People with revocable living trusts often name a family member (spouse, oldest child, etc.) as their successor trustee. The successor trustee is who takes over the administrative duties for the trust in the event you become incapacitated or die. However, naming only one successor is probably not enough. It is…
Although parents typically want to leave equal shares of their estate for their children, there are cases where equal isn’t fair. It’s important to carefully prepare if you want to provide more or less for one child in your estate plan. There may be a number of reasons a parent…
It can be enough of a challenge to do estate planning for yourself, but it might be even more complicated when you have a spouse. You and your spouse may have been able to reach agreements on major life decisions such as raising children and where to live, but that…
It’s a huge responsibility to act as an agent under a power of attorney, and it isn’t something everyone is able or willing to do. If someone names you as an agent in their power of attorney document, you can resign or refuse the position. The main types of power…
As you are preparing to bring your student to college, there’s some estate planning you will want to include as part of this preparation. Your child becomes a legal adult once they turn 18, and in most circumstances, you are no longer authorized to obtain information regarding their medical care…
People usually find it stressful to talk to family members about decisions they are making for their estate plan, and this can lead a lot of people to avoid having these conversations. Sometimes, a parent’s adult children won’t talk to their parents about this topic because they don’t want to…
It’s rare for an estate plan to be put together and never be changed. Wills and trusts usually need to be changed over time as your circumstances, states of residence, and desired outcomes shift. It is important to know how you can properly change your will or trust so that…
It is important not only to have estate planning documents in place, but also to keep these documents up-to-date as your life changes. The rule of thumb is to review these documents every five years to see if any revisions need to be made. If changes have occurred in your…
People are often aware of how important it is to have complete and up-to-date estate planning documents but may not realize that where those documents are stored can be just as important and can greatly help (or hurt, if they are not stored properly). Estate planning documents are to be used in…
In last week’s post, I addressed why it is important to talk to your parents about planning for their death as well as some tips for how to begin this challenging conversation with them. Today I’ll share the “what” and “when” of this important conversation: What should be covered? There…