When should I start estate planning?

While many individuals associate estate planning with retirement or advanced age, the reality is that meaningful estate planning should begin as soon as you have assets worth protecting, dependents who rely on you, a business interest to transfer, or a clear sense of who you want to benefit from your wealth. For business owners in particular, the most powerful transfer strategies — annual gifting programs, business interest discounting, trust structures, and lifetime exemption planning — work best when implemented years before a transition or liquidity event occurs. Yeo & Yeo encourages clients to begin the estate planning conversation well before it feels urgent, because the strategies with the greatest long-term impact are almost always the ones that require the most time to execute effectively.