As part of your overall financial planning, you might have a good eye towards putting aside money for retirement, but estate planning often gets overlooked. Since many people are under the impression that estate planning needs don’t kick in until later in their lives, they can make critical mistakes that could subject them and their loved ones to difficult decisions. You can put together a carefully prepared estate plan with the help of a knowledgeable attorney so that you can pursue many goals at once. You can use an estate plan to provide for your family, including what should happen if those people are under the legal age to be classified as adults. 
You can also use your estate plan to minimize tax impacts, empower reliable trustee and executor to invest and manage assets in your estate and to dispose of the family business. Your plan must be built on a solid foundation and it’s beneficial to have a one-on-one consultation with a lawyer who is knowledgeable about these issues.
The first steps towards putting together a comprehensive estate plan, since you have unique needs and concerns, involve:
• Gathering all personal data about yourself and your family, including the assets inside your estate.
• Putting together a balance sheet of all of your liabilities and assets.
• Looking at any existing trusts or wills.
• Evaluating estate tax options such as whether or not your estate currently triggers any tax consequences and what could possibly be done to avoid these.
• Determine the most appropriate method of disposing of your share of community property using tools like tax sheltered trusts and the unlimited marital deduction.
• Determine the most appropriate way to distribute retirement plan benefits.
• Compute gift estate and income tax liabilities.
• Verify the availability of liquid assets to meet potential estate taxes and expenses.
The right strategy for proper decisions involves blocking out some time in your schedule and using the knowledge of an experienced estate planning attorney to help.
