Estate planning is the process of deciding what should happen to your assets if you should die or become incapacitated – and taking the steps to ensure your decisions will be carried out the way you want them to be. Not just for the wealthy any more, having an estate plan is an essential part of responsible financial planning for anyone who wants to meet financial goals and provide for loved ones.

With the presidential election still fresh on everyone’s mind, achieving your financial security plan should be a personal priority. As future policies are hashed out in Washington, you’ll need to navigate the environment at home by making decisions on everything from low interest rates to tax-saving opportunities. Here are some strategies to consider.

With the uncertainty of today’s stock market, business owners would rather put their hard-earned money into assets they can physically see and feel, such as land, cows or diversified crops. As a result, the majority of business owners’ assets are tied up in their business. If this holds true to your situation, do you have a solid succession plan? All business owners leave their businesses eventually. Whether the plan is to transfer assets to the next generation of actively involved family members, sell your business to a group of key employees or you end up having to deal with the unexpected (death or disability, for example) that prevents you from running your company – you need to be prepared.

Have you ever wondered if you were saving money in the most tax-efficient way? People like to talk about asset allocation (the mix of stocks and bonds in your investment portfolio), but few ever talk about asset location. Asset allocation is important to a client’s portfolio – but just as important is what type of account those assets are in. The reason for this is taxation. How are accounts like IRAs, 401(k)s, SIMPLEs, SEPs, pensions and profit-sharing taxed differently than life insurance, Roth 401(k)s and Roth IRAs?

My clients, Frank and Janelle, are dairy farmers in California. They have been married for 15 years and have three children: Jason, Katie and Fred. They milk roughly 3,000 head and farm 500 acres. Soon after they were married, they purchased life insurance on each other to provide survivor income – in other words, Janelle owns a policy on Frank’s life and vice versa. Since then, their wealth has increased significantly. Based on their net worth (around $15 million not including death benefits of the life insurance), there will be an estate tax due on the survivor’s death.