Many people often make the mistake of assuming that their will controls the distribution of their full estate. It's easy to forget that certain aspects are automatically excluded under the terms of your will. There are three common methods by which assets might be transferred to your beneficiaries after your death outside of what's named [...]
A recent study completed by Greenwalt Research and the Employee Benefit Research Institute determined that employees are facing significant anxiety and stress when it comes to their financial futures. Over 1,000 workers in the United States between the ages of 21 and 64 were interviewed for this study. 2 out of 3 employees cited concerns [...]
You want to keep administration and tax costs as low as possible but there are other items that should be important to you as part of your estate plan. These include yourself, your family and your philanthropic interests. You might assume that your estate planning actually doesn't have anything to do with you except that [...]
If a loved one has been diagnosed with a debilitating illness or dementia, there is a good chance that they will need care in a nursing home or the support of a skilled nurse in their own home at some point in the future. Turning to Medicaid to pay for these bills is often the [...]
Having an addict in your family can be a very difficult situation and this can prompt numerous concerns around the process of estate planning and naming someone as a beneficiary who might not be in a good position to receive or use funds. Creating a written revocable living trust, naming the person in question as [...]
An executor is appointed to close out the affairs of a deceased person. The last will and testament is used to name the executor, but if one has not been named or no will exists, the court needs to appoint a person in this role. An executor has what is known as a fiduciary duty. [...]
Do you have a goal of keeping current family money in the family when you pass away? There are several different steps to accomplish in this, each of which can be discussed with an estate planning attorney. A person who has a current 401(k) or IRA account could accidentally leave behind not just the assets [...]
This is a question you might not have contemplated until the pandemic raised concerns about health all over the United States. It's come front and center for those parents who have a child who has either gone off to college for the first time or returned to campus for the first time since the pandemic [...]
The establishment of a trust is usually a more advanced form of an estate plan and it requires at least three parties, some of who may be served by the same person. The first party to a trust is the person who creates it known as the creator, settlor or grantor. The second party to [...]
What happens to your assets as you get older is of chief concern not just for estate planning purposes but also for your own elder law planning. The key differentiating point between estate planning and elder law is that elder law professionals look at the holistic process and consider how your key documents and assets [...]
