Estate Planning Transfers Wealth, Reduces Estate and Property Taxes
Complex Estate Planning Benefits You and Your Beneficiaries Complex estate planning ensures that your wealth, assets, and small business will be transferred smoothly to your designated beneficiaries after your death. It took you a lifetime to acquire your properties, savings, pension, and 401k retirement funds, so...
What Do You Do If a Parent Dies Without a Will?
What Happens If a Parent Dies Without a Will? About 14% of individuals younger than 30 have a will, and 68% of Americans aged 65 and older have a will. What happens when someone dies without a will, and why is this document important? Here are some of the most important things you should know. What Is the Term for...
4 Tips on How to Choose the Right Conservator for Your Assets
Choosing the Right Conservator for Your Assets A conservator manages and makes decisions on your behalf when you are incapacitated. They assume the responsibility of managing your estate. Therefore, a conservator is legally authorized to make financial decisions regarding your assets. What to Consider When Choosing a...
How a Medicaid Trust Preserves Your Assets
Getting Nursing Home Care While Preserving Your Family's Inheritance The cost of a semiprivate room in a nursing home has shot past $90,000 per year, placing a significant burden on families and threatening inheritances. Families end up needing Medicaid assistance so their loved ones can have long-term care. Working...
Determining Property Valuations During Estate Administration
Property Valuation Strategies for Estate Administrators The biggest investment most people make during their lifetimes is a home, and it is the largest asset they leave behind after their passing. Given the volatility of the real estate market, a current property valuation is essential in settling the estate, yet...
Avoiding COVID When Doing Estate Planning
Navigating COVID-19 Concerns While Managing Estate Planning When it comes to the reality of COVID-19, we now have to address many different "what if" situations that were previously unheard of. While most of us are fortunate to have never actually gone through a pandemic of this magnitude before, it has definitely...
The Best Way to Establish Gifts in Your Estate Plan
Ways to Use Gifting in Your Estate Planning Tragically, 95% of the people who died as a result of COVID-19 were seniors, and many didn't have a chance to properly establish their estates. Unfortunately, thanks to COVID-19, the need to engage in appropriate financial planning has accelerated. Fortunately, a competent...
Why COVID-19 Has Made Many Want to Avoid Probate
Why COVID-19 Has Made Many Look to Avoid Probate The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted many aspects of our lives, making many people look to do whatever they can to avoid in-person meetings. This also applies to probate, the process by which an estate is settled. Thankfully, there are some legal moves that...
The Importance of Health Care Proxies During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Why You Need an HCP Now More Than Ever Despite many medical professionals and estate planning lawyers stressing the importance of a health care proxy (HCP) and related documents, only about 25 percent of adults actually have them. In fact, many adults never even establish an HCP until they find themselves...
COVID-19 Has Rushed Many Americans Into Hurriedly Executing Wills
Avoid Social Distancing Mistakes When Rushing a Will With more than 16,000 deaths from COVID-19 in New Jersey as of early October, the pandemic has led many to think about mortality. Fearing the worst, lots of Americans have rushed to finalize wills over the past several months. Whether you've already executed a will...