Tag Archives: Estate Planning

5 Important Things to Know About Estate Planning

By | March 28, 2016

If you have not gotten around to planning your estate, then it is high time you do. There are several reasons why you should not delay in planning how your assets should be distributed after you are no more. A comprehensive estate plan will help you decide who gets to inherit your wealth and you can proactively prevent… Read More »

How to Set Up a Living Trust — Starting Today

By | January 25, 2012

A living trust can be one of the most valuable legal entities you ever create. Why? Because it gives you a large degree of control over your own estate. But let’s back up here and explain what a living trust is all about. Essentially, a living trust is a trust for estate planning that you create while you’re… Read More »

What Most Americans Don’t Know About Estate Planning

By | August 3, 2011

In America, our culture can often be described as “impatient.” A flight that’s delayed ten minutes can feel like a lifetime of waiting. A text message that takes ten seconds longer to send will make you feel like your phone belongs in the stone age. And yet when it comes to taking action on estate planning, we suddenly… Read More »

A Guide to Differences Between Wills and Living Wills

By | August 1, 2011

Let’s be honest: when it comes to estate planning, a lot of people prefer the bliss of ignorance to the bliss of wisdom. Wills, to them, are complicated things, reminders of our own mortality and therefore something to be put off into the future. And when you introduce the concept of a Living Will, the complications make the… Read More »

How to Choose the Right Executor for Your Will

By | June 2, 2011

What is one of the most valuable social resources? Simple: trust. When you trust someone implicitly, it gives you an ally – someone who can take care of you when you’re sick or incapacitated in some way, for example. But there is more you can do when you trust someone implicitly especially when it comes to the legal… Read More »

The Importance of Beneficiary Designations

By | December 10, 2010

When was the last time your reviewed the beneficiary designation form from your retirement plan, IRA, life insurance policies or annuities?  If your answer is typical, you don’t remember. A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision should motivate some people to move this overlooked step higher on their priority list.  This particular ruling involved a 401(k) plan, but it… Read More »

The Future of the Federal Estate Tax

By | October 6, 2010

As of February of 2010, the United States enjoyed more than a month of complete repeal of the federal estate tax.  Before its repeal, the federal estate tax was almost as old as the U.S. income tax which required the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to adopt. The 2010 repeal of the federal estate tax was originally… Read More »

Asset Protection with Estate Planning

By | September 20, 2010

What’s the single hottest topic in California estate planning?  Here in Sacramento foreclosures are a popular topic but not so much for people with assets.  Estate tax law changes are always in vogue for people with money.  However, the number one hottest topic, the numero uno point of concern, the biggest area of questions is in the area… Read More »

You Signed Your Revocable Trust, But Did You Fund It?

By | September 15, 2010

A properly funded trust will avoid probate upon your death and provide management of your assets without court involvement should you become disabled or incapacitated.  Although your Last Will and Testament may provide that all assets spill over into your trust for further disposition, that occurs only after they pass through probate. Assets under the trust umbrella need… Read More »

Roth IRA Conversion Top Considerations

By | September 15, 2010

Effective this year, converting from one’s traditional IRA (or other qualified plans such as 401k, 403b and 457) to a Roth IRA is available to everyone.  There are benefits and burdens of conversion, and the purpose of this article is to provide you with several things you should consider when converting to a Roth IRA. When you convert… Read More »