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...

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....