How to Incorporate Tangible Assets into Your Estate Plan

As the saying goes, nothing is certain in life except death and taxes.

While no one likes to think about their own mortality, developing your estate plan is a loving way to care for your family even after you are gone. If you don’t develop your estate plan, state law will decide for you and the results may be very different than you intended.

As you develop your estate plan, there are many benefits to including tangible assets like rare coins or gold bullion as a portion of your legacy for your loved ones.

There are four major benefits to including tangible assets in your estate plan:

1. Private transfer with little to no paperwork.
2. Diversification with steadily appreciating assets.
3. It’s personal – your legacy.
4. Simple liquidation process.

In this article, we’ll explore the first two benefits and will conclude our estate planning article series tomorrow with numbers three and four. Let’s get started.  

Private transfer with little to no paperwork.

Owning rare coins or gold bullion is a simple and private method of transferring wealth to whomever you choose.

If you have a bank safe deposit box or a home safe, you can simply leave instructions or inform your family where to find and retrieve your coins or bullion.

Simply put, whoever holds it, owns it.

If your heirs choose to liquidate certain numismatic products, typically pre-1933 U.S. coins and 1 ounce American Gold Eagle coins, there are little to no reporting requirements for dealers.

Diversification with steadily appreciating assets.

Just as you seek to diversify your investment portfolio, including tangible assets in your estate plan is an effective and prudent diversification strategy. In previous generations, people would leave cash, CDs or bonds to their children – and at that time these were great assets.

In today’s modern era of Federal Reserve money printing, leaving your heirs cash means you are passing on an asset that is steadily depreciating and losing value. Sadly, the government is devaluing your lifetime of hard work with its current approach of dramatically increasing the U.S. money supply.

Compare U.S. dollars to gold and rare coins – and the latter are a steadily appreciating long-term asset that can never be printed by the government. There is a rarity and tangible asset component of rare coins and bullion that represents real, true and long-lasting value.

In fact, gold is the best performing asset class over the past 20 years, with an 8.8% annualized return, according to analysis by long-time industry analyst Mark Hulbert. Gold bullion returns over the past 20 years beat out the S&P 500, Long-term Treasuries, International Stocks, the NASDAQ 100 and even Intermediate-term Treasuries.

Next up? Leaving your personal legacy. Indeed…perhaps one of the best aspects about leaving tangible assets to your loved ones is that it’s personal. Read Part Two of our Estate Planning series where we will explore building a personal legacy and the simple estate liquidation process. Can’t wait to get started? Call Blanchard at 1-800-880-4653. Mention that you read this article and would like a no-obligation, complimentary consultation with a portfolio manager who can answer your tangible assets estate planning questions.

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