Finally your will is finished, and you can sleep soundly knowing that your heirs will receive the assets that you intend. Right? Not necessarily.

If you’ve got a will, you may feel like you are all set when it comes to your estate plans. But does your will have a say in all matters? Not exactly. Be sure to keep track of all of your accounts and your beneficiary designation forms — or else your estate might swiftly break apart and into the wrong hands.

This is one of those topics we have to repeat every so often so that each beneficiary designation you sign (or don’t) will stick with you as the important document that it is. A new echo came in the voice of Yahoo News in a recent article titled “How Your Ex-Spouse Could Inherit Most of Your Money.”

Beneficiary designations are convenient little legally-binding contract that allow you to simply list who should receive the account if you’re not around to do so. The trouble is that this “contractual aspect” also allows beneficiary designations because of this contractual relationship to pass assets outside probate of a will or in contradiction to any beneficiary designation in a trust. In fact, naming someone as beneficiary on the account-provided form can even undo anything you say in the will about who should receive what. So, say you name a spouse as a beneficiary to your IRA, and then you divorce but fail to change the designation. That spouse will still get the IRA even if you intend for everything to go to the kids, a new spouse, your sibling or any other party. Your Ex is named on that legally-binding designation, so it’s theirs.

Keeping these kinds of beneficiary forms all together and updated is often among the more important aspect of your estate planning, but not necessarily the only important element. Proper planning is about mindfulness with regard to all of these little asset details and proper organization of them.

Reference: Yahoo News (May 23, 2014) “How Your Ex-Spouse Could Inherit Most of Your Money”

If you sell stock you inherited, the tax bill is keyed to its value at the time of the original owner’s death.

If you’ve just inherited stock or if you’re set to leave behind stock to your heirs, then it is well worth your time to get an idea of the tax treatment you will get and what it can mean in the context of your overall estate plan.

There a volumes to read on the topic of inherited stock, but thankfully Kiplinger posted a handy little note and Q&A on the topic last month with “The Tax Hit on Inherited Stock.” Essentially, stock is a partial ownership of something greater (a company) and the value of the stock is based on the company which is based on market which is based on when you buy and sell or how long you own the stock and/or who held the stock at each juncture. In other words, there are more than a few variables, as you well know, and these variables are what can make for a tax headache.

The tax code settles this complexity with a simple(r) equation of sale less basis equals taxable amount. “Basis” is the value during the point at which the present owner acquired the stock, which is the operative concept in inheritance. Stock basis will be measured at the juncture that it is inherited. Unpack that: a parent buys stock in 1990 and then leaves it to their heirs in 2014. While owned by the parents the stock jumps from $500 to $30,000 in the intervening 24 years. Thereafter, the heirs inherit the stock and only measure their taxable amount (sale less basis) on that $30,000 high point of 24 years of appreciation. Accordingly, a sale by the heirs down the line at $32,000 means that only that last $2,000 is taxable.

Again there is much more to be said and not all stock or stock taxation is so easy. And then again, not everyone inherits stock by bequest and the rules change. The big picture here is that when thinking about saving the inheritance from taxation it is not just the estate tax or the gift tax that you have to worry about, and it’s not just the settlor of the estate who pays them. Set up your assets inefficiently and your heirs can get stuck with a tax bill you didn’t think about. So think about stocks and think about the capital gains tax, and, more importantly, plan for them.

Reference: Kiplinger (May 1, 2014) “The Tax Hit on Inherited Stock”

If you have identified all your potential IP and never operated without professionally prepared documents, you will likely be confident about the value of what you worked so hard to create. And if not, now is the time to turn to your IP. Here are a few things that you, as a startup founder, should do to protect your intellectual property and get started on the right track.

Have you planned to structure the sale of both your business and your intellectual property? To what degree are the products of your company products of an intellectual property? Who owns the property, you or the company? Just as likely, is it possible that a previous employer has claim to your intellectual property?

Heed some advice given in a recent Forbes article titled “Start With The End In Mind: Four Must-Dos For Intellectual Property.”

The simple fact is that with a personal business, so much of your own life – your blood, sweat, tears and ideas – go into the business. Accordingly, that planning for the business is truly a bit of life planning for yourself.

So how can you protect your intellectual property and what is your property in the first place? And, if you are already at the point of sale, how do you go about protecting and valuing that intellectual property?

Reference:  Forbes (June 9, 2014) “Start With The End In Mind: Four Must-Dos For Intellectual Property

Everyone knows someone who hardly speaks to his brother or sister or aunt simply because of a misunderstanding over an inheritance.

Inheritance planning can be a direct mode of expression, whether of appreciation for a person or an extolling of virtues. But can these expressions be taken the wrong way depending upon who gets what? As a family-loving person, you can express yourself far more subtly by ensuring that your heirs and the entire family can come together even after your passing and that no fight is to break out with regard to the inheritances you leave.

Estate planning for the entire family is a difficult balancing act. It can take a good deal of thought, but is well worth the effort. Forbes recently offered a bit of wisdom on the topic and a goal too: “How To Make Sure Your Children Keep Speaking To Each Other After You Die.”

Inheritance is often conceived as the tool to ultimately show your favorites or to spurn your less-loved family members. Of course, this is something of a Victorian fascination (and an age-old scandal that makes for good drama) than a life-goal commonly shared by those planning their estates. Nonetheless, the thought is out there and the anxiety as well.

Inheritances can become charged whether you want them to or not. For example, a favorite ring goes to heir and another has secretly desired the ring.  Legal disputes have arisen from such small distributions.  Keeping the family talking after you are gone, or as a loving unit no less, can mean a number of things within the peculiar context of each individual family. More often than not, communication is key. So, how do you intend to keep the peace? Have you planned accordingly already?

Reference: Forbes (June 4, 2014) “How To Make Sure Your Children Keep Speaking To Each Other After You Die

The tax law makes clear that the taxpayer has the burden of substantiating the value of the property.  To this end, a taxpayer must not only comply with the procedural requirements for valuation, but must also persuade the trier of fact that his claimed valuation is correct.

How do you place a value on art? There is the subjective eye of the beholder that gauges the beauty of the art, and then there is the no less subjective eye of the market, the appraiser and/or the taxman. Be sure to properly plan for your artworks and ensure that they are appropriately (if usefully) valued, as seen through the eyes of the taxman.

The issue of valuation is always the issue at stake when it comes to taxes – be it with regard to real property, stocks, or something as mercurial as an easement – but with art there is both a special importance and a special irony. After all, art is only truly valuable when it is priceless, in one sense, but there is nothing that is priceless on the market.

For perspective on the issues and even some practical advice there is much to be gleaned from a recent article in Mondaq titled “Valuing Artwork For Federal Taxation Purposes: Income, Estate & Gift Tax Issues.”

As anyone with a sizeable art collection will quickly understand, the value placed on a piece of art is, in the first instance, entirely based on the market’s whim and, in the second instance, every valuation is both a blessing and a curse. A high valuation leads to high prices for sale and, just as important, a high deduction when donated to charity. A low valuation, on the other hand, can make a piece of art cut that much less against estate and/or gift taxes. It is really hard to say which value you will want and when. That is a dynamic the IRS is well attuned to, so when it comes to finally pegging a value it is vital to have a reasonable valuation of the “fair market value.”

Admittedly, it is a tricky topic and after reading the original article you will agree that it is a good idea to review your own collection and plans. So, what about your art collection? Will it pass the taxman’s tests or will it be a flaw in the estate plan?

Reference: Mondaq (June 3, 2014) “Valuing Artwork For Federal Taxation Purposes: Income, Estate & Gift Tax Issues