Our previous installments on how to review your estate plan discussed how and why to review the more financial portions of your estate plan; for this final installment we will cover how to review the documents that may be closer to your heart: your health care documents and documents pertaining to minor children (such as… Read More »
Posts Tagged: estate plan
As Time Goes By… Part 1
For many people the holiday season brings more than just celebration. Seeing family and friends you may not have seen since this time last year means seeing children who have shot up like weeds, siblings and cousins with noticeably more gray in their hair, and even sometimes seeing an empty place at the dinner table… Read More »
Is All This Really Necessary? . . . Yes, It Turns Out It Really Is
Jane Hodges of the Wall Street Journal recently jumped in where few would fear to tread—and lived to write about it. Where most people would prefer not to think about taxes and estate planning at all if they could help it, Hodges went through the process of creating an estate plan not only once, but… Read More »
What To Do If You Suspect Foul Play
The movies have given people certain expectations when it comes to a death in the family and probating a will; this Hollywood portrayal includes an attorney, a book-lined office, and the entire family assembled for a formal reading of the will which ends in shocked gasps as the entire fortune goes to an unknown and… Read More »
The Dangers of Neglecting Your Estate Plan
Many people think that there’s no need to update your estate plan documents if none of your beneficiaries or fiduciaries have changed, but that’s exactly the kind of thinking that can lead to disaster. Estate planning documents are based not only on your own wishes, but also on federal and state tax laws. When we… Read More »
Protect Your Child from Dangerous Guardians
Some of the clients who seek our estate planning advice are parents of small children whose primary goal in creating an estate plan is to protect their children. This includes providing for their immediate financial needs, ensuring they will have the means to receive an education, and so forth, but often the very first question these… Read More »
Time, Technology, Fire and Flood: 3 Rules to Protect Your EP Documents
Anyone who has been around long enough knows that accidents happen, Murphy’s Law does exist, and things have a tendency to go wrong occasionally; computers crash, fires happen, pipes break and flood the first floor of your home. And sometimes things just get lost during the passage of time. This can even happen to something… Read More »
Planning Your Estate is Just the Beginning…
Many people come into our offices thinking that the estate plan we help them create will be quick, easy, and — above all — final for all time. They hope that once this item is crossed off the to-do list they can breathe a sigh of relief and never think about it again. For some… Read More »
How Well Do You Know Your Power of Attorney?
Imagine for a moment that you (or you and your spouse) are in a car accident, knocked on the head, and suffer brain injuries great enough to put you into a coma for 2 weeks and require a full seven months of nursing and rehabilitative care. Thankfully, you make a full recovery of all your… Read More »
When Should I Update My Estate Plan?
You’re one of the smart ones: You already have an estate plan that you and your spouse created it back in 1996; it’s sitting snugly in a safety deposit box, gathering dust until the (hopefully) far-off day when it will be needed. You’re done, right? Wrong. Kudos to you if you’ve already created your estate… Read More »