Estate planning is critical for efficiently transferring your money, property, and assets to your beneficiaries after you die. The reason people choose an estate plan is that it avoids probate. One thing to keep in mind about your estate plan is not to set it and forget it. As life continues to change, your estate [...]
Basic estate planning is something that everyone should do, regardless of your age, marital status, the value of your assets, and if you’re a parent or not. According to a 2021 poll by Gallup, less than half of U.S. adults (46%) have a will that dictates what happens to their assets when they die. This statistic [...]
Even if you never thought of yourself as especially wealthy, there may be a fair chance that you fall into the category of "high net worth individuals"—those who have liquid assets of $1 million or more.1 For many individuals who hope to leave a legacy for their loved ones, estate planning may take on new [...]
A recent survey by Caring.com found that a whopping two in three American adults do not have an estate plan1—an alarming statistic, considering that an estate plan can protect your assets and ensure that they go to the right people. If you have not begun to prepare an estate plan, or if your estate planning efforts [...]
For business owners, estate planning may seem like another task to do on a long to-do list. Having a solid estate and succession plan in place may be crucial to your business's long-term success. If you are incapable of making business decisions, or if you unexpectedly pass away without an estate plan, your heirs may [...]
For members of the "Sandwich Generation"—those currently in their 40s and 50s who are caring for children and their parents who are over 65-years old—estate planning may seem like a low priority. After all, when you're juggling multiple caregiving responsibilities daily, sitting down to draft a will is easy to put off. But estate planning [...]
In United States v. Windsor (2013), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which required that federal statutes, regulations, and rulings are interpreted as defining marriage as a "legal union between one man and one woman" and a spouse as "a person of the opposite sex [...]
It can be fairly easy to underestimate your net worth. After all, predicting the future value of your home and savings is merely hypothetical. On the other hand, you can rely on the fixed amount of the death benefit provided by your life insurance policy. However, adding this often significant sum to your asset pool [...]
