Pet Estate PlanningDo you love your pet? Do you consider your pet to be part of your family? Are you concerned about what will happen to Fluffy or Fido if anything happens to you? If your answer to any of these questions is "yes," please read this blog and learn more about how you can create a pet trust to insure that the people you want will care for your pet when you can no longer do so.What is a pet trust?It is a legally [...]
Avoiding probate does not have to be complicated or expensive. There are simple steps you can take to ensure that certain assets pass to the people you chose without going through probate. One of the easiest ways to avoid probate is to have the money in your bank accounts, retirement accounts and investment accounts automatically transfer to the beneficiary or beneficiaries of your choice after you pass away by filling out simple beneficiary designation forms with your bank and financial institution.Pay-on-Death (POD) Bank AccountsPay-on-death (POD) [...]
An Advance Health Care Directive allows you to make important health care decisions for yourself and designate an agent to carry out those wishes in the event you are incapacitated and unable to make your own medical decisions.
Without a properly drafted estate plan stating your wishes, your assets may not go to the person or persons you want or they may be distributed according to State law.
The Successor Trustee will collect and manage your assets, pay your debts, and decide when and how your trust assets will be distributed to your beneficiaries after you pass away.
Many people feel strongly about avoiding probate at their death. You may think that a Last Will is something that family members handle among themselves after you pass away. Everyone pictures a scene out of a movie or TV show where the executor reads the Will to the family, and then proceeds to distribute the assets in accordance with the Will. The truth is that the process is never that simple. Unless your estate is valued at less than $150,000, the Probate Court must be [...]
Do you have an estate plan? You should have a carefully conceived estate plan which allows you to decide how your assets will be handled when you pass away or become incapacitated. You've probably spent a great deal of time and energy accumulating your assets, and a good estate plan will help protect your interests once you no longer are able to. Failure to properly plan your estate can leave your family’s property vulnerable. And the larger your estate, the more critical it is to plan [...]
What is a Durable Power of Attorney? A durable power of attorney allows you to manage your property and financial affairs in the event that you become disabled or incapacitated. Unless you have a properly drafted power of attorney, when you become incapacitated or disabled, it may be necessary to go to court and have a guardian or conservator appointed to make decisions for you. This conservatorship process is usually lengthy and expensive as well as being emotionally draining. There are two types of durable [...]
With an estate plan, you can:Provide support and financial stability for your surviving spouse or partner, children, and grandchildren.Preserve your assets for later generations.Make sure your wishes are carried out when you can no longer manage your affairs. It's important to have both a power of attorney and an advance health care directive.Support a favorite charity or cause with a gift of money, securities, or other property.Distribute assets in a timely fashion, with a minimum of legal hassles.Minimize taxes and expenses that can go along [...]
Grandma had the most amazing china. Her three adult grand-children continued to fight over who would get grandma’s china when she passed away. It wasn’t the house, the car or the money that her three grand-children bickered about, but rather the source of the commotion was Grandma’s fine china, routinely used to serve dinner on the most special of occasions. Unlike financial assets, which can generally be divided easily among your heirs, tangible personal property is unique. And the complications associated with distributing a lifetime’s [...]