Plan Your Estate [Paperback]

Denis Clifford (Author), Cora Jordan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Plan Your Estate | Publication Date: November 2004

Plan Your Estate covers everything from the basics of wills and living trusts to sophisticated tax-saving strategies. The authors give you straightforward, plain-English explanations of every significant estate-planning option available, so you can make the best decisions for you and those you love.

The book covers:

*federal estate and gift taxes *trusts used to control property left to beneficiaries *charitable remainder trusts *durable powers of attorney *living wills *funerals and burials

Completely updated, the 7th edition discusses new state estate tax rules, the new "disclaimer trust" for couples who aren't sure whether they need an AB trust, educational saving plans for kids, transfer-on-death deeds to avoid probate for real estate – and much more. Good for all states except Louisiana.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Planning your estate is one of the most complicated endeavors you'll ever undertake, yet its results are also the most far-reaching; after all, it will continue to affect those you care about long after you no longer can. So it's worth understanding all the options and ramifications, being personally involved, and doing it right. This Nolo Press guide to estate planning is an excellent source of information on the many various details and considerations that you need to take into account--such as children and probate, estate and gift taxes, second marriages, and a wide variety of trust options (charitable, generation-skipping, spendthrift, living, and educational, for starters). It delves into the factors that affect married people versus single, the laws regarding children, types of beneficiaries and wills, plus joint tenancy, life insurance, retirement benefits, taxes, and organ donation. Showing a number of sample estate plans, explaining what hiring a lawyer can do for you (and how to choose a good one), how to do your own research, and including a glossary of estate-planning terms, Clifford and Jordan give you the tools to decide for yourself how you want your estate disposed of--and to make sure that's what your legal documents reflect. --Stephanie Gold --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Following Clifford’s advice in this laymen’s guide can save your heirs a bundle. -- Money Magazine

Plan Your Estate is particularly helpful to the layperson... a clear, comprehensive and even charming book. -- Los Angeles Times

Probably one of the most comprehensive estate-planning books available to mature adults. -- Washington Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 490 pages
• Publisher: NOLO; 7 edition (November 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1413300731
• ISBN-13: 978-1413300734
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,112,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Denis Clifford, a graduate of Columbia Law School, where he was an editor of The Law Review, is a lawyer who specializes in estate planning. He is the author of many Nolo titles including Quick and Legal Will Book, Nolo's Simple Will Book and Make Your Own Living Trust and co-author of Plan Your Estate and A Legal Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples. He has been interviewed by such major media as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Money Magazine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

114 of 115 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Attorney's review, January 14, 2000

By 

Jill - See all my reviews

This review is from: Plan Your Estate : Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Protect Your Loved Ones (4th Ed) (Paperback)

I am a practicing trusts and estate lawyer and bought this book for straight-shooting, plain english explanations of complicated estate planning techniques. The author does a marvelous job simplifying complex issues and his explanations are well thought out and easy to understand. I recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of doing some estate planning and wants to understand what their lawyer is saying to them.

159 of 163 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great primer and resource, but get the companion software, June 20, 2003

By 

max fischer "max-fischer" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Plan Your Estate, Sixth Edition (Paperback)

BOTTOM LINE: Many people looking into getting an attorney to prepare a simple will have probably had sticker shock - several hundred dollars minimum for a competent attorney to prepare it. But as this book explains, do it yourself estate lawyering, while not prudent for complex situations, is clearly within the reach of those with even moderately complex situations and the patience to spend a leisurely weekend reading this book.

WHAT IT COVERS: This book is primarily a primer, explaining the foundations of estate planning including: an overview and whether you actually need to spend time reading the book and drafting estate docs, drafting a will, how to think about what assets will go to which family members and other beneficiaries, financial instruments such as brokerage accounts/bank accounts/life insurance and how they fit into wealth transfer, as well as powers of attorney and health care directives. What I like best about the book is that you know you are getting candid advice from someone not trying to bill you by the hour or sell you variable annuity life insurance. In my own area of expertise - finance - the fact that the author's opinion regarding life insurance is dead on (tax planning should be kept separate from investing strategies and as such variable annuities are complete bunk) gives me great comfort that I'm getting straight shooting advice in the rest of the book.

WHAT IT CAN BE USED FOR: The book can serve readers on two different levels. If you are going to get a lawyer anyway but are the type of person that wants to be educated when you talk to lawyers/accountants/brokers, this book will have you speaking the same language and is an easy read over the course of a weekend. If you want to prepare an estate plan yourself, this book serves as an ample resource to help create the necessary docs. The fill-in forms in the back are certainly capable of serving as the basis for your basic estate docs, but at the same time it may be more comforting to most people to have a seamless document that they are not penciling in blanks, which leads to my next point...

THINK ABOUT GETTING THE COMPANION SOFTWARE: This book is published by Nolo Press, a well-respected publisher of legal self-help books. They also publish a software title in conjunction with Quicken (makers of the financial planning software) called Quicken Lawyer which not only has an offline/online legal manual with much of the info included in this book, but its main function is to create a battery of estate documents for you through very simple step-by-step interviews - you answer the questions, it drafts the legalese, you print and execute it. I would almost recommend just getting the software instead b/c there is a decent offline/online manual included, but for those that really want to know the why behind what they're doing, get this book and the software. See my review on Quicken Lawyer Personal Deluxe for more info.

LIMITATIONS: The book readily admits there are situations that require an attorney and points out throughout the book which situations require it. In general, get an attorney if you expect to owe federal estate tax (threshold is currently estates over $1.5 mm, but rising rapidly through 2010), have an ex-wife or two, have kids that don't speak to each other, or other complex family dynamic.

103 of 105 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A practical, comprehsive guide, April 26, 2000

By 

Frederic Harwood (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Plan Your Estate : Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Protect Your Loved Ones (4th Ed) (Paperback)

I have read about 10 books on estate planning, and this is by far the clearest, best organized, and most comprehensive of the lot. The authors cover the issues of trusts, tax planning and tax reduction, and asset preservation. This is the book to start with, and is really as good as they get.