WHY CREATE AN ESTATE PLAN? You don’t have to be a millionaire to benefit from an estate plan. Reasons to create an estate plan are as unique as the individuals who create them. If you own a home, have minor children and/or grandchildren, grown children in their own marriages, have been divorced, own a business, or expect to receive an inheritance of your own, you need to take action now. Here are the common reasons you need to not only build and protect your hard-earned money, but transfer it … [Read more...]
Planning It Right the Second Time Around
How to ensure you’ve covered the basics 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. He or she will help you evaluate your family’s needs and financial situation, and will draft a comprehensive estate plan that may include such tools as a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and Revocable … [Read more...]
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. Yet it’s also important to receive solid estate planning guidance before making final decisions, and to carefully weigh the benefits and potential drawbacks. Why Choose a Living Trust? The desire to ensure that an heir is provided for materially is the most common reason for creating a Living Trust. In the case … [Read more...]
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. With the easy availability of do-it-yourself wills and Living Trusts, it can be all too tempting to take care of your estate planning needs yourself, rather than pay, what may seem like high fees, to an estate planning attorney. You can easily go on the internet or the local office supply … [Read more...]
Where There’s a Will, There’s a 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. Can you imagine anything more ironic? The most private … [Read more...]
Trust Administration: Prior Planning Prevents Problems
Trust Administration—What You Need to Know 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. The task of reviewing the trust and finding and valuing the assets of a recently deceased family member can be daunting, as can be the complexities of estate tax law. What is … [Read more...]
The Trouble of 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. For the vast majority of American couples, “till death do us part” also means, “till death do we hold property in Joint Tenancy.” It happens almost automatically. When you and your spouse open a checking account, buy a car, purchase a home, or acquire just about any other asset you … [Read more...]
Set The Stage for Medicaid Eligibility
Introduction Incapacity planning is a broad area of law that covers how you are cared for if you become physically or mentally unable to care for yourself. The type of care could range from simple tasks like buying groceries, paying bills, and handling financial matters to more important decisions such as selling real estate or gifting assets to your children. Within the realm of incapacity planning, there are also arrangements that deal specifically with decisions regarding steps taken to … [Read more...]
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 truth is that, like anything unfamiliar, probate can seem intimidating, but if you are armed with a little knowledge and have the help of an experienced advisor, the process is … [Read more...]
Estate Planning with Individual Retirement Accounts
Using This Report 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. Unfortunately, that simple idea becomes one of the most complex areas of estate planning once IRS rules are applied. That means that not only must an estate planner consider estate tax reduction techniques, but also the amazingly complicated income tax rules the IRS has issued in its … [Read more...]
