Trusts are an essential estate planning tool that can provide countless benefits. Before creating and implementing a trust as part of your estate plan, it is crucial to explore the different types of trusts to find out which option best fits your unique needs....
Estate Planning
Does your family business discriminate against daughters?
Running a family business can involve walking a fine line between professional and personal relationships. If you cross this line, you could wind up facing some unfortunate consequences. For instance, too many entities discriminate against daughters when it comes to...
Why divorcing spouses need to update their estate plan
If you’re getting divorced, it is important to review your estate plan right away. In all likelihood, your ex played a prominent role in the plan, as a beneficiary and perhaps also as your health care proxy. Change is in order and the time to act is now. What happens...
Family heirlooms can cause estate disputes
A lot of estate disputes revolve around money. For instance, perhaps wealthy parents gave $1 million to one child and $10,000 to another. The child who got less feels slighted and says that the other must have manipulated their parents into setting up the estate plan...
Who’s going to pay your debts when you pass away?
You’re likely going to have some debts that need to be paid after you pass away. If the passing is unexpected, this could include things like a mortgage or a car payment. But even those who have planned ahead and understand their situation may still have things like...
Why haven’t you written a will yet?
Perhaps you already have a will, but odds are that you do not. Every year, studies find that the majority of Americans haven’t done their estate planning yet, so most people don’t have a will. At the same time, most people understand that they need to have one. There...
What is in a good estate plan?
Have you thought about what will happen to your possessions when you die or become incapacitated? Do you worry about how your loved ones will be taken care of? Or how they will know what you want and how to carry out your wishes? An estate plan can help you solve all...
What should you look for in a guardian for your children?
As you do your estate planning, if you’re a young parent, one of your top priorities is probably just picking a guardian for your children. They are still minors and they will be for a long time, so you need to know that another parental figure can step in and raise...
How to update your will after a divorce
You may think that finalizing your divorce is the last step in ending your life as a married couple. However, an important step you can afford to overlook is updating your will and entire estate plan. If you don’t do this, you may find your ex-spouse is still listed...
What is a power of attorney?
As you start working on developing your estate plan, one term you’re going to hear and see a lot is “power of attorney” (POA). Most people aren’t entirely sure what that is. They often think a POA is a person. It’s not. A POA is a document. It gives someone who’s...