You’ve kept your will updated regularly to make sure your assets are distributed according to your wishes upon death. Have you done the same thing with your beneficiary designations? If not, your wishes may not be carried out as you expect.
A will covers the destination of most assets upon your death. However, assets that
Estate Planning
What happens to your financial accounts when you pass away? They will be passed along to the beneficiary or beneficiaries designated for that account – but what happens when your beneficiaries are out-of-date? For example, what if your beneficiary passes away before you do? How about an old account where you named your children as
You’ve decided to pass your home on to your children, but you haven’t settled on the best method to transfer ownership. You are also questioning whether you want to stay in the home or downsize to a smaller place. What factors should you be considering as you make your decision?
Start by reviewing the typical
Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase “Power of Attorney” on a TV lawyer show, or even from a real lawyer. Ever wonder what it means?
What is Power of Attorney? A Power of Attorney (POA) is a document granting one person or organization (typically called an agent or attorney-in-fact) the authority to act on the behalf
Life can get hectic fast and people can easily allow certain tasks to fall through the cracks. Unfortunately, sometimes we never remember to complete those tasks — or even what those tasks were — and it can end up costing you your hard-earned money.
For example, you may forget to leave a forwarding address with
Sunday, July 23, is Parents’ Day, which was established when President Clinton signed a Congressional Resolution into law in 1994 to recognize, uplift, and support the role of parents in raising children. At some point when those children are grown, however, it often becomes their responsibility to care for their aging parents. It is an
Does your ability to pass on your wealth to your heirs depend on where you live … and die? Indeed it does. Federal estate taxes apply no matter where you live within the U.S., but eighteen states subject their citizens to estate taxes or inheritance taxes. The difference between the two is that estate taxes
Homeowners rarely think about dying when they apply for a mortgage, but legal experts urge buyers, especially older buyers, to learn about what happens to their loan and their property if they die before the balance is paid in full. Bernard A. Krooks, an elder law expert, stresses that seniors need to be informed so
Nobody wants to think about his or her own death,
but you owe it to your loved ones to have a sound plan for your assets to avoid
extra expense and aggravation when you pass away. Let’s take a few minutes to review three of
the biggest mistakes you can make in estate planning.
Disaster planning is a critical exercise for most businesses. The idea is to devise contingency plans for the continued ongoing operation of the company in the event of a major storm, fire, terrorist attack or other natural or man-made disaster.
In the same way, individuals should do some financial disaster planning so they can be
When they hear the term “estate planning,” many people immediately think that this doesn’t apply to them because they aren’t “rich.” But you don’t have to be wealthy to have an estate.
The fact is, if you own anything — a home or other real estate, automobile(s), investments, checking and savings accounts or life insurance,
For most people, the death of a spouse is the most traumatic event imaginable. Nevertheless, as bad as the emotional trauma can be, the financial trauma is often equivalent — and can last for much longer — if widows and widowers do not take the right financial steps in the immediate aftermath of their spouse’s
A trust is a legal arrangement where a person or company (the trustee) has the legal title to property for another person. If you set up a trust while you are still alive, this is called a living trust.
The trustee has legal rights of management and is expected to manage the trust assets for
An Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) is a trust set up to hold ownership of your life insurance policies. There are three primary reasons why an ILIT might be right for you.
Avoiding Estate Taxes – Unless you take steps to prevent it, the proceeds of your life insurance policies are included as part of
A QTIP in the financial field refers to Qualified Terminable Interest Property, a definition used in forming a special type of trust. QTIPs are properties such as lifetime income interests that qualify for the marital deductions on estate taxes.
There are three primary purposes to a QTIP trust:
Direction of Assets After Surviving Spouse’s Death