At some point in everyone’s life, they reach a point where they stop constantly looking to strive forward and start looking at where their past steps have taken them. It’s an important moment in your life: when you begin to consider what values, memories, heirlooms and assets you want to leave behind as a legacy of your journey.

The truth of the matter is that every dollar you accumulate during your lifetime has to go somewhere once you’re gone. It will either end up with loved ones, charities or the government. Don’t you want to be the one who decides? As you near the end of your life’s journey, what you have becomes valuable because it is something you can give. But without proper legacy planning, a large fraction of what you planned to leave to your heirs could end up in the hands or the government through estate taxes.