It may sound simplistic, but making sure you've let your heirs know where your inheritance plans and paperwork are — not to mention passwords — and how to find them is one of the top last will and testament problems. How about the conventional wisdom of leaving each child an identical windfall in your will? That [...]
Statistics from the Pew Research Center note that a full 42 percent of all Americans are in a "step" relationship. This means that you or someone you know is very likely one of the 95.5 million people who are part of a blended family. Estate planning for the millions of Americans who are divorced, remarried [...]
Do you live paycheck to paycheck? An unforeseen problem can become a disaster if you're not prepared. The cumulative result of overspending can put you in a precarious position. If an economic recession were to hit, it would leave you with very few options. Financial planners tell you to keep three months' worth of expenses [...]
You create a trust to protect, preserve and pass on your wealth to your heirs. But how do you keep your family money safe, not only from creditors, but also from the heirs themselves? Create a spendthrift trust. A trust is used to disburse in a controlled way money and assets you've accumulated over a [...]
Trusts can be used as an asset protection tool and to help your beneficiaries avoid the cost and expense of probate. Trusts transfer legal ownership of assets to a trustee, or manager of your trust assets. You deed your property into the name of your trust and your trustee is tasked with administering it as [...]
You don't necessarily create a trust and just forget about it. You may revise a revocable trust whenever your circumstances change. Perhaps you want to add a beneficiary. A trust can be revoked or amended at any time as long as you, its creator, are mentally competent. Having an updated trust will reduce the chances [...]
As a trust beneficiary, you have certain rights. However, trusts can take many forms and may be governed by unique provisions established by the creator ("grantor") of the trust, so details will vary. First, if you are a beneficiary, it's important to know what kind of trust you're named in. If it's a revocable trust, [...]
No-contest clauses are designed to discourage disgruntled relatives from contesting your will or trust by establishing that no one who mounts a legal challenge and loses can inherit a penny from you. Half of all states--including Minnesota--enforce no-contest clauses unless the person suing had probable cause — a good reason — to sue. The courts [...]
There's some old conventional wisdom that says you'll need from $1 million to $1.5 million in retirement. Others say that you will need 10 to 12 times your current income. In fact, a true retirement number is different for everyone, and is dependent on such factors as: - Where you'll live. - How healthy you'll [...]
A typical trust is designed to distribute its income to one person or a group of people — called the income beneficiaries — and its principal at a later date to another person or group, called the remainder beneficiaries. But there is another approach known as a "unitrust." A unitrust pays out a fixed portion [...]
