The second annual National Healthcare Decisions Day is coming up on April 16, and there has never been more reason to consider what your own wishes are, and especially to make those wishes known. As difficult as it may be to think about the end of your parent’s, your child’s or your own life, not… Read More »
Blog Posts Page 56
The Most Important Part of Your Estate Plan
What is the most important component of an estate plan? This is a question that comes up a lot in our practice, and as you might guess, different families will have different answers. The Trust: Many families feel that this is the heart of the estate plan, and as such the most important part. … Read More »
Be Prepared
As an estate planning firm it is our job to keep our clients prepared for what’s coming. This means helping prepare them not only for the eventuality of death, but also for what is coming in life; retirement, the possibility of divorce, new children or grandchildren, and even taxes. Estate taxes especially are of great… Read More »
Help for Growing Old Gracefully and Peacefully
There is a saying that goes something along the lines of “the only thing worse than getting old is the alternative,” which is said to express pretty well the dismay, betrayal, confusion and sometimes horror that go along with the aging process. Americans are living longer than ever—which really means that there are more opportunities… Read More »
Preserving Your Grandparents’ Story
An estate planner’s office can feel a lot like it’s all about the logistics of death: who gets what and how, who gets to make decisions, where things are kept, etc. But at our office, we know that every estate plan is also about a personal or a family story, and we encourage our clients… Read More »
Prepare Your Heirs for Tough Times with an Incentive Trust
In these troubled financial times many parents are re-thinking the wisdom of passing on an inheritance with no strings attached. Parents and grandparents still want to help give their heirs a financial boost, but now they want to pass on something else as well—the value of resourcefulness and hard work. How often have you longed… Read More »
Should You Share Your Estate Plan With Your Heirs?
If you have a significant estate to leave to your heirs—but you are still alive and well—to whom does that significant estate belong, you or them? This seems a silly question: of course the property belongs to you, but many adult children have come to count on the property their parents will leave them, and—rightly… Read More »
Organize Your Estate for Your Successor Trustee
If you’ve ever been unlucky enough to have to execute a deceased loved one’s estate, then you know what an overwhelming job it can be. Think about your own method of organization. Do you keep all of your financial papers in one place? Do you keep your birth and marriage certificates nearby and easily accessible? … Read More »
The Sleepy Field of Estate Planning—Until Now
When people think of lawyers they usually think of the fast-paced lives of the characters in John Grisham’s legal dramas, or maybe the dramatic and exciting courtroom scenes from the movie A Few Good Men. But Estate Planning Law has never been like that. Estate Planning has always been a calm and sedate area of… Read More »
Make the Most of IRA Distributions—Carefully
When we talk to clients about “the estate” they will pass on to their heirs, that estate includes a number of components: home, life insurance, bank accounts, investment accounts, secondary properties, and IRAs or other retirement assets. Many people consider their IRA the least of the assets in their estate, because they intend to spend… Read More »