How Does Probate Work?
There is a general understanding that every adult should have a last will and testament. However, for most people, exactly how that will is used remains a mystery.
There is a general understanding that every adult should have a last will and testament. However, for most people, exactly how that will is used remains a mystery.
A credit shelter trust is used to help married couples with significant assets pass their estates after their deaths to children or other beneficiaries without incurring estate taxes.
Each type of retirement benefit has a different eligibility age. Your age plays a big role in how much you can expect to receive from Social Security and what you need to do to avoid retirement account penalties.
Sometimes people attempt to make an estate plan online without consulting legal and financial professionals to avoid the higher cost. However, everyone’s situation is unique, and using a boilerplate estate plan can lead to mistakes.
Vacation property can become a family legacy. Keeping your cabin, fishing lodge, hunting property or other special assets separate for future generations is often a special goal for a family.
A will is a legal document that spells out the distribution of your assets and how your children will be cared for at your death. Probate is a process used to prove a decedent’s will is valid and to supervise the handling of their estate.
Charlie Daniels played his last show before the pandemic on March 13, 2020, at the Mark C. Smith Concert Hall in Huntsville, Ala. Hunkered down at home in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., he spent the following months telling anyone who would listen — his son, journalists — that he couldn’t wait to get back on the road, where he still played up to 140 dates a year, an ambitious schedule for any artist, much less an 83-year-old.
Increasingly, financial advisors are working with clients from nontraditional families, which can sometimes require different or additional strategies to protect their assets and achieve their financial goals.
In fact, many couples with no children mistakenly believe that they are less likely to need a last will and testament than couples with children.
Perhaps one of the most difficult, and increasingly common, estate planning questions involves the inclusion or disinheritance of an estranged child.