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.
They’re our best friends. We consider them family. We take pictures with them. Include them in special events and take them on family vacations. But when it comes time to provide for our loved ones upon our incapacity or after our passing, our pets often get overlooked.
Estate planning is appropriate and an important step at any stage in your life. It allows you to have some control over what happens to your assets after you die or become incapacitated.
Graduating High School is one of life’s many important milestones – even for parents! Many decisions you make prepare your child for College, but what comes after High School graduation? For starters, your child is an adult now. That means he or she is responsible for making all of the important decisions adults must make.
So you want to leave everything you have equally to your children? Sounds simple enough. But, it isn’t always simple and requires some specific language in your estate plan. Wills and trusts typically identify beneficiaries as “all children then living” (at the time of the testator’s death).
Your home or investment property is likely the most valuable asset you own. Yet most people don’t think about how to hold title until the title company poses the question when the property is bought, refinanced, or inherited. However, this deserves careful consideration, because how you hold title to property has estate planning implications.
Often when we think about the assets in our estate, we think of things we have immediate access to: real estate, bank accounts, retirement accounts, stocks, etc. However, life insurance policies are considered assets of your estate, even though the funds do not exist in your estate until after your passing.
Most estate plans focus primarily on disposing of your assets after your passing. But planning for your incapacity should be just as important. Depending on where you are in your life, incapacity planning can ensure that both you and your loved ones are taken care of, if the unexpected happens.
Many clients think that once they incorporate, they have done all they need to legally register their business. However, there are other registrations that businesses should have in place to ensure that they are operating properly. The failure to properly register can result in increased taxes, fines or suspension of your company.
Spring is here! That means two important Easter and Passover are quickly approaching. For many, these holidays include religious services, family gatherings, and special meals. These upcoming occasions also remind me that I have not addressed the issue of faith-based directives in estate planning in this blog.
Many of our clients have their own business or have family businesses that have been in their families for generations. Although they work hard to make their business grow, one thought is not commonly discussed: a proper estate plan for their business.
Kelly Erb, the “Tax Girl” columnist for Forbes, recently reminded us that IRS tax season opened officially on January 31st.
There is a common misconception that once you sign your estate planning documents, you are now automatically protected. Although that is the case for most documents, when it comes to your trust, there is still work to be done.