An Open Letter to ... Cardi B
/
Dear Cardi B,
2019 has come to an end, and what a year it was for you! Coachella, a Grammy win, a role in Hustlers and an endorsement deal with Pepsi – amazing!
With all this success, let’s take a moment to chat about your estate plan.
Your current net worth is reported at $8 million – a sweet spot in estate planning because it is below the current federal estate tax exemption amount of $11.58 million, but substantial enough to achieve other estate planning goals. Offset is successful in his own right, so your estate plan should focus on providing for your daughter, Kulture, and anyone else you currently support or would like to take care of.
1. Life insurance. Think of life insurance as income replacement – in the event that you pass while you are still earning income, the life insurance proceeds will make up for what your family could have expected you to bring home. Precisely because you are young and healthy and unlikely to die any time soon, now is the time to purchase life insurance.
2. Trusts. Trusts are the ideal vehicle for passing on an inheritance and creating generational wealth because they provide the beneficiaries with the benefit of the trust assets while protecting those assets from misuse by the beneficiaries or attachment by the beneficiaries’ creditors.
3. Charitable planning. A charitable remainder trust is a great option for ensuring that your assets are able to support certain family members as well as the charities you sponsor. The assets in a charitable remainder trust can be used for the benefit of your family members during their lives, and any remaining assets would later be distributed to the charities of your choice.
4. Asset Protection. People in certain professions are more susceptible to civil lawsuits and given your run-ins with the law in the past few years, you may want to take advantage of asset protection devices, such as irrevocable trusts and/or limited liability companies. While you cannot move assets out of the reach of current or expected creditors, you can certainly engage in asset protection planning during those times when you have no known creditors on the horizon as a legitimate estate planning measure.
5. Guardianship. Making sure that your estate plan provides for your family after your passing is important, but the most critical piece of your estate plan, as a parent, is nominating a guardian to care for Kulture in the event that Offset is not able to upon your death. If you would like Hennessey, for example, to care for Kulture after your death, then you should specifically appoint her as the guardian now.
While we agree that there ain’t no runnin’ up on you, we want to make sure that there ain’t no runnin’ up on your estate plan – so let’s get it done!
Yours truly,
Lori & Cassandra
This article represents a hypothetical for educational purposes only. Douglass Law does not purport to represent Cardi B, nor does Douglass Law represent that Cardi B endorses Douglass Law in any capacity.