The first step is to figure out what accounts the deceased had by looking through their mail, email, or phone notifications. You may get lucky, as the deceased may have compiled a list as part of their estate plan. Once you have identified what accounts were in the deceased’s name, you can move on to the next step of deciding whether to cancel or keep them.
Category Archives: Inheritance
With very few exceptions, state law governs estate administration. So, each state follows unique laws and regulations regarding probate and distribution of a decedent’s assets.
The key to ensuring that your estate plan will work the way you envision is understanding that how you own your money and property (i.e., how title is held) determines whether your will or trust, or neither, controls who will receive that money and property.
When creating a trust, you can include specific provisions in your trust agreement that will either encourage or discourage certain kinds of behavior.
Bruce Wayne possess something key to moonlighting as Batman: money. Heir to an enormous fortune, Wayne emerges as one of Gotham’s wealthiest citizens. A major philanthropist who donates money to various causes, neither role would work without assets.
When people create estate plans, they typically focus on distributing their money and property to loved ones. For those interested in multigenerational wealth transfer, consider dynasty trusts.
The beneficiary of a blind trust also has no knowledge of what goes on with the trust. However, in most cases, the trust-maker is also the beneficiary. That is, the trust contains their personal money and property, and the trustee manages that money and property for the benefit of the trust-maker-beneficiary—the trust-maker-beneficiary just has no knowledge of, or control over, the activities of the trust.
surprised young business woman looking through binoculars on yellow background.
The news that you will be receiving an inheritance is often bittersweet. Sadly, it means that somebody close to you died. However, you might also have mixed emotions about your inheritance for reasons that have to do with the actual accounts or inherited property.
The National Association of Home Builders reports that people owned 7.5 million second homes in 2018. This makes up 5.5 percent of the total number of homes. Such vacation property must be planned for, managed, and maintained. What’s more, they birth happy memories for their owners. Consider these estate planning questions to protect your place […]











