Estate Planning

If you have dipped your toe into the estate planning world, you likely know that there are a plethora of legal tools that may be used in an estate plan despite most people only having a passing familiarity with wills. In fact, did you know that many people opt to put a living trust in place to supplant the role of a will in distributing assets of an estate? It’s true! Both wills and living trusts can be used as estate planning tools to help ensure your assets are properly protected and distributed to your heirs upon your death. So, what is the difference between a will and a living trust?

The Differences Between a Will and Living Trust

A will is a written legal document used to express the wishes of the testator, the person creating a will. A will outlines how the testator wishes for his or her affairs to be handled after dying. It can direct that certain assets be distributed to family, friends, or even charities.
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Have you put an estate plan in place yet? A strong estate plan does more than plan for the distribution of your assets after you die and, while asset distribution is important, there are other elements of estate planning that are critical as well. An estate plan can protect your wishes for your loved ones and yourself for the future. Should you face expected or unexpected health complications down the road, there are estate planning documents that can help protect your wishes. To help you get a better understanding of what goes on, or what should go on during the estate planning process, here is our estate planning checklist overview.

Estate Planning Checklist

While asset planning and distribution is not the only part of estate planning, it is certainly important.
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While most people have heard of a last will and testament, much fewer may be familiar with a pour over will. Despite it being a lesser known estate planning tool, a pour over will can be an important addition to an estate plan. This is especially true for those estate plans that also include a revocable living trust.

Have You Ever Heard of a Pour Over Will?

Trusts can be a great way to avoid probate. The probate process is the court monitored process of administering a person’s estate after he or she has passed away.
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A beneficiary is a person named in an estate plan who is designated to receive some kind of inheritance pursuant to the terms of the plan upon the passing of the creator of the plan. Beneficiaries not only play a critical role in an estate plan, but are often a central reason for the plan being created in the first place. Many people begin the estate planning process in order to help ensure that loved ones are set to inherit certain assets. During the estate planning process, those who designate individuals as beneficiaries usually do so under the assumption that primary beneficiaries will survive them. What, however, happens if primary beneficiaries pass away prior to a person who has named them as a beneficiary under an estate plan?

Who Inherits if a Primary Beneficiary Dies?

A strong, comprehensive estate plan will often name more than one type of beneficiary.
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The rising cost of long-term care is a stark reality we as a society need to face. The fact that the majority of us will need long-term care at some point in our lives means that it is something we literally cannot afford to ignore. How are you planning to cover the cost of long-term care? The high cost means that it can quickly eat away at your life’s savings and most do not end up even thinking about long-term care insurance until they are no longer eligible to purchase it. This is why engaging in

Did you know that you are able to fund a trust with a variety of different asset types? It’s true! You can use cash to fund a trust. You can use securities to fund a trust. Life insurance proceeds can also be held in trust as can real property. In fact, pretty much any type of asset can be used to fund a trust. If you have out of state property, however, you may still be wondering whether you can fund your trust with it.
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Do you have an estate plan in place? Have you included a revocable trust to take advantage of the potential creditor protection it can offer beneficiaries as well as being a way to avoid probate? That’s right. A revocable trust can be used as one strategy to avoid probate. This can be great news to hear considering how complicated and lengthy the probate process can be. Heirs of an estate have to wait for the probate process to wrap up in order to receive any inheritance. It can be quite a lengthy wait.
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A revocable trust, also commonly known as a living trust, is an estate planning tool with a variety of potential benefits. To establish a revocable trust, the testator, the creator of the trust, designates a trustee and transfers ownership of certain assets to the trust. The trustee is then responsible for managing the trust for the benefit of the beneficiaries. Among the many benefits that a revocable trust may offer, some may wonder if one such benefit is the ability to avoid probate as it is infamously an expensive and time intensive process.

Does a Revocable Trust Help Avoid Probate?

Yes, a revocable trust can help your estate avoid probate in whole or in part.

When thinking about what you can accomplish with an estate plan, you may have some of the basics covered. You have a will which can distribute your property to who you want and also name a guardian for any of your minor children. You may have advance directives such as living will and a durable power of attorney for health care to protect your medical care wishes should you become incapacitated. These are important things to take advantage of when you are creating an estate plan. There are, in fact, other things you can accomplish with a comprehensive estate plan.

We all hope to live long, healthy lives where we remain physically and mentally able to take care of ourselves and effectively communicate our wishes every step of the way. Life is, however, full of twists and turns. Some of them are expected and some are unexpected. None of us are immune from sudden injury or illness. One of the best things we can do is to prepare how we can for the unexpected.

Does your aging parent have a comprehensive estate plan in place? Comprehensive means that, while it likely involves the establishment of a will, there are other critical estate planning documents in place as well. A comprehensive estate plan can be important at any age, but may become even more critical as we age. With age, we tend to become more reliant on others to look out for us and, in some cases, provide us with the care and support we need to stay safe and healthy.