Five Estate Blunders
Some estates are just more complex than others. In this article, we will review the five basic estate planning blunders common to princes and paupers alike.
Family Matters
In this article, we review some fundamental legal matters every family member needs to address through proper legal planning. In fact, the failure to address these legal matters can inconvenience, if not harm your family.
Generational Generosity
Would you rather transfer your wealth to the IRS or your loved ones? If you answered "the IRS" then disregard this article. If you answered "your loved ones," then read on.
Solo Solutions
If you are single,you are in good company. Nearly half of all adult Americans are single. Being single can mean considerable personal and economic freedom. Nevertheless, Life & Estate Planning is still necessary to keep you in control.
Business Owners Beware
Are you a business owner? Are you the first to arrive in the morning, as well as the last one to leave in the evening? Have your employees ever taken home their paychecks while you sacrificed yours to the bottomless pit called "accounts payable"?
Trustworthy Trusts
Revocable Living Trusts (RLTs) are popular estate planning tools. The purpose of this article is tointroduce how RLTs work, some of the benefits and drawbacks, and some important considerations when creating an RLT.
Supplemental Needs
Parents of special needs children face unique challenges, both in providing for the children while both parents are alive as well as providing for them after both parents are deceased. This is true whether the children are minors or adults.
Elder Law Elements
Elder law is a very important part of our practice. Elder Law can be defined as the holistic application of general legal principals to the specific emotional, logistical, and financial needs of mature Americans.
Joint Tenancy Traps
Joint Tenancy is a common form of asset ownership. If you own a bank account, brokerage account, or perhaps real eastate with one or more persons, then you and they may be in a joint tenancy. The full legal expression for this form of ownership is "Joint Tenants with Rights of Survivorship (JTWROS).
Don’t Miss Out! Just 16 Months Left to Act!
The Tax Relief Act of 2010 is a short one. Most advisors are clear about what the law provides. This legislation jumped the gift-tax exemption from $1 million to $5
million, which means clients can now gift the greatest amount ever without
paying out-of-pocket dollars on gift taxes. Before now, transferring
significant assets could require complex strategies.
Why You MUST Use a Living Trust When Planning with Business Owners
In our last article, we discussed how to grow your business by doing business owner reviews. In this issue, we want to strongly recommend that if you are working with a business owner, using a Revocable Living Trust (RLT) as the main planning tool is
critical for several reasons.
What Important Documents Should Your Clients Gather Before They Die?
The Wall Street Journal
recently posted an article online that we as advisors can use to teach
clients the importance of proper estate planning.
Building Up Your Business During Summer's Typical Planning Slowdown
Family vacations tend to dominate the summer months. Friends and relatives say nothing is quite as stressful and crazy as planning and packing for the long-awaited warm weather holiday. As the mercury climbs, your client's interest in discussing
financial matters may decline. But let's change that trend.
How to Maximize Family Privacy in Estate Planning for Your Clients
As advisors, our clients depend on our discretion when these issues affect financial and legal matters.We endeavor to keep their confidences and give them a degree
of trust. Then why would we ever risk betraying their trust by allowing
their personal family affairs to be exposed through probate?
Probate court is public. Each pleading and filing in a probate case is a
matter of public record that anyone can read.
Living Trusts Provide Protection for Your Client's Potential Incapacity
Revocable Living Trusts serve several important functions in estate planning.
In our ongoing series on the powers of a Living Trust, we have already
discussed how this powerful tool can help a client's estate avoid probate
court (saving time, money and anguish) and how they can provide divorce
protection for your client's children.