Tax Season is a Good Time to Consider Your Estate Plan
This is the time of year when most of us are busy collecting financial documents to prepare our tax returns. While you are at it, take an additional moment to consider your estate plan. Do you have one?
If not, it would be a great time to make one while you have collected most of your financial documents. If you already have an estate plan, tax season is an ideal time to take a look at your current plan to determine if it’s the best plan for your current and future needs.
Why is tax season a good time to prepare an estate plan?
You’ve already gathered many of the necessary documents.
Compiling the documents concerning your assets is one of the most time-consuming parts of starting your estate plan. By this point in the year, most people have already pulled together your statements, mortgage documents, student loan statements, documents relating to your business interests, and documents related to retirement savings to prepare their tax returns. That’s a major chunk of the estate planning process. While it’s together and current, it’s an ideal time to prepare an estate plan.
You’ve likely already made contact with the relevant financial and tax professionals.
This time of year, many people are in contact with their CPAs and financial advisors to collect the necessary information to prepare tax returns. While you’re already meeting with these professionals, it’s a great time to ask about long-term planning and estate planning. These professionals cannot offer legal advice or draft an estate plan, but they are important points of contact in preparing an estate plan with a licensed attorney. Maguire Law regularly works with its clients' tax professionals and financial advisors to craft a comprehensive estate plan.
It’s an opportunity to consider whether you have a taxable estate under state and federal law and what, if anything, that means for you.
Do you know whether your estate would be considered a taxable estate under Maryland law and/or federal law? There are specific planning strategies that are critical for those with taxable estates. If you don’t know if this applies to you, it’s important to find out by contacting an estate planning attorney.
While considering potential tax strategies for 2025, also look further down the road since you’re already focused on the big picture.
After completing your tax return for 2024, you might be looking at ways to plan for 2025 to maximize tax savings. While doing so, why not also plan for the long term? If you don’t make an estate plan, state statutes will determine what happens to the assets that you have worked to acquire and maintain during your lifetime. If you want to ensure that your hard work benefits your loved ones in the way you desire, make an estate plan that includes, at a minimum, a Will and, potentially, a trust.
Once you’ve collected your documents to do your taxes, schedule a thirty-minute free Zoom call with Maguire Law to make an estate plan.
Ms. Maguire is an estate planning attorney in Baltimore, MD.
*This blog is for educational purposes and does not constitute legal or tax advice.
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