3 Asset Protection Tips You Can Use Now
A common misconception is that only wealthy individuals and people in high-risk professions, such as doctors or lawyers, need an asset protection plan. However, anyone can be sued. A car ...
The Trust Protection Myth: Your Revocable Trust Protects Against Lawsuits
Many people believe that once they set up a revocable living trust and change the ownership of their accounts and property from themselves as individuals to their trust, those accounts ...
How to Give Real Property to a Loved One at Your Death Without Probate Court Involvement
A home is often one of the most important assets that people own. Therefore, most people want to stay in their home until they die and then have a loved ...
Handling a Loved One’s Debts After They Die
Americans are, quite literally, getting buried in debt, with nearly half expecting to pass away with outstanding debts.1 As a general rule, a person’s debts do not go away when ...
Estate Planning for Collectors and Hobbyists
Americans often prefer to stay busy. When we are not working, many of us turn to hobbies to keep us engaged and productive. We spend hours each day on our ...
Four Steps to Stop Mail Addressed to a Deceased Person
Once you have been appointed the executor or personal representative of a deceased loved one’s probate estate, or when you step in as the successor trustee of the loved one’s ...
Be Careful Relying on Life Insurance to Provide for Loved Ones
In an estate plan, life insurance can be used as a source of immediate liquidity for beneficiaries by offering a tax-free, lump-sum payment upon the insured’s death. About half of ...
Have an Etsy Store? Make Sure It Is Properly Protected
The online marketplace Etsy has gone from a niche craft seller to one of the largest commerce companies in the world. Etsy has millions of active sellers worldwide, most of ...
Why Deathbed Planning Might Give You Additional Grief
None of us likes to think about our own death or enjoys planning for that occasion. However, if you do not create an estate plan or fail to update it regularly, you are likely setting your loved ones up for even more stress and grief after you pass away. It may add to your own stress and impede your peace of mind during your lifetime because of the uncertainty that your wishes and goals will be fulfilled. If you have not updated your estate plan to include loved ones who are not provided for in your existing plan, you may be tempted to make deathbed gifts. It may bring you pleasure to make significant gifts to loved ones because of the joy it may bring to them. However, in addition to the obvious problem that no one knows the exact time they will die and may not be able to make the deathbed gifts they intend, there are some other drawbacks to deathbed planning that you may not have thought about.
Nonjudicial Settlement Agreements: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Some trusts are irrevocable as soon as they are created, which means that, in general, the Trustmaker (the person who created and funded the trust) cannot terminate or modify it and take back the money or property that it holds. You may wonder why anyone would want an irrevocable trust, but irrevocable trusts can provide some very important benefits, particularly asset protection, tax minimization, and maintaining eligibility for government benefits. In contrast, Trustmakers may amend or revoke a revocable living trust at any time prior to their death, but at the death of one or both Trustmakers the trust becomes irrevocable.