estate planning

Required Minimum Distribution (RMD)? What are the new rules for RMDs? How do you calculate RMDs?

Planning Your Estate Around IRAs: What You Need to Know About Required Minimum Distributions With the decline of employer-funded pensions, and the steady decrease of Social Security checks’ purchasing power compared against inflation, an individual retirement account (IRA) has proven to be an important part of millions of Americans’ retirement savings. However, an IRA is also an important factor to consider when planning your estate. How Are IRAs Inherited? IRAs can be inherited, like most financial

When To Use A Special Needs Trust

Special-Needs Trusts: An Overview of a Useful Estate-Planning Tool In planning one’s estate, one seeks to make one’s passing easier, financially, logistically, and emotionally, for loved ones. In planning for the future, you likely have given special consideration to loved ones who would not be able to provide for themselves if you were gone, such as minor children. While children eventually grow up, some conditions and disabilities that prevent a person from working or living independently

Living Without a Healthcare Proxy: A Risk to Avoid

Your Life, Your Way Healthcare decisions are among the most personal, and most consequential, any of us can make. For many of us, there may come a time when old age, illness, or injury will prevent us from voicing our wishes and concerns about what we prefer for our bodies, or even how we prefer to spend the remainder of our lives. In light of this, everyone needs to make provision, in writing, for someone else

Estate Planning Basics: Comparing Powers of Attorney and Living Wills

No Time Like the Uncertain Present to Prepare for the Certain Future While it is always the time to get your affairs in order, since putting off these important decisions can lead to financial and emotional pain for your survivors, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought mortality to the forefront of many minds and has brought home the urgency of planning for one’s end-of-life care. In this article, we will review two legal tools available to

5 Key Questions to Answer When Creating Your Will

If you don’t want important decisions to be left up to the state when you’re gone, you need a will. If the idea of creating a will feels like you’re tempting fate, think of it as a road map you’re leaving your family, so they don’t have to stress over making the right decisions on your behalf. First, you need to understand the differences between a living will and a last will and testament, usually referred

10 Questions To Help You Create Your Will

A Holistic Approach to Your Affairs For many people, especially those approaching middle- or retirement-age, know they should put together a plan for their estate, but feel overwhelmed by the details and options. They continue to put off estate planning for “another day” until, often, it is too late. Younger people also should consider their affairs, because there is no time like the present and because tomorrow is never guaranteed. In fact, putting together a comprehensive

10 Questions To Help You Create Your Will

Creating a will not at the top of your to-do-list? Maybe it should be! Creating an estate plan is one way to ensure your family is taken care of, and your wishes are carried out in the future. Having a will isn’t just for the uber-rich or elderly. In fact, everyone should have a will regardless of your marital status, age, or the size of one’s estate. When writing out your will, many considerations need to

Parents made wills in 1996. Nothing has changed except their age/health. Any concerns over the validity of the wills?

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Wills were made and recorded in 1996. They have the same address, they’re still married, all their children and grandchildren are still living, and little, if anything, in their lives has changed. Given the state of their health, should we be concerned with the wills’ validity given the age of their wills? ANSWER BY MARGARET CROSS-BELIVEAU: A validly executed will remains in effect no matter how long ago the wills were executed. I am

Contemplating Your Estate Plan During Covid-19

Get Your Affairs in Order For most of us, coronavirus and the threat it poses has made us contemplate the status of our estate plans. As thousands of people in the Commonwealth have died of COVID-19 and its complications, many thousands more are ill, and many, many thousands more face unemployment and financial hardship. There are also innumerable, lesser losses: newborn grandchildren who have yet to meet their grandparents; weddings canceled and postponed; funerals with only

What should I do about a verbal agreement and one witness?

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: My mother passed away. Before she passed, she had a talk with my step-dad and her kids separately. She stated to me and my brother that she and my step-dad had talked about what she wanted to do with her money. She was leaving her s.s., pension and 401k to her kids. She also stated that my step-dad agreed to giving us everything and that he stated to her didn’t want any of the

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Required Minimum Distribution (RMD)? What are the new rules for RMDs? How do you calculate RMDs?

When To Use A Special Needs Trust

Living Without a Healthcare Proxy: A Risk to Avoid

Estate Planning Basics: Comparing Powers of Attorney and Living Wills

5 Key Questions to Answer When Creating Your Will

10 Questions To Help You Create Your Will

10 Questions To Help You Create Your Will

Parents made wills in 1996. Nothing has changed except their age/health. Any concerns over the validity of the wills?

Contemplating Your Estate Plan During Covid-19

What should I do about a verbal agreement and one witness?

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