by Moe Zilla

Created on: July 27, 2010

There's some very easy steps which can make a big difference when planning an estate. Many people are surprised to learn that it's possible to create a will with a single visit to an attorney's office for less than $200. But there's additional steps to make sure that everything in your state is properly distributed. Here's a list of some of the most important estate planning tips.

* You can use your will to distribute your life insurance benefits. It's often confusing when an insurance policy wants to establish a separate procedure for distributing benefits. But instead of naming a single beneficiary for a life insurance policy, you can also list its beneficiary as your own estate. Then the insurance benefits are simply added into your estate - and then distributed according to the terms of your will. And the same thing is usually true for the beneficiaries for other assets you hold, including many mutual funds and retirement accounts.

* Consultant a financial planner. If you own valuable assets, the person who ends up inheriting a big chunk of it could be the Internal Revenue Service. But fortunately, there's several ways to restructure your asset to minimize liabilities like the "inheritance tax." For example, you're allowed to "gift" a certain amount of your wealth to an heir each year without incurring any tax penalty. Your assets can receive a much gentler treatment from the IRS if you simply channel them into a trust to be distributed to your heirs.

* Consider making donations to charities. Leaving money to a charity is another way to outsmart the tax man. It's a way to know that your money will go farther, and it offers the added reward of a feeling of personal satisfaction. The accumulated wealth from a lifetime of work can be directed to a specific cause that's near to your heart, and you can imagine the good that continues far beyond the day that your estate is distributed.

But above all, be very clear about how your want your estate to be distributed. I remember a professional financial advisor who told me that even the closest of families can break into bitter and long-lasting fights when there's suddenly a huge pile of money at stake. It's something that no one wants to think about, and it's very hard to defuse once it starts. So the best thing to do is be clear with your heirs about exactly what your intentions are.

And then make sure that those same intentions are clearly explained in writing!

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