While the term fiduciary is a legal term with a rich history, it generally means someone who is legally obligated to act in another person’s best interest. Trustees, executors, and agents are examples of fiduciaries. When you select people to fill these roles in your estate plan, you are picking one or...
Category: Financial Power of Attorney
Are You Ready to Move Away from Home?
Moving away from home is a major milestone in adulthood. For the first time, you might have to secure housing, buy insurance, sign up for utilities, and manage your finances. All of this can feel overwhelming as you simultaneously adapt to a new living environment and possibly a new career.
Essential Legal Documents for Incapacity Planning
Comprehensive estate planning involves more than just planning for your legacy after your death, avoiding probate, and reducing taxes. Good estate planning also appoints people to make legal, financial, and medical decisions for you if you are alive but unable to make those decisions for yourself (in other words, if you are...
Estate Planning for Expatriates
The United States hosts the highest number of immigrants in the world, but increasingly, Americans say they are looking to relocate permanently to another country. A large percentage of wealthy Americans are also interested in buying real estate overseas and living there at least part-time.
While moving overseas is...
Reasons You Need an Up-to-Date Estate Plan
Although we live in a world where information is easily accessible through the internet, there are still many misconceptions surrounding estate planning. Most of us do not dedicate our time to learning more about topics like estate planning, because we may not know that we need an estate plan or realize the...
Home Security Systems and Estate Planning
Estate planning helps bring peace of mind and a sense of security, both in our lifetime and beyond. While we cannot predict our fate, we can at least dictate how our money and property will be distributed and ensure that we provide for our loved ones.
Physical security is...
Provisions to Consider in a Financial Power of Attorney
In a financial power of attorney, you designate a trusted decision maker (agent or attorney-in-fact) to act on your behalf if you become disabled or unable to manage your financial affairs. Depending on the provisions you choose to include, your agent may have the power to buy and sell property, the power...
Financial Powers of Attorney
The wealth, property, and investments we accrue over a lifetime are often significant. While you have carefully managed your finances through the years, there may eventually come a time when you cannot handle such decisions. To plan for the likelihood that you are unable to manage your financial affairs, it’s important to have...