Retirement Planning Port Elizabeth

  • Prevents Your Assets From Ending Up With Unintended Beneficiaries
    If estate planning was once considered something that only the wealthy needed, nowadays many middle-class families need to plan for when something happens to a family’s breadwinner (or breadwinners). After all, you don’t have to be super rich to do well in the stock market or real estate industry, both of which produce assets that you’ll want to pass on to your heirs. Even if you’re only leaving a second home behind, if you don’t decide who receives the property when you pass away, you won’t have any control as to what happens to the property.

That’s because a main component of estate planning is designating heirs for your assets, whether it’s a summer home or a stock portfolio. Without an estate plan, the courts will often decide who gets your assets, a process that can take years and can get ugly. After all, a court doesn’t know which sibling has been responsible and which one shouldn’t have free access to cash. Nor will the courts automatically rule that the surviving spouse gets everything.

  • Protects Families With Young Children
    Nobody thinks of dying young, but if you’re the parent of small children, you need to prepare for the unthinkable. This is where the will portion of an estate plan comes in. In order to ensure that your children are taken care of, in a manner that you approve of, you’ll want to name their guardians in the event when both parents die before the children turn 18. Without such a will, the courts will again step in. And this time it’s not to determine who gets a piece of real estate or artwork, it’s who will raise your children.
  • Stops Heirs From Overpaying In Taxes
    Estate planning is all about protecting your loved ones, which means in part giving them protection from big tax hits. Essential to estate planning is transferring assets to heirs with an eye toward creating the smallest tax burden for them as possible.
  • Eliminates Family Messes When You’re Gone
    We’ve all heard those horror stories that when someone with money dies, the warring between family members begins. One sibling may think he or she deserves more than another, or one sibling may think that she should be in charge of the finances even though she’s notorious for racking up debt. Such squabbling can get ugly and end up in court, with family members pitted against each other. It’s yet another reason why an estate plan is necessary.

If you want your assets and your loved ones protected when you no longer can do it, you will need an estate plan. Without one, your heirs could face huge tax burdens and the courts could designate how your assets are divided, or even who gets your children.

We offer specialized estate planning solutions to our clients which include advice and assistance with regard to Wills, trusts, estate duty and tax efficient planning and structuring to ensure that their wealth is protected and preserved during their lifetime and after their death.