Products & Services

Wills & Living Trusts
Wills and living trusts are two of the most popular estate planning tools. Both allow you to spell out how you would like your property to be distributed, but they also go far beyond that.

A will enables you to determine the distribution of your property and nominate your executor and guardians for your minor children. If you fail to make such designations through your will, the decisions will likely be left to the courts. Keep in mind that property distributed through your will is subject to probate, which can be a very costly and time-consuming process. Additionally, all estates that go through probate become public record.

Like a will, living trusts spell out how you want your property distributed after your death. Living trusts differ from wills, however, in that they are actual legal entities. A living trust also allows you to customize the distribution of your estate, manage your property and avoid probate. Other benefits of a living trust include:

A living trust may allow for a Trustee to handle the financial matters related to trust property if you become mentally incapacitated
A living trust can make conservatorship of your property unnecessary
A revocable living trust allows you to maintain control and flexibility throughout your lifetime by allowing you to make changes as they may become necessary
A living trust may assist you in avoiding estate taxes when it is particularly designed for that purpose

For more information on our Living Trust Package, please click here.

Durable Power of Attorney for Finances
Incapacity poses almost as much of a threat to your financial well-being as death does. Fortunately, there are tools that can help you cope with this threat.

A durable power of attorney is a legal agreement that avoids the need for a conservatorship and enables you to designate who will make your legal and financial decisions if you become incapacitated. Unlike the standard power of attorney, durable powers remain valid if you become incapacitated.

Health Care Proxies & Living Wills
Similar to the durable power of attorney, a health care proxy is a document in which you designate someone to make your health care decisions for you in the event of your incapacity. The person you designate can generally make decisions regarding medical facilities, medical treatments, surgery, and a variety of other health care issues. Much like the durable power of attorney, the health care proxy involves some important decisions. Take the utmost care when choosing who will make them.

A related document, the living will, also known as a directive to physicians or a health care directive, details the kinds of life-sustaining treatment you will permit in the event of your incapacity. The directive creates an agreement between you and the attending physician. The decision for or against life support is one that only you can make. That makes the living will a valuable estate planning tool. You may also use a living will in conjunction with a durable health care power of attorney. Keep in mind that laws governing the recognition and treatment of living wills may vary from state to state.

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILIT)
If you own a life insurance policy on your life, the proceeds may be subject to estate tax. Alternatively, if the same policy is purchased and owned by an ILIT, the death benefits proceeds should pass tax-free to your heirs' estate. Some of the steps in accomplishing this are:

After you establish the ILIT, the Trustee of the ILIT purchases a life insurance policy insuring your life or a second-to-die life insurance policy insuring your life and the life of your spouse, if you are married.
The Trustee pays the premium using funds that you gift to the trust each year (depending upon the amount of the premiums, you may be able to shield all of your transfers to the trust from gift tax by making annual exclusion gifts to the trust beneficiaries).
The Trustee of the ILIT can then use all of the life insurance policy proceeds to lend money or purchase assets from your estate and provide your heirs' estates with the liquidity needed to pay the transfer taxes imposed at death.

Charitable Remainder Trusts
With a charitable remainder trust, you can transfer property to a trust set up for the charity of your choice. The trust pays you, or someone else you have chosen an income for life or period of years. The trust ends at the death of the last income beneficiary (or earlier if that is what the trust specifies), and the charity receives the property.

Additional Products & Services
In addition to estate planning services, National Future Benefits is committed to providing additional products and services that can help our clients further preserve their estates and better navigate retirement and their financial future. These products include but are not limited to life insurance and fixed annuities.

Life insurance plays a part in most estate plans. Make sure you have sufficient coverage on your life for family members to maintain their current lifestyle after you are gone. For larger estates that may be subject to tax even when family trusts are used, life insurance can provide the funds needed to pay estate taxes without liquidating estate assets. Life insurance can be an extraordinary vehicle to mitigate an estate tax concern, and the use of an irrevocable life insurance trust may be established to purchase the policy. An irrevocable life insurance trust may also help beneficiaries manage the life insurance proceeds and potentially reduce estate taxes.

Fixed annuities protect what you have and help protect against the possibility of outliving your resources. These products guarantee the principal amount invested, and certain annuities also offer upside of the major stock market indices.

To learn more, call us at 1-800-503-3301