Protect Your Family, Mitigate Taxes and Preserve Your Wealth with Patrick and Mani

#62: Estate Planning experts Patrick Hicks from Trust & Will and Mani Mahadevan from Valur join me to discuss all the fundamentals of estate planning and what you need to do to protect yourself and your family. We also dig deeper into advanced tactics commonly used by high net worth families to mitigate taxes, grow their savings and preserve their wealth for the future.

Patrick Hicks, J.D. LL.M. is Head of Legal with Trust & Will, serving as their General Counsel overseeing all attorney-related operations, including regulatory efforts and legal affairs.

Mani Mahadevan is the Founder and CEO of Valur a company created to help entrepreneurs and investors keep more of their hard-earned gains.

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Selected Links From The Episode

Connect with Patrick: Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | Website

Connect with Mani: Twitter | LinkedIn | Website

Chris's Newsletter: Protecting Your Family with Estate Planning (what you need to know and do)

Trust & Will: Get 15% off any estate plan at Trust & Will

Valur: Get 3 months of trust administration free when you mention this podcast during signup

Valur Blog Posts

Full Show Notes

Three core functions of a will and who needs one [1:34]

Patrick describes the process that happens when a person passes away without having a will [04:37]

Two types of debt and what happens to your liabilities when you pass away [09:00]

The core difference between an estate plan and a will [10:53]

Common documents found within healthcare documents, the nuances of creating them, and in the case of becoming incapacitated, potential problems of not having one [12:07]

Benefits of a revocable living trust and how they compare to a will [16:42]

The probate process, time frame, and general expenses involved [19:59]

Circumstances to consider when choosing to use a service or online template vs hiring an attorney [25:16]

More benefits of choosing to set up a trust [29:10]

Administrative and financial responsibilities and requirements of a trustee [30:48]

Conversations with the people you’ve chosen to manage your estate plan [37:04]

Updating your estate plan [38:58]

Trustworthy storage of your important documents and the importance of telling people how to access them if necessary [40:09]

Outdated notarizing practices and how to find local notaries [41:29]

Patrick’s tips and tricks for protecting your family in the event of your death [43:30]

Chris shares the deal that Trust & Will has for listeners [46:29]

Overview of tax and estate planning [48:20]

Explanation of charitable remainder trusts, how they’re beneficial to charities, and how to make the tax benefits work for you [51:43]

Two investment restrictions and the downside of investing in charitable remainder trusts [56:48]

Minimizing estate taxes by using GRATs (grantor retained annuity trusts) in your estate planning [1:00:02]

Avoiding taxes in a high-income year through the use of charitable lead annuity trusts and how they compare with donor-advised funds [1:06:26]

Tax opportunities and other benefits of using ILITs (irrevocable life insurance trust) [1:13:30]

Chris shares advice about life insurance and describes the benefits of setting up an LLC for your family [1:15:41]

Three categories of estate planning tactics [1:18:17]

Using stretch IRAs, implications of the Secure Act, and finding and using technology to take advantage of opportunities [1:21:25]

Ways that Valur is trying to make estate planning more accessible and affordable, and how to find out more about the company [1:27:01]

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