When people call about this
What this usually looks like
- You have never put anything in writing, and you know it
- A will or trust exists, but it was drafted for a family and a balance sheet that no longer exist
- A business, a rental property or a retirement account is a large share of what you own
- A parent is ageing and nobody has authority to act if they cannot
- You are about to transfer something and want the tax consequences understood first
The default plan
You already have an estate plan
If you have never created one, the law provides a default process for what happens to your property. The problem is that the default may have little to do with what you actually want.
Planning is simply the act of making those decisions yourself, while they are still yours to make. It is not about producing more paperwork. It is about producing clarity.
What a plan decides
The questions your family should not have to work out later
- Who should receive your property?
- Who should manage your affairs if you cannot?
- Who should make important decisions on your behalf?
- What happens to a business, investment property, retirement account or other significant asset?
- How should assets be transferred to children or other beneficiaries?
- And what tax consequences should be considered before the documents are signed?
The pieces
More than a will
For most people a will is one part of the plan. Depending on the family, the assets and the objective, several documents and strategies have to work together.
Wills
Establishes how property should be distributed, who administers the estate, and the family decisions that come with it.
Trusts
Greater control over how assets are managed and transferred and, depending on the facts, less court involvement.
Powers of Attorney
Names who has authority over financial matters if you are unable to handle them yourself.
Health Care Directives
Documents who may make health care decisions when you cannot communicate them yourself.
Beneficiary and Asset Review
Retirement accounts, insurance, investment accounts and jointly owned property transfer outside the will. Those pieces have to agree with it.
Tax Planning
Property transfers, appreciated assets, business ownership and larger estates raise questions better answered before the plan is signed.
Sequence
Tax planning belongs before the transfer
Taxes are usually considered after a transaction, inheritance or transfer has already happened. By then the decisions that mattered have been made.
Planning creates the opening to look at the consequences while they can still be changed. That can involve income tax, capital gains, basis, retirement accounts, property transfers, business interests, gifts, trusts, and federal estate and gift tax.
The right structure depends on the assets, the people and the objective. There is no useful one-size-fits-all estate plan.
Business owners
For an owner, the business is part of the estate
A closely held business raises questions an ordinary estate plan does not answer. Who takes control. Whether the business should continue. Whether ownership passes to family, employees or partners. What happens if one owner dies unexpectedly. Where the money comes from if an ownership interest has to be bought out.
Succession planning should not begin after the succession. If a business is a meaningful part of your net worth, it belongs in this conversation.
When to look at it
The moments that make a plan worth revisiting
Marriage or divorce. The birth or adoption of a child. Buying a home or an investment property. Starting or acquiring a business. Building significant savings. Receiving an inheritance. Moving to another state. A change in family relationships. Retirement. The death of a spouse or beneficiary. A material change in tax circumstances.
An existing plan is not necessarily a finished one. A document written years ago may reflect a family, a balance sheet or a tax environment that no longer exists, and beneficiary designations and ownership may no longer match what it says. A review finds those gaps before they become someone else’s problem.
Already have a will or trust? Bring it with you.
Why this office
Tax experience changes the questions we ask
Estate planning does not happen apart from the rest of your financial life. Kemble White spent seven years inside the IRS Office of Chief Counsel and more than twenty-five years in private tax practice, and that is the lens brought to planning involving property, investments, businesses and transfers of wealth.
The engagement
How we work a plan like this
1. Start with your situation
Family, assets, existing documents and objectives. Not a stack of forms. A conversation.
2. Identify the gaps
What happens under your current arrangements, and where that differs from what you want.
3. Build the plan
The documents and the structure that fit the facts, with the tax consequences priced in.
4. Make the pieces agree
A plan only works when the documents, the ownership and the beneficiary designations say the same thing.
5. Review when life changes
Major family, financial and business changes are the reason to open it again.
Related matters
These rarely arrive on their own
A plan is harder to settle when something is still open with the IRS or the state. The pages below are the ones that most often belong in the same file as this one.
IRS Tax Debt & Collections
A federal tax lien attaches to property and does not disappear because the property changed hands.
Open — IRS Tax Debt & CollectionsUnfiled & Delinquent Returns
Open years are easier to close now than when an executor has to close them for you.
Open — Unfiled & Delinquent ReturnsCalifornia & State Tax
California reaches property and transfers on its own terms, and the FTB does not wait for the federal answer.
Open — California & State TaxThis page is general information, not advice for a specific situation. Available procedures depend on the actual record and on current law, which changes. Confirm before acting, or ask this office to review your own facts.
