Estate Planning

Estate Planning

From simple to complex strategies, estate planning is crucially important and often postponed or overlooked until it is too late.

Even when plans are made, they are often left in a drawer or in a safe to gather dust without further consideration – until the time comes that they are needed.

These documents should be regularly reviewed and updated. As your family grows, you move through life, laws, and regulations evolve, and your requirements change, estate planning should be revisited to ensure it is kept up to date with you and your current circumstances.

Whether you aim to leave as much as possible to family and beneficiaries, pay as little tax as is permitted, or give away some of your assets, we are here to guide you and provide you with a clear path forward.

Aside from traditional planning tools to minimize taxes and ensure the smooth transition of your assets to your intended beneficiaries, many families are interested in passing down their values to their heirs and creating a legacy that spans the generations.

Family mission statements

While it is not unusual for parents to have goals in mind for their children, whether relating to their professional, or personal lives, it is less common for those goals to be written down on paper. Preparing a family mission statement that outlines your family's values, perhaps about charitable giving, personal or social values, physical, or spiritual affairs, translates wishes into intent. A statement outlining the family\s mission and values can be a powerful document that acts as a catalyst to preserve and grow your legacy.

Within this personal document is the ability to highlight personal values and charitable priorities that strengthen the family identity and underlines what is important.

Examples include placing a high value on integrity, having a strong work ethic, always being appreciative, or contributing to the global community.

Charitable Planning

A well-planned charitable-giving strategy is a win for all concerned.

Charitable giving can cover everything from the simple, such as writing a check or gifting cash, to the more complex, such as setting up multi-generational trusts and a family foundation. Using our charitable planning process, we help you to decide where your priorities lie and optimize philanthropic giving so you can be confident that your donations are having a positive effect.

By discussing the causes that are closest to your heart, we can help you to find organizations that suit, and then plan the best way to support them, whether financially or with your time and other resources.

This could include making gifts during your lifetime as well as in your will.

Supporting Trustees

Taking on the responsibilities of a trustee is not to be taken lightly, but we can help.

The role of a trustee means extra work and emotional strain – especially if there is a family conflict - and money has long been a source of family disagreements. Taking on the responsibility of looking after the wealth of someone else is not the same as looking after your own. You are not just responsible for the decisions you make for yourself, but now those decisions can impact the future well-being of many people or families.

As a trustee, your duties could include controlling an estate, protecting, investing, and distributing assets, maintaining accounts, ensuring taxes are up-to-date, and keeping the beneficiaries onside, among others.

To lessen the personal burden, many trustees delegate the task of managing assets and investments to professionals in that field – such as Altermann Fuller Ltd.

At Altermann Fuller Ltd, we have a network of independent specialists responsible for following the guidelines established in the trust, such as ensuring tax returns are filed on time, managing properties, preparing documentation, and authorizing distributions.

Special Needs Planning

Planning for vulnerable members of the family takes an extra level of care to ensure they have financial security and appropriate protection. By coordinating with your external team of advisors, we ensure there is a dependable, continuing solution in place for those with special needs.

Education

Family financial education that spans several generations will help keep your whole family well-informed and all singing from the same page.

Altermann Fuller Ltd's vast experience in planning and investing means you don't have to be. We will educate you over time and at your pace to be confident that you are well-informed, educated, and make the correct decisions.

We can also spend time passing our financial knowledge on to your other family members if that is something that you want. It is never too soon for children and grandchildren to become financially literate and adopt practical money management skills.

Our Estate and Charitable Planning Services Include: