Settling the affairs related to assets is not only for affluent families. There should be a plan to safeguard your family’s wealth even after you are gone. Hence, estate planning helps you by ensuring the perpetuation of your family’s lifestyle.
Key points
- You require estate planning to legally declare who will receive what among your assets and other belongings.
- Estate planning gives you the legal power to name the guardian of your children in the occurrence of your premature death.
- Reducing taxes on the possessions that you leave behind is also possible through estate planning.
- If you want to lessen the risk of funds among your family members after you, then estate planning is the solution.
What is an Estate Planning Attorney?
Estate planning attorneys provide legal and financial advice and prepare their clients for succession and final rest issues. Apart from this, securing the client’s assets and handing them down to their legal inheritors is the principal objective of estate planning. Once the client expires, this legal declaration will decree the transfer of assets.
The duties of estate planning attorneys comprise:
- Drafting a last will testament
- Creating trust accounts
- Naming power of attorneys, trustees, and executors
- Identifying inheritors
- Naming a guardian for a minor child
- Setting up preferences for funeral preparations
- Acquiring long-term care insurance, disability income insurance, and life insurance.
An ideal estate planner keeps updating their client’s testament. Personal motivations, financial scenarios, and federal laws keep modifying. Barring this, some other traits and abilities can help you achieve these objectives as an estate planning attorney.
Necessary traits of an estate planning attorney
You need to assess your strengths and personality for any career you want to pursue. Go for it if you have the following characteristics.
1. You do long-term planning – It takes long-term planning to be an ideal estate planner. As an estate planner, you will support the surviving members of the family after your client’s death. It means service for decades. Your client will entrust you with a plan that transfers most of the possessions to the beneficiaries. Apart from this, a plan that will manage taxes, affiliates with federal and local laws, etc. Further, you need to guide and support those clients who hire you toward the end of their life. Hence, your job will teach them how to transfer their possessions to family and friends.
2. You relish aiding people – guiding clients throughout their lives demands a blend of compassion and forthrightness. In this respect, being an estate planner is not an easy job. With your directness, you must assist your client in foreseeing what will happen after his demise. On the contrary, you will ensure that your client does not dwell on unwholesome thoughts and emotions. Because it happens that clients become distressed while envisaging death. Now, the responsibility of helping them through falls upon you.
3. Interest in taxation, trust, and financial dealings – Your client will entrust you with his money, and you may have to manage funds in multiple accounts. Moreover, the valuation of property, investments, trust funds, insurance, checking and savings account, etc., might come into play. Therefore, a mathematical inclination is an additional benefit for estate planners.
How to become an estate planning attorney?
Estate planners are adept in financial topics such as taxation, investment, property laws, personal assets, etc. Hence, specialization in finance for a bachelor’s degree can give you a head start on your career. Advanced certifications may be beneficial for you in outperforming your competition. Most candidates choose to get CFP (Certified Financial Planner) certification. The governing body of this certification is the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. The CFP exam is conducted in three parts to test your understanding of the latest tax laws. In addition, the candidates need to qualify for background tests. Finally, one can apply for the certification of Accredited Estate Planner. The National Association of Estate Planners and Councils offer this certification. But, the attorney must have at least five years of experience in this field. In addition, CFP or equivalent certification is also mandatory.
Pay scale of an Estate Planning Attorney
This profession is a perfect blend of affinity to financial matters and helping people. The average annual income of an estate planner ranges between $28000 to $5,00,000. In the UK, the median salary of an estate planner is around £38,131. Hence, this profession is unquestionably lucrative.
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