Estate Planning Part 1. By Antonio Riestra. Over 229 years ago, Benjamin Franklin was credited with saying: there are only two things certain in this world, death and taxes. However, Daniel Defoe had already expressed a similar idea in 1726. Regardless of who said it or when it was uttered, it is a great truth that both are inevitable. While it is true that taxes are, to some extent, controllable, they cannot be completely avoided. Furthermore, both aspects, death and taxes, are closely linked when it comes to estate planning. The Canadian strategy guru Henry Mintzberg, when discussing the 5 PS of strategy, plan, pattern, position, perspective, and ploy, provides us with the foundations of planning. When this concept is combined with the adjective wealth or asset planning, it indicates the steps we must follow to achieve the desired asset goal. It is not, nor will it be, the purpose of this article to explain planning, much less strategy. However, it is important to highlight the crucial role of asset planning in today's world. In principle, estate planning has three main divisions a wealth generation and development. This involves the closely linked tax and financial aspects that allow us to create and grow a solid financial foundation. This phase may encompass broader planning considerations that even evolve into strategic planning. Asset protection or safeguarding. This involves all the legal and financial elements necessary to ensure that assets remain protected against any type of contingency or impact. The inheritance of assets. This constitutes the last major division of the topic at hand and refers to the proper creation of a legal, financial, and tax structure. Considering the latter as a specialized branch of the legal field, so that what motivated our efforts is realized and fulfilled according to our wishes. It is on this last division that we will focus our comments. For some time now, the possibility of establishing a so-called inheritance tax has been circulating in legal and tax circles. This situation has generated a stir in the business world due to the imminent possibility of seeing wealth diminished by taxation, and the potential for parents' efforts to provide for their descendants or loved ones not to materialize to the extent they had envisioned or desired. It was claimed that this measure was part of the OECD's recommendations, which is true, and that member countries of that organization already had such a tax. However, it is also true that some of them, albeit few, have eliminated it, and for the time being, this threat has diminished. Nevertheless, the latent risk that it could be implemented and consequently, complicate projected financial futures, even if only temporarily, compels us to reflect on the enormous significance of this issue. In addition to the above, we are increasingly witnessing a voracious and insatiable tax authority and a government that, under a demagogic discourse, attempts to present an ambivalent scenario in which it assures us there will be no new taxes, no increases in existing ones, and no greater tax enforcement. However, reality seems to show the opposite: frustrating and illusory tax benefits, seemingly imperceptible modifications that reveal a clear revenue-raising purpose, and technology placed at the service of the state that, through big data, performs far more efficiently what human capacity could hardly analyze with the speed that computer systems do today in fractions of a second. With these elements before us, the following questions arise. What should be done to begin proper estate planning? We will simply mention some steps that should be kept in mind in most cases, because as assets become more important, the planning also becomes more complex. The first step is to keep in mind that, although we live as if we'll never die, and then die as if we'd never lived, the reality is that we will all die, and we don't know when or how it will happen. While we may not like to address this topic as a near possibility, it is a reality as tangible as being born, studying, and going through the natural cycle of life. Therefore, the first recommendation is to identify productive assets and differentiate them from non-productive ones. Or, in the words of Robert Kiyosaki, to distinguish between assets and liabilities. This is because assets will generate tax revenue but will be self-sustaining, while liabilities will give rise to the tax phenomenon known as amortization. In this sense, it would be worthwhile to consider how to transform a liability into a source of active wealth. It is even paradoxical that various studies by the OECD itself highlight that, in certain circumstances, tax systems favor those with greater resources more than those with less, in addition to encouraging investment more than saving. The second step is to draw up a will. It is precisely at this stage that many doubts arise because over the years, or even months, what initially seemed like a suitable way to distribute one's assets can change substantially. It's important to remember that a will can be modified as many times as the testator changes their mind. We will continue with part two in the next edition of Being an Entrepreneur. LCP Antonio Riestra. CSA Asesores. Juarez at ccssours.com.