Probate and trust administration are not the same. There are important differences and similarities between administering a decedent’s probate estate and administering a decedent’s trust estate.
Parents should make sure they have arrangements in place for the care of their minor-aged children, when planning their estates…
Estate planning documents often are treated like the photocopied permission slip for a child’s field trip. You fill in your name, include the children’s names and dates of birth and sign. The document is filed away to be used if needed, but you really never expect it to be used.
Social Security benefits are one of the items that fall through the cracks in many estate plans.
Somewhere between a corporation and a partnership lies the limited liability company (LLC). This hybrid legal entity is beneficial not just for small-business owners but is also a powerful tool for estate planning.
Both the state and federal government, administered through the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Medicaid provide disabled individuals with a variety of life enhancing, and sometimes life sustaining, public benefits.
The death care industry — yep, it’s got its own industry moniker — is an estimated $20 billion business. Service Corporation International, a publicly traded company that operates 1,475 funeral homes and 483 cemeteries in 44 states, pulled in more than $3.2 billion in revenue in the past 12 months.
You might not be able to spend all the money in your 401(k) plan before you die. If that happens, your retirement savings will pass to the person you name as the beneficiary of the account. The information on your 401(k) beneficiary form typically supersedes what is written in your will. Therefore, it is important to keep this form up to date for all your retirement and investment accounts.
Each year, senior citizens lose billions of dollars to financial fraud, with the loss to individual victims averaging tens of thousands of dollars.
It can be hard to move through your daily life after someone you love dies. It may be even harder to embark on the complex tasks required to put their financial affairs in order. However, you can’t afford to put that off.
