Creating one or more trusts is an excellent way to safeguard your assets and ensure they can pass on to your heirs intact. However, it is not enough to create a trust. You must add your property to give your trust value. When people begin their estate planning...
It can be very difficult to watch a child or other family members struggle with chemical dependence. Addiction not only steals opportunity from people but it also often changes their personality. Someone that you want to trusted and respected might now be capable of...
A person who’s creating their estate plan has a variety of decisions to make. One of these is who will take care of their finances if something happens to them. While some people may not think much about this, others opt to take the proactive approach and name a...
After someone dies, their loved ones go through a lot, emotionally, mentally and even physically. The grieving process is difficult and when legal issues come into play, this time can be even harder. The court-supervised process of distributing and overseeing a...
New Year’s resolutions are an American tradition -- and there is, after all, something refreshing and optimistic about the start of a new year with a blank calendar ahead. If you’re thinking about the resolutions you want to make this year, we have one suggestion:...
Most people put off writing their wills. There are plenty of surveys showing, for instance, that most Americans don’t have a will or that doing estate planning is even becoming less common. While everyone has their own reasons for procrastinating, from feeling...
One question that a lot of people have is if a trust is something that they need in their estate plan. Trusts are sometimes seen as legal documents that are only for the wealthy, but the reality is that they can help most people. There are many different kinds of...
If your child has a disability, you may wish to consider creating a special needs trust as part of your estate plan. While not always necessary, there can be considerable advantages to doing so. Here are some reasons you may wish to create one. A special needs trust...
If you’ve been putting off developing your estate plan because you own property or other assets in another country, you aren’t alone. Actually, the more complex your assets are, the more important it is to begin your estate planning while you’re still relatively young...
When you have loved ones who have special needs, one of the things you may choose to do is to set up a special needs trust for their benefit. Whether you’re a sibling, grandparent or even someone unrelated to the person with a disability, you have a right to create a...