One of the fears that many people have as they draft their will is how their assets will be used. Many people have worked hard to build up their estate and they often do not want it wasted on poor investments. While a will has the purpose of managing assets after the...
One of your biggest assets is your life insurance policy. You know that life is unpredictable, but you wanted to ensure that you could provide for your family. So, when you and your spouse had your first child, you bought that life insurance policy and named your...
Your estate plan can do more than protect your loved ones, you can use it to help others through charity. Including charitable wishes in estate planning is not complicated. Here is how you can do so: Use your will The first method you can use to include charitable...
Some estate disputes are based around the idea of undue influence. This can be used as a reason to challenge a will or an estate plan. By claiming undue influence, someone is just saying that another party influenced the person who is writing the estate plan,...
If you begin your estate planning before you’re well into your senior years, you likely will want to make some modifications down the road as your family, your assets and/or your priorities change. Experienced estate planning professionals can help people craft their...
A trust is a legal document that allows you to make specific requests about how your assets are managed. You could, for example, put aside funds for charities, pets or grandchildren with a trust. One popular kind of document is an incentive trust. An incentive trust...
Testators putting together estate plans frequently want to pass as much of their personal property to specific beneficiaries as possible. One of the strategies for maximizing what beneficiaries receive involves keeping as much of someone's property as possible out of...
If you are going to be passing a family business on to the next generation, it’s important to do succession planning. Don’t just leave this up to chance. Take the time to carefully plan how you want to transfer ownership of your business, increasing the odds that...
A generation or two ago, when a business owner passed away, their heirs typically took over the company (for better or worse). And while it’s true that sometimes those scenarios still take place, many of today’s heirs have little interest in assuming the mantle of the...
While it might seem uncomfortable to bring up, initiating a dialogue about your parents' wishes for their assets and healthcare can help ensure a smoother and less stressful process for everyone involved when the time comes. Estate planning encompasses more than just...