Legacy Planning
Your legacy is your decision. We help you create a plan that gives you peace of mind and clarity knowing that your wishes are outlined and legally documented for when the time comes.
Why it matters
Does the paperwork agree with you?
You have thought about what you want to leave behind. Fewer people have checked whether the paperwork agrees with them: a beneficiary form from a job three employers ago, a will written before the grandchildren, a home titled the way the bank set it up.
Left alone, those gaps become somebody else’s problem in the hardest week of their life. The legacy gets decided by a form, or a court, rather than by you.
Legacy planning at 1.oak makes sure the plan on paper matches the one in your head, and that the people who will carry it out know where it is and what it says.
Where this fits
One of the five components of your One of a Kind Financial Plan™. The others:
Prefer one predetermined fee for the whole plan? Flat Fee Planning.
How we approach it
Listen, design, manage
Step 1
Listen
We ask what legacy means to you: the people, the causes, the values, and how much of it you want to give while you are here to see it. We also find out what documents already exist and when they were last read.
Step 2
Design
We review beneficiary designations, account titling and existing documents against your wishes, coordinate with your estate attorney and tax professional, and build giving and gifting into the plan where it belongs.
Step 3
Manage
Life keeps happening: marriages, births, moves, a business sold. We revisit the legacy plan in your reviews so it stays current, and we are there for your family when it is needed.
What’s included
- A review of every beneficiary designation and account title against your wishes
- Coordination with your estate attorney on wills, trusts and powers of attorney
- Charitable giving and family gifting strategies, during life and after
- Tax-aware transfer planning, coordinated with your tax plan
- Life insurance reviewed as a legacy tool, where it fits
- A family conversation, facilitated if you want it, so no one is surprised
- A single record of where everything is and who to call
From the blog
Ideas by Mike™ on what you leave behind
Legacy Planning questions, answered plainly
No. Estate documents are drafted by an attorney; we coordinate with yours or help you find one. Our work is making sure the financial plan and the documents point the same way, and that beneficiary forms and titling agree with both.
No. Anyone with a retirement account has a beneficiary form, and anyone with children has decisions to make. The size of the estate changes the tools, not the need.
Estate planning is the legal side: the documents. Legacy planning is broader: what you want your money and your values to do, for whom, and how the financial plan gets it there. The two have to agree.
Beneficiary designations that no longer match the will, or the family. They override the will, and they are the easiest thing to fix once someone looks.
Educational information, not individualized advice. Investment advisory and financial planning services offered through Advisory Alpha, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor. Insurance, coaching, and education services offered through Ideas by Mike, LLC, DBA 1.oak Financial.
