Category Archives: Estate Planning
Life Estate versus Right of Occupancy Trust: Which Is Right for You?
Planning for the future of your home can be complicated, especially when you want to ensure that a loved one can continue living there after you are gone. Two common tools for accomplishing this are life estates and right of occupancy trusts. A life estate grants someone the legal right to live in a… Read More »
Beware of Trust Scams—and How to Spot Them
Trusts are widely used in estate planning to protect and transfer a person’s assets (money, accounts, property, etc.), sometimes in a tax-advantaged manner. Some trusts are highly complex, with multiple parties, intricate structures, specialized legal terms, and references to arcane tax law that can be difficult for the average person to understand. Scammers have… Read More »
How to Give Real Property to a Loved One at Your Death Without Probate Court Involvement
A home is often one of the most important assets that people own. Therefore, most people want to stay in their home until they die and then have a loved one receive it. One common way to transfer the deed of a house after death is through a will. However, transferring property with a… Read More »
Does Your Revocable Living Trust Reduce Your Federal Estate Tax Bill?
Many believe that once they set up and fund a revocable living trust, property held in the trust will completely avoid federal estate taxes after they die. In reality, a living trust does not provide any unique estate tax avoidance strategies. The primary mechanisms for estate tax avoidance or reduction —the unlimited marital deduction… Read More »
HIPAA: An Overview for Young Adults
The Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was enacted to provide guidelines to the healthcare industry for protecting patient information and preserving privacy. This is usually a nonissue for minors because parents, as legal guardians, generally have access to their children’s medical information, make most of their medical decisions, and… Read More »
Happy 18th Birthday! Now What?
Congratulations! You are now legally an adult. Although you may not feel any different, from a legal standpoint, a great deal has changed. When you were a minor (under age 18), your parents were your legal guardians responsible for making all your decisions. Now that you are an adult, their legal authority over you… Read More »
4 Steps to Stop Mail Addressed to a Deceased Person
Once you have been appointed the executor or personal representative of a deceased loved one’s probate estate, or when you step in as the successor trustee of the loved one’s trust, one of the first things you should do is to notify the post office of the death and ask them to forward the… Read More »
How Do I Create an Estate Plan with an Only Child?
Stereotypes surrounding “only child syndrome” have largely been debunked, as recent studies show that only children, on average, develop social skills similar to those of children with siblings.[1] Further, outdated perceptions surrounding only children have shifted as the average size of the American family has shrunk, and one-child families have become far more common…. Read More »
Are My Business Succession Planning Documents Relevant to My Estate Plan?
Studies consistently find that only about 25–35 percent of Americans have an estate plan, a shockingly low rate when you consider that, in the absence of a plan, the state—not you or your family—decides what happens to your assets, including your business interests. The overall business succession planning rate is higher, with about two-thirds… Read More »
Will My Revocable Living Trust Avoid Probate? It Depends.
If you have established a revocable living trust (which we will refer to simply as a trust), congratulations! You are on the right track in creating a comprehensive estate plan. However, you are only halfway there. Many people believe that because they took the time to create a trust, they no longer need to… Read More »
