Browse Our Estate Planning Articles
Some of these articles have been written by our law firm and other articles are written by the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys and compliments of our law firm. Any feedback or questions about the articles can be addressed by contacting our office.
Choose Your Estate Planning Practitioner Wisely
Who should you entrust with planning your estate? Unfortunately, the estate planning industry can be a mixed bag. Along with licensed, qualified attorneys there are unqualified, or even unlicensed, individuals producing cookie-cutter estate plans that may or may not work as intended. Find out why you should choose your estate planning practitioner wisely.
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Short and Sweet is Not Always Better
When you compare a do-it-yourself living trust with one that was prepared by a qualified estate planning attorney, one of the first things you’re likely to notice is that the attorney-prepared trust is long. And it might not be so easy to read. There’s a good reason for this. This article discusses the reasons why planning for contingencies with an attorney drafted estate plan is the better choice. When it comes to estate planning, there’s any number of contingencies to prepare for.
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Leaving a Lasting Legacy
When you really think about it, your true wealth is much more than just your accumulated assets or material possessions. With the right plan, you can protect and preserve your true wealth and create a legacy for your family that will last for generations to come.
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What to Expect When You're Inheriting
At some point in our lives, we all dream of receiving an inheritance. We envision buying a new car, finally being able to afford private schools for the kids, or maybe even taking a trip around the world. But the reality of inheriting money or property often differs from our dreams. The process of settling an estate and distributing a deceased person’s assets can be time consuming. During this process you may have questions about taxes on various types of assets you may be inheriting, such as IRAs, valuable collectibles, and other property. This article provides a summary on what you can expect during this process if you’re anticipating an inheritance.
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Protecting Your Children from Their Nightmares... and Yours
The article examines statistics regarding divorce in America and how to protect your children from divorce. It examines setting up a divorce protection trust for them as well as using a marital trust for second marriages for your own assets.
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Help for Our Armed Forces
he article examines the taxation of combat pay. Specifically, combat pay is tax-free. Also, it looks at new legislation that allows combat pay, otherwise not in income, to be considered as income for IRA eligibility.
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Do You Want Your Spouse to Lose Your Biggest Asset?
The article examines how beneficiary designations must be coordinated in order to have an effective estate plan. It looks at the story of a woman who forgot to change her beneficiary designations. As a result her husband of 20 years did not get her retirement plan proceeds.
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Estate Planning: No Tattoo Necessary!
The article looks at how to make sure your final wishes are accomplished. It looks at the case of a woman who tatooed "do not resuscitate" across her chest. It deals primarily with health care powers / living wills, but also touches on trusts.
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Planning With Retirement Assets
The article looks at retirement planning and looks at a few strategies such as ROTH conversion, paying the tax, giving to charity, etc.
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Preserving the Ranch for the Next Generation
The article examines a typical ranch family, the problems they face, and solutions. It touches on problems of joint tenancy, incapacity, and succession. It offers an RLT, a second to die ILIT, and a buy-sell as solutions.
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How Do Millionaires Do It?
The article examines the five different types of millionaires and what makes them tick. It asserts that planning is at the core for all of them and that estate planning is necessary to avoid problems down the road.
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Planning: Just Do It!
This article looks at what happens if no planning is done. It looks at the problems of probate if no trust is done and of intestacy if no will is done.
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Charitable Bequests: You Better Review Them
This article examines the importance of periodic trust review and uses an example of charitable bequests and cy pres.
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Remarriage: Treat New Spouse Like Royalty
Examines use of income trust in remarriage situations. Analogizes to royal trust in Duchy of Cornwall.
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How to Handle a Windfall
This article examines the financial and estate planning steps for clients to take when they come into a financial windfall.
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The Problems of Giving Everything Away
This article examines a case of a woman who titles everything in the name of the children. It examines why joint title and giving everything away may not be the best course of action.
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Why is My Trust so Long?
Examines why a trust document must be long in order to be clear. Gives
examples of issues requiring clarification.
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Relax: Everything's Handled
Tells the story of a couple that is going on a second honeymoon and
is worry-free because they did their estate planning.
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Preserving Harmony with Blended Families
Second marriages and blended families raise unique concerns. The article examines marital trusts and unitrusts as a way to take care of both spouse and children and preserve family harmony.
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Want Privacy? Use a Trust
Wills without trusts are open to public scrutiny. The article examines why the client may not want this public scrutiny. Further, the article looks at 8 provisions in famous people's wills which all are a matter of public record.
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Study Shows Most Americans Unprepared
This article examines the percentage of Americans with various basic estate planning documents and explains each document.
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Irrevocable Trusts Need Not Be Scary
Irrevocable trusts are used frequently in estate planning for a wide variety of purposes. Irrevocable trusts can be used to make a completed gift of assets, while restricting access to the assets or retaining indirect control. Irrevocable trusts can be used in order to help protect assets from creditors of the trust beneficiaries. Such trusts even can be used as part of planning to qualify for Medicaid benefits.
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Grandparents as Parents: Planning is Critical
Grandparents fill a special role in the life of any grandchild. However, some grandparents raise their grandchildren and are the primary caregiver for them.
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New Privacy Regulations: How to Protect Yourself
The federal government often passes legislation that is designed to protect us. However, all too often, that legislation can have unintended consequences. Recent federal laws and regulations have created new privacy protections for medical information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and regulations to implement it, known as "HIPAA," recently came into effect. Now all "covered entities" must comply with strict rules or face fines and potential criminal penalties. "Covered entities" include your physicians and hospitals. Penalties for mistakes run from a $100 fine for an innocent error up to a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison for malicious misconduct.
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Probate: What Is It and Why Should You Try to Avoid It?
The term probate is often thrown around as freely as the daily paper. People know the word, but they don't know the implications. Maybe they knew someone who "went through" probate after the loss of a family member. Generally speaking however, most don't really know what probate is or how it works, much less how to avoid it. They only know that it is something that happens to a person's estate after they die, and many assume it happens to everyone. In reality, probate does not happen to every estate and can often be avoided.
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