If There Is No Estate Tax, Do You Still Need an Estate Plan?
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed by President Trump on December 22, 2017, included provisions that doubled the estate tax exemption. The exemption for 2019 is $11.4 million for individuals and $22.8 million...
How to Avoid Challenges to Wills and Trusts, Continued
Here are several additional ways to prevent disputes over your estate. ...
How to Avoid Challenges to Wills and Trusts
Challenges to wills and trusts are more common than you might think. These disputes can turn very ugly, very quickly. Resentment between family members can last a lifetime, and the financial consequences...
A Will Is a Key Component of Any Estate Plan, but It’s Not Enough, Continued
Another reason a will isn’t enough is that the ownership of many assets transfers outside the will, including life insurance, annuities, retirement accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s, jointly-owned property...
A Will Is a Key Component of Any Estate Plan, but It's Not Enough
A will can help you accomplish a number of important planning goals. For instance, it allows you to control how your assets are distributed after you pass away. Without a will, your assets will be distributed...
The Benefits of Putting Your IRA Into a Trust
An IRA Trust can help you control distributions after you pass away and restrict access to beneficiaries who might squander the funds of your IRA. How does an IRA Trust accomplish this? Let’s say your...
When Should You Start Taking Your Social Security Benefits, Continued
What if you don't start taking Social Security benefits until after your full retirement age? As you would expect, you'll be rewarded for this. For example, if your full retirement age is 66, you'll receive...
When Should You Start Taking Your Social Security Benefits?
Most advisors recommend waiting as long as possible to begin collecting Social Security benefits. Suze Orman, a contributor to AARP Magazine, makes a strong case for this approach. She argues that with...
Now is a Good Time to Make Sure Your Plan is Up-To-Date
Has your financial or medical situation changed since your plan was created? Have any of your children or grandchildren gotten divorced and remarried, or started families of their own? Do your beneficiary...
Estate Planning and Digital Assets
What happens to a person's Facebook account when he or she passes away? What about the photos you share on social media, the documents you’ve stored in the cloud, your texts to family and friends? While...