Estate and Legacy Planning
Leave an enduring legacy for the people, causes and organizations you love
From traditional estate planning to
values based estate planning
As Lynne Twist, author and founder of the Soul of Money Institute explained, money carries our intention. If we use it with integrity, then it carries integrity forward.
We believe that estate planning should go beyond the traditional considerations of tax minimization, inheritance, wealth transfer and asset protection. We use a value based estate planning approach that matches your why: the impact and meaning that you desire for your wealth, with the how: the strategies, tools and techniques that will help you achieve those goals.
Some of the tools we regularly use for estate planning, beyond the traditional estate documents, include Living Trusts, Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts, Spousal Lifetime Asset Trusts, Special Needs Trusts, Donor Advised Funds, Qualified Charitable Distributions, Gift Annuities, Retained Life Estates, Charitable Remainder Trusts and Charitable Lead Trusts.
Our retirement planning services include helping you:
- Define your family’s core values and communicate them in a meaningful form to your loved ones and estate planning team.
- Educate you about the US and Swiss estate and inheritance laws, including Swiss forced heirship rules, that provide the framework over which your estate plan will be constructed.
- Educate you about the different documents in an estate plan: wills, trusts, health care directives, living wills and financial powers of attorney in the USA and Switzerland.
- Coordinate the work of your US and Swiss estate attorneys to make sure that your global wealth is considered, and that conflicts between US and Swiss laws are efficiently resolved.
- Understand the difference between estate taxes in the USA and inheritance taxes in Switzerland and in some US states.
- Take advantage of US-Swiss estate tax treaty benefits when helping you put together your estate plan.
- Facilitate clear communication between all stakeholders.
- Introduce you to advisors, trustees and institutional partners specialized in strategic and tactic estate plan implementation.
- Review, and help you maintain, beneficiary account designations that are consistent with your estate plan and formal estate documents.
- Incorporate philanthropic planning to match your charitable giving interests with your financial capacity and family legacy goals.
- Review your current charitable giving and recommend strategies to help you improve your giving impact in a tax efficient manner.
- Incorporate gifting strategies, including maximizing current and future gift exemptions to meet your legacy goals.
- Understand the difference between revocable and irrevocable commitments such designating beneficiaries by operation of law, making testamentary gifts or gifts in living trusts, and making split-interest gifts that benefit both your family and favorite charities.
- Evaluate different asset protection strategies and make recommendations based on your situation and needs.
- Understand the impact of different estate plans and asset titling options, particularly in the case of blended families and families with special needs.
- Track changes and proposed changes in estate laws in the USA and Switzerland to understand their impact on your plan and any changes that may be needed as a result of new legislation.
Are You Ready to get
the help you are looking for?
Work with a team of experienced and specialized advisors who truly understand your situation and needs.
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We believe that every person deserves access to quality financial education that can empower them to make good financial decisions. For individuals and families who are unable to retain our professional services, our public benefit initiatives support free financial education through the Crossborder Planner [free newsletter and blog], and the Crossborder Academy [free webinars], covering topics like tax reporting, tax planning, saving for retirement, benefiting charities or caring for the next generation.