What the Fiscal Cliff Means For You and Your Family
Client Letter (January 15, 2013)

Estate planning encompasses designing and producing documents to carry out your wishes for:

• Protecting and managing your assets, particularly in the event of your incapacity or death.

• Passing your assets on death to family members (and/or charity) efficiently, sometimes with features for management (trusts) and for protecting beneficiaries against unnecessary taxes, imprudent spending or investments, marital problems, and creditor claims.

• Passing your assets to family members during lifetime by gifts, sometimes using trusts.

• Hedging risks of premature death through life insurance, with particular attention to policy ownership vehicles that minimize taxes and provide efficient management of proceeds.