Estate Planning Services

Have you put off planning your estate? With NCH it’s easy and can help ease the burden on your family in the event of your passing.

Simply put, will and estate planning, is the process of arranging one’s affairs for when they pass away. Partnering with our in-house, independent law firm, NCH provides a variety of estate planning options from revocable living trusts to multi-generational dynasty trusts.

There are many benefits of estate planning, but the primary benefit is that it allows you to make decisions about the distribution of your wealth, otherwise decided by a probate judge. To most, this sounds straightforward – you dictate how and to whom to distribute your assets after you pass away. But the reality isn’t always so simple.

A few factors to consider when preparing an estate plan:

• The value and types of your assets
• Your current and future income
• Your distribution desires
• Your mental and physical condition
• Other objectives, such as leaving a legacy, providing for a charity, taking care of your children or grand-children, or providing for someone with special needs.

The most common estate planning instruments are wills and living trusts. There’s a misconception that only the wealthy need to have a Trust. In fact, we advise that every adult should have a living trust.

Estate Planning: The Benefit of Having a Corporation or LLC

The most practical use of a corporation or LLC is in providing a convenient transfer of wealth and assets to one's heirs. These entities allow you to evenly divide, control and release your assets in increments.

They can be a helpful intermediary for disposing of property as well. Under this estate plan for business owners, you simply transfer selected assets to your newly organized corporation or LLC in exchange for its shares of stock. You can then bequeath or transfer the desired number of shares to your designated beneficiaries.

Distribute these shares all at once or over a period to take advantage of the annual gift tax exclusions.

The benefits of having a corporation or LLC include:

• Property held in the corporation is safer from creditors than if owned by the donor or recipient of donations.
• The donor gains considerable flexibility in selecting the number of beneficiaries and the division of ownership each will receive.
• The donor can immediately give beneficiaries shares of stock in the corporation that holds the assets without having to sell the assets to divide them up.