Estate planning is not just having a will or life insurance. In this video, Paul Sydlansky, CFP®, talks with Attorney Michael Veruto, who explains how it really works as a broader process for managing assets, family decisions, and potential health concerns. It walks through why having a plan helps create structure during uncertain moments. Watch to learn what estate planning truly involves.

Topics Discussed:

• Estate planning defined
• Manage assets during life
• Plan for incapacity scenarios
• Name guardians for children
• Address long-term care needs

Transcript:

Paul Sydlansky, CFP®:

Can you tell us what is estate planning and why it’s important for your family to have an estate plan?

Michael Veruto:

Absolutely. Estate planning, generally speaking, is the process of taking a look at your personal and financial snapshot. Just getting an idea of who you are and what type of assets you have and what your interests are, and then deciding how to best manage those assets during your lifetime. Just to ensure that the assets are taken care of, managed in an appropriate way so that whatever your eventual scheme is, wherever you eventually want those assets to go, that we put them in the best position to actually make it to that point where you reach a period of possibly incompetence due to health issues, whether they be physical or mental, or you get to a point where you pass away and you want to make sure that those assets are taken care of and that they’re incorporated into a plan that we can actually effectively take out.

It includes things like drafting a will, making sure that that will is drafted in such a way that when you have bequests that you want assets to go to a particular person, that we can do it in a clear way that’s understandable to somebody that might be reading that document after you’ve passed. It also includes making determinations for things like minor children – who’s going to take care of them, who’s going to be in charge of making decisions on their behalf and making decisions about them as a person, where they’re going to go to school, that type of stuff, as opposed to whether or not they’re going to have access to certain finances. Those are different questions that we would answer. We also take a look at the potential impact of taxation, both now during your lifetime and what the taxation will be potentially at the time that you pass or become incompetent.

The other part that we might look at for certain people, especially those people that kind of know that there might be a particular issue or something that they’re trying to navigate, whether that’s a health issue that they’re suffering from right now, that might be long-term and debilitating, that we can plan for that long-term as well. So if there comes a point where they need long-term care, for example, or they need some sort of medical intervention, that we have the ability to protect assets from creditors’ claims and make sure that they’re paid for in the most economic way possible. It also includes, believe it or not, nowadays, taking care of your pets. That’s one I’ve seen a lot of. So who gets to take care of the family? Cat or dog?

Lake Road Advisors (LRA) is a virtual wealth management firm headquartered in Corning, NY, with offices in Ithaca, NY, and Vancouver, WA. Founded by Paul Sydlansky, CFP®, in 2016, it serves successful couples planning their next chapter—whether that’s retirement, part-time work, or a less demanding second act. Paul has worked in the financial services industry for 25+ years. Prior to founding Lake Road Advisors, he worked at Morgan Stanley in Manhattan for 13 years, where he was a senior-level manager within the Institutional Equities Department. In 2018, he was named to Investopedia’s Top 100 Financial Advisors list. Paul received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Marist College and holds an MBA from New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business. Paul is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and the XY Planning Network. They can be reached by phone at the Corning, NY office at (607) 438-2914, Ithaca, NY office at (607) 463-8400, or Vancouver, WA office at (607) 292-2172 or at the firm’s website at https://www.lakeroadadvisors.com/