5 Reasons to Embrace the Emotional Side of Estate Planning

When you hear the phrase “estate plan,” you might first think about paperwork. Or your mind might land on some of the uncomfortable topics that estate planning confronts head-on: end-of-life decisions, incapacity, and your family’s legacy from generation to generation. Those subjects hit home for everyone. But while that could feel like a reason to avoid estate planning, the emotional nature

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Do It Now: Name a Guardian for Your Minor Child(ren)

We know it’s hard. Thinking about someone else raising your children stops us all in our tracks. It feels crushing and too horrific to consider. But you must. If you don’t, a stranger will determine who raises your children if something happens to you – your child’s guardian could be a relative you despise or even a stranger you’ve never met.

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Are Payable-On-Death Accounts Right For You?

A payable-on-death account, also called a POD account, is a common way to keep bank and investment accounts out of probate, the court-supervised process that oversees distributing a deceased person’s property. Most people want to avoid their estate going through probate because their heirs will receive the inheritance faster, privately, and at lower cost. Is a POD account an appropriate solution

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What do successor trustees and executors do?

Executor’s Duties An executor, sometimes called a personal representative, is the person who is named in a will, appointed by the court, and responsible for probating the will and settling the estate. Depending on the state, an executor may work under court supervision or may use so-called “independent” administration for an unsupervised probate. Typically, a petition of probate must be filed

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How to Leave Assets to Adult Children

When considering how to leave assets to adult children, the first step is to decide how much each one should receive. Most parents want to treat their children fairly, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they should receive equal shares of your estate. For example, it may be desirable to give more to a child who is a teacher than to one

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Advance Health Care Directives

One important component to a living trust – centered estate plan is an advanced health care directive (formerly known as “living wills”).  This 2010 article from the Los Angeles Times cites a study that says that over the past 15 years or so, the number of people with health care directives has risen from 20% to 67%.  More importantly, the New

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