When you are planning your estate, the first thing you are going to do is take inventory of your assets and evaluate what it is that you have of value to pass along. You may have real property, cash assets, stocks and other securities, a business and any number of personal possessions that will all be a part of your legacy, and these are things that your loved ones will remember you by. Indeed, when you can leave behind things of value it can give you a warm feeling as you take stock of your … [Read more...]
Tax-Free Gifts
It's easy to get kind of jaded about the commercial nature of the end-of-year holidays, and the idea of looking at the calendar and recognizing that it is time to shop for gifts can sometimes seem like more of a chore and less of a joy. But when the day comes when you are actually giving the gifts to your loved ones, all of that resistance melts away and you feel something ineffable. If anything people often kind of wish that they had another gift to give once that last one last one has been … [Read more...]
Your Pets & Your Estate
When you are planning your estate you are generally dealing with things that don't have to be tended to on an ongoing basis. There are some exceptions of course, and these would include entities like businesses, charitable giving instruments, and trusts, but these things don't need to be taken for a walk, fed daily, or given a bath. If you are planning your estate and you have pets, you have a living, breathing loved one on your hands that needs to be provided for in any eventuality. One way to … [Read more...]
Giving More With Incentive Trusts
When you are engaged in inheritance planning and deciding how you would like to provide for your various family members, the specifics of each individual's age, personality, and station in life are going to come to mind. For many people making these plans is not as simple as looking at a pie and deciding how many slices to cut it into and how thick each slice should be. You may have the desire to guide your loved ones in beneficial directions and away from avenues that you deem to be … [Read more...]
Veterans A & A Can Give You A Boost
As you plan for your twilight years you have a lot to keep in mind from a financial perspective. Nobody wants to expect the worst, but it may be a good idea to prepare for it while expecting the best. With this in mind, there are those who pass away suddenly without showing any signs of advanced illness, but the reality is that most of us are going to experience a gradual decline. At some point in time you may find it impossible to take care of your day to day personal needs for yourself, and … [Read more...]
Creative Gift Giving
When you are working on your estate plan and doing some inheritance planning you are naturally going to take the matter very seriously. Depending on the size and scope of your assets you may be in a position to leave your heirs with life changing inheritances, and this is something that takes a lot of careful consideration. This is especially true when there are young people involved and/or family member who may not be especially good at handling money. These are realities that must be taken … [Read more...]
What Is An Ethical Will?
When you are planning your estate you hear about a lot different legal instruments, but perhaps the most basic and well known among them is the will. This is of course the document that you draw up to elucidate your wishes with regard to the distribution of your assets after your death. There is also the living will, and this is an an advance health care directive. The living will is used to express your medical preferences in writing so that your wishes are known should you be unable to … [Read more...]
A Look At Probate Law
When you come to the realization that it is time to either create or update your estate plan, you are inevitably going to start doing some research into the subject. When you do you will see the term probate tossed around constantly, and indeed, estate planning is part of the work of a probate lawyer. Probate is the process by which an estate is administered, and probate attorneys make sure that their clients' estates get through probate efficiently and effectively. But this is only one aspect … [Read more...]
Estate Planning & Five Wishes
One of the things that you need to prepare for when you are planning your estate is the possibility of falling ill and ultimately becoming incapacitated as you face a terminal medical condition. Of course this is not a pleasant subject to discuss, but it is a reality that many people face at the end of their lives. If a time comes when you can't communicate your wishes and make important medical and personal decisions, who will do it for you? When you do decide to address these incapacitation … [Read more...]
Post Nuptial Agreements & Estate Planning
When you paint with a broad brush you can make assertions based on cookie cutter scenarios, and they may be applicable in many situations but there are always going to be exceptions. When it comes to marriage the base assumption probably needs to be adjusted to some extent. About 40% of marriages end in divorce, and approximately 75% of those who get divorced remarry. Over 60% of these people have children from different marriages. So when you think about estate planning you have to keep these … [Read more...]
