Answer the Questions Before Your “Important People” Have to Ask: Write a Direction Memo™
Your Direction Memo™ can help you answer difficult questions that your loved ones may have after you’re gone. By writing out your wishes and intentions, you can provide peace of mind and clarity for those who remain. Some questions your Direction Memo can help answer include: – Who will handle my estate? – How do…
Implementation: The Overlooked Step in Estate Planning
When it comes to estate planning, many people focus on creating a will and revocable trust. While these are undoubtedly essential documents, they are not the only ones you need to protect your assets. Another critical factor in estate planning is implementation – making sure all of your estate documents are signed and that all…
What is Portability for Estate and Gift Tax?
Portability is the term used to describe a new provision in federal estate tax law that allows a widow or widower to use any unused federal estate tax exemption of his or her deceased spouse to shelter assets from gift tax during the surviving spouse’s life and estate tax at the surviving spouse’s death. Portability…
Choosing an Estate Planning Attorney
Although any lawyer can draw up a simple will for straightforward situations, such as naming the beneficiary of one’s 401(k), seasoned trust-and-estate lawyers can help navigate more complicated situations involving several trusts and multiple heirs. Questions for Your Potential Estate-Planning Lawyer The following questions will help you learn about estate planning and determine if a prospective estate…
Offshore Trusts
Introduction To devise the most potent asset protection strategy, it is helpful to know precisely what you want to protect ahead of time. After a lifetime of work, you will hopefully have several different assets and properties that you want to keep safe from creditors using asset protection. Then, working with an asset protection attorney,…
Designating Beneficiaries for Retirement Accounts
A beneficiary designation is a way to transfer an asset to an individual, organization, or multiple beneficiaries upon the owner’s passing. For financial accounts such as individual retirement accounts (IRAs), a beneficiary designation is typically a paper or electronic form provided by the account custodian, which allows the account owner to designate who will receive…
What is a QPRT?
Qualified Personal Residence Trust Properly drafted, the Qualified Personal Residence Trust (“QPRT”) is designed to transfer a personal residence or vacation home to your beneficiaries in the future using today’s valuation. The trust works like this: the residence is valued and transferred to the trust after the trust is drafted and signed. The donor retains…
Checklist to “Fund” a Revocable Living Trust
Creating your Trust is just the first part of the Estate Planning process. After you sign your Trust document, the next step is to fund the trust. The method of funding a trust involves transferring assets to it. Tips for Funding a Trust This guide is meant to serve as a helpful starting point for…
Estate Planning and Your New Adult Child’s Health: The Suite of Advance Healthcare Documents
Estate Planning and Your New Adult Child’s Health: The Suite of Advance Healthcare Documents
Coping with Market Volatility
During times of economic uncertainty, financial markets are characterized by wide swings in market value. The “market volatility,” with prices sharply rising and falling, reflects investor sentiment as well as more substantive economic or political events. During stable times, financial markets will still fluctuate, although price movements tend to be more moderate. By their very…
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