If a friend or family member has asked you to serve as trustee for their trust upon their death, you should feel honored—this means they consider you among the most honest, reliable, and responsible people they know. However, being a trustee is not only a great honor,...
Estate Planning
The 5 essential documents of estate planning
There are five essential documents you need to have in place to ensure that your family and assets are taken care of if you become incapacitated or when you pass. They are the means to making your intentions clear and to ease the process of how your family will receive your assets. By having these five documents in place, you will have peace of mind knowing you’ve taken the right steps to plan for tomorrow.
Estate planning for doctors
Doctors work hard, they work long hours, and they have a fairly selfless job in which they take on challenges and even risks to help others when they need it most. The upside, naturally, is that they are fairly well compensated for it. The statistics from 2018 show...
Chronic illness can influence estate planning
Do you suffer from a chronic illness? Whether it is severe or mild, you want to consider it carefully when you do your estate planning. It can have a big impact on the type of planning that you do.Many people assume that chronic illnesses are not that common, but it's...
When should you update an estate plan?
Creating an estate plan is a big step toward making sure your family members are taken care of after you pass away. While some people don't like having to make these plans, they do need to take the step anyway. Failing to do so can leave their family members without...
With grandchildren, money left may be money spent
All of your life, you've worked hard to save your assets and put money aside. Now that you're writing out your estate plan, you want to leave some of that money to your grandchildren.You have some big plans for them. For instance, maybe you know about the crippling...
You must consider your finances when you start a family
Starting a family is not a financial decision. You do it because you love your spouse, you love the idea of having kids, you have always wanted to be a parent or for some other variation on this theme. Maybe it's always been a life goal of yours to have kids. You're...
Update all beneficiaries at the source, not in your will
Do you have any financial documents with a beneficiary, e.g., a life insurance policy? Maybe you have a retirement fund with a beneficiary who is supposed to get the contents of that fund when you pass away.As you write your will, you may think it's easy to adjust...
4 estate planning questions to get started
Estate planning is something you have never addressed because you just did not know where to get started. Now you're thinking you absolutely want to get a plan in place. What should you do first?To begin, just start by asking yourself a few basic questions. These can...
Estate planning after getting married again
You got married 20 years ago, had children and got divorced. Now you're getting married again. Is it time to think about estate planning? Do you need to create a plan or update the one you have?This is absolutely something to think about. If you don't, experts warn...
