Given life’s fleeting nature, using time with your family and friends to talk about estate planning is vital for ensuring you and your loved ones will be provided and cared for no matter what happens. READ MORE
Posts Categorized: Estate Planning
Three Tips for Talking About Your Estate Plan During the Holidays
Christmas is right around the corner, bringing the joyous season of gathering with family and loved ones into full-swing. It is the time to slow down, get caught up with loved ones, and enjoy the family and experience quality time around the dinner table. It is also a great idea to take this opportunity to review your estate plan and talk about the topic with your loved ones. READ MORE
Think Your Homeowners Insurance Offers Protection From Natural Disasters Think Again
As part of customized estate planning, the first step in protecting your assets is having adequate insurance coverage. READ MORE
Don’t Forget to Include Your Digital Assets In Your Estate Plan—Part 2
Today, estate planning encompasses not just tangible property like finances and real estate, but also digital assets like cryptocurrency, blogs, and social media. With so much of our lives now lived online, it’s vital you put the proper estate planning provisions in place to ensure your digital assets are effectively protected and passed on in the event of your incapacity or death. READ MORE
Don’t Forget to Include Your Digital Assets In Your Estate Plan—Part 1
With our lives increasingly being lived online, our digital assets can be quite extensive and extremely valuable. Given this, it’s more important than ever that your estate plan includes detailed provisions to protect and pass on such property in the event of your incapacity or death. READ MORE
When Something is NOT Better Than Nothing—Part 2
Last week, I shared the first part of this series discussing the hidden dangers of do-it-yourself estate planning. In part two, I cover one of the greatest risks posed by DIY documents.
You might think you can save time and money by using do-it-yourself estate planning documents you find online. You’re probably anxious to check estate planning off your life’s to-do list, and these forms offer a seemingly quick and inexpensive way to handle this important task. READ MORE
When Something is NOT Better Than Nothing—Part 1
Creating a DIY Will can lead you to believe that you no longer have to worry about estate planning. In the back of your mind, you might even promise that one day you’ll revisit and update your plan with something better, but chances are, having done “something” will lead you to put this off until it’s too late. READ MORE
Estate Planning Considerations for Benefits Open Enrollment
The fall, generally late-October or early-November, is the time when employers send out summaries of employee benefits offered by the company and give employees the option to enroll in these benefits. If you are contemplating new benefits and changes to your beneficiaries, give me a call so I can ensure your beneficiary designations work as expected with your current estate plan. READ MORE
Big “Life Changes” Often Mean Big “Estate Plan Changes”
Estate planning must be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure that your plan still accomplishes your goals and objectives and will work the way you want it to at incapacity and at death. READ MORE
How to Choose a Trustee
When you establish a Trust, you name someone to be the Trustee. Generally, you are the Initial Trustee for your Revocable Living Trust. A Successor Trustee steps in your shoes in the event of your incapacity and at your death. That person does what you do right now with your financial affairs – collect income, pay bills and taxes, save and invest for the future, buy and sell assets, provide for your loved ones, keep accurate records, and generally keep things organized and in good order. READ MORE
Rewarding Your Employees By Giving Them the Business
Retiring from your business can a tough decision. To ensure that what you have built continues on, there needs to be a plan for succession. For some people, they have spent years grooming a child or other family member to take over, wanting the business to stay in the family. Others look to sell to a third party for a quick way out that will also give them a nest egg for their next phase of life. However, there is a third option–transferring the business to your employees. READ MORE
Cryptocurrency and Estate Planning: What You Need to Know
One of the biggest appeals of cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, is that it is decentralized, unregulated, and anonymous. There are no financial institutions controlling it, and unless you tell someone you own digital currency, it remains a secret.
When it comes to estate planning, however, that kind of secrecy can be disastrous. In fact, without the appropriate planning protections in place, all of your crypto wealth will disappear the moment you die or become incapacitated, leaving your family with absolutely no way to recover it. READ MORE
Should your child’s guardian and trustee be the same person?
When it comes to estate planning, who will be ultimately in charge of your minor child is an important decision that requires consideration of many factors. READ MORE
The Ins and Outs of Collecting Life Insurance Policy Proceeds
Unlike many estate assets, if you’re looking to collect the proceeds of a life insurance policy, the process is fairly simple provided you’re named as the beneficiary. That said, following a loved one’s death, the whole world can feel like it’s falling apart, and it’s helpful to know exactly what steps need to be taken to access the insurance funds as quickly and easily as possible during this trying time. READ MORE
Passing Along a Benefit, Not a Burden
Most business owners have their estate planning prepared because they are worried about what will happen to their business after they are dead. However, proper estate planning has the added benefit of allowing you to make plans for what will happen if you are incapacitated or needing to be away from your business for an extended period of time. READ MORE