I like seeing estate planning related articles in major news sources.  They usually confirm that the practices I preach have real-world application, and they usually explain things plainly.  Two recent, short articles–one in The Washington Post and the other in The Wall Street Journal–both fit the bill.

In The Washington Post, Rosalind Resnick (Axxess Business Consulting) wrote “The Parental Responsibility of Estate Planning.”  In it, she includes two slam-dunk comments from financial planner Michael Schwartz:  “A successful entrepreneur is so wrapped up in his [or her] business that his [or her] personal affairs often get neglected,” and “The key to gifting assets to your kids is to remove as much of the future growth and the future taxable assets from your estae as you can while you’re still alive.” 

Kelly Greene wrote “Giving More to Both Kids and Charities” in The Wall Street Journal.  This article describes using chartiable contributions in connection with conversions to Roth IRAs as a way to lessen the immediate taxable income blow.  A typical scenario is described this way: 

“The parents withdraw the [traditional] IRA assets they intend to go to their children, and then use them to fund a charitable remainder annuity trust that would make payments to the parents for 10 years.  The parents then use those payments to fund permanent, second-to-die life insurance in an irrevocable trust that would go to their children.”

Another point from the Washington Post article is worth quoting:  “While the principles of estate planning sound straightfoward, putting a good estate plan in place requires close coordination among you, your financial planner, your attorney, your accountant, and other advisors.”  I couldn’t have said it better.