The death of your spouse represented a crushing blow. Despite experiencing a tailspin in your life, you must confront a new challenge of issues and make crucial decisions. Besides funeral plans, your mental health and grief, you also must take another look at your...
Estate Planning
Should your estate plan include secondary beneficiaries?
Many individuals struggle through drafting a comprehensive estate plan only to realize they left out crucial information. Forgetting to include digital assets, for example, or provisions for travel and shipping costs can throw a smooth probate process into disarray....
Estate planning moves any late-in-life parent should consider
You feel blessed and lucky with the birth of your daughter. You almost never expected this day would ever arrive, especially at your age. You are in your late 40s and know that you will have to live a long, long time to experience the many milestones in your...
Overlooked assets in estate planning
In tallying your estate along with its assets, you make sure to do a thorough inventory. You want to be precise in knowing what you have and in determining what your beneficiaries will get. However, some people, including you, may not be as thorough as they think....
What if an executor or trustee abuses their power?
After a person dies, the person appointed as their estate administrator will be responsible for managing and distributing their property and assets. The administrator of a will is called an executor, and the one for a trust is called a trustee. Both of them have to...
The important traits you want in an executor
When choosing an executor to your will, you want someone who is level-headed, available and just -- if not more -- financially savvy than you are. These are just some of the important qualities. Others that stand out are reliability and trustworthiness. You want the...
When you can no longer trust a trustee …
As the beneficiary of a trust, you are grateful to your loved one who had the foresight to create this important estate-planning tool. As a result, you and other beneficiaries may have access to significant assets for the rest of your lives. That will happen, though,...
Who can legally challenge a will, and when can it be contested?
It’s not a casual endeavor. That is a preliminary point prominently underscored by many commentators addressing challenges to a will during the probate process. “Not everyone can challenge a will,” notes one in-depth analysis of will contests. If the bar for doing so...
5 estate planning tasks to do while you’re healthy
While no one wants to think about his or her mortality or how the family will cope after their death, failing to plan for these events can be disastrous while a person is still alive and create confusion and anger for their family later. Fortunately, making vital...
Undue influence is a big reason to challenge a will
Manipulation and deceit often are key factors behind the undue influence of a person who has created or revised his or her will. And this also marks the moment to challenge a will. Think about what happened when you learned that your father plans to leave a good chunk...
