Tag: Estate Planning
If you don’t have a will, you’re not alone. You’re actually in the company of the majority of adult Americans and some decidedly wealthy deceased celebrities — a Supreme Court Justice, a rock star and even a princess among them. But your “last words” on your death bed won’t be the final say on your […]
Failing to take action or making the wrong moves can be costly for you and your heirs. Here are six blunders experts told us they see most often, and what to do instead. Estate planning experts have noticed some trends over the years when it comes to making mistakes in one’s estate plan. Some mistakes […]
What has been missing for so long is a means of transferring real estate in a simple, probate-free process. In about half the states, that hole has been plugged. Probate can be messy, time-consuming and costly. Consequently, many people want to avoid it for their own estates. Unfortunately, probate is unavoidable if you own real […]
For the first time since the Apollo missions, there is serious talk of more manned spaceflight missions, and it is raising an important question: When someone dies in space, what do you do with the body? As in life on Earth, the unknown can happen in space at any time. Right now if an astronaut […]
Nursing home expenses continue to rise with the nationwide average increasing to $91,250 per year for private and just over $80,000 for semi private rooms. How much should you be saving for future nursing home care? Unfortunately, the cost is going up and people are grappling with how to pay for it. As reported recently […]
For the first time in a decade, Congress has decided to seriously examine the burden the death tax — also known as the estate tax — places on grieving families and their small businesses and employees. Present law states that if a business owner passes away his or her heirs possibly only have to pay […]
The dictionary defines beneficiary as “the recipient of funds” — from a will, trust, retirement plan or life insurance. But that doesn’t begin to cover the details and the differences. Here are five things you need to know. The term “beneficiary” involves receiving assets from a wide variety of legal instruments, and many people get […]
Whether a family business is big or small, succession planning is important to avoid family feuding or damage to the business. Here are some tips for avoiding mistakes in succession planning. Will your business live on after you pass away? Many family businesses begin life as the dream of a driven founder who guides the […]
A bill in the General Assembly would treat individuals’ Facebook, Twitter, email and other online accounts the same as physical assets after death. By default, the law does not treat digital assets the same way that it treats physical assets. After a person passes away, physical assets become part of the estate. Executors and loved […]
“This family tried so hard to make sure they did with the tractors what their loved one most likely would have wanted — selling some and keeping the rest for the next generation. After Dave’s death, they found a list he had left, letting them know which tractors meant the most to him. That gave […]
