Estate Planning Goals for 2025

Even the scammiest for-profit colleges will teach you that the best goals you can set are attainable ones. Shooting for the moon is an exercise in frustration unless it is a front for a more modest goal, such as “outdo my previous record.” That is why, this year, you should not resolve to adopt a diet that will make the clientele of Whole Foods want to ask for your autograph, nor should you attempt to become a millionaire in economic conditions where people with a six-figure income struggle to break even. Estate planning goals, however, make for excellent New Year’s resolutions. If you resolve to draft certain documents and review others, you can achieve your resolution even while months remain on the calendar year. For help setting and achieving reasonable estate planning goals for 2025, contact a Washington, D.C. estate planning lawyer.
Issue an Advance Directive
You might be able to get out of writing a will or setting up a trust with the excuse that you do not have any money, but everyone has a body, and therefore, everyone needs an advance directive. A medical advance directive, also known as a healthcare power of attorney, indicates the person you authorize to consent to medical treatment on your behalf if you become too ill to do so. It also indicates which treatments you want the representative to consent to and which ones you want him or her to refuse.
Establish a Revocable Trust
A trust is an independent legal entity that owns the property you transfer to it. It does not become part of your probate estate when you die, making it a convenient means of conveying an inheritance. To achieve your revocable trust goal for 2025, all you have to do is set up a revocable trust and transfer a modest amount of property to it. Because the trust is revocable, you can continue transferring property to it and modifying the trust instrument throughout your life.
Read Your Will, Even If That Means That You Must Write It From Scratch
The easiest part of your estate planning resolution is to reread your will; you will probably decide that it does not need any changes. What if you don’t have a will? Now is the perfect time to write one. If that sounds daunting, an estate planning lawyer can draft a will for you for a flat fee. Once you sign your will in the presence of two adult witnesses who are residents of Maryland, it becomes legally valid.
Cash In on the Annual Gift Tax Exclusion
The most fun part of your New Year’s resolution is to give cash gifts to people you love. In 2025, you can give gifts of up to $19,000 per recipient to as many people as you choose without paying gift taxes.
Contact Tobin O’Connor Ewing About Your Estate Plan
A Washington, D.C. estate planning attorney can help you bring your estate plan up to date for the new year. Contact Tobin, O’Connor, and Ewing in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.
Source:
irs.gov/newsroom/irs-releases-tax-inflation-adjustments-for-tax-year-2025#:~:text=Annual%20exclusion%20for%20gifts%20increases,%2418%2C000%20for%20calendar%20year%202024.