I’ll bet you didn’t anticipate that Uncle Sam was your equal partner in all that earned or that business that you built. But that’s what can happen if you die without a property estate plan – the government gets a big slice of the money that could have gone to your heirs.
We’re not talking about just having a will, while that’s important. Keeping it simple, a will merely indicates who is going to get your stuff. It doesn’t do anything to shield your assets from taxation. To do that, you’ll need an estate plan.
Entire books have been written about estate planning, the topic is too broad to be fully addressed here. But we can dive into some basic concepts. Here’s the most basic concept of all: Own nothing, control everything.
Owning nothing doesn’t mean that you’ve given all your stuff away. Instead, you put your assets into some kind of trust. You can continue to enjoy the income and distributions from the trust during your lifetime. Once you’re gone, the beneficiaries you’ve named get the income and other distributions according to whatever terms you set in place. You not only control things while you’re living, you continue to control them even after you’re gone.
A trust is an entity similar to a person, except a trust can live on from generation to generation. The person managing the trust is called a trustee. You can be the trustee while you’re alive and you appoint a responsible successor for when you die or become incapacitated.
And that’s just one estate planning example. There are many other mechanisms. Your attorney or accountant can help with further details.
But your attorney and accountant can’t help you if you want to get to the Super Bowl for Free. For that, you’ll need my next book coming out in August of 2025, How to go to the Super Bowl for Free and Other Lessons from a Lifetime in Business. Click on the red button below to get on the list for 15% off when the book is available.