New Book: Rockwills Christian Guide to Wills, Living Trusts and Estate Planning

This article was published in The Borneo Post on 8th September 2009

In June 2009, Rockwills International Pte Ltd published a timely and user friendly step-by-step guide on estate planning for Christians.

The book is the result of the collaborative effort by two renown law and estate planning experts and authors, Rockwills International Pte Ltd’s CEO, Lee Chiwi and Mark L James, MBA, JD, JJM, an estate planning attorney in US.

Objective of The Book

In the preface, the authors stated their noble objective of the book:
“ we want to help you avoid the trauma and hard feelings that we have seen many families suffer because of the failure to plan and more particularly, the failure to draw upon the wisdom and power of God. “

This Rockwills Christian Guide to Wills, Living Trusts and Estate Planning is the Singapore and Malaysian edition of the originally titled “ The Christian Guide to Wills , Living Trusts and Estate Planning” by Mark L James and Professor Lynne Marie Kohn which was published in the US in 2007.

The original book developed out of a series of continuing education lectures Mark gave in the mid-1990’s to financial planners. Mark also teach the subject matter in Reagent University’s School of Law.

The Distinguished Authors

Lee Chiwi is also the author of “Drafting Trusts and Will Trusts in Singapore ( in co-authorship with James Kessler QC ) and the Rockwills Guide to Succession and Trusts in Wealth Management, now in 2nd edition. Chiwi believes that God has led him into his co-authorship with Mark with the purpose of serving the local Christian community in providing a timely resource for Christian estate planning.
The Rockwills edition has been researched exhaustively, and the contents have been honed into a handy reference guide.

The purpose of the book is to present the world of estate planning in the most practical and understandable terms possible to people believe in Jesus Crist and Lord and Savior.

Other books written for Christians have done well to explain why estate planning. This book, however, is designed to go further and clearly share the details on how to plan your estate.

Additionally, it allows you to read the specific chapters that pertain to your individual needs. Each chapter addresses particular estate planning strategies related to your stage in life or your needs. Ultimately, of course, you will need assistance from experienced estate planning professionals to work out the options and strategies for your own situation.

Christian Estate Planning is Unique

The book starts with the chapter to explain why Christian Estate Planning is unique. They explain how stewardship and an eternal perspective impacts estate planning.


Engaging Qualified Estate Planning Advisors

Then it continues with discussion on the importance of engaging qualified and experienced estate planning advisors who can see the big picture; one who can provide needed insight regarding the correct investment, their allocation or distribution of the estate. Specialist estate planners well versed in charitable estate planning can help maximize your charitable giving.

Holistic Approach to Estate Planning

The authors emphasize the importance of adopting the holistic approach to estate planning, meaning looking at the big picture – addressing both your estate planning concerns and goals.
This also includes looking at how various parts of the estate plan relate to each other - your Will instructions; private trust deed instructions; and ensuring nonprobate assets have the beneficiary designations you intend in order to align in practical terms with your Will.
And to understand the various types of ownership and what each means in terms of inheritance.

Incompleteness of Piecemeal approach to Estate Planning

The book also cautions the incompleteness of piecemeal approach to estate planning, giving the analogy of having someone explain to you the particular moves of the chess pieces without ever explaining the various strategies in a chess game.


Control and Timing Mechanism in your Estate Plan

The book also explain the concept of “control and timing mechanism “ into your estate plan. It will answer such questions as:

• How to control who receives your assets after death
• How to control when my children, grandchildren or other heirs will receive their inheritance

• How to protect your heirs inheritance from others
• How to give gifts to special people and charities

Explaining Living Trust

A very useful chapter in this book is chapter 5 which explains how to use living trust.

It explains very clearly the eight primary estate planning challenges that can be solved by living trusts as well as weighing the pros and cons of living trust.

Other Useful Topics

Other useful topics discussed in the book include:
• Mental incapacity and disability issues during lifetime
• Trust for family members with disabilities
• Include your retirement plan in your estate plan
• Making gifts to children but maintain control over the gifted assets
• Charitable estate planning

Conclusion

To conclude, another sentence from the authors sum it up well:

“ We have been involved in fixing what goes wrong due to the failure to plan, and it is our sincere desire that this book will help you plan your estate to avoid future problems, accomplish your eternal objectives and advance the Kingdom of God. “

For more information on estate planning, please visit: www.lkcestateplanning.com
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