Estate Planning

How does Estate Planning play a role in our Financial Life Plan® process?

Your Financial Life Plan® really isn't complete unless we talk about what happens at the end of your plan. While it can be emotionally challenging to think about "the end" and plan for your own passing, ensuring that your legacy is carried out is just as important as building it!  

A successful Estate Plan is one that makes it easier for your loved ones to transfer your assets and carry out your final wishes when that time comes, without creating confusion or uncertainty during an already difficult time.

If Estate Planning is an area of great need, why does it rarely come up on our Right Fit Call as something that led you to reach out? 

In our experience, Estate Planning is that one piece of your family’s planning that you know you NEED but keep pushing off. It makes sense: Estate Planning forces you to think about your family’s worst case scenario, it seems unnecessarily complicated, and you’ve heard it’s expensive. 

When I ask soon-to-be-clients (particularly young families) if they are have an estate plan I hear a variation of "I have been meaning to work on my estate planning documents, but it just has not happened yet..." or "I did that 5 years ago on Legal Zoom and haven’t checked since!”  You're not alone!  Less than a third of Americans under the age of 55 have a plan. Considering that 100% of our clients will (one day, hopefully very far into the future!) reach the end, that is a very low number!

Once we get into the nitty-gritty of planning, clients often ask many questions about Estate Planning, such as:

• What documents do we need?
• Who will be in charge of our assets?
• Who will make decisions for our children?
• How much does estate planning cost?
• What information does an attorney need to help?
• What is a Trust?  How is it different from a Will?

There’s a lot to think about.

Our Financial Life Plan® will answer ALL of these questions and give you options for creating an Estate Plan that is right for you. That may mean working with an attorney you already know, relying on a personalized attorney referral, or working with our Estate Planning Specialist and our Estate Planning partner to create your own plan. Either way, we will make sure this important step is not ignored!   

Drucker Wealth's Estate Planning Solution

Drucker Wealth has brought on an Estate Planning Specialist, Carrie M. Leontitsis, J.D., AEP®, to work with our clients who are in need of Estate Planning. Carrie works with you and your current estate planning team (if any) to ensure your financial plan and your estate plan dovetail, filling in any gaps in the comprehensive plan between the Estate Planning documents and the financial aspects.  She reviews current plans and ensures that accounts are properly structured to align with those plans. Carrie brings over 17 years of Estate Planning experience as a Florida lawyer Board Certified in Wills, Trusts, and Estates, to our planning team. She acts as a subject matter expert for us in many areas that align with Estate Planning, including charitable gifting strategies, estate tax planning, and minor beneficiary/special needs planning.

We have also partnered with EncorEstate Plans to work with our clients that are in need of their basic estate planning documents. EncorEstate Plans is a digital estate planning solution that provides individuals and families with the ability to create legal estate planning documents to help secure their legacy. 

EncorEstate Plans is designed to be a streamlined platform that is easy to navigate and that allows us to help you to create an estate plan without ever leaving the convenience of your own home!  No expensive retainer fees and endless consultations required. Our team charges a one-time fee ($1,600 for an individual and $2,400 for a couple) for coordination with the platform & coaching until the plan is completed.  

Drucker Wealth is NOT a law firm and as such does not provide legal services or advice of any kind...we merely facilitate & coordinate with the platform (and serve as your accountability partner to make sure it gets done!) 

Let's back up...what is Estate Planning?

Estate planning, to put it plainly, is simply recording and legally documenting your wishes for what happens when you're unable to manage your own affairs or when you pass away. Put another way, it is the process of ensuring that your financial affairs are managed and taken care of in the way that YOU want. 

A proper estate plan will ensure the following:

1. Your assets are left to YOUR chosen beneficiaries (family, charity, friends etc.) in the most cost and tax-efficient manner possible
2. While you're alive, YOU are in control of your own health and end-of-life planning to the greatest extent possible
3. Your young or disabled loved ones are taken care of by ensuring the right people are named to take your place and care for them, when needed
4. Your documents are legally valid and are executed with state-specific requirements

  
As part of the initial Financial Life Plan® process, during what we call our “Goals & Gathering” Meetings, our team works on gathering all of the relevant documents we need to complete our analysis (investment statements, tax returns, pay stub, 401k statement etc.)  Carrie will also meet with you during these initial sessions to make sure that we are capturing all of the information and documents needed to analyze your legacy planning needs.

We will then help you understand what decisions you and your family must start thinking about for your Estate Plan, such as deciding "Where do things go?" and "Who is in charge?", and specifying what healthcare treatments or other medical decisions should be made on your behalf if that becomes necessary.

Our job, of course, is not to make these decisions for you or to provide legal advice (because we can't) but to facilitate these important life and legacy conversations so you are prepared to make these decisions for yourselves!

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