Wills

If you have a widowed or divorced parent who’s been postponing estate planning (even creating a simple will), you may feel like you have to literally take them by the hand to get them started. They may not have much to leave behind. You’d just like them to get their...

Just had a new child? Don’t yet have an estate plan? Then creating one is more urgent than ever. Here is why you need to focus on paperwork for a moment rather than your baby: Your child needs to be able to survive without you We don’t all get to die at a ripe old...

You drafted a will a few years ago, which is certainly an important step. However, the whole point of a will is that it reflects your current wishes and brings them to fruition should something happen to you.  Many people fall into the trap of drafting a will and...

Life comes with its share of uncertainties. One of the uncertainties of life is the inability to tell what will happen in the future. If you are incapacitated following an accident or develop a condition that inhibits your ability to make important decisions on your...

You’re happily married, but children have never been on the radar for you. As a result, you’ve put estate planning on the backburner. You assume that everything will automatically go to your spouse if you predecease them. Is this really the case? Is estate planning...

While doing your estate planning, you hear plenty of stories about heirs who start will contests and end up in legal disputes with their siblings. You don't want that to happen to your family, so you consider adding a no-contest clause to the estate plan. Essentially,...

When you're making an estate plan, you look at all of the assets that you have and you divide them between your heirs however you choose. You can put money in a trust, you can leave the money directly to an heir or you can use some combination to set up a plan that...

When you die, someone will need to take charge of handling your estate, passing it through probate if needed, and distributing assets as per your wishes. While death might seem a long way off, it is important to name someone now in case you die unexpectedly. If you...

The wonderful thing about estate planning in the 21st century is having so many options at your disposal. The legal documents you add to your estate plan can cover almost any issue that concerns you. A living will, for example, helps you address catastrophic health...

Most people's estate plans focus almost entirely on who they want to leave their property to when they die. Wills allocate property, while trusts can help people avoid estate taxes or the loss of property to creditors. That is far from all that an estate plan can do....