A Hartford estate planning attorney provides you with assistance in making smart choices about how to transfer your wealth to your children. There are a variety of different techniques that you can consider for the transfer of money and property. The right approach will depend upon a wide variety of factors, including the value of your wealth, the age of your children, and your goals for what you want your legacy to be. 
Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates will offer comprehensive advice on the process of making a plan to transfer any and all wealth that you own onto the next generation. We will listen carefully to details about your goals and about your family situation and will help you to make the choices that make sense for you and your family. To find out more about the assistance that we can offer to you, give us a call today.
What is the Best Way to Pass Your Wealth Onto Your Kids?
Different approaches for passing wealth onto your children come with different pros and cons. Some of your options for passing wealth into your kids include:
- Gifts during your lifetime. You can make inter vivos gifts if you wish to transfer your wealth to your kids. As long as you work with an experienced attorney to follow the rules and avoid gift tax, you will not have to worry about these transfers during your lifetime triggering a tax obligation. The downside of this approach is that you will give up your assets while you are still alive, which you may not wish to do.
- A last will and testament: You can use a will and specify how you want your assets to be transferred to your children. This is a simple approach that allows you to keep your wealth during your life but specify who inherits it after you pass away. There are also downsides to using a last will and testament as a method of transferring wealth. Assets transferred in a last will and testament will be subject to estate tax on larger estates. The probate process will take a long time and cost money, so your heirs or beneficiaries will have to wait to inherit and will inherit less in the end. If you are leaving money to a disabled child or a child under 18, there are additional complexities that a will cannot properly address.
- A trust: A trust can be a great way to transfer wealth to your children. When you use a trust, you can create an appropriate type of trust specific to your situation, such as a spendthrift trust if you worry that your children are not going to be financially responsible. You can protect assets from being lost due to creditors and take much more control over the transfer of your assets, including setting conditions like requiring your kids to reach a certain age or to graduate from college before they have access to trust assets. You can also allow assets to transfer much more quickly through the trust administration process than through the probate process.
- Pay-on-death accounts: You can name your children as beneficiaries on certain types of financial accounts that you can designate as pay-on-death accounts. This would allow your children to very quickly inherit the assets that are held within these accounts.
- Joint ownership: You can jointly own property with your children. If the property is structured under a type of shared ownership with rights of survivorship – such as joint tenants with rights of survivorship – you can make sure the assets transfer immediately to your children when you pass away.
These are a few common options for transferring wealth to children. A Hartford estate planning attorney can explain all of the different ways that you could transfer wealth to your kids and can help you to select the appropriate method of transferring money and property that makes the most sense for your specific family and financial situation.
Getting Help from A Hartford Estate Planning Attorney
A Hartford estate planning attorney at Nirenstein, Horowitz & Associates is here to assist you with all aspects of transferring your wealth. To find out more about the different tools you can use to create a strong legacy by providing your children with financial security, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 860-548-1000 or contact us online to get personalized one-on-one advice about the tools that are right for you.
Mr. Nirenstein is licensed to practice before the courts of the State of Connecticut and the United States District Court. He is a member of the Connecticut and Hartford County Bar Associations, and the Estate and Probate, Elder Law, Business Law and Real Estate Sections of the Connecticut Bar Association.
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