Probate & Estate Planning

It’s never too early to start thinking about planning your estate. If you are a young adult, it’s likely that you don’t have a lot of assets, and therefore you may think that planning your estate is unnecessary at this stage in your life. However, the benefits of planning your estate go far beyond the distribution of assets. By planning…

It’s an honor to be appointed as executor of a loved one’s estate. The problem is many who are appointed to that role only do it one time. Many are ill-informed about their responsibilities and make mistakes as they carry out their assigned duties. They can cost heirs to lose a significant portion of their inheritance. A common mistake that…

If you have recently lost a loved one, you will know that emotions can become tense during the grieving period. As well as going through the emotional process of grieving, it is possible that you will also have to deal with the emotional aspects of the bereavement. When dealing with a deceased person’s will, family members may be shocked or…

You and your partner have been together for the last 20 years. You were both coming out of other marriages — via divorce — when you met. You agreed that, while you were committed to each other, you did not want to get married again. It did not seem worth it to go through the whole process. As you grow…

When Aretha Franklin passed away last August, it appeared that she had no estate plan — despite the fact that she had significant assets, including her music catalog and memorabilia, which are likely worth millions of dollars. She is survived by four sons as well as grandchildren and other family members. One of those family members — a niece who…

If a loved one has recently passed away, your family will be going through a stressful time. Grief can change our mental state in many ways, and it can also cause us to act out-of-character. This can potentially lead to a higher amount of tension within the family dynamic, even if everyone is sharing the same grief. If you are…

Before doing your estate planning, you decide to look up the average life expectancy in the United States. If things go as planned — if you don’t get into a car accident, for instance, or suffer a fatal injury at work — you want to know how long you have. What you find, though, is very interesting. Men and women…

For many people, a major motivation in planning their estate is making sure that their loved ones are not under a great deal of stress with administrative responsibilities at the end of their life. By taking their time to plan out their estate, perhaps even creating trusts to avoid the probate process, their loved ones are likely to be relieved…

The way you organize an estate plan can be very personal. You consider what you would like to happen if you are incapacitated or if you pass away. You appoint the people you trust most for key responsibilities, and you determine who you would like your money and other assets to go to once you are gone. However, even the…

If a member of your family has passed away in recent months, you will have needed to work with other family members in order to carry out the wishes that your loved one stated in their will. It is quite common for family members to be shocked and upset by the wishes that are put forward in a loved one’s…