Worried about what will happen to your assets after you pass away? This Cheat Sheet will help you plan for your future, with tips on how to reduce your estate taxes, helpful information on whether you need life insurance, and a listing of the key pieces of information your loved ones will need after you’re gone.

An estate or trust’s income retains its character, and so beneficiaries must be informed of this character. The Schedule K-1 (Form 1041) gives the beneficiary the specific allocation between all items of income, allowing easy transfer from the K-1 to the beneficiary’s Form 1040.When there is one income beneficiary, the total amount of the income distribution deduction (IDD) is shown on a single Schedule K-1, with allocations made between the different types of income.

In addition to making payments to the beneficiaries, as trustee, you’re also responsible for paying the expenses you incur in administering the trust. The primary expenses include trustee’s fees, investment advice, accounting fees, and taxes. Trustees’ fees A trustee’s fee is the amount the trust pays to compensate the trustee for his or her time.

An estate plan, including a last will and testament, protects your family and finances after you die. Your first step in estate planning is to write a comprehensive will that moves smoothly through the probate process.Make sure you're aware of current estate taxes that may influence your planning and how insurance factors into your estate plan.

Probate is the method by which your estate is legally transferred after you die. When estate planning and writing your last will and testament, keep these tips in mind to help the probate process run smoothly. You can be both specific and general in your last will and testament — it's up to you. You can parcel out individual items to people by name and also let your beneficiaries decide how to divide up your worldly goods.

If you're preparing taxes for an estate or trust, be aware that the Income Distribution Deduction (Schedule B) is unique to these assets.When trusts and estates give income payments to beneficiaries, those payments carry income tax consequences for the trust or estate and for the beneficiaries. The trust or estate receives a deduction, and the beneficiaries must include the amount deducted from the Form 1041 on their individual Form 1040.

Estate planning is all about what you want to have happen to you, your dependents, and your stuff when you’re gone. Estate planning also covers what happens if you’re alive but can’t make decisions for yourself.You may think that you don’t care what happens after you’re gone, but what about the family, friends, and stuff you leave behind?

As of January 1, 2013, an additional 3.8 percent tax was added to investment income in estates and trusts, thanks to provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. It's not an additional tax on every dollar, but only on the lesser of undistributed net investment income or any amount of adjusted gross income in excess of the highest tax bracket in any year.