Book Reviewed: Estate Planning Basics Eleventh Edition by Denis Clifford

Planning for your assets I did not learn much from this book about making trusts or will. The author provides an overall picture about estate planning without going into any significant details. In fact, I learnt more from blogs and estate planning websites. I was researching about making a Trust that protect my beneficiaries, and learn about federal and state laws, estate, and inheritance taxes. I was also considering situations, like health, debt flow to the beneficiaries, pet care, charitable trusts, living trusts, and avoiding the generation skipping transfer taxes and making a comprehensive estate plan. An estate is everything you own, money, property, and other personal belongings. An estate plan is not only for wealthy, but everyone who own anything of value or if you have dependents who need to be cared for. A living trust is a legal document, or trust, created during an individual's lifetime (the trustor or grantor) where a designated person, the trustee, is given responsibility for managing that individual's assets for the benefit of the eventual beneficiary. A living trust is designed to allow for the easy transfer of the trust creator bypassing the complex legal process of probate. I found that opting for revocable trust over irrevocable trust has some major benefits.