Estate Planning Smarts: A Practical, User-Friendly, Action-Oriented Guide

by Deborah L. Jacobs, Joshua Mills

This book is essential reading, whether you are tackling the subject for the first time or revising your plan to reflect changes in the law, your finances or your personal life. Written in plain English, Estate Planning Smarts is full of practical information about how Appoint someone to handle your finances in case you can't someday because of illness or disability Protect your spouse or partner Provide for young or disabled children, and grandchildren too Preserve retirement benefits Transfer a family business Design a charitable legacy Shield assets from creditors. To-Do Lists after each chapter leave no excuses for procrastinators. A lawyer, award-winning journalist and dynamic speaker, the author is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and Forbes. She has also been interviewed as an expert by reporters from many different media outlets, including The New York Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, U.S. News & World Report, MarketWatch and CBS TV.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Business

352 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2015

About the author

Deborah L. Jacobs is a lawyer, entrepreneur and award-winning journalist who has covered everything from travel to taxes. A former senior editor at Forbes, she has written for many national publications, including The New York Times, Bloomberg Wealth Manager and Businessweek. She is the author of Estate Planning Smarts, a bestselling guide for consumers, and Small Business Legal Smarts, geared to entrepreneurs. A graduate of Barnard and Columbia s Law School and Graduate School of Journalism, Jacobs now divides her time between New York and France.

Reviews

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow Kindle "Buy now with 1 click" is killing me. I found this book on some random "top n estate planning" book list and bought because the friction was so low. Unfortunately, it's a combination of extremely detailed legal considerations and really bad writing... could not get anything worthwhile out of it and quit after a few dozen pages.

Possibly useful things in this book:
- anecdotes of famous people whose estates had to pay an extra XX million in taxes due to poor planning... seems mostly good for the schadenfreude?
- checklists for questions to ask yourself before meeting with estate lawyers

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very useful book. Very readable, as books on estate-planning go.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical advice, real-life examples, humorously written.

[Pat Ennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to read and understand resource/guide for estate planning issues and solutions.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

If page tags and underlines are any indication of how useful a book is, then this updated 4th Edition of Estate Planning Smarts has earned its 5 stars from me. Nearly every page is annotated, as I learned about the intricacies of estate planning before doing my first round of it in fall 2016. I really appreciate the easy-to-understand chapters (with glossary) answering all your questions on executors, probate, and building a charitable legacy, among many other things. The author, a lawyer and journalist, also gives you specifics on how to find and interview a good estate lawyer. By learning about the ins and outs of planning BEFORE I met with the lawyer I came prepared to the meeting, knew what to ask, and saved a lot of time (and billing hours).