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...
One of the more uncomfortable aspects of estate planning is deciding what will happen to your child if both you and the child’s other legal parent were to die unexpectedly. While the odds of this happening are low, the consequences of not naming a legal guardian in your will or a separate...
When a married couple creates an estate plan using a revocable living trust, they have the option of creating a single joint trust or two separate individual trusts. While the pros and cons of each are beyond the scope of this article, spouses may choose to create separate trusts for a variety...
According to data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 2 percent of all infants born in the United States (83,946 in 2019) were conceived using assisted reproductive technology (ART).[1] ART is defined by the CDC as all fertility treatments in which both eggs and embryos...
About 40 to 50 percent of all marriages in the United States end in divorce. Regardless of how you feel about your child’s spouse, you must face the possibility that they could become your child’s ex-spouse. Should that day come, the money you leave to your child could be subject to a...
As we all know, life happens. There is really nothing we can do about it. However, some of the most common life events can have a dramatic effect on your estate plan. If you think your estate plan is like a slow cooker and you can set it and forget it, you...
The short answer to this question is no. Naming your child as the recipient of your home in your will does not give them any right to your home while you are still living. However, understanding why that is the correct answer requires a little more explanation.
Title Is...
The short answer to whether couples in a domestic partnership have the same rights as married couples when it comes to estate planning is probably not. To a large extent, the state in which you live, and maybe even the city or county, determines domestic partners’ rights.
What Is...
Parents strive to make their children feel equally valued as reflected in the fact that, when setting up an estate plan, parents typically divide their accounts and property equally among their children. But while parents strive to treat their children the same, they simultaneously acknowledge that children have different needs at different times....
Who can benefit from life insurance?
Many different types of people can benefit from having adequate life insurance coverage. Here are a few of the most common groups:
Business owners. If you own a business and want to leave it to some but not all of your children, a life insurance policy...