Estate Planning Services
From the fundamentals to charitable planning, Brian M. Douglas & Associates is the top firm for all your estate planning needs.
Fundamental Estate Planning
There are many legal strategies involved in estate planning, including wills, revocable living trusts, irrevocable trusts, durable powers of attorney, and health care documents.
Asset Protection
Asset protection planning involves making prudent decisions today to protect yourself, your business, and your hard-earned assets from loss due to lawsuits, creditors or bankruptcies.
Business Succession
Family businesses are the backbone of the American economy. Family businesses generate an estimated one-half of the U.S. Gross National Product and pay half of all wages earned in this country.
Charitable Planning
In addition to the many personal rewards inherent in making a charitable gift, most gifts also provide a current charitable income tax deduction.
Here To Help With Your Estate Planning Needs
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How Avoiding Probate Can Save Your Family Time & Money
Special Needs Estate Planning
Aid & Attendance Benefits For Veterans
Calculating Your Loved One’s Future Financial Needs
These calculators from Merrill Lynch can help you project the future expenses of an individual with special needs.
Estate Tax Planning
Historically speaking, the federal estate tax is an excise tax levied on the transfer of a person’s assets after death. In actuality, it is neither a death tax nor an inheritance tax, but more accurately a transfer tax. There are three distinct aspects to federal estate taxes that comprise what is called the Unified Transfer Tax: Estate Taxes, Gift Taxes, and Generation- Skipping Transfer Taxes. Legal planning to avoid or minimize federal estate taxes is both a prudent and an important aspect of comprehensive estate planning.
Georgia Estate Taxes
Georgia’s estate tax system is commonly referred to as a “pick up” tax. This is because Georgia picks up all or a portion of the credit for state death taxes allowed on the federal estate tax return (federal form 706 or 706NA). Since there is no longer a federal credit for state estate taxes on the federal estate tax return, there is no longer basis for the Georgia estate tax. Georgia has neither an estate tax – a tax paid by the estate, nor an inheritance tax – a tax paid by a recipient of a gift from an estate.
Georgia Estate Taxes
Georgia’s estate tax system is commonly referred to as a “pick up” tax. This is because Georgia picks up all or a portion of the credit for state death taxes allowed on the federal estate tax return (federal form 706 or 706NA). Since there is no longer a federal credit for state estate taxes on the federal estate tax return, there is no longer basis for the Georgia estate tax. Georgia has neither an estate tax – a tax paid by the estate, nor an inheritance tax – a tax paid by a recipient of a gift from an estate.