Curley Law Firm LLP
Call or E-mail Us Today

Helping People Age With Dignity And Peace Of Mind

Estate planning issues for educators

On Behalf of | May 18, 2016 | Trusts |

Among the things that can impact what kind of estate planning issues can be key ones for a person is what they do for a living. Different fields/professions have different types of estate planning concerns that can typically arise for individuals in that field/profession. Today, we will discuss some of the special estate planning issues that can come up for individuals working in the field of education.

One thing many educators may care about greatly is furthering education causes by providing financial support to such causes. There are a variety of non-profit organizations related to education that an educator has worked with or greatly respects the work of that they may want to direct their charitable giving, both during their life and after their death, towards. So, one of the estate planning issues that can come up for educators is what the best charitable giving strategy and mechanisms would be for supporting education causes they care about.

Another special concern educators may have are concerns related to intellectual property. Among the types of assets an educator might have as a result of the work they have done are copyrights, royalties, patents or other intellectual property assets. Estate planning can be used to direct what will happen with these unique types of assets and the proceeds from them after one’s death. Estate planning can also be used in relation to the management of such assets and their proceeds during one’s life, as certain types of estate planning mechanisms, like trusts, can be used to control and govern such management.

Of course, educators are not a uniform group. Educators vary considerably in the type of work they do (such as whether their work is student-focused or research-focused), how long they’ve been in the field, what kind of education legacy they want to leave and a wide range of other aspects. So, each educator has their own unique set of issues that estate planning can be used to help address.

Skilled estate planning attorneys can help educators and individuals in any type of field/profession with tailoring an estate plan to the unique issues raised by their work in their profession/field, their goals regarding their legacy and other matters and their specific personal and professional circumstances.

Source: The Spectrum, “Planning lessons for educators,” Brent Shakespeare, May 12, 2016

Archives