Estate Planning

Secure Your Legacy. Protect Your Loved Ones.

At Dharma Life & Wealth Advisors, we consider that estate planning isn’t only for the wealthy—it’s for anyone who wants to enjoy peace of mind. It’s about assuring that your wishes are honored, your loved ones are taken care of, and your legacy is preserved.

Estate planning is putting your personal, financial, and medical affairs in place so they can be easily administered should you ever be disabled—or when you’re passed away. Coming up to retirement with a family, or with a company to run, a carefully designed estate plan puts you in control of tomorrow.

Estate planning includes more than writing a will. It’s a multi-faceted plan that includes:

• Deciding how your property will be divided
• Identifying who will be raising your children (if you have them)
• Selecting trustworthy people to manage your finances or health choices in case you are incapacitated
• Reducing your tax and beating procrastination for your household

At Dharma Life, advisors work with you to create a plan that reflects your values, goals, and those you care most about.

• 1. Last Will and Testament
  • Your will is the foundation of your estate plan. The will outlines how you'd prefer your property to be distributed and allows you to:
  • Select an executor to carry out your wishes
  • Appoint guardians for minor children
  • Save personal gifts for family members
  • Express approval for funeral arrangements

If you die without a will (intestate), your state laws will determine who should receive your property—maybe not as you would like.

• 2. Trusts for Additional Control
  • Trusts are adaptable, confidential, and protective. They allow you to govern your property for life and help you to influence who will receive it thereafter. Common types include:
  • Revocable Living Trusts: They can be changed or modified during your lifetime. Enables you to avoid probate and maintain anonymity.
  • Irrevocable Trusts: Can’t be changed once they’re set up. Good for lowering estate taxes and protecting property from creditors.
  • Testamentary Trusts: Your will creates them and they come into effect at your death, typically for minors or dependents.
  • Charitable Trusts: Help you make gifts to charities you'd like to benefit and reduce taxable estate value.

Our advisors can assist you in making decisions about what best trust choices suit your personal and financial goals.

• Planning for Life, Not Death
  • Estate planning isn't only about what occurs when you're deceased; it also plans for the unforeseen during your lifetime.

• 3. Power of Attorney (POA)
  • A POA grants somebody authorization to make decisions for you when you are unable to make them:
  • Financial POA: Allows a person to handle your finances, pay bills, or make investment choices.
  • Medical POA (Health Care Proxy): Identifies an individual to make medical choices in case you are incapacitated.

Selecting a POA is a solemn task. We guide you to determine somebody whom you fully trust—because their decisions will influence your health and welfare when you are most in need.

• 4. Health Care Directive / Living Will
  • This document explains your health desires in case you are seriously ill or disabled and cannot speak:
  • Whether to initiate life-support interventions (e.g., ventilators, feeding tubes)
  • Organ donation preferences
  • Decisions regarding pain control or palliative care

A health care directive aligns your health care with your values—minimizes your loved ones' responsibility of having to make those choices by themselves.

• Keep Your Plan Up to Date
  • 5. Beneficiary Designations
    • Certain property—like life insurance, retirement plans (401(k), IRA), and certain types of banking accounts—have provisions that allow you to nominate beneficiaries outright. They supersede your will, so they must be kept current. We recommend reviewing them:
    • When you get married, divorce, or get a child
    • When you change jobs or insurance providers
    • Sometimes, just to stay in tune with your objectives

• Avoiding Probate & Delays
  • 6. Understanding Probate
    • Probate is the formal proceeding to ratify your will and transfer property. It is often time-consuming and expensive and becomes public information. Although required in some situations, most individuals seek to avoid or reduce probate by employing strategies such as:
    • Creating revocable living trusts
    • Using joint ownership or beneficiary designations
    • Setting up Pay-on-Death (POD) and Transfer-on-Death (TOD) accounts

We help you identify the correct tools to make the transfer easier and more private for your family.

• Planning with Taxes in Mind
  • 7. Estate and Inheritance Tax Strategies
    • Depending on the size of your estate and where you are resident, your family will be liable for estate or inheritance tax. Your advisors help you to mitigate that burden through:
    • Annual gifting strategies (e.g., up to $17,000 in 2025 by individual exempt of tax)
    • Gifts to charities that reduce taxable estate
    • Spousal transfers that tend to be tax-exempt
    • Irrevocable trusts that take property out of your estate

By planning with care, you can leave more to those you care about and to charities you are passionate about.

All are unique. We guide you through personal estate planning needs, such as:

• Blended households: Ensuring stepchildren and ex-spouses are cared for adequately
• Entrepreneurs: Creating a succession strategy that retains and transfers ownership
• Digital assets: Managing online account access, cryptocurrency, and digital files
• Special needs planning: Setting up trusts that will fund care without being counted towards eligibility for benefits like Medicaid

Our procedure is tailored to fit your case—not vice versa.

Estate planning is not one-size-fits-all. Estate planning is personal. Estate planning is about your family, your legacy, and your tomorrow. Dharma Life & Wealth Advisors simplifies estate planning and guides you through each step – from defining your goals to implementing estate strategies with qualified estate attorneys that you know and trust.

We bring together financial planning, tax efficiency, and legacy protection—under one roof.

Start your estate planning with certainty and clarity. Whether you are building wealth, preserving it, or planning for future generations, we are dedicated to making it so—your way.

Ready to explore your options? Schedule a personalized consultation today.