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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.
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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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