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.
Trusts
Estate planning for a child with special needs
If your adult child has special needs, he or she may be eligible for some government assistance programs. Three common examples of these programs are food stamps, Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income payments.While doing your estate planning to leave your wealth...
The terms of a trust specify how the money can be used
When creating a trust, you likely have a specific goal in mind. How the trust accomplishes that goal depends on the terms that you put in place. Those terms define how the money can be used.For instance, some people who have trusts in their name want to use them to...
Add balance to your incentive trust
Are you thinking of using an incentive trust to give your heirs motivation as you pass your assets on to them? One of the most common ways that parents use an incentive trust is by specifying yearly payouts that are tied to employment. For instance, the child could...
Can you ever alter an irrevocable trust?
The entire point of an irrevocable trust is to set the fund up so that it cannot be changed. This removes the money from your estate, with one of the benefits being that you can reduce the tax burden on that estate. By making it irrevocable, it shows that the money is...
Estate planning can be an investment in your family
For a lot of people, the end goal of estate planning is relatively simple. They don't want to do anything extravagant. They're not looking for some out-of-the-box solutions. They just want to give their children a better life.In one study, for instance, a full 67...
Choosing the right trust for your situation
People often understand the basic idea of using a trust in an estate plan. You put your assets into the trust, you write out instructions on how the trust should operate, and then the assets get used or distributed in accordance with those rules. A trust gives you...
Students have more than $1 trillion in debt
According to recent reports on the financial situation that American college students face, it's not looking too good for them. They have in excess of $1 trillion in debt. While not all of that debt comes from student loans, they're the main issue.It's an astounding...
The types of irrevocable trusts
Are you considering creating a trust? There's a lot that goes into drafting and funding a trust. As a trust grantor, you will need to understand how the law governs trusts. You need to determine who the beneficiaries of the trust will be, what resources you want to...
How would a living trust benefit your estate plan?
Living trusts are identified by the word "living" because you create them while you're alive, and you have the ability to change them while you're alive. After your death, the trust will be set in stone and no one will be allowed to change it. This flexibility while...
