One common goal in the estate planning process is crafting a plan that allows your beneficiaries to avoid probate. Probate can often be a long and drawn-out process, and many of our clients use various estate planning tools to avoid probate court altogether. One such tool, which we discuss on…
Medicaid estate recovery is a scary process, and it can affect families across the country during already difficult times. How can you plan ahead and help guard against Medicaid estate recovery? This blog serves as a starting point, but remember that each person’s circumstances are different, and each person might…
Many of our clients have causes or organizations that matter deeply to them and that they want to financially support. There are many ways to incorporate charitable giving into your estate plan, and the tool you end up choosing to structure your charitable giving will depend on your own goals…
An affidavit of heirship is a relatively simple estate planning tool that can have a major impact on certain beneficiaries. On today’s blog, we review the basics around affidavits of heirship, so that you can familiarize yourself with when and how they can be used for your advantage. If you…
As part of your estate planning process, you choose beneficiaries to inherit different parts (or the totality) of your estate. What happens, though, if a beneficiary dies before you do? Today’s blog covers several different possible outcomes that your loved ones could expect in this scenario. To start, if one…
If you are looking for ways to ensure that your loved ones are well-protected in the event of your death, consider the advantages of a life insurance trust. A life insurance trust is a form of legal agreement that puts the grantor’s life insurance into a trust. The designated trustee…
There’s no way around it: long-term care in the United States is expensive. At McCulloch & Miller, we help families plan for the later years of their loved ones’ lives, and for many clients, this can be a daunting process. After several decades of working in the industry, there are…
Many of our clients have causes or organizations that matter deeply to them and that they want to financially support. There are many ways to incorporate charitable giving into your estate plan, and the tool you end up choosing to structure your charitable giving will depend on your own goals…
Cryptocurrency, compared to other kinds of assets, is relatively new, and the legal landscape around cryptocurrency is still developing. How, then, do individuals with cryptocurrency incorporate the asset into their estate plan? There are several basic considerations that can be helpful to keep in mind when deciding how to make…
When you go through a divorce, does your estate plan automatically update to remove your ex-spouse? Or are there steps you need to take to make sure everything is in line with your wishes? At McCulloch & Miller, we consistently tell our clients that they should update their estate plans…