An expansion from Do I Need a Will? I have done a series of articles explaining estate planning on a spectrum from simplest and cheapest to more complex and more expensive. Generally, that spectrum flows from planning how assets are owned so that they will pass on death with beneficiary designations, payable on death designations…
“These times, they are a changin’” is the famous line by Bob Dylan. It was an anthem for the 1960’s and early 1970’s. It seemed pretty profound to us who lived through those times. Today we deal with more mundane things, like estate planning, and times have changed. The number of people who have never…
In my high school psychology class, my history teacher came and spoke to us one day about his disabled son. He read to us a short story in which he compared having a disabled child to a trip to Europe. The story began with a couple planning to go to Italy to tour all of…
After considering Who Needs a Will? The probate process can be avoided while still maintaining a very high degree of certainty that your estate will be handled by the persons who choose, the way you want it handled, by using a living Trust. Unlike a Will, where the job is done when the Will is…
Expanding on Do-It-Yourself Estate Planning: Keeping it Simple: Do-it-yourself estate planning is simple and cheap. By using a combination of beneficiary designations, payable on death designations and joint ownership, you can pass most of your assets on directly to the people you want. This simple estate planning can work well between spouses and for very small…
After doing Estate Planning for many years, a pattern emerges in the questions that people ask (and statements that people make). For instance, people often say something like, “I just want a simple Will.” The statement begs the question: why do you want a simple Will? The reality is that people often don’t know the…
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You’ve probably heard the stories about what happens when a family member dies without doing any estate planning… and if you haven’t heard them, I could fill a book! The vacuum left by the death of a loved one can produce some strange and unfortunate reactions. Slights (or perceived slights), feelings of unfairness and quirky family dynamics,…
Handling an estate for a loved one who has passed can be a real headache, but someone needs to do it. If the loved one has done his estate planning, the process will be easier than it would be if he has done nothing. Most estates, however, have to go through “probate”, and the probate…
Other aspects of estate planning are more complex, but choosing a trustee is one of the more difficult decisions to make. Conventional wisdom suggests that people should have several trustees in order of succession, but sometimes choosing even one successor trustee can be difficult. This is true whether we are talking about a living trust that is…