How Do You File Taxes If Your Spouse Dies?
About 1.5 million Americans become widows and widowers in a normal year, but the pandemic has boosted that significantly. The National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University estimates that about 380,000 of more than 700,000 people in the U.S. who have died from Covid were married.
Do College Kids Need Estate Planning?
As a legal adult after attaining the age of 18, your child should have in place several legal documents that will allow you to provide support and obtain information, if something unexpected happens to your child.
How Much can You Inherit and Not Pay Taxes?
Unless you spend your winters in Aspen and your summers in the Hamptons, you probably don’t have to worry about paying federal estate taxes on an inheritance. In 2021, the federal estate tax doesn’t kick in unless an estate exceeds $11.7 million.
What Is the First Thing an Executor of a Will Should do?
At some point in your life, there’s a good chance you’ll be tasked with acting as the executor of an estate. The designation is both an honor and an obligation.
Who Pays Mortgage When I Pass Away?
One important aspect of estate planning is deciding what will happen to your home after you die. The answer might be fairly cut and dry if the home is fully paid for. If it’s not, though, you’ll need to consider the financial ramifications for your estate and for the person who inherits the home.
Will Gift to Heir Be a Benefit or Burden?
One of the biggest conundrums of estate planning is considering how, or even if, you can give money or property to your heirs in a manner that will help them.
What Do I Do with Estate Plan after Divorce?
Major changes in your life—such as marriage, having a baby, moving out of state, or divorce—should prompt a revisit to your current will. It is important to revise your will at these times, in order to ensure that your estate planning is up to date.
What a Will Won’t Accomplish
That last will and testament you have tucked away? It may not be the last word on what happens to your stuff after you are gone. Instead, that legal document’s directives for doling out your wealth may be overruled by other paperwork and relevant laws.
Before They’re Gone—Estate Planning Strategies
If you have not already been inundated with invitations to webinars, articles and newsletters regarding the estate planning you should consider doing before new legislation passes, you undoubtedly will receive these over the next few months.
Should You Put Your House in Your Child’s Name?
In a nutshell, it might be better for your mom to put the home in a living trust that allows her to control the home while she is alive and allows you to inherit the home through the trust upon her death.