Category Archives: Estate Planning
Solo Aging Is as Unglamorous as It Sounds
A recent article on Moneywise points to an uncomfortable truth that we probably could have figured out if it were not such a bummer to think about. Specifically, more than a quarter of American retirees are doing what Moneywise describes as “solo aging,” meaning that the retirees live alone and do not have any… Read More »
Does Undue Influence Apply to Payable on Death Beneficiary Designations?
Many banks and credit unions give account holders the option to add a payable on death (POD) beneficiary to their checking and savings accounts. If you do this, then the account becomes a non-probate asset. This means that the beneficiary does not have to wait until the estate of the original owner of the… Read More »
Protecting Your Unmarried Domestic Partner From the Vicissitudes of Probate
Your estate plan can be a way of showing your family how much you love them, or it can be a way of showing them that you are over them and all their drama. There is a reason that estate planning lawyers tell people never to write a will when you are angry. If… Read More »
Decluttering Your Revocable Trust
Establishing a trust can be a great source of relief when you are building your estate plan. If you choose a revocable trust, it is easier to overcome the hesitation. With a revocable trust, you are not signing away possession of your assets into the void, and if you change your mind about which… Read More »
3 Estate Planning Decisions You Don’t Have to Make
False dichotomies are a logical fallacy. When someone holds up a pear and says, “Is this an apple or an orange?” it is an unanswerable question, unless you say, “no.” Life is not as simple as the logic puzzle where every character in the story is either a knight, who always tells the truth,… Read More »
Transferring Your Family Home to a Trust
If you have only heard about trusts as a plot point in movies and TV shows, then you probably think that only rich people can set up trusts and that their only function is to dispense cash to overgrown nepo babies. By this logic, you probably assume that, when a trust owns a real… Read More »
Lock Into Your Estate Planning Goals Now So That You Don’t Need to Make a New Year’s Resolution to Revise Your Estate Plan in 2026
People who are old enough to remember a time when you had to wait for your favorite song to play on the radio love to deride the habits and attitudes of Generation Z, the young adults born in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They don’t seem as emotionally attached to their professional goals… Read More »
The Medieval Origins of the Revocable Trust
In the 1990s, if you went to a Renaissance Festival, a bearded dude with a gleam in his eye and a figure that rivals King Henry VIII would tell you about the medieval origins of many expressions and practices familiar from our everyday lives, and most of them are not true. Everyone with a… Read More »
How to Avoid Financial Catastrophe If You Missed the Boat on Long-Term Care Insurance
There is no perfect time for estate planning, but there is also no wrong time. You are never too young to write a will, but if you never write one and your estate goes through probate court intestate, your closest family members will still inherit your property. You can draft a power of attorney… Read More »
Estate Planning Strategies to Stop Your Blended Family From Imploding
Some types of family conflict are naturally self-limiting. How many siblings who used to fight like cats and dogs when they were children become each other’s strongest supporters after they reach adulthood? Waging war against your stepparents is a full-time job when you are a teenager, but once you are an adult and no… Read More »
