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The Most Important Part of Your Estate Plan
We are asked often, what is the most important component of an estate plan? This is a question that comes up a lot in an estate planning law practice, and as you might guess, different families will have different answers. The Trust: Many families feel that this is the heart of the estate plan, and […]
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Be Prepared
As an estate planning firm it is our job to keep our clients prepared for what’s coming. This means helping prepare them not only for the eventuality of death, but also for what is coming in life; retirement, the possibility of divorce, new children or grandchildren, and even taxes. Taxes especially are of great concern […]
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Help for Growing Old Gracefully and Peacefully
There is a saying that goes something along the lines of “the only thing worse than getting old is the alternative,” which is said to express pretty well the dismay, betrayal, confusion and sometimes horror that go along with the aging process. Americans are living longer than ever—which really means that there are more opportunities […]
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Finding How to Live
An estate planning office can sometimes feel a lot like it’s all about the logistics of death: who gets what and how, who gets to make decisions, where things are kept, etc. But at our office, we enjoy helping clients with the process because we know that every estate plan is more about a personal […]
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Motivate Your Heirs With an Incentive Trust
In these troubled financial times many parents are re-thinking the wisdom of passing on an inheritance with no strings attached. Parents and grandparents still want to help give their heirs a financial boost, but now they want to pass on something else as well—the value of resourcefulness and hard work. How often have you longed […]
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Should You Share Your Estate Plan With Your Heirs?
If you have a significant estate to leave to your heirs—but you are still alive and well—to whom does that significant estate belong, you or them? This seem a silly question, of course the property belongs to you, but many adult children have come to count on the property their parents will leave them, and—rightly […]
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A Book You Won’t Want to Miss…
I am pleased to share with you that I am one of the featured authors in a new book published by the Wealth Builders Press, entitled Estate Planning Strategies, Collective Wisdom and Proven Techniques. This book is informative and accessible, and has been described by one reviewer as “an invaluable resource and ‘must-have’ for both […]
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Time to Re-emphasize the Basics
With all the worrying you’ve been doing about the economy, the stock market, and shrinking investments, have you given any thought to how your existing estate plan may be affected by all of this? The New York Times has. And what they’ve found is hopeful. Although estates may be smaller, there’s now more room for […]
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The Sleepy Field of Estate Planning—Until Now
When people think of lawyers they usually think of the fast-paced lives of the characters in John Grisham’s legal dramas, or maybe the dramatic and exciting courtroom scenes from the movie A Few Good Men. But Estate Planning Law, unlike litigation practices, has never been like that. Estate Planning has always been a calm area […]
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Make the Most of IRA Distributions—Carefully
When we talk to clients about “the estate” they will pass on to their heirs, that estate includes a number of components: home, life insurance, bank accounts, investment accounts, secondary properties, and IRAs or other retirement assets. Many people consider their IRA the least of the assets in their estate, because they intend to spend […]
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