What to know about creating wills for seniors? More than three quarters of Americans aged 65 and above have a will nowadays, although that number drops significantly to just over half of all Americans aged 50 to 64. This is good news for millions of adults, as even a simple will can go a long
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Do you have estate planning goals for 2022? For most people, an estate plan consists of a last will and testament, with perhaps a few funerary wishes or personal requests. The simpler, the better. But comprehensive estate plans – with multiple documents and beneficiary designations – are not solely within the purview of the rich
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What does estate planning for blended families look like? Polling results from 2015 estimate that about one in six children lives in a “blended family”, which defines any family with a stepparent, stepsibling, or half-sibling. Furthermore, over 60 percent of remarried women marry into a blended family. There are estimates that at least half of
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A probate judge works in the civil court, and like any other judge, serves as a judicial officer of the state. Probate judges play a central role in the probate process, overseen by the titular probate court, or as it’s known in other states, the surrogate’s court. Probate judges make the final call for important
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Whether it was overlooked, never found, or passed on by multiple different heirs, an unclaimed inheritance can eventually be escheated to the state government. To understand how an inheritance can be left unclaimed – as well as how to claim it before it’s too late – we need to dive into how inheritance and beneficiary
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If you are anticipating family issues when you pass away and leave behind an inheritance for your loved ones, then heading them off is crucial. Even simple squabbles can turn into vicious and litigious fights down the road, and sore wounds can become years and decades of alienation, nonstop fighting, and eventually lead to an
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A contingent beneficiary is someone who inherits either if the primary beneficiary cannot, or if certain conditions have been fulfilled. To put it into an example, if you decide to leave your house to your three children, you may place the eldest as the primary beneficiary of the house and name your second child as
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Trusts can be a powerful estate planning tool. Among other things, trusts allow you to allocate assets for long-term investment to pay dividends for your children and grandchildren, protect certain assets and investments from creditors, minimize the tax impact of your death, and drastically simplify the distribution of your estate. But what if you want
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So, what happens if someone dies without a will? Dying without a will is called dying intestate. It means dying without testament, specifically one’s legal testament regarding the management and distribution of one’s belongings and possessions after death. Dying without a will means having everything you own automatically distributed among your next of kin as
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Estate planning vs wills – what’s it all about? When setting up the ideal estate plan, it helps to have basic knowledge of how estate plans are structured before talking to a professional. Estate plans are not exclusive to the rich and famous, and they need not be complicated. The average estate plan begins and
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