Plain-spoken answers to the questions families ask us. These articles are educational material, not legal advice, and shouldn’t be relied on as legal counsel.
Heath Ledger. Whitney Houston. River Phoenix. Brittany Murphy. Cory Monteith. When beloved stars die suddenly – at a young age – we are saddened and shocked. Unexpected things, bad and good, can happen to anyone, any time.
We admire Brad and Angelina, Bono, George Clooney, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, and so many others, not only for their star quality and talent, but also because of what they do in going beyond the call to help people all over the globe.
Famous couples seem to lead charmed lives filled with big money, fabulous homes, and gorgeous kids. Then suddenly…their divorce is trending, tweeting, and ever so topical! It’s easy to get so tuned in to the awfulness of the split that things get forgotten.
Valerie Harper, the iconic TV actress, is facing her terminal illness with dignity, grace, good humor, and strength. Whether we watch her dancing on TV or simply sharing her thoughts and experiences with the media, we can learn so much about celebrating every moment of our lives.
If you decide to include a trust as part of your estate planning, you will need to name someone as Trustee. And we aren’t necessarily talking about your best friend, your neighbor the lawyer, or even your closest relative.
Often, entrepreneurs fail to create a comprehensive estate plan that includes provisions for the transfer of their business. When left untended, however, the lack of a plan can wreak havoc on a family business. A recent article discussed three estate planning tips for entrepreneurs.
Not long after the untimely death of “Sopranos” actor James Gandolfini at the age of 51, experts have been pouring over his will. A recent article discusses several estate planning mistakes experts have found in Gandolfini’s will. One lesson is to consider the ages of your children carefully when structuring their inheritance.
After the implementation of the 2013 federal tax law, many Americans are discovering that they no longer need the trust accounts that they had previously set up. As a recent article discussed, sometimes a revocable trust can be terminated. One type of revocable trust is the bypass trust.
Now that the unified credit changes for 2013 estate planning have taken effect, many individuals wonder whether bypass trusts are still necessary to include their estate plan. A recent article discusses why bypass trusts will still prove beneficial to many estate plans. Bypass trusts are beneficial for many reasons.
In 2008, Warren Hillman died at the age of 66. One of the assets he left behind was an insurance policy valued at $124,558.03. Like many Americans, Hillman forgot to update the beneficiary designation on the policy. As a recent article discussed, the results were likely not what Hillman would have wanted.
While none of us can avoid death, we can all put safeguards in place in an attempt to save our loved ones from the feuding that often results when estates are not planned carefully. Often, family fights over estate planning documents become bitter and end up in probate court.
As businesses recover from the recent recession, many business owners want to be sure that their business is protected from any future bumps in the economic road. As an article in Forbes explains, asset protection planning is a necessary topic that should be approached with caution and care.