Homonyms are words that are spelled the same but mean different things. The word “will” is a perfect example, meaning many things, from defining a person’s mental strength, to serving as a verb, or a legal document. In the same sense living wills and living trusts are completely different from one another, in a sense
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Living trusts are touted as among the best and most common estate planning tools, for a good reason. They are versatile, keep you protected from probate, help you maintain privacy, and can turn a complicated estate into a smooth inheritance. But a living trust is not as simple as a will, and setting one up
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Living Trusts vs. Family Trusts Making decisions regarding your own estate plan can be very challenging. Not only is it a complicated topic but thinking about how you are going to be settling your affairs after death means thinking about death, and for many, the thought of dying and leaving everything behind is uncomfortable. The
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Losing a loved one can be incredibly difficult to process, no matter how long a person might have seen it coming. You cannot prepare yourself for the pain and grief of having someone you care about disappear from this world. However, that pain can be compounded with the confusion felt from the aftermath of a
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Take two cars to the track. One is a fully-fledged drag racer, built specifically for a certain stretch of road, with a custom transmission, near-perfect aerodynamics, as little weight as possible, and just enough fuel needed to cross the finish line. Pit it against a stock Honda Civic. Which will win? Specificity is the key
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A trust is a legal entity that enables the transfer of assets from one person to the next. While all trusts have the same end goal, a different type exists for every circumstance. It works as an instrument for temporarily holding wealth under the trust’s name, separate from the original owner and beneficiary, before passing
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The probate process is one by which the law helps families determine what to do with the possessions of a deceased loved one, taking into consideration the law and their will, if it exists. While the probate process is not especially complicated, it can last well over a year, depending on the complexity of the
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Your last will and testament is a document designed to give certain courts and your family directions on how you would like your estate to be distributed in the event of your passing. It gives you the power to determine what will finally happen with your property when you are gone, giving you one final
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Estate planning can be a complicated subject. For some, their options are simple and straightforward. But there are factors that can quickly convolute a simple and straightforward topic into a matter of much research and heavy debate. In the case of estate planning, the two major factors include the nature and size of your estate,
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When we are confronted with the death of a loved one, the last thing we want to think about is a mountain of paperwork. Yet for many Americans, passing away is not just a tragedy, but a tragedy followed by a trail of legal complications. Most Americans lack a proper estate plan. These are simple
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