Sometimes it is helpful to understand estate planning techniques in the form of a case study.<\/p>\n
Let’s take a hypothetical situation of a married couple of Jim and Jane Smith. \u00a0Jim is 72 and Jane is 68. \u00a0Both are retired at this point, they have 3 adult children Abby, 45, Bob, 43, and Chad, 38. \u00a0Abby and Bob are married with children, Chad is recently divorced with children. \u00a0They have $250,000 in retirement accounts, a primary residence in Brighton, Michigan and a second property up in Harbor Springs, plus another $500,000 in investments.<\/p>\n
They’re goals for their planning was to protect against long-term care costs and ensure whatever they leave to the children are protected against divorce and creditor actions. \u00a0Currently, they have a 10 year old estate plan, involving a simple revocable living trust leaving everything outright to their kids because they are “of-age”.<\/p>\n