What Happens to Your Retirement Accounts When You Die?
“What happens to your retirement accounts when you die?” My first answer would be another question: What do you want to happen? That may sound like I am avoiding the question, but I am not. Retirement accounts are different from many other assets because they generally do not pass according to your Will. Instead, what […]
Should You Leave Your Estranged Child $1?
The “$1 Inheritance” Myth: Why It Refuses to Die Every once in a while, someone comes into an estate planning meeting with an idea they think is clever, bold, and legally airtight. They want to disinherit an estranged child, but they have heard somewhere that they should leave that child exactly one dollar. The theory […]
5 Estate Mistakes That Can Cause Family Chaos
The Issues When people think about estate planning, they usually focus on efficiency—avoiding probate, minimizing taxes, and making sure assets pass as smoothly as possible. But there are estate mistakes that are just as important, and often far more damaging when overlooked. That issue is family chaos. I have seen well-meaning parents set up estate […]
DEFCON 5 Estate Planning: When “Simple” Turns Into Constant Maintenance
“A ‘Simple’ Estate Plan Is Not What You Think” There’s a certain type of estate plan that clients will describe as “simple,” and every time I hear it, I know we’re about to head in the exact opposite direction. What sounds simple on the surface often turns into something far more complicated once you look […]
Think Your Assets Go to Your Grandkids?
By Jeff Marsocci, The Plain English Attorney Your Daughter-in-Law’s Next Husband May Disagree In-Law Protection – Estate Plan Most parents want the same thing: leave their hard-earned assets to their children and—eventually—to their grandchildren. That’s the natural flow most of us picture when we think about estate planning. But here’s a painful truth I see […]
Protecting the Kids From a Divorce Disaster
This one’s going to be in two parts and it’s about protecting the kids from a potential divorce disaster. The first part is putting together your own estate plan and what you can do to protect an inheritance that’s going down to the kids so that it doesn’t end up being claimed in a divorce. […]