Americans often prefer to stay busy. When we are not working, many of us turn to hobbies to keep us engaged and productive. We spend hours each day on our hobbies and leisure activities. Over the course of a lifetime, this time adds up to a significant investment.
Our...
If you have established a revocable living trust (which we will refer to simply as a trust), congratulations! You are on the right track in creating a comprehensive estate plan. However, you are only halfway there. Many people believe that because they took the time to create a trust, their estate will...
Death is a personal and private affair that affects the deceased’s close family and friends. However, there is at least one aspect of death that may require state oversight: probate.
Probate is the court-supervised process of either (a) carrying out the instructions laid out in the deceased’s will or...
Adding a payable-on-death (POD) or transfer-on-death (TOD) designation to an account allows the assets (money and property) in that account to be passed to a named beneficiary when the original account holder dies.
Like trusts, POD and TOD accounts bypass probate. They are also fast, easy, and usually free...
One of the main reasons that a person creates a revocable living trust (a trust established during a person’s lifetime that they can amend or revoke) instead of relying on a will to transfer their money and property to their beneficiaries is to avoid probate. Probate is the court process during which...
Just as spending a day under the summer sun without proper protection can leave you with a painful sunburn, an unfinished or out-of-date estate plan can inflict harm on you and your loved ones. In this newsletter, we explore the importance of creating a comprehensive estate plan to protect your legacy and...
When you create an estate plan, it is an admission of your mortality. But even if you accept that you are not going to live forever, you may be slower to face the possibility that you could become incapacitated before you die.
Although it can be an uncomfortable topic,...
Would you like to provide your children or loved ones with an inheritance but protect them from the risks that may accompany a large windfall? If so, you can create a beneficiary-controlled trust in which the person you name as the trust’s primary beneficiary has rights, benefits, and control over the property...
Life is full of contingencies. While some outcomes are relatively certain, other events are more difficult to predict. This uncertainty can create estate planning challenges. Because life changes quickly and sometimes unexpectedly, your estate plan needs to be flexible.
You can make changes to your estate plan when you...
