You may have heard that last year, California enacted a “next-of-kin” law that’s like those already in place in numerous states. It requires hospitals and other medical facilities to designate a health care surrogate for a seriously ill or injured patient who can’t...
Estate Planning
What steps can I take to protect my estate?
Protecting your estate involves a comprehensive approach to better ensure that your assets are managed and distributed according to your wishes, medical decisions are made in accordance with your preferences and your finances are handled efficiently. The only way to...
What is a power of attorney in estate planning?
Estate planning is critical for all adults, but you may not realize that this goes far beyond just saying who gets what assets when you die. A major component of estate planning is giving a trusted individual the legal ability to make decisions for you if there comes...
3 estate planning strategies to reduce probate complication risks
Probate proceedings are notorious for delaying the distribution of someone's assets and also diminishing how much their selected beneficiaries receive from their estate. The more conflict there is and the more that the probate courts have to resolve, the greater the...
How likely are beneficiaries to fight over their inheritances?
The process of putting together a comprehensive estate plan requires that someone carefully considers numerous variables. For example, people have to think about their future medical needs and what may happen with their debts after they retire. They also have to...
Managing a dental practice in a dentist’s estate plan
Dentists spend years completing an education that allows them to command a competitive wage and to potentially be their own boss and offer their loved ones an excellent standard of living. A successful dental practice may include one dentist and multiple hygienists or...
How estate planning can help people to avoid involuntary guardianship
As people get older, they often become more dependent on support from others. Eventually, many older adults require the regular support of friends, family members or professional caregivers to meet their basic needs. Guardianship is one of the ways that the state...
5 things you need to know about trusts
When people start to think about an estate plan, they may consider the will. While a will is fairly easy to establish, it behooves some individuals to set up and fund trusts. Assets held in trusts are passed down to the beneficiaries without having to go through the...
Estate planning milestones to look out for
When you look back at your past, you recall milestone events that shaped who you are today. Such events as weddings, divorces, births, deaths, new careers and retirement will continue to add to your story for the rest of your life. Besides making up your and your...
Is your estate vulnerable to taxation after you die?
Thinking about who receives which assets from your estate can be pleasant in some ways. You may reminisce about your favorite memories with different people and assign them different property based on your experiences with them and their current life circumstances....