When you create a living trust, you usually need to choose who to name as your successor trustee. It is crucial that this decision is not taken lightly and that the right person is selected for the job. Continue reading
Tag: probate
What do successor trustees and executors do?
Executor’s Duties
An executor, sometimes called a personal representative, is the person who is named in a will, appointed by the court, and responsible for probating the will and settling the estate. Depending on the state, an executor may work under court supervision or may use so-called “independent” administration for an unsupervised probate. Continue reading
Are Payable-On-Death Accounts Right For You?
A payable-on-death account, also called a POD account, is a common way to keep bank and investment accounts out of probate, the court-supervised process that oversees distributing a deceased person’s property. Most people want to avoid their estate going through probate because their heirs will receive the inheritance faster, privately, and at lower cost. Continue reading
Debt After Death: Why You Should Think About It When Estate Planning
If you carry debt, do not assume that your death or incapacity will make it automatically disappear. To the contrary, the money you owe may eat away at the assets you were planning to leave to your heirs or — if you owe a large amount of money — may wipe out your estate completely. Debt comes in many different forms including credit cards, student loans, car payments, mortgages, and other financial obligations. Continue reading
Why a Spendthrift Trust Can Be a Great Solution for Your Heirs
There are many tools that can be used when putting together your estate plan. One such tool is a trust. Continue reading
New Baby? Time to Create Your Estate Plan
Estate planning is often one item that gets pushed back on nearly everyone’s to-do list. The reasons you might be delaying vary: lack of time, not thinking you have enough assets, not knowing how to start, or fear of contemplating death. Whatever the reason for not putting an estate plan together, it is important to understand that if you just had a baby – now is the time to meet with an estate planning attorney to implement a plan. Continue reading
Estate Planning For the Newly Married
September 7, 2017
Now is the perfect time to start working on an estate plan—because, as newlyweds, you may not have a list of your accounts, but you’ve effectively just done a working inventory of your possessions—as you’ve figured out how to consolidate two households into one. You’ve already been working on the new banking and shared responsibility of bills and taxes and so forth. Continue reading