Downs Law Firm, P.C.
While thinking about legacy planning can be unpleasant because it involves discussions about incapacity or mortality, it’s an important aspect of good financial planning that shouldn’t be ignored.
Naming secondary beneficiaries can help estate planners avoid the delay and costs of going through probate, as well as ensure that your wishes are carried out.
Unlike a last will and testament, a revocable living trust is effective during your lifetime.
All couples can now take advantage of tax benefits for married partners, pass assets from one spouse to another with ease and qualify for Social Security spousal and survivor benefits. However, not all couples want to get married.
When you set up your estate plan it is important to coordinate the legal planning documents that you or you and your attorney create with the document provided by your retirement account custodian and/or your life insurance carrier called a ‘Designation of Beneficiary.’
It is quite a tragedy when a loved one passes away. You may want to remember them by keeping sentimental objects from their home, or perhaps they wanted you to inherit a specific item.
It’s hard for a family to recuperate when the patriarchs and matriarchs have gone to glory, leaving a battle for who will carry the family’s leadership role and manage the family’s transition of wealth.
Whatever the reason, whether your life is a bed of roses or a getting-worse-nightmare, there are things you can do now to insure what you leave will go to who you want. And when. And in what portion or portions.
This legal document can also be beneficial in many situations, such as if you want to leave an inheritance to someone but aren’t sure they will use the gift wisely.
If you don’t have a spouse and children, you might not think you need to do any estate planning—but that’s not the case.
Copyright © IMS. All rights reserved. You may reproduce materials available at this site for your own personal use and for non-commercial distribution. All copies must include this copyright statement. Some artwork provided under license agreement.
