Properly Valuing Your Net Worth

What is the proper method for valuing your estate? How do debts fit in? Should you adjust for for future value?

Knowing what you are worth is a critical aspect of putting together a complete and effective Estate Plan. There are several tools available on the Internet that you can use to put together a clear picture of your net worth.

Dunken, Valentino and Wellnitz, PLLC recommends the following:

Home valuation: Zillow

Excellent stock valuation explanation and tools: Moneychimp

Small business valuation: Business Valuation

Simple Debt payoff calculation: Debt Payoff Calculator

Simple Future Value Calculator (for constant interest rates): Future Value

Collection of Tax Valuation Resources: DVW Links

Attorneys and Technology: Can The Two Work together?

We at Dunken, Valentino and Wellnitz, PLLC pride ourselves on the proper use of new technology to improve the quality and efficiency of the services we provide to our clients. This ranges from providing online cloud access for our clients to their files and planning documents, to our own internal project and relationship management software.

That being said, our top concern is client confidentiality and privacy. If we cannot ensure that client privacy is maintained we will not adopt a new technology, no mater what the benefits.

This is an issue that seems to have been overlooked by some firms and has sparked a debate over the proper use of technology in the legal field.

The American Bar Association has even taken steps to propose new rule relating to use of certain technologies in an effort to protect clients. An interesting article was written on the subject here:

Connecticut Law Tribune: Clouding The Issue

Legacy Seminar

DVW Partner, B. Terry Dunken,  has been invited to speak at a Legacy Planning Seminar organized by PLANiTPOWER C.E.O. Melissa Brisbois.


Terry will be covering some common pitfalls in Legacy Planning and will be addressing some Legacy Planning misconceptions.


PLANiTPOWER is a a personal services company that provides individuals and couples with a broad picture of their financial health and offers guidance in any area that is lacking (such as proper estate plan, insurance, budgeting, etc.).  Their website is: www.planitpower.com.


The luncheon is scheduled for May 17th, 2011 at the Keller Williams office located at 1650 Highway 6, Suite 350  Sugar Land, Texas  77478.  


Admission is through invitation only.  To request an invitation please email info@planitpower.com.

The State Estate Tax

Though there is a (relatively) new and generous federal estate tax exemption of $5 million per estate and $10 million per couple, many families still have to plan for estate taxes even if under the exemption amount.  The reason? - Individual state estate taxes:

Because of these individual state estate taxes, use of trusts and other methods to deal with moderately large estate estates is still very much advisable.

To view the varying requirements of these states check out this map and accompanying article provided by forbes.com: Forbes - State by State Estate Tax Map

Trust as a tool to protect family wealth

As discussed in this Wall Street Journal article: Protecting Family Wealth,  more and more families are turning to to trusts as an effective tool to shield family wealth and protect against claims in divorce proceedings:

• Trusts can help shield premarital assets or inheritances from spouses.
• Unlike a prenup, creating premarital trusts can be done without the future spouse's consent.
• Premarital trusts may be less effective in shielding wealth acquired during marriage.
• The safest strategy is to use both trusts and prenups

Welcome

Welcome to the DVW Legal blog!

This is an informal place for our Attorneys and clients to share  experiences with legacy planning, discuss new types of legacy planning tools and generally share information to help each other through the multi-lane road that is life.

Have Fun!