It’s hard because you want to be sure your chosen person understands your wishes, your financial situation and can make good decisions on your behalf. Not everyone can do that. There is considerable responsibility that comes with being named an executor of an estate, explains MoneySense in the article “Should…
These may be common mistakes, but they are too important to dismiss and delay. Every year, local television news crews show up at local post offices to see the lines of folks waiting to get their tax returns postmarked on April 15—even when so many of us are using online…
Writing your own will is a lot like trying to do your own dental work. You can brush, floss and even use a water flosser, but the rest is best left to the trained professional. It’s a fairly common question: “Why can’t I download a form and create my own…
For people who like to plan and don’t trust anyone else to get the details right, estate planning and even funeral planning can provide peace of mind. If you watched the funeral of the former President George H. W. Bush, you may have noticed how smoothly everything went. Every detail…
Live long enough, and you learn that life can change in a heartbeat. Young adults don’t always know this, but they need to have an estate plan as much as older people. Whether you are a Baby Boomer or a Millennial, you need to have an estate plan. With the…
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…
It sounds crazy, but there are many good reasons why someone would not want to receive an inheritance. Making sure that you are not forced to receive assets must be done very carefully, so you’ll need an estate planning attorney on your team. An estate waiver, also known as an…
Out-of-date beneficiary designations could completely undo your entire estate plan. It happens often, since people often neglect these ‘fine print’ details. We hope that you have a will to ensure that your assets are distributed according to your wishes after you pass. However, if you are like most Americans, many…
If your will does not address this issue, then your state’s laws will be applied. Speak to an experienced Houston estate planning attorney to see about Texas heir laws. Estate planning attorneys deal with unexpected issues all of the time, and by their nature, some of them involve sensitive and sad topics.…
Single with a net worth less than $11.4 million in 2019? You’re in luck—you can die knowing that all of your money will pass free of any federal estate tax to your heirs. It was good news for the wealthy—the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) amped up the unified…