Introduction to Estate Planning, Part 3

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Ms.
Professional: Non-organization Woman She is a successful physician who works outside health insurance networks, is only a year or so older than Mr.
Corporate Executive, but at a higher income level.
Her yearly net earnings amount to $300,000.
Her husband teaches at a nearby college and makes $60,000 a year.
Ms.
Professional's scale of living is correspondingly higher than Corporate Executive.
She and her husband have a $550,000 house; they belong to a country club; they entertain frequently; she drives an SUV, her husband a sports car; and they have a twenty-four-foot sailing sloop.
For her own part, she could do without some of these things, but she believes her status in her community-and by implication her future success in her profession-demands a display of this sort of affluence.
Unlike Corporate Executive, Professional has none of the benefits of corporate paternalism, no pension plan, no profit sharing.
She belatedly started a self-employed retirement plan last year and has $20,000 to her credit.
This plus $30,000 of group insurance through her medical society, $200,000 of personal insurance, $50,000 in securities, the $250,000 equity in her house, and $60,000 equity in the cars and the boat make up her estate.
Her debts amount to $55,000, which she borrowed last year to meet some pressing bills.
It all adds up to a net of about $600,000 assuming final expenses and debts.
This is the amount that would be left for her husband and her two teenage children if she died.
Ms.
Professional, a heart specialist, knows all too well that she is reaching a dangerous age.
One statistic on fatalities among doctors sticks in her mind: the death rate of physicians in the 55 to 70 age bracket is 15 percent higher than that of the general population.
She also realizes that she cannot keep on working at her present pace.
She doesn't dare think that if she were disabled, there would only be invested assets plus social security to support the family for the rest of her life.
She and her husband have been depending upon her income to fund college costs for their children when the time comes.
These thoughts occupy Professional's mind at night when she should be getting her sleep, and that is why her blood pressure goes up and she gets irritable when she reads about "money-grubbing doctors.
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