You may have spent a lifetime building a collection of assets to leave to your children when you die. Yet, if they do not want them, it could be a waste of time. Think about which of your parents' things you wanted when they died. They probably had a lot of stuff of...
You’re focusing on your will, trusts, health care directive and all of the other crucial documents you need to put in place as you develop your estate plan. But what about your family heritage? When you pass away, you may be taking some valuable information with you....
Pregnancy can seem longer than the nine months it actually is. It may progress much more quickly than you expect, though. One important thing to address when expecting a child is meeting with an estate planning attorney. There are multiple reasons why you might want...
Many individuals place their assets into a living trust to make transferring assets to their loved ones easier once they pass away. It's generally impossible for beneficiaries to contest a will before a testator's death. That same logic doesn't apply to trusts,...
California and other states have similar processes in place for handling a testator's estate. They generally require the estate to pass through the probate process whether the decedent had a will in place or not. The probate process generally takes up to a year to...
For many families, their angst begins over the fair distribution of their parents’ assets and possessions when their parents have passed on. But other families face quite a different conundrum: Their parents died broke and with their finances in a mess. Almost 50% of...
Milestones in our lives usually require some planning and consideration ahead of time. They might include saving for a college education and organizing the myriad details of a wedding, for example. Those are joyous, exciting occasions for most people. Writing a will...
An estate plan can represent hours of planning and hundreds of dollars of investment. If you spent time and money to create one, you probably have a specific legacy that you want to leave for the people you love. Unfortunately, no matter how carefully you try to avoid...
The role of a trustee is one that people often find confusing. A trustee has a fiduciary duty, but it is not to the person who created the trust. Their duty is to the trust itself and its beneficiaries. As the person named as trustee, your job is to manage the assets...
People who have children and get remarried need to give careful thought to the best way to ensure that everyone in the blended family gets their fair share of the estate. It isn’t usually sufficient to simply write a will that leaves everything to your spouse because...
