To have a successful farm, thoughtful planning must be done every season. Your life is no different. To properly prepare for the next season in your life and the lives of your loved ones, you need a well-executed estate plan. When crafting a foundational plan to protect yourself, your loved ones, your...
Category: Health Care Agent/Proxy
Ensure That Your Loved Ones Call the Right Doctor
Now that we are in March, we are well past the point at which most of us have abandoned our New Year’s resolutions. As in previous years, improving physical health ranked among the top goals that Americans set for themselves in 2025.[1] But while goals like losing weight and building...
Estate Planning for the Newly Married
Now is the perfect time to start working on an estate plan. As newlyweds, you are likely in the process of deciding which of your accounts and property (your assets) to combine and how to turn two households into one. You may also be setting up new bank accounts and creating a...
Whom Do You Trust to Make Your Medical Decisions?
It might be a stretch to say that if you have your health, you have everything. However, to some people, decisions about their health are arguably more personal in nature and more important to their overall well-being than financial decisions.
This leads to the question of who will step...
Happy 18th Birthday! Now What?
Congratulations! You are now legally an adult. Although you may not feel any different, from a legal standpoint, a great deal has changed.
When you were a minor (under age 18), your parents were your legal guardians responsible for making all your decisions. Now that you are an adult,...
How to Pick a Trustee, Executor, and Agent under a Power of Attorney
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...
Kids Going Away to College? Why You Should Include Estate Planning in the Preparation
You have likely been preparing for weeks to get your new college student off to school. It is exhilarating, and your heart may be bursting at the seams. You are probably prouder than words can express but also afraid. How can you ensure your child is safe at their new home away...
Preparing Your Senior for the Real World
High School Seniors Can Use a Starter Estate Plan
If you have a high school senior at home, childhood is soon coming to an end for them as they prepare to graduate, turn 18, and enter the “real world.”
You have done everything you can to...
How to Choose the Right Agents for Your Incapacity Plan
Many people believe that estate planning is only about planning for their death. But planning for what happens after you die is only one piece of the estate-planning puzzle. It is just as important to plan for what happens if you become unable to manage your own financial or medical affairs while...
5 Essential Legal Documents You Need 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...