15 Common Reasons to do Estate Planning
Find out the most common reasons why it is important to do estate planning such as avoiding probate, protecting your assets, and designating someone to take care of your affairs if you become disabled or pass away.
Asset Protection: Reducing Risk, Promoting Peace of Mind
Every American adult shares a dubious characteristic: each is a walking litigation target. Unfortunately, in our current times, you may be sued at any time, and for any amount.
Dangers of Do-It-Yourself Wills and Living Trusts
Estate planning is an essential part of life and death. In planning for our future and our family’s future, we must take stock of who we are, what our goals are, and how we want our estate distributed.
Estate Planning with Individual Retirement Accounts
At first glance, the concept of an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) seems simple enough: a structured way to save for your golden years while deferring taxes on your growing nest egg.
Government Assistance for Those with Disabilities
Living life with a disability can often be tough. But if you or a loved one is afflicted with a disability, know you do not have to struggle on your own to make ends meet.
How a Pet Trust Can Protect Your Furry Friends
If you have a pet, you know firsthand the bond that can develop between humans and animals. Many of us consider our pets as part of the family, but have you considered what would happen to your furry or feathered companion if something were to happen to you?
Living Trusts: Calculating the Benefits
Chances are you’ve already heard a lot about the attributes of Living Trusts: avoiding probate and legal quagmires, sometimes lowering estate and/or income taxes, and protecting privacy.
Necessary Steps in Trust Administration
One of the reasons for creating a living trust is to avoid the expense and hassle of probate upon death. The administration of a trust is far easier and less expensive than a probate action; however, with any death, there is always some administrative
burden.
Pet Planning: Not Just for the Rich and Eccentric
You plan for your human family, leaving them money and painstakingly considering Guardians, Trustees, and Executors. Your furry and feathered family members deserve consideration, too!
Planning it Right the Second Time Around
One thing should be clear by now: we do our families and ourselves a great disservice when we fail to plan for every contingency. That’s why a crucial first step in this entire process should be a consultation with an estate planning attorney.
Probate: An Executor’s Role and Responsibilities
The passing of someone close to you is a difficult and emotionally draining time. The last thing you likely want to deal with is the business of settling your loved one’s final affairs. But, if you are a potential executor, it’s one of those things that must be done, and it’s not as horrible as you may have feared.
The Nightmare of Living Probate
As Carolyn Henderson anxiously watched her husband’s flickering vital signs on the Intensive Care Unit monitor, she considered the irony of their circumstances. When she and Kirk planned how they might spend their thirtieth wedding anniversary, this sickbed vigil was the farthest thing from their minds.
The Trouble with Joint Tenancy
Although Joint Tenancy offers some short-term conveniences, in the long run it poses a host of problems that can cost you and your loved ones many times the expense and headaches you thought you were avoiding.
Trust Administration: Prior Planning Prevents Problems
Trust Administration is the process people often find themselves in unexpectedly, after the death of a spouse or parent who created the trust prior to passing on. It comes during a very emotional time, and often brings with it difficult and complex financial and family issues.
What to Do When a Loved One Passes
The death of a loved one is always a difficult time. Following these guidelines will help relieve some of the stress that might be associated with their passing, as well as allowing family members to grieve their loss.
Where There’s a Will, There’s Probate
Would you like to know the intimate details of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ life? You don’t have to read her story in the tabloids or wait for the latest unauthorized biography. You can peruse the details of her financial affairs and her last wishes for her loved ones in the public records of the state of New York. And thousands have. You can also find her will posted on several Internet websites along with those of other celebrities
