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Today's Woman Needs an Up to Date Plan

Today's woman has an expanded role in business and finance, with significant management and leadership assignments. She has more responsibilities at home and at work than ever before. She's earning more in wages, salary and benefits, and she's accumulating more investments and assets. In short, whether employed outside of the home or not, women are assuming more responsibility for their own financial affairs.

It's important for today's woman to protect all that she has worked so hard to accumulate. A plan for her estate will secure that necessary protection.

An estate plan is essential whether a woman is married, single, widowed or divorced, and whether she has children of whatever age or no children at all. Planning is necessary whether she considers her estate to be substantial or small. People are usually surprised at just how substantial their estates are when they begin the process of estate planning.

Estate Planning Defined
Planning an estate involves not only determining who you want to receive your assets, but also how, and sometimes when, to pass these assets—to your relatives, heirs, friends and favorite charitable organizations, such as Sisters Hospital Foundation—with the least possible cost. Estate planning starts with a will and/or a revocable living trust.

Estate planning is a dynamic and ever-changing process and involves many considerations—for example:

how title to assets is held
whether (and what) property should be owned in joint tenancy
whether to allow assets to be probated or to avoid probate with the use of trusts
how best to use life insurance
how to reduce federal estate taxes

What If You Do Not Have an Estate Plan?
You forgo valuable options if you do not take advantage of the opportunity to plan for your estate. The cold reality is that those who fail to establish an estate plan end up with their state's "plan" of distribution, called intestate succession. It determines how your property will be distributed. You will NOT decide:

who inherits what
who will be your executor
who will be the guardian of your minor children or manager of the assets they inherit
to implement options that could save your estate taxes
what will happen to business interests you own

Estate planning is essential for the woman of today, and Sisters Hospital Foundation would be glad to assist you in determining the best estate plan to fit your personal needs and those of your family.

Please call Julie Snyder at 716-862-1992, or e-mail us at jsnyder@chsbuffalo.org, for more information.

The information in this Web site is not intended as legal advice. For legal advice, please consult an attorney. Figures cited in examples are for hypothetical purposes only and are subject to change. References to estate and income tax include federal taxes only. Individual state taxes and/or state law may impact your results.