If you are like many California residents, you have a safety deposit box to store items you want to keep safe. While that is all well and good for some of your assets, a safety deposit box is not a catch-all for everything of value that you own — or your most vital...
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Estate Planning
What should you do with family heirlooms in your estate plan?
In some ways, dividing family heirlooms can be more difficult than dividing cash and other financial assets when you’re doing your estate planning. Financial assets may be worth far more, but at least you can divide these types of assets equally. With heirlooms,...
2 reasons you may want to change your advanced medical directive
When people revisit their estate plans, the allocation of their property or beneficiary designations often receive more consideration than the living will documents. However, the documents that you've created to guide your loved ones in the event of your...
The importance of including ancestry information in your estate plan
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....
How should you handle your personal property when estate planning?
When planning your estate, your most valuable assets are often the easiest to handle. You probably already have a plan for how to split up your financial assets or for how to handle your home after you die. People have rarely planned so carefully about their personal...
What to consider when planning for retirement
When planning for retirement, there are several things to consider, not least what you will do with yourself. Too many people work and save hard all their life in preparation for their retirement. Yet they then get ill and die within a few years without ever having...
Do not leave it until it’s too late to tell your family of an estate plan
According to a recent report by Wells Fargo, 65% of the people surveyed had not talked about their will or estate plan to their families. What makes that figure more shocking is those they surveyed were all investors. They should be more financially aware than most....
What happens if a will contradicts a beneficiary designation?
Imagine your ex wakes up one day to find they have received a lump sum payout from your retirement account. Or, imagine your younger child discovers that your life insurance policy has gone entirely into the bank account of their older sibling. Both of these...
New to California? Why you need to update your estate plan
Whether you’ve recently moved to California or you’re in the process of preparing to move, you’ve got a lot on your mind and probably a to-do list that seems endless. If you have an estate plan that was drawn up in another state, don’t forget that it will need...
LGBTQ equality is still lacking — Ensure your estate plan is not
Even though LGBTQ rights have come a long way over the past few years, prejudice still exists. Some people and institutions continue to treat same-sex partners differently. If your family struggles to accept your sexuality, they could make things challenging for your...