A Will is a legal document that directs where your assets go at death and designates the person who will oversee that process. The court must authorize this “overseer” to access your assets, pay your last debts and give what remains to your beneficiaries.

Laws and personal circumstances can change rapidly. Your estate plan should be set up to change with them through regular review and refinements.

A “Living” Trust is a Will-substitute created and used while you are alive to provide for you first and then your loved ones upon death. Trusts, among other things, will avoid the courts, allow easy access to accounts, protect inheritances, save taxes, and save on long-term care costs. A Trust is currently useless if there are no assets titled in its name or it is not listed as a beneficiary of accounts like 401(k)s or life insurance.

A Trust may be useless if there are no assets titled in its name or it is not listed as a beneficiary of accounts like 401(k)s or life insurance.

Laws and personal circumstances can change rapidly. Your estate plan should be set up to change with them through regular review and refinements.

Not having an estate plan means that the state will make one for you. There are laws that will determine your executor and your beneficiaries if you fail to make a plan.

If written correctly, a Trust can protect an inheritance from a beneficiary’s Divorce, Debts (creditors), Disputes (lawsuits), Disability (state benefits) and Destructive Spending.

Having NO plan in place that legally names someone as a financial or medical agent for you will result in the courts making that decision instead.

Tax laws allow everyone to exclude some of their possessions from tax at death. How much is excluded often depends upon the type of estate plan you have.