Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/216837
ESTATE PLANNING | Special Advertising Section Schmidt, assistant vice president and personal trust officer, at The Private Client Reserve of U.S. Bank. Whether your plans involve saving money for vacations or retirement, starting a business or planning a family, these wealth managers say it's important to remember—from the get-go—that you'll need to review your estate plan annually. "Financial and life goals likely won't be achieved without an estate plan," adds Lokrantz. Schmidt stresses that it's never too late to take control of your financial life—in fact, the sooner you do, the better, to ensure your assets are working appropriately toward your goals. Asset management changes as life does. A woman who addresses those changes has options, and the power to protect her assets and her family in the way she sees fit through her estate plan. WHAT DO YOU HAVE? A simple way to begin assessing your estate is to list all assets, from real property to money market funds, advises Elizabeth Heiner, an attorney with Boardman & Clark LLP, noting that the bulk of a person's wealth may be in life insurance policies and retirement accounts. Then, she says, gather a team of financial and legal experts to help ensure assets are titled properly and beneficiaries are designated as desired. Heiner emphasizes that everyone— including each spouse—needs their own will. ESTATE PLANNING BY JENNIFER BRADLEY Whether it's a simple bank account, a complex series of investments or any variety of properties, fact is, each of us has an estate. But not all of us have a plan for it. We should. Even a basic estate plan can go a long way toward protecting and maximizing your estate's value, eliminating uncertainties about the distribution of your assets, and preventing frustration and avoidable expenses for your heirs. Here's what you need to keep in mind. WHAT'S THE PLAN? The first focus in any estate plan is asset management—dollars and sense for the big picture. "It's not enough to have dollar values listed next to an account number," says Cymbre Van Fossen, vice president at First Business Trust & Investments. "You need to have a clear sense of how those assets are going to work for you and how they are structured to flow through your estate plan." A woman should decide what's important to her and then establish a plan to get there, advise both Maureen Lokrantz, vice president and wealth management advisor, and Rebecca 38 BRAVA MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2013 "Frankly people think a will governs how all of their property is distributed at death. That's not necessarily true," says Heiner. "Retirement accounts and life insurance proceeds pass according to beneficiary designations rather than wills. Spouses should also remember that because Wisconsin is a marital property state, one-half of property titled in one spouse's name may pass under the will of the other spouse." John Haslam, an attorney with Wilson Law Group, recognizes that some women may have a fear of starting the sometimes lengthy process, "It's not enough to have dollar values listed next to an account number." —Cymbre Van Fossen, vice president at First Business Trust & Investments. embarrassment over what their financial situation is or, more often, what they think it should be. "When we see clients like that, all it does is remind us of ourselves," he says, nodding to the fact that everyone has to start somewhere when it comes to building an estate and a plan. Many people are millionaires, but not in money that can be used today. While some clients may not have much in the way of property or money, Haslam reminds them that life insurance policies alone translate to real dollars for beneficiaries if something tragic were to happen.