The Planner

Christmas is only 2 months away – can you believe it? And, you know what that means. Time to get out your list, check it twice … Oh, no, not that list! I mean your “End of the Year Planning Checklist”. December 31st will sneak up on you, and the New Year of 2011 will be here before you finish taking down the tree, picking up the gift wrap, and then wrap up 2010!

With this year’s challenges and accomplishments still fresh in your mind, now is a good time to review and update your estate plans. To help you in this process, we have constructed a checklist of financial estate planning actions for you to go over as the end of the year rolls closer. And, when giving at year-end, depending on the gift arrangements you choose, you can: reduce income taxes, increase your spendable income, eliminate capital gains tax, attain no-cost, worry-free asset management.

• Complete charitable contributions to Malone or other charities by Dec. 31.
• As you think about special holiday gifts, remember that making charitable gifts to Malone can offer you tax benefits for this tax year.
• Review your current will and trust. Major changes in one’s life signals perhaps changing your estate documents.
• Take inventory and make a written record of safe-deposit box contents. Give copy to a trusted family member.
• Review your beneficiary designations for your life insurance and retirement plans.
• Verify that your durable power of attorney for health care and living will are current.
• Be sure you are comfortable with the guardian named for your minor children or grandchildren in your care.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.