Estate taxes are a dangerous and scary buzzword – some tax professionals, accountants, politicians, and media figures have even taken to calling them death taxes. But they currently only affect a fraction of a percent of the American population. Could that change soon? Estates receive the federal estate tax when their total value is higher …
Everything we own in life must be distributed among the living in death. There’s very little you can take with you into the afterlife, by law – and multiple unique processes are in place for supervising the accumulation, valuation, and eventual distribution of a person’s belongings or estate after death. One of these properties in …
Only about a third of adult Americans have a will, let alone a comprehensive estate plan. Yet not all wills are made equal. Some wills are more “effective” than others, and some wills, despite their best intentions, might never be validated. Some wills are valid in certain states and completely useless in others. One of …
The probate process begins after a person dies when a probate court must track, value, and distribute their assets and the contents of their estate. Meanwhile, probate courts also oversee the fulfillment of a decedent’s final obligations, such as their last tax return, the resolution of outstanding debts, and ancillary processes for out-of-state assets. However, …
Money may be the last thing on your mind when your loved one passes away, but it is often at the top of the state’s concerns due to the estate and inheritance tax. When a taxpayer dies, an invisible timer kicks off before their probate process begins – usually through the petition of a loved …
Estate trustees are individuals in charge of managing a trust after the trust’s creator (the grantor) has died. In most cases, these trustees are successor trustees because the living trust tends to be structured, so the grantor is also the first managing trustee. Estate trustees are part of the crucial trinity of individuals that make …
The Lady Bird deed was supposedly named after the wife of late President Lyndon B. Johnson, who used this type of estate planning tool to transfer property and land to his wife without invoking Medicaid claims and liens. Previously known as an enhanced life estate deed, the Lady Bird deed is a type of estate …
Asset protection planning is not just a tool for the exceptionally wealthy to minimize tax liability or avoid losing a specific asset. You can also use asset protection to protect individual properties and assets from potential litigation, which can be especially concerning for professionals in certain high-risk occupations. Think doctors, property developers, accountants, lawyers, and …
The similarities between conservatorship vs guardianship are in both description and definition. Conservatorships are generally applied to adults, while guardianships typically involve minors. Guardianships and conservatorships center around managing a single person’s affairs and financials. In guardianships, the person managed is known as the ward, while in conservatorships, they are known as the conservatee. Depending …
A contingent beneficiary is a secondary beneficiary who only inherits if the first or primary beneficiary refuses their inheritance or cannot inherit. A contingent beneficiary is not a second or third beneficiary who will inherit in addition to your first heir. If everything goes “well,” the contingent beneficiary may not inherit anything. One of the …