Articles Posted in Estate Planning

If you want to leave money for your grandchildren you can easily do that in your will. But what forms(s) should it take? The obvious answer is to set up a trust What you could do is set up what they call a pot trust. A pot trust is basically a pot of money from…

Aretha Franklin died without any kind of estate planning. Her estate was worth an estimated 80 million. But, since she had no advanced estate planning, after applying the federal estate tax exemption the estate will only be worth $68,800,000 and that is subject to 40% federal tax. Now that valuation doesn’t include attorney’s fees, court…

The internet offers many ways to create your own estate planning documents and you can take that route if you want to save money, but you are better off hiring a professional to insure all your documentation is legally valid. There’s nothing wrong with saving some dough by drafting your own estate-planning documents. You can…

Under the New York Health Care Proxy Law you can appoint someone you trust to make health care decisions for you if you lose the ability to make those decisions yourself. That person is considered your health care proxy or agent. A health care proxy is a way to eliminate confusion among your loved ones…

End-of-life planning isn’t fun. In fact, it’s a drag. But it’s an important aspect of managing your assets and protecting your family. That’s why it’s surprising that 6 out of 10 Americans don’t have estate planning documents, much less a will. Surveys show only 42 percent of U.S. adults currently have estate planning documents such…

Pretty much everyone dies with some amount of debt, Mostly it’s run-of-the-mill bills. But there can be some debt that can shock heirs, especially if they didn’t know about it. Creditors need to be paid so the question is, so does all debt need to be settled? The short answer is: that depends. Your liability…

New York is one of 12 states that tax estates of decedents people who owned property in the state. Now besides that, there are other things you need to know when estate planning. New York doesn’t charge inheritance tax, but the estate tax comes with one big provision. Though December 31st of this year there…

Aretha Franklin may have been the Queen of Soul, but she made gigantic estate planning mistakes that you should avoid. Franklin, who was divorced, died without a will or a trust despite having four grown children, one of whom has special needs. If you follow in her footsteps could mean your loved ones won’t receive…

The American College of Financial Services in Bryn Mawr, PA estimates the average cost of raising a child from birth to age 18 is about $250,000. But raising a child with special needs can easily cost double that amount. Having a plan with the right professionals and strategies in place can help parents tackle the…

For many people, the most important document isn’t their will, it’s their IRA or 401(k). That’s because many financial products, including retirement accounts and life insurance policies are legal contracts and override anything in your will. So, no matter what your will says, the payouts from these products will go to the beneficiaries you designated…