CASE STUDY
Estate Taxes and Probate
How your Estate can be taken from your heirs Instantly after your death!
We understand! Your home is your castle, and your estate is your legacy...
But remember - it can all be washed away without essential estate planning!
The act of dying creates a mound of legal paperwork and tax filings leading to probate fees, estate taxes, and capital gains taxes. Your heirs can end up with pennies on the dollar. There are currently about 77 million Baby Boomers in North America who will be dying en masse over the coming 4 decades.
This group of individuals control approximately $20 Trillion in wealth which will be transferred to their heirs in the process. Rest assured, every government, probate lawyer, and greedy asset predator aims to get a big piece of your wealth when you die!
Estate & Capital Gains Taxes and Probate
BABY BOOMERS BEWARE!
Let's face it, we are all going to die at some unknown date in the future. No one is promised tomorrow, and your number can be up at any moment. If you have ownership of any assets in your name when the date suddenly comes, and you have no surviving spouse to pass your assets to, your assets immediately pass to probate. This is a court supervised process designed to distribute your assets to potential heirs and the government, all while charging you fees and legal expenses that will ensure that your intended heirs will be burdened with those expenses. Often times, the heirs will be left with only pennies on the dollar.
Imagine this scenario: you are the sole surviving spouse and you have accumulated a $1Million estate comprised of a debt free home valued at $500,000, investments worth $400,000 with a capital gain of $250,000 on a $150,000 cost basis, and $100,000 worth of possessions that you wish to disburse to your children. How much will you pay in various fees and what will your kids get? Well, it will depend on where you live and in what country. In Alberta, Canada, for example, here is an example.
$9,750 - Probate Fees alone
$15,600 - Legal Fees
$50,000 - $250,000 - Capital Gains Taxes
15 - 60 months in probate, depending on CRA/IRS approval and a contested will.
(An insurance agent might offer a term life insurance policy of $300,000 to pay the eventual expenses for funeral, probate, estate and capital gains taxes, and legal fees that arise after death. However, this solution comes at a price of about $300/mo in premiums ($18,000 over a 5-year term) depending on the health of the insured taxpayer. And this solution does not offer any asset protection during the life of the insured.)
Thus, in Alberta, your estate could lose $75,350 in value, at the very minimum, and your kids could wait up to five years to get their hands on the money. Of course, should anyone disagree with and contest your will, the legal fees could easily eat up another $100,000 or more. Should the taxing authorities disagree with the final tax return, penalties and interest could wipe out the rest.
UNLESS...
You protect yourself in advance with the STS program. The death of the taxpayer, and not the assets, is what triggers the probate process and the subsequent theft of your wealth. As a trustee of an estate planning "living" trust, the death of the trustee (taxpayer) DOES NOT trigger this tragic sequence of events.
Remember, if YOU don't OWN anything in your own name, then NOTHING can be taken from YOU. The STS program protects your financial estate. In death, taxpayers get assessed, but their equity in a Trust cannot be taken when protected within this strategy since the state lives on with new successor trustees.
Learn the secrets of the ultra-rich and protect yourself with the same strategies they use every day.
DON'T DELAY - PROTECT TODAY!
Read some nightmare celebrity estate stories from a probate lawyer's blog site.
