Most people have the misconception that a trust is a tool or plan reserved for the incredibly rich, built purely for tax avoidance purposes, and irrelevant for most families. Yet trusts can prove incredibly useful for everyday Americans, and may: Help your family avoid probate. Minimize the impact of state estate taxes on modest estates.
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A life insurance policy can be a flexible financial tool meant to help give your spouse, children, or other beneficiaries the financial means with which to help themselves cover costs after your death. Sometimes, life insurance policies are built into an estate plan explicitly to cover state and/or federal estate taxes when all other options
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The model of the typical family has been shifting away from the “traditional” setup since the post-war era. From married couples with children (which accounted for about 79 percent of families in 1950, but only 55 percent in 1990), to a combination of heterosexual married couples, single-parent households, same-sex households, cohabitating parents, blended families, multi-generational
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A life estate, or a lifetime estate, is a form of property ownership wherein one party is given the right of occupancy to the property for the rest of their life in the form of a transferable title (the life tenancy), while another party holds property and gains total control over it once the life
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Beneficiary designation exists for vehicles, bank accounts, and smaller properties, but they are most utilized in retirement accounts and life insurance policies. A beneficiary designation provides the basis for an immediate transfer of any assets to that beneficiary upon the original owner’s death. Beneficiary designations bypass the probate process and are subject to unique federal
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You do not need a lawyer to get or create a power of attorney in California. A power of attorney is a document giving another person (named your “agent”) the right to act in your name (wherein you are the “principal”) within the scope and limitations set by the document. A power of attorney can
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When property belongs to one person, it is generally easy to figure out who owns all the equity, and who decides where ownership over the property will be transferred in the future. But in many cases, property is not owned by a single person or entity. When two or more people own property, that property
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A pour-over will is an estate planning document built to ensure that anything in your estate that has not been funded into your living trust before your death is automatically funded into your trust afterwards. Pour-over wills exist to generally to prevent having assets outside of the trust after death. If one is building an
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Preparation is always good. We have no way of knowing what the future might hold, and with a little bit of foresight, we can save ourselves and our families a lot of grief and trouble. That is the basic ethos behind estate planning tools like durable power of attorney documents (POAs), which enable someone (an
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COVID-19’s impact on the economy has been absolutely devastating. Not only have lockdowns and travel restrictions greatly impacted industries across the country, but for every death, there is an assorted collection of infections with short-term and long-term physical deficits, grieving parents and children, and countless Americans laid off as business owners line-up to file bankruptcy.
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