Trusts

The variety of options available to you when you begin the estate planning process can easily overwhelm you. It's difficult to know who to listen to and what is best for you when others are telling you what you need and how to proceed. One thing you may have heard is...

If you have an heir who is still a minor, and you’re doing your estate planning, you may run into some complications. For instance, you may have substantial financial assets that you want to leave to this individual. But it is clear that they are not ready or able to...

Estate planning is a much more complex and challenging process when you have a family member with special needs to consider. Parents who have special needs children and those who serve as a guardian for a vulnerable adult will have more concerns to address in their...

As you get older, it is natural to start thinking about what will happen to your assets when you die. One of the most important estate planning tools you can use to dictate your wishes regarding your assets is a trust.  A trust allows you to transfer some of your...

You know that you'd like to use a trust to leave money to your grandchildren. They are still minors, so you don't want to leave them the money directly, but you want to make sure that it's there for them. The problem is that you don't know exactly what the future...

When people with considerable assets place money in a trust for a child or grandchild who’s an adult (at least in the eyes of the law), they often place some conditions on the distribution of those assets. Most people do that in part to protect the beneficiary from...

When making a will, one issue to be aware of is that it could be out of date the day after you make it. How is that you ask? When you create a standard will, you list all the assets you own and set out how you want the executor to distribute them after you die. Yet,...

Estate planning entails the creation and execution of several different legal documents. Unfortunately, this means it is easy for the untrained to make mistakes. As you may imagine, even one error could mean that your trust or will fails to function according to your...

Every adult needs to have an estate plan before they pass away. This gives your loved ones instructions about your assets so they can follow your wishes. While most people think that a will is all they need, there are other components that are just as important.  One...

You can use many different types of trusts when doing your estate planning. One is an incentive trust. It is not nearly as common as other types of trusts, but does it bear considering?  An incentive trust essentially works by connecting an inheritance to a specific...