Mark your calendars: January 28 is International LEGO Day, which celebrates the date when the patent for the globally famous plastic brick system was filed.
Celebrating International LEGO Day
Blog
You Can Benefit from Giving Gifts
A benefit of working hard is sharing the fruits of your labor with your loved ones. However, gift or estate tax consequences may impact high-net-worth clients when they share their wealth. By crafting a comprehensive estate plan, we can address these concerns and protect high-net-worth clients and their loved ones. The following three types of trusts may assist high-net-worth clients in sharing their wealth in a tax-advantageous way.
The Power of Purpose: Unveiling the Impact of Charitable Giving
Compared to residents of other wealthy nations, Americans are more likely to give their time and money to help others.
Building a Strong Caregiver Team for Your Child with Special Needs
Caring for a child with special needs often feels like a full-time responsibility that only you can manage. The thought of asking for help may seem overwhelming, whether due to a lack of time to train someone or a belief that no one can care for your child as well as you. However, seeking support provides much-needed relief and ensures that your child becomes accustomed to receiving care from others—a critical step for the future.
Don’t Let This Crucial Question Derail Your Estate Plan
Sitting down to create or update your estate plan can be overwhelming. Crucial to a successful plan is your ability to address two major questions: Who will get your stuff when you die, and how do you want those individuals or charities to receive that stuff?
What You Need to Know About Self-Canceling Installment Notes
The Internal Revenue Code assesses a tax (gift or estate) on transferring money or property from one person to another during life or at death, with some exceptions. If you own accounts or property worth a lot of money and expect them to continue to increase in value, you may want to transfer them out of your estate so you will no longer own them, and they will not be subject to estate tax at your death.
What You Can Learn from the Leno Conservatorship Proceedings
It does not matter who you are, how old you are, or how much you have—having a proper plan in place to address your incapacity or death is necessary for everyone. Recently, comedian and late-night talk show host Jay Leno had to seek court involvement to handle his and his wife’s estate planning needs due to his wife’s incapacity.
What Can I Not Do as Trustmaker and Trustee of a Revocable Living Trust?
Wills and living trusts are two of the most fundamental estate planning documents. While both accomplish the same primary objective in an estate plan of directing the distributions of your money and property to your desired beneficiaries after you pass away, a revocable living trust, often referred to simply as a living trust or an inter vivos trust, provides added flexibility and functionality, including incapacity planning.
6 Ways a Trust Protector Can Help You
Trust protectors are commonly used in the United States. Essentially, a trust protector serves as an appointed authority over a trust that will be in effect for an extended period. Trust protectors ensure that trustees maintain the integrity of the trust, make solid distribution and investment decisions, and adapt the trust to changes in law and circumstance.
Legal and Practical Travel Tips for Parents of Children with Special Needs
As a parent, your primary concern is ensuring your child’s safety and comfort, whether you're hitting the beach, exploring a new city, or visiting relatives. By understanding and preparing for the legal and practical considerations of travel with a child with special needs, you can make your trip enjoyable and stress-free.
Estate Administration Details that TV and Movies Get Wrong
Movies and TV often misrepresent estate administration, leading to misconceptions. Unlike the simplicity shown onscreen, creating or changing a will requires meeting specific legal standards; otherwise, the will may be invalid, leading to delays and disputes in probate.
Passing the Torch: Smart Business Succession Strategies
For many business owners, their business is one of the most valuable and important things they own. When it is time to sit down and create an estate plan, business owners must plan for their business just as they would for their home or finances. Effective business succession planning ensures a seamless ownership transition upon the potential occurrence of many different events, such as the business’s owner’s retirement, disability, or death. All businesses need a succession plan, but many business owners overlook it.
Three Important Concerns Self-Employed Individuals Should Address
Being self-employed is no easy task. You are the owner and, in some cases, the only employee. While you may have more freedom than the average worker, many responsibilities lie on your shoulders. Working together, we can craft a comprehensive estate plan to help you address your three important concerns.
Intrafamily Loans and How They Work
An intrafamily loan is a financial arrangement between family members—one who is lending and another who borrows. An intrafamily loan may be used to help a family member who needs money for several reasons
Does Your Child With Special Needs and Their Caregivers Have a Support Circle?
Every parent and child needs a strong support system, but for parents of children with special needs, the stakes are higher. Concerns about who will care for your child, both now and in the future, can be overwhelming. Your child may need assistance throughout their life, and it’s crucial to plan for their care when you can no longer provide it.
Corporate Transparency Act Update
Under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which took effect January 1, 2024, many business entities, including small limited liability companies (LLCs) and partnerships, are required to file reports with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN). In these filings, applicable businesses must disclose important information about their entity. However, recent developments have called into question the constitutionality of these requirements.
Watch Out for Stolen Items in Your Loved One's Estate
Your family member went through a meticulous estate planning process to organize and distribute money and property for the benefit of their loved ones, including you. However, you may suspect some high-value items in their estate originated as stolen property. The possibility of discovering stole...
What Happens to Real Estate With a Mortgage When I Die?
Like the rest of your debt, your mortgage does not simply disappear when you die. Suppose you leave your home with an outstanding loan to a beneficiary in your will or trust. Your beneficiary will inherit the property and the outstanding debt in that case. They may have the right to take over the...
What Happens to An Adult Child Living at Home When Their Parents Pass Away?
More young adults live at home with their parents today than ever since the 1940s. While there are many different opinions about this trend and the cause of its recent prevalence, the primary motivation for young adults staying at home with their parents is usually related to finances. Most adul...
Bills and Services to Cancel—and Keep—When a Loved One Dies
A loved one's passing is challenging on many different levels. In addition to the emotional difficulty of processing someone's death, there are also the many tasks that must be dealt with, such as going through their various accounts and taking the necessary steps to cancel them or transfer owner...
3 Crucial Estate Planning Tools For a Child With Special Needs
As a parent of a child with special needs, you are the ultimate expert on your child's preferences, routines, skills, and challenges. This unique knowledge is invaluable when it comes to legal planning for your child's future. Legal planning can indeed seem overwhelming when securing your futur...
Saying Goodbye Is Hard: How a Comprehensive Estate Plan Can Help
When people think about estate planning, they usually focus on who will receive their money and property when they pass away and how it will be received. However, estate planning can also address your end-of-life wishes—the considerations and expenses involved when it is time to say goodbye to your loved ones.
Inspiring Action: The Guide to Creating or Updating Your Estate Plan
Creating or revising an estate plan can feel overwhelming, causing many people to procrastinate. But the longer you put it off, the more potential you have to be caught unprepared in an emergency. So, how can you motivate yourself and your loved ones to begin the process? Here are some strategies...
Could a Testamentary Trust Be What Your Loved Ones Need?
One of the main reasons a person creates a revocable living trust (a trust established during their lifetime that they can amend or revoke) instead of relying on a will to transfer their money and property to their beneficiaries is to avoid probate. Probate is the court process during which a per...
Testamentary Trusts: The Best of Both Worlds
You have several different options when it comes to creating the right estate plan. Some people believe that a revocable living trust is the best way to go, while others think that a last will and testament (commonly known as a will) is best under certain circumstances. Others may find that a com...