Having “The Talk” About Estate Planning with Elderly Parents
Nobody likes talking about mortality. It’s an uncomfortable thing to address. Talking about it with friends and family members can be especially painful—yet it’s also important. We all die, and when our time comes, we don’t want to leave our family members with any financial burdens or tough decisions. Thus, it’s important to have “the […]
Where to Start with Estate Planning
Estate planning isn’t necessarily an easy thing to discuss. For one thing, it has a lot of moving pieces, including both legal and financial considerations that can seem daunting. For another, estate planning requires us to think about our own mortality—never exactly pleasant. With that said, however, knowing the estate planning basics is imperative. Even […]
How Divorce Impacts Your Estate Planning
When you’re in the thrall of a new marriage, it can be hard to imagine how you’d ever get divorced—yet statistics reveal that divorce is common, and can happen to anyone. Indeed, divorces can be abrupt and surprising, disrupting years of harmonious domesticity and affecting every aspect of the family’s life. Even apart from the […]
6 Reasons to Revisit Your Estate Plan Under the New Tax Law
The passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has already had wide-ranging effects on businesses, personal taxes, and the economy as a whole. It also has implications for your estate planning—specifically, the law doubles the individual estate gift and GST tax exemptions. The upshot of this is that it significantly reduces the total number […]
Signs of an Ineffective Estate Plan
Not all estate plans are created equal. Estate plans that are made haphazardly, without the proper legal guidance—or estate plans that are never reviewed and revised to reflect life changes—may not be as effective as you hope in preserving your legacy and providing for your family. Is Your Estate Plan Lacking? The question is, how […]
You Don’t Have to Be Rich to Benefit from Estate Planning
There are a number of common misconceptions about the estate planning process, but by far the most common one is this: That estate planning is something you do once you accumulate a lot of physical assets; in other words, that estate planning is purely for the very rich. How Everyone Can Benefit from Estate Planning […]
What’s the Biggest Barrier to Estate Planning?
Estate planning isn’t always easy. From a legal and financial perspective, it can sometimes be fairly complicated. And, because it involves serious considerations of legacy and mortality, it can also be highly emotional. But of all the challenges that can hinder proper estate planning, which is the most significant? The answer might surprise you. According […]
Estate Planning: A Timeline
Estate planning isn’t something you do just once, as you approach your twilight years, and then forget. Actually, the best way to approach estate planning is to start early, and continually review and revise your estate plan throughout your life. But what should you be doing when? How should your estate plan grow and evolve […]
Bitcoin and Estate Planning
A key part of estate planning is accounting for all your assets, including currencies—and that can be easier said than done. After all, currency itself is changing all the time. It is increasingly common for investors to consolidate their assets in the form of cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin being the best-known example. The question is, how […]
Should You Do Your Own Estate Planning?
While you certainly can handle your own estate planning, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should. After all, fixing an estate planning mistake can prove costly—and in some cases, errors can’t be fixed at all. What’s more, it’s all too easy to make a mistake that nobody even catches until after you’re deceased. Reasons to Think […]
