even if estate taxes don&#8217;t go up at the beginning of 2013 as they are scheduled to, &#8220;I&#8217;d still take the threat of higher estate taxes as a wake-up call.&#8221; \u00a0The article goes on to 5 estate critical estate planning tasks that you should absolutely not put off. \u00a0Although there are many more, I generally agree with the 5 they list. \u00a0And, as can be seen from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/?p=2790\" target=\"_blank\">this previous blog post<\/a>, the #1 item on the list can cause some real headaches (and heartaches).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">So &#8220;take the bull by the horns&#8221; and call us at 616-827-7596 to schedule your <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/getting-started\/how-to-get-started\/\" target=\"_blank\">Peace of Mind Planning Session<\/a> to make sure you have all these items handled in a way that is a true reflection of your family &#8211; who you are and what is important to you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><a href=\"..\/index.php\/firm-overview\/our-team\/\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Lichterman<\/a>\u00a0is an estate planning and charitable planning attorney who helps families and business owners create a lasting legacy by planning for their\u00a0<a href=\"..\/index.php\/estate-planning\/your-family-legacy\/\" target=\"_blank\">Whole Family Wealth\u2122<\/a>.\u00a0 This goes beyond merely planning for &#8220;stuff&#8221; &#8211; it&#8217;s about who your are and what&#8217;s important to you.\u00a0 He focuses on estate, charitable, and asset protection planning for all generations (&#8220;young&#8221; and &#8220;experienced&#8221;), the &#8220;sandwich generation&#8221; (caring for parents and children), doctors\/physicians, nurses, lawyers, dentists, professionals with minor children, family owned businesses, and pet planning.\u00a0 He enjoys creating life long relationships with his clients centered on their family&#8217;s values, insights, stories and experiences.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It seems that many families are motivated to do estate planning only when they think a lot of their estate will be lost to taxes. \u00a0Sadly, this leaves many families without an estate plan when it&#8217;s needed most. \u00a0And unfortunately, many times their family is left with a mess due to lack of planning . [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estate-planning"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3129"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3162,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129\/revisions\/3162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lichtermanlaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}