Many important subjects need to be discussed before your first baby comes along. However, don’t forget to consider key issues, such as health insurance, finances and guardianship. In the frenzy of making plans for your first baby including the route to the hospital, names and nurseries, it is important not to forget financial arrangements, according to […]

Clients might not know they are being defrauded. Estate planning attorneys must act with integrity at all times but, unfortunately, that does not always happen, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in “Lengthy Prison Term for Estate Planner Who Betrayed Clients.” Estate planning attorneys are often employed to handle large sums of money on […]

Entertainment industry reinforces the myth that estate planning is only for the wealthy. The entertainment industry feeds a myth that only wealthy people need to do estate planning, with a constant flow of scenes where the wealthy are the only ones planning. But that is not the truth, according to the Financial Advisor in “Estate […]

A common strategy to reduce estate taxes is to give away some assets before you pass away. Gifting to younger family members can be used as a strategy to reduce estate taxes.  However, it also comes with the potential for the recipients to become wasteful or lose their incentive to preserve assets. However, there are […]

Life expectancy has been going up for decades. However, now it is going down. Life expectancy has been rising for decades for Americans but it has now gone into reverse, according to the Financial Advisor in “Americans Are Dying Younger, Saving Corporations Billions.” It is not certain yet whether this is a statistical aberration or […]

We may be the richest nation in the world but do things seem to be going right? Many of us may feel powerless to change things around us whether it is politics, terrorists, protesters or the economy. However, perhaps we all can do something to make things better with our estate plans, according to the Rockford […]

Giving your family a verbal “estate plan” for them to carry out can create difficulties. There are legal and practical reasons why it is unwise to rely on family members to carry out your wishes you have voiced to them about your assets, according to the Fontana Herald News in a recent article “Having estate […]

Discovery at pet cemetery results in accusations against cemetery and crematorium in Illinois. A family was apparently given the ashes from a different animal after they brought their pet’s remains to a cemetery and crematorium in Illinois, according to the Daily Mail in “Pet cemetery is accused of giving the ashes of random animals to […]

Your estate plan may not be effective, if it is not updated to account for changing circumstances. People sometimes think that if they have an estate plan, their work is done. They put the plan on the shelf and do not consider changes in their lives that will affect the plan, according to Market Watch […]

Fairly dividing an estate among the children can be difficult with remarriages. Resolving the issue of dividing an estate with a blended family, sparked a recent letter to Market Watch in “How do I split my estate between my two stepdaughters and biological son?“. Among the issues in the letter were people remarried with children […]