“Until death do us part” sounds very different when you are in your twenties and getting married for the first time. As a couple travels through a life together, the time comes to create or revise an estate plan. Granted, the estate planning process isn’t as much fun as planning…
A will serves several purposes. It gives you the power to distribute your possessions, according to your own wishes. It also lets you name who should take care of your children, if they are minors when you die, and of your pets, if you provide for them in the will.…
When you die, the assets you’ve accumulated during your lifetime have to be distributed. If you don’t make a plan, your family may be left to clean up a legal mess, quarrel amongst themselves, or watch as a long-lost family member is given everything by a court decision. An estate…
The progressive nature of dementia makes advance directives necessary to manage the health care needs of the patient. When adult children suspect that one or both of their parents may be suffering from the early symptoms of dementia, it’s a good idea to sit down with an experienced elder care…
The number of seniors being exploited or abused quadrupled from 2013-2017. Tracked now by a number of financial institutions that submit data to FinCEN, a federal government watchdog agency, elder abuse has become a national epidemic. More than 180,000 Suspicious Activity Reports submitted by banks to the federal government were…
Estate planning requires making some of the most important decisions a parent can make for their child’s well-being. Single parents need to plan in advance for what will happen to their children, whether they are minors or adults. That includes preparing for the parent’s incapacity, as much as it does…
This grim topic deserves your attention. If you haven’t made plans for what will happen after you die, your loved ones will have to pick up the pieces. Here’s the nice part about this serious subject: once you have created an estate plan, you will have a clearer understanding of…
People think of estate plans as one-off documents, but they should think of them more like cars. Estate plans need maintenance, oil changes, tune-ups and if there’s an accident, repairs. As life progresses, you’ll go through a number of stages, from being a teen to an adult, getting married, retiring,…
Among the top three reasons for an estate plan are to make sure that your assets are distributed according to your wishes, helping your loved ones from having to pay more taxes than necessary and if possible, avoiding having your estate go through probate. When there are minor children or…
There are a number of different estate planning documents that are easily confused, including “Power of Attorney.” Let’s get a look at the different types of “Power of Attorney,” and what they do. Of the estate planning documents, most people have heard of a will and some have a health…