Are you planning to move to a different state? It may be due to a change in jobs, a desire for a better climate, an opportunity to downsize or to be closer to your…
If you’re charitably inclined, it may be desirable to donate assets held in a trust. Why? Perhaps you’re not ready to let go of assets you hold individually. Or maybe the tax benefits of…
As you create your estate plan, your main objectives likely revolve around your family, both current and future generations. Your goals may include reducing estate tax liability so that you can pass as much…
Providing for the educational needs of your children, grandchildren and even future generations is an honorable estate planning objective. What are your options for achieving this goal? A 529 plan can be a highly…
No one likes to contemplate his or her own mortality. But ignoring the need for an estate plan or procrastinating in the creation of one is asking for trouble. If you haven’t started the…
Let’s assume you have a legally valid will but you’ve decided that it should be revised because of a change in your family’s circumstances. Perhaps all you want to do is add a newborn…
Personal items — which may have modest monetary value but significant sentimental value — may be more difficult to address in an estate plan than big-ticket items. Squabbling over these items may lead to…
Portability allows a surviving spouse to apply a deceased spouse’s unused federal gift and estate tax exemption amount toward his or her own transfers during life or at death. To secure these benefits, however,…
The best laid plans can go awry. After your death, events may transpire that you hadn’t anticipated or couldn’t have reasonably foreseen. There’s no way of predicting the future, but you may want to…
