5 Estate-Planning Tasks That You Shouldn't Put Off

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Christine Benz is Morningstar's director of

personal finance and author of 30-Minute Money

Solutions: A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing

Your Financesand the Morningstar Guide to

Mutual Funds: 5-Star Strategies for Success.

Follow Christine on Twitter: @christine_benz and

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5 Estate-Planning Tasks That You Shouldn't

Put Off

The estate tax might be in flux, but that doesn't mean you should

throw these important to-dos on the back burner.

By Christine Benz | 01-25-13 | 06:00 AM | Email Article

Keeping tabs on the estate-planning rules during the past few years has been alittle like watching Olympic-level table tennis: The action moves quickly, and it's

difficult to keep up.

The amount of assets that

could pass estate-tax-free

drifted upward for most of the

2000s, and the estate tax went

away altogether in a single

year, 2010. Extremely

generous exclusion amounts,

which allowed estates valued

up to just over $5 million to

escape the estate tax,

prevailed for 2011 and 2012.

The estate tax was set to return with a vengeance starting this year as part of the

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incapacitated. A power of attorney is a document that specifies who will handle

your affairs if you are unable to do so. You'll need to draft two separate

documents: one that names your power of attorney for health-care decisions and

another for financial matters (often called a durable power of attorney). The

person you entrust with your power of attorney for health care will, ideally, live in

close geographic proximity to you and will also understand your general wishes

about your own health care. The person who you name on your durable power of

attorney form should be detail-oriented and comfortable with financial matters,

and he or she should also have a general understanding about your attitudes

toward and goals for your money.

Task 5: Name an Executor

Your executor will gather all of your assets after you're gone and make sure theyare distributed in accordance with your will. Ideally, your executor will be someone

who's comfortable with numbers and good with details, and will also be able to find

the time to work on your estate. It's common to name family members as

executors, but in more complicated situations it might be preferable to use a

professional, such as a bank trust officer, to serve as your executor. It's a good

idea to tell your executor that you've named him or her, and also provide details

on how to obtain access to important documents, such as your will and a master

directory detailing all of your accounts.

A version of this article appeared Aug. 20, 2012.

See More Articles by Christine Benz

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