Leaving a Legacy

by Madeleine Maccar | Apr 24, 2025
Leaving a Legacy
It’s not always easy to approach the conversations and planning that go into crafting a thorough, thoughtful will. But living in South Jersey means having access to plenty of wealth managers, estate planners, accountants and other professionals who are here to help not only broach a delicate and heady topic, but also ensure that a will is treated like the living, actively maintained document it’s intended to be.

And those professionals are all well-versed in making a hard task easier to both take on and keep up, often focusing on how it’s a final kindness to make things as easy as possible for the grieving loved ones honoring their wishes.

“I try to ask questions and see if they have any personal experiences settling someone’s estate or dealing with a loved one that became incapacitated—normally, if that’s a yes, that’s an easy path because you can just ask them about that experience, how was it and would you want that experience for your loved ones, and that really motivates them,” explains Ronald Taraborrelli, ChFC, CLU, CFP, EA, the COO of Synergy Wealth Management. “We emphasize the fundamental purpose of a will: to ensure their final wishes are executed, and their assets are distributed according to their specific intentions. Second, we explain the potential complications and burdens that arise from dying intestate (without a will), highlighting the stress and confusion it can cause.”

While tangibles like property and possessions are among the assets one must account for, tending to one’s finances is an undertaking in which wealth planners and financial advisors are often an active partner, and they’ll often tag in related professionals for more specialized legal, accounting and real estate advice.

Proactively managing a will can also be the difference in ensuring one’s final months or years are as comfortable and peaceful as possible. Clearly defining expectations like how one’s own finances and estate would support long-term medical support or moving into an assisted-living community protects not only the assets making such care possible but also a surviving spouse who will depend on those same funds for support.

Actively approaching any legally binding form or filing that identifies inheritors also helps cut through other misconceptions, delays or red tape that may prolong the process and add needless confusion to a scenario that’s even harder to navigate when also shouldering the grief of loss.

“When you set things up like an insurance policy or an annuity contract, you name a specific beneficiary or contingent beneficiary,” says Stan Molotsky, president and CEO of The SHM Financial Group. “The advantage of that going directly to those people is it avoids the probate process and it goes directly to them when the companies receive the proper documentation like the death certificate. It’s a very simple process, much easier than anything else. … It’s also important that if something like a brokerage account is in one person’s name, rather than let it go into the estate and be processed, it would be much simpler if they name a beneficiary in that account that it goes to upon death. Again, it avoids the process—it’s not a significant tax saving, but it’s a time saver. It’s the same thing if you have a bank account in the husband’s name: If something happens to him, in all likelihood it goes to the wife; but if it’s only in a single name, it has to go through the process.”

Everyone’s financial position, accumulated assets, family situation and needs are different, of course, but there is some universally useful advice to follow. As Taraborrelli notes that it typically takes about nine months for the executor of a will to finish tasks like selling a property and finalizing estate expenses, honestly assessing who will be key figures in carrying out your wishes is a crucial consideration.

“It’s really about trying to get people to think about these things because that’s where a lot of the holdup is,” he says. “Who do you trust? We emphasize the importance of identifying responsible individuals for key roles within their estate plan. These roles include: an executor to manage estate settlement, who is named in the will; durable power of attorney to manage financial affairs in case of incapacity; a health care proxy/advance directive to outline medical treatment preferences and end-of-life care; a guardian to care for minor children; and, if applicable, a trustee to manage assets within a trust.”

As one’s personal life is constantly changing, from family dynamics to asset acquisition, so too can the greater influences surrounding the likes of estate and tax law, which is why working with experienced professionals can make all the difference.

“We don’t want to be overbearing, but we do stress how important it is to coordinate everything,” Molotsky says. “Every couple of years, we want to see their documents just to make sure that people will get what they’re supposed to get. More often now than in the past, there are things that they want to change that they forgot to get around to, and I feel it’s our job to give them a little nudge so they’ll take care of it as soon as possible.”

 

Synergy Wealth Management
Marlton
(856) 562-8800
SynergyWM.net

 

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Published and copyrighted in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 21, Issue 12 (March 2025)

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Author: Madeleine Maccar

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