Key Tips to Help Prevent Fights Over Your Estate

Tag Archives: estate planning

Key Tips to Help Prevent Fights Over Your Estate

When children fight over their parents’ estates, it can result in emotional distress and drawn-out legal battles that can quickly get expensive and time consuming. To help avoid this situation, here are some steps you can take when engaged in the estate planning process: Choose the right person to be your personal representative: The individual […]

Can You Get Your Estate Plan Done on a Budget?

On the internet, you’ll find some estate planning services that promise to save you a significant amount of money as opposed to working with an attorney. You may also find general practice attorneys who provide estate planning services at a low cost. However, while it is possible to get your estate plan done on a […]

Probate is Not a Long Process in Most Cases

The probate process can get drawn out and expensive in some cases, and it is always beneficial to do your best to avoid probate through effective estate planning. However, if your estate does have to go through probate, you should not worry about it taking years for the case to wrap up. Typically, the only […]

Myth: Probate Costs Will Consume All Your Assets

One of the most common myths regarding probate is that the associate costs will take up most of the assets you own. Although it is true that probate can be a costly process and that you should attempt to avoid it as much as possible through sound estate planning, you do not need to fear […]

Common Items Included in a Will

If you are unfamiliar the estate planning process and the creation of a last will and testament, you might get a little lost when reading a will or attempting to determine what you need to put into your own estate planning documents. To help you better understand the structure of a will, below are some […]

Methods of Transferring Real Estate Upon One’s Death

If there are real estate assets in your estate, those assets are probably the most valuable items you own. This means you should be careful about choosing who assumes ownership of real estate upon your passing. How you transfer ownership of real estate depends largely on how you own the property in question. Below are […]

Steps a Personal Representative Should Take if No Will Can Be Found

Without a last will and testament, it is impossible to say for certain who the deceased person would have selected to serve as his or her personal representative. Therefore, the probate court takes it upon itself to name an individual to fill this role. In most cases, this person is a surviving spouse or an […]

Congress Considers Estate Tax Proposals

The federal estate tax is subject of constant debate in Washington, D.C. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed in December 2017, doubled the limits of the estate tax, and there have been Republican proposals to eliminate the tax completely. Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has proposed significantly […]

Emotional Blocks Can Make Estate Planning Difficult

One of the few certainties of life is that all of us will pass away someday. While one might think that would add some sense of urgency to estate planning, the difficulty and uncomfortable nature of the topic can make it very difficult for people to want to sit down and consider what will happen […]

How to Prepare for Your First Meeting with an Estate Planning Lawyer

You’ve finally committed yourself to establishing an estate plan and have set up a meeting with an attorney. Great! But how do you prepare for that first meeting and what information should you bring with you? Below is a brief overview of what you should do to prepare so that your meeting goes as smoothly […]