The thought of estate planning is somewhat intimidating. To many people, estate planning conjures up images of gated mansions, summer cottages, jet-setting adolescents, and chauffeured limousines. Of course, that image is simply the product of the financial services industry.

In reality, estate planning is nothing more than taking the necessary steps to insure that your loved ones will achieve their personal and financial goals despite the possibility of your incapacity or death.

It's about making sure that your spouse will have sufficient income to maintain his or her standard of living; that your children will be able to attend the right schools, will get the right education, and will be raised by the right people. It’s about making sure that your money and property are used for their benefit until they're able to manage it on their own. It's about making sure that elderly parents, disabled siblings, and various charitable causes that you have pledged to support will continue to receive that support. And, it’s about making sure that your money and property are not wasted simply because of your incapacity or death, particularly through estate taxes, state death taxes, probate fees, and attorney’s fees.

Estate planning doesn’t have to be intimidating, or time-consuming, or costly. All it requires is a commitment on your part to develop a plan of action and then put that plan into effect.

In this section, we'll give you a great deal of information about the estate planning process, and how you can develop an effective estate plan with out any difficulty at all. To get you better acquainted with the estate planning process, we've divided this section into categories that are based upon the different types of documents that are often included in an estate plan, including a Last Will and Testament, a Revocable Living Trust, a Durable Power of Attorney, and a Health Care Directive. In addition, many estate plans also include documents that create irrevocable trusts, powers of appointment, inter vivos (lifetime) gifts, and more.

We'll take a look at each of these documents in some detail so that you'll become better acquainted with their use. The expectation, of course, is that you will be able to know and understand how these documents can help you achieve your estate planning goals and objectives.

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