Estate Planning Checklist

Estate planning* is extremely important to your family should you pass away or become unable to function as you do today. To make sure your family is better prepared, take a look at the following checklist. If there are items you can't check, your financial adviser can help make sure you address them immediately.

• Account Registration
  Are your accounts registered properly with the correct persons on the account? If you want to pass these accounts onto your beneficiaries, we may need to consider trust planning.

• Beneficiary Designation
  Are the beneficiaries named on your accounts still the correct beneficiaries? Are these beneficiary designations consistent with your overall estate plan?

• Will
  Do you have a last will and testament? At a minimum, you need to have a will to insure that your assets transfer in the manner that you would prefer them to transfer.

• Trust
  Are you concerned about estate taxes, avoiding probate, controlling the transfer of assets to heirs, leaving assets to children, protecting assets during incapacitation or eventually needing assistance with money management and paying bills? If so, consider setting up a trust.

*Edward Jones and its employees are not estate planners and cannot offer tax or legal advice.