Why would parents procrastinate on something that it so important to their family’s well-being? The fact of the matter is that life insurance and estate planning are two topics that most people just don’t want to talk about. It is no fun to think about your own demise and picture…
His Will was written before the birth of his last two children and never updated; thus, his estate plan is completely silent about his wishes for them. The actor's death also highlights the effect that marriage can have on an estate plan. It seems that once a high-profile celebrity passes…
No one wants to leave their heirs with a mess to sort out or fight over. Here's a look at the top six things to remember when you're estate planning for a blended family. If you are remarried, how does the new marriage affect your estate planning? There are many…
Your first step? Take stock of all your assets. These include your investments, retirement accounts, insurance policies, real estate and any business interests. According to CNN Money's "Identifying your assets" (i.e., part of its Money Essentials Series), a good first step for estate planning is to review and inventory all…
Did you think estate planning would be easier because you don’t have children … or that you don’t really need an estate plan? If so, you couldn’t be more wrong! The website dailycall.com recently posted an article, titled "Aging and estate planning for singles and couples without children," to help…
Now is the time to adopt financial habits that determine a successful retirement, even if you’re still in your 20s. (Note: Parents, here is a great article to share with your twenty-something adult children!) If you are a twenty-something, you have plenty of time to think about investing, right? Even…
So how do DAPTs work in a marriage to protect assets? Do they need to be set up before the marriage? Can they be set up during the marriage? Marriage might be that last step in bringing two people and two lives together. Nevertheless, that moment often causes one to…
Asset protection is the process of employing risk management products and legally acceptable solutions to ensure a person’s wealth is not unjustly taken. Ever heard of the rule of entropy? Roughly, it says that things tend toward chaos. So it is with business and the chaos of litigation. If you…
Death of the borrower triggers the loan payoff, but the estate and heirs will never owe more than what the home is worth. Family homes are unique assets. And like many assets, family homes can be as complicated as they are meaningful. Even when heirs inherit a home with no…
If your parents live in one of 29 states or Puerto Rico that has filial responsibility laws on the books, you could potentially be held legally responsible for their care under certain circumstances, such as when your parents are ailing and without sufficient financial resources to take care of themselves.…