Regardless of the outcome, divorce is an arduous process. Even when both individuals end up on amicable terms, the emotional and financial repercussions of divorce are often immense. Given the sensitive nature of the process, it makes sense that something as inconsequential as estate planning is the furthest thing from most people’s minds. However, estate
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It is not common for people to prepare for their deaths. Only an estimated 32 percent of Americans have a will in 2020, down from 42 percent in 2017. And over half of all Americans over the age of 55 have no estate planning documents whatsoever. That is entirely understandable. We do not want to
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In the minds of most people, estate planning is an exclusive luxury to the wealthy, built by expensive lawyers explicitly to minimize the cost of generational wealth transfer. But this common belief misunderstands the purpose and usefulness of estate planning in general, as well as its applicability to the average middle-class American family. To explain
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One third of Americans who receive an inheritance spend all of it within two years. Research shows a significant number of young adults are either financially precarious (32 percent) or financially-at-risk (36 percent). In fact, the average American becomes financially literate at age 28. Are kids and young adults generally to blame for this? No,
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If you have heard of trusts, then you’ve heard of trustees. The role of a trustee in a trust is act as a fiduciary to the trust’s beneficiary, and to manage the trust in their best interest. In a bankruptcy case, the bankruptcy trustee has a similar task – only their fiduciary duty is to
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The COVID-19 crisis continues to place a heavy burden on countless households throughout the country. To reduce its growth and spread, governments have implemented social distancing and lockdown rules. By slowing the infection rate, an encumbered healthcare system could treat those in critical condition while helping mitigate casualties. But these measures have had an additional
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Trusts are a very versatile tool in estate planning. They can be deployed to avoid the probate process, keep an estate’s total value within the federal estate tax exemption, and protect a child’s inheritance from their spending habits. Trusts are more complex and offer a greater array of possibilities than other estate planning tools, such
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As COVID-19 looms, ensure loved ones understand your health care proxy wishes. The U.S. is currently on the frontlines in the fight against the coronavirus, experiencing the heaviest losses in the world. It’s impossible to predict what kind of long-term impact this virus will have, both in terms of its effects on our society and
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You have gone through the steps, talked things through with an estate planning professional, and have signed off on the final draft of your living trust. You have registered it at your local notary, amended the paperwork on all relevant possessions to reflect your new trust, and are working closely with your trustee to make
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The novel coronavirus, and its disease COVID-19, has led to over 700,000 infections over the course of three months, with experts forecasting that things are likely to get worse until they get better. With no clear timeline for a resolution in sight, public health officials, virologists, and epidemiologists are counting on 12 to 18 months
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