What Should I Know about Beneficiaries?
Whenever you open a financial account, you’re almost always asked to name a beneficiary. Simply stated, a beneficiary of the account is someone who is entitled to the benefits of the account, typically, on the death of the account holder. If you’ve purchased life insurance, for example, you name a beneficiary, who receives the benefits of the policy when you pass.
How Do I Make Sure My Wife Gets the House When I Die?
I am currently married but I purchased a home from my mother before my marriage. I added my younger sister to the deed at the time of purchase, so the house would remain in the family if something happened to me. I have been paying the mortgage and bills myself for three years now. However, now that I’m married to a great woman, who would get the house when I die?
How Do I Calculate My Executor’s Fee?
My parents died five months apart. I am the executor. How is the executor fee calculated fairly?
How Current is Your Estate Plan?
Most people do not update their estate plans often enough. The most common (and most absurd) excuse for not updating planning, that most advisers hear is: Nothing has changed.
How Do I Set Up a Living Trust?
Setting up a living trust is largely the same, regardless of where you live in the U.S.
How Can Beneficiary Designations Wreck My Estate Plan?
Beneficiary designations are a crucial part of estate planning, yet they are often overlooked. Once you have signed your estate planning documents, you need to make sure that your beneficiary designations are consistent with the rest of your estate plan.
Common Will Mistakes to Avoid
The most obvious mistake is not to have a will at all. The news is replete with examples of celebrities who have died without a will, including: Prince, Michael Jackson, James Brown and even Abraham Lincoln.
What are the Main Estate Planning Blunders to Avoid?
Maintaining a valid and current estate plan is vitally necessary in order to ensure the efficient and orderly dispersion of assets after a person dies. However, even a small mistake can create huge problems during the settlement process, and in many cases, these errors are impossible for anyone to correct.
What’s the Difference Between an Inter Vivos Trust and a Testamentary Trust?
Estate planning offers tools to establish and maintain effective control over cash, investments and real estate assets during a person’s lifetime and upon death. While wills and beneficiary designations work well to ensure that an estate plan meets the unique needs of the individual establishing the plan, each has its limits.
Why Is Estate Planning more Complicated with a ‘Gray Divorce’?
Rising divorce rates among Americans over the age of 50 are causing more conflict in estate planning, new data shows. According to a recent survey by TD Wealth, up to 40% of financial planners say that rising gray divorce rates are leading to an increase in family strife with estate planning as the top conflict.