Category: Estate Planning
“Contemplation of retirement can be both exciting and intimidating. Obviously, planning for the beginning of retirement should start early.” While you may be thinking about retirement for a long time, with visions of tropical beaches or grand trips overseas, when the date starts to get closer, it’s time for some real analysis and planning, says […]
“While it’s not something many people think about until faced with the issue, obtaining a credit report for a deceased person is important. You may need to make sure the credit report is accurate and take stock of any creditors you need to notify of the death or see if there’s any unresolved debt that […]
“Talking about illness, death and taxes is not most people’s idea of a good time (except for us estate planners). That being said, there are times in life when it’s time to move updating your estate plan off the ‘to do’ list and on to the ‘done’ list. Here are those times:” Every estate planning […]
“Your will may be the most important document you’ll ever write. The problem is, after many of us draft one, we put it somewhere for safekeeping and don’t look at it again. That can be a big mistake.” Lives change, and laws change. People come and go in our lives, through birth, death, marriage and […]
“A No Contest clause is a paragraph that can be included in a Last Will and Testament or a Trust, which makes it clear that anyone who challenges the validity of the document or the way it distributes or manages the assets of the estate will receive less than what the document would have otherwise […]
“Most of us have heard the quote from Benjamin Franklin, ‘In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.’” No one actually enjoys paying taxes, and few of us really want to think about our own death, but both require advance planning and careful consideration, advises Ohio’s Country Journal in the article “Death and […]
“Particularly if you’re 65 or older, you may have recently been asked by your financial advisor, custodian or brokerage firm, if you would like to add a trusted contact person to your account.” Dramatically increased instances of elder financial abuse are behind a new question asked of seniors by their advisors these days: do you […]
“The best way to ensure that they know and understand your wishes, is to take a copy of your health care proxy with you to your next check up and talk to your physician about it, then ask them to keep the copy on file.” Everyone needs to have an annual checkup, taking stock of […]
“Sometimes the persons involved either die simultaneously, i.e., too close in time to determine clearly who survived the other or die very close in time to each other.” There are any number of ways a person can inherit assets from another person. They may inherit assets from a trust, through a will or as a […]
“Retirement coach Sara Zeff Geber visited several Northern California assisted living facilities to interview ‘solo agers’—people, either single or coupled, who don’t have children to help them as they grow older.” She was a bit surprised when she couldn’t find any. She then realized that it’s the adult children who push their aging parents into […]