Estate Planning - Aralia

<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"> <tr><td><table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"> <tr><td><a target=_top href="/FRAMES/MainPage.asp?Page=Login&Layout=2"> <img src="/images/MainLogo.gif" border=0></a></td> <td align=right valign=bottom nowrap class=TopGray><a href="Right.asp" target="Right" class=TopGray>Home</a>  |  <a href="Contact.asp" target="Right" class=TopGray>Contact</a>  </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> <table align=center width="90%" border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td> <p class=default><span class=ParOpen>A</span>ralia is a multi-disciplinary estate planning service system that integrates the knowledge, experience, and serviceability of financial and legal professionals for client utilization upon a secure Internet platform.<br><br> The effect of integrating professional estate-planning services from qualified providers through a virtual online network enables end-user clients to acquire state-specific estate planning products and support services conveniently bundled in a safe and controlled environment.<br><br> Through our network systems, advisors and their clients are able to obtain full estate plan document preparation, implementation and administrative services, and ensure the ultimate realization of their estate-planning objectives – including those that may be changed from time to time.<br><br> Our network system is neither a statutory partnership nor a contractual arrangement as it is effectively non-binding between the participants.  All participants work independently of each other and each may discontinue his/her services at any time without cause.<br><br></p> <p align=center class=header><br><b>An Opportunity</b></p> <p align=justify class=default><b>Did you know that -<br> </b>The largest transfer of family wealth in USA history is <u>now</u> underway.  American families, including the baby-boomers, will be leaving multiple trillions of dollars of estate value to succeeding generations over the next two decades.<br><br> <b>Wealth succession environments can create problems -<br> </b>Most American families have historically failed to plan for even basic contingencies regarding the management, control and final distributions of their estates.  This neglect has caused many families much harm including (a) disharmony (or even serious disputes) within family units, (b) a total loss of financial-matter privacy, (c) exploitation by predatory creditors and opportunists, and (d) estate shrinkage from otherwise avoidable administrative/probate costs, exorbitant litigation fees, and transfer tax liabilities.<br><br> <b>We have a solution that works -<br> </b>End-user clients wanting to employ a proven method to address personal estate planning needs can now utilize our exciting <a href="/ASSOC/IPP.HTM" class=default>Inter-Networking Service Protocol (INSP)</a><sup>©</sup> networking system, an efficient 21<span class=headsup>st</span> century approach to help identify and meet estate-planning objectives.  The INPP is a notable component of our system upgrades designed primarily to help financial advisors assist their estate-planning clients with more accuracy, efficiency and safety.<br><br> <b>That presents you with an opportunity -<br> </b>We are dedicated to providing a supportive platform from which financial advisors can secure professional-grade estate planning products and services on behalf of their clientele.  We have a great system, but it can function only <u>with</u> financial advisors like you.  So, here is our invitation and your open door to acquiring valuable knowledge and experience in the estate planning arena, achieving market profitability, and building enduring client relationships.<br><br></p> <p align=center class=header><br><b>Your Advantage</b></p> <p align=justify class=default><b>All estate-planning firms are not alike -</b> <br>As you know, the choices we all have to make about the people we work with can be weighty matters.  Any contractual association carries the potential to either help or hurt your cause.  Accordingly, you cannot achieve optimal success in the estate-planning arena unless you have the proper knowledge, precision tools, proven end-user deliverables, and direct access to a professional support system.  That is why we can help you succeed.  We have it all - on a networking platform - to share with you.<br><br> <b>Offering quality products -</b><br> As a new Associate Advisor, you will receive an (John & Mary Doe sample) Aralia Estate Planning Portfolio.  The Portfolio is an attractive, well-organized collation of state-specific legal documents (e.g., sample trusts, powers of attorney, and pour-over wills), trustee directives, administrative documents, funding letters, beneficiary change requests, etc.  The Portfolio will first serve as an educational tool to help you gain familiarization with our end-user products and secondly as a point of sale reference for your clients to help identify the tangibility and manageability of that which they are considering to purchase.  Most importantly, you will feel confident about delivering your client's personalized Estate Planning Portfolio at the final implementation meeting.  And we know from years of experience that, as long as you do your part, your client will be well pleased with his (Aralia) estate plan.  In fact, we guarantee it!<br><br> <b>Front-end Accessibility and Support -</b><br> As a licensed Aralia Associate Advisor, you will be assigned your own <i>Associate Console</i> that will provide you with 24/7 access to our Internet Platform.  Through your Associate Console, you will be able to view (online) our 20-minute Revocable Living Trust Flash Presentation with voiceover; you may also download the presentation to your hard-drive(s) for offline use.  When your client is ready to submit all of his pertinent data to create his proposed estate plan, you will be able to transfer that information onto our Internet server through a fully encrypted, easy-to-use Online Data Questionnaire (ODQ) database.  Our online system provides a level of convenience, accessibility and support for you, your clients, and your client's legal counsel that everyone will appreciate.<br><br> <b>Advanced estate planning products -</b><br> Your clients will occasionally need more than RLTs to meet their estate planning needs.  That's why we also offer qualified (and non-qualified) Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs), Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs), Family Limited Partnerships (FLPs) and certain Add-on Subtrusts such as Medicaid Qualifying Trusts, Special Needs Trusts, Capital Growth Trusts, 529 Educational Savings Plan Trusts, and more.<br><br></p> <p align=center class=header><br><b>Grantor Trusts</b></p> <p align=justify class=default>Our service platform offers fourteen (14) different Grantor Trust plans, including six (6) Revocable Living Trust formats.  This availability allows our processing offices and network attorneys to address essentially every family planning contingency to meet the goals and objectives of each application submitted to our office.<br><br> We have created a PowerPoint slide presentation containing brief explanations and schematic illustrations to help you see the structure and "flow" of the various plans.  You may navigate through the presentation by simply clicking on the "page/slide numbers" at the bottom of each page.  Each separate page or diagram may also be printed.</p><p align=center class=header><br><b>Advanced Plans</b></p> <p align=justify class=default>Most wealthy Americans share common goals and objectives regarding their family estate plan.  Although their needs can be complex, the issues of extended control, privacy, asset protection, income and transfer taxes will generally be focal points in their planning meetings with you.  We have constructed an Advanced Estate Planning Outline that covers most of the concerns/issues that would normally be addressed in a given planning scenario for a wealthy client.<br><br> Obviously, there are variations that can be used from the outline.  An example would be incorporating a public foundation (instead of a private foundation - as shown) as a deferred charitable gift to a public foundation will generate a larger income tax deduction (30% instead of 20%) and a private foundation may cost thousands to create.  However, a private foundation provides considerably more privacy and control than a public foundation.  Much depends on your clients' personal preferences in these instances; and their decisions do not always turn on tax savings strategies or even the costs of establishing a plan(s).<br><br> In this section, we give brief but concise end-user benefits of the products that we use for our advanced planning offering(s).  These products can be used together in one plan or in segments.  It really depends on the clients' personal goals and objectives.<br><br> Please contact our office for additional information.  Our advanced plans are priced and established on a case-by-case basis.</p><p align=center class=header><br><b>Why Aralia?</b></p> <p align=justify class=default>Over the years, we have received a number of letters and phone calls from clients and planners thanking us for providing end-user products that work - just as they are designed to work.  We are grateful for the positive feedback that comes to us from time to time.<br><br> One particular letter was written by Rodney Nelson, son of Ms. Norella Nelson.  Ms. Nelson established an Aralia Revocable Living Trust (RLT) in 1993 in the State of Minnesota.  She ordered her RLT estate plan with the Adverse Claims Trust (now referred to as the Asset Protection Trust [APT] and also known as Medicaid Qualifying Trusts) Add-on.  The Aralia Asset Protection Trust is designed to help prevent a spend-down of the grantor's assets as a result of a nursing home residency.  (For more information on Medicaid Qualifying Trusts, <a href="/whyITS/medicaid.htm" class=default>click here</a>).<br><br> Ms. Nelson was finally placed in a Minnesota nursing home in the spring of 2000.  The Nelson family subsequently applied for Medicaid as all of her assets were not available to her to spend-down because they had been previously transferred (in 1993) to the APT.  Under the federal Medicaid rules, a nursing home applicant is considered legally indigent if they have given their assets away to a "natural person" 3 years or more or transferred their assets to a qualified non-reversionary trust (Medicaid Qualifying Trust) a minimum of 5 years previous or more from the date of the Medicaid application.<br><br> The Heath & Human Services office forwarded Ms. Nelson's RLT/APT to the County Attorney's office for a ruling to determine whether or not the assets in the APT should be used to spend-down on her nursing home costs.  The County Attorney ruled that the assets in the APT were available to spend-down.  The family disagreed with the ruling so they appealed to an Appellate Magistrate Court in St. Paul, Minnesota.  You can read about the outcome of the Appellate decision in a letter from Ms. Nelson's son who also serves (or served) as trustee of the APT - <a href="/whyITS/letter.htm" class=default>click here</a>.<br><br> We simply want to demonstrate that we are indeed able to produce desired end results with our estate planning products.  Estate planning can be a complex subject.  But our endeavor has always been to help dismantle the complexities of estate planning, sort them out, and then apply usable planning applications into real-life situations where they can actually work.  We believe we have achieved notable success toward meeting those goals, and we will continue to strive toward that end.<br><br></p> </td></tr></table> <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td valign=middle class=default>This web site was implemented by <a href="http://www.TitusInformationSystems.com">Titus Information Systems</a>, Inc.</td></tr><tr height=30><td colspan=2></td></tr></table> <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"> <tr><td width="100%" background="/images/horzline.gif" height=4></td></tr> <tr><td align=center class=footer><b>Copyright © 2005 <a target=_top href="http://www.AraliaNetwork.com" class=footer>Aralia</a>.<br>All rights reserved.</b></td></tr></table>