“Estate planning” is the process of arranging your affairs to minimize aggravation and stress to your family at a time of need.  Typically, an “estate plan” will involve the creation of several legal documents to implement the plan.  One common document is a Last Will and Testament which applies after an individual passes away.  In addition, most clients will also execute an Advance Directive for Health Care and a General Durable Power of Attorney to supplement the plan and insure that the assets or the decision making process can be accessed at a critical point in time.  Unlike a Last Will, these documents apply during life and terminate at death.  In some estate planning clients will consider the execution and possible funding of a Revocable or “Living” Trust to supplement the plan.

The process of counseling clients with “estate planning” and assistance with the legal documents to implement the plan represents a very large segment of the Kulzer & DiPadova practice.  The transfer taxes that can be imposed on an estate represent the significant source of “aggravation” to clients in making plans to transition their estate from generation to generation.  The most common transfer “tax” (e.g., taxes imposed on wealth transfers are federal estate, New Jersey estate and the New Jersey or Pennsylvania inheritance taxes).  Thus, there are many situations where a tax attorney’s advice will play a role in the estate plan.  The “estate plan” can also include non tax issues such as “asset protection” estate planning, “business succession” planning and long term testamentary planning. 

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