Plan Your Estate (National Edition) | Denis Clifford | A great book to help you learn how to...

Plan Your Estate (National Edition) | Denis Clifford | great reference

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Plan Your Estate (...

	Plan Your Estate (National Edition) Denis Clifford NOLO, 2008 - 548 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The most comprehensive -- yet easy to read -- guide to estate planning on the market!

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:

wills
probate and how to avoid it
living trusts
property-control trusts
naming guardians for children
leaving property to children
estate taxes and how to reduce them
living wills (health care directives)
financial powers of attorney
final arrangements
strategies for business owners
and much more.

The 9th edition is completely updated with the latest federal and state laws, and now covers ethical wills -- a new way to pass on values, beliefs and important personal experiences. Good for all states except Louisiana.

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A great book to help you learn how to sensibly plan the transfer of your wealth at your death and minimize any estate tax bite!

This is a wonderful book on estate planning that focuses on legal and practical issues. I loved it. As I read through it I did not see any inaccuracies in the law or in the subject matter. I especially enjoyed reading about the different options one has regarding how to leave property to minor children. And it includes a thorough discussion on the ways to save on estate taxes.

This book is written for the nonlawyer. And it is not designed to cover in detail ancillary subjects related to estate planning. It is applicable to all states (except Louisiana) and DC. It will be useful for people with estates of any amount. But because of its comprehensive nature I seriously doubt that people with insignificant estates will want to read it. There are other less comprehensive books those people should read. There is no reason to get overwhelmed about estate planning when there is no need to do so.

This book does not provide prepackaged estate plans to be used as templates for readers. Subjects not covered are elder law, retirement planning, and financial planning. However, I think Chapter 13 concerning Retirement Benefits came pretty close to being a superficial chapter on retirement planning.

I would have liked the book better if chapters 3 and 10 had been combined. And I realize that most estate planning authors include retirement planning and incapacity planning in their books. But I view those subjects as being separate and apart from estate planning and should have been left out of this book. Ergo, I'd get rid of chapters 13 and 26. Maybe they could be the subject of another Nolo book? The coverage of state law exemptions regarding probate seemed out of place to me, too. I don't think the intended audience of this book really cares about that material.

My favorite chapters were 15 to 23. Understanding estate and gift taxes and how to reduce or eliminate them is what estate planning is mostly about. And it was wonderful seeing Chapter 22 (Disclaimers) and Chapter 28 (Small Business Owner issues). These subjects are ignored in most estate planning books.

I thought the author went a little heavy on being anti-Probate throughout the text. Probate has its good points and its bad. I would have liked the book better if the author had just stuck to the facts and not gone overboard giving his slant on the topic. 5 stars!

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great reference

Let's face it, this stuff is complicated, and pretty much meant to keep lawyers in business. Get this book as a reference and be able to answer a lot of the questions on your own.

Excellent Overview of a Complicated Topic

If you are like most Americans and do not expect to have a multi-million dollar estate when you die, then this isn't the book for you. Just max out your IRA and 401(k), and read a book about living trusts. (However, you might still be interested to learn how many ways the super-rich can circumvent estate taxes by legal artifice.)

If you do have a substantial estate, then this book is a great place to start. If nothing else, it tells you whether or not you need a lawyer. Even if you do, I would still recommend reading this book cover-to-cover, so that you fully understand your estate plan and are aware of the alternatives, as well as of the implications of tax law changes.

It's a shame that laymen have to waste their brainpower worrying about such unnecessary complexity as financial estate planning, but so long as the majority suffer from the delusion that this is an effective means of taxation, we're stuck with it. This book will guide you through the complexity.

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estate planning

Extremely helpful for the lay person. My mother introduced us to an older edition. She was ahead of her time with the living trust idea. Even though I would eventually use a lawyer, this helps you know the right questions to ask.

It contains helpful information.

I have been thinking more about planning for a estate, investing in a trust, and buying life insurance after becoming a parent. This book contains some good basic information which is exactly what I was looking for. Good buy!

reviews: page 1, 2

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