Have you done?

Recently quite occupied with my client stuff and did not get a chance to update information in this blog.

Today topic I am going to share on will be Estate Planning. Although currently in Singapore Estate duty are being removed. So we just take it as a General Knowlege ;>

"Nothing can be said to be more Certain except Death n Taxes" quoted from Benjamin Franklin. The concepts the average person does not like to dwell on with good reasons.

To most of the layman people, estate planning are simply making Wills or trust planning. However in reality, estate planning are more in dept as it is a ongoing process to prepare and manage the disposal of the assests in his/her incapacity or Death.

The procedure are as follow,

1> Estate accumulation, this is where a person have to make sure that there is sufficient wealth left behind for their loved ones when ones passed on. Under this procedure, normally Insurance is a powerful tool as it creates an immediate tool with minimum saving. Example, a healthy man 30 yrs old non smoker, invest a yearly $6000 amount in a Wholelife policy, imeediately he have $300k coverage. And assuming 1 year he passed on with his policy inforce. His family member will have a immdeiate $300k which is a leverage 50 times of his amount payable. What kind of investment can provide this form of assurance and the value of the deceased's estate?

2> Estate Preservation, this part is whereby you have to minimise the leakage of any cash of assets from your estate. For example, if you are holding oversea estate or citizhensip from some countries where estate duty may apply to its people. Therefore consideration of putting Trust or transfer assets into it may be prove useful in minimising the death duty. However, this might not be applicable to everybody. In order to avoid the hassle and of the trust setup, incorparating suitable insurance policies for your estate can prove useful. It helps by using the insurance payouts to shield your estate value from severely eroded to pay for the expenses "realted to death"

3? Estate Distribution, before distributing your estate your family memeber have to take into account expenses such as medical bills incurred prior to death and also funeral expenses, personal debts or loan etc. In some cases, family with no proper planning might have to sell off their residential property or investment to pay off the expenses. But with insurance planning, as it provide immediate liquidity for the estate and beneficiary and this lower the risk of dumping the property or investment during the inapproriate time.

Planning for your eventual passing on maynot be pleasant. Just like death and taxes ignoring it wont make them go away. Proper planning can enable your family and loved ones being taken care of when the unexpected happens during the night.