“Many times, people spend a great deal of time, energy and money creating an estate plan. However, the plan does not work, because their assets are not funded properly.”
Funding assets is a critical step in the estate planning process that is very frequently forgotten, as reported in The Farmer’s article “Funding assets to your estate plan.”
Funding is the process of titling assets, so that the estate plan and the assets are aligned. Each estate plan is different. However, the funding process includes tasks such as changing ownership on accounts, establishing beneficiary designations and transfer on death designations.
One common mistake: opening a joint checking account to cover funeral costs and then not funding the account. For estate plan wishes to be carried out, accounts need to be funded.
After death, a will is reviewed by a probate court and assets included in the will are managed and distributed by the executor, who is sometimes also known as a personal representative.
If your assets have been placed in a revocable trust, the trust names a trustee who manages and distributes after your death. You need to make sure the ownership and beneficiary designations for all assets are correctly named. These include relatively common financial tools like checking and savings accounts, CDs, bonds, stocks, life insurance policies, real estate, investment accounts and any business interests.
Some accounts should not be in a trust, such as retirement accounts and incentive stock options. An estate planning attorney will be able to help you determine what accounts should be held in a trust and which should not be.
In addition to wills and revocable trusts, some estate plans incorporate joint ownership and transfer on death designations.
Speak with an experienced estate planning attorney to make sure your assets are aligned with your estate plan.
Reference: The Farmer (March 16, 2018) “Funding assets to your estate plan”
忽略注入資產往往是資產規劃中的錯誤的一步
“很多時候，人們花費大量的時間，精力和金錢來製定資產計劃。但是，很多計劃不起作用，因為他們沒有適當地注入資產。”
注入資產是資產規劃過程中的一個關鍵步驟，但經常被忽略，如同The Farmer中報導 “Funding assets to your estate plan.” (為您的資產計劃提供資產)
注入資產是確立資產計劃和資產是聯繫在一起的過程。每個資產計劃都不同。但是，注資過程包括改變賬戶所有權，建立指定受益人和指定轉移死亡。
一個常見錯誤：開設聯合支票賬戶以支付葬禮費用，然後不為賬戶提供資金。對於希望進行資產計劃，需要為賬戶提供資金。
死亡後，遺囑將由遺囑認證法院和資產審查，遺囑中包含的資產由遺囑執行人管理和分配，有時也被稱為個人代表。
如果您的資產已被置於可撤銷信託中，此信託在您去世後會指定受託人去管理和分配資產。您需要確保所有資產的所有權的正確名稱和受益人名稱。這些包括相對常見的金融工具，如支票和儲蓄賬戶，CD，債券，股票，人壽保險單，房地產，投資賬戶和任何商業利益。
有些賬戶不應該放在信託，例如退休賬戶和股票期權。資產規劃律師將能夠幫助您確定應該在信託中持有哪些帳戶，哪些不需要。
除遺囑和可撤銷信託之外，一些遺產計劃還包括共同所有權和死亡指定轉讓。
請與經驗豐富的資產規劃律師聯繫，確保您的遺產與您的資產計劃保持一致。
參考: The Farmer (March 16, 2018) “Funding assets to your estate plan”