“Estate sale companies simplify what can be a tough time for many, whether it’s downsizing, disability, or death in the family,” Fox 59 reports. When someone has died, the administration of an estate requires that debts and expenses be paid first, with the...

A spendthrift provision creates an irrevocable trust preventing creditors from attaching the interest of the beneficiary in the trust before that interest (cash or property) is actually distributed to him or her. You’re working with your estate planning attorney,...

An observation we find ourselves making all too often at Geyer Law is that Veteran’s Benefits are among the most misunderstood and underutilized resources. Our firm’s focus is with the Veteran’s Benefits Administration, one of three areas within the Department of...

When it comes to administering an estate, the same common sense rule applies as when the testator (the one who has passed away) was still alive: a person must first attend to his own debts and expenses before he or she can give away what is left, observes Alexander...

Although IRAs have no special provisions for naming grandchildren as beneficiaries, fidelity.com explains, you have several options for having them receive IRA assets as part of your estate plan: Name them all as beneficiaries; if any pass away prematurely, the assets...

It is wonderful when grandparents can stay involved in their grandchildren’s lives, sharing those grandchildren’s successes and incorporating grandkids’ special talents and career aspirations – or their special needs – in their own estate planning.  It sometimes...

Wealthy or not, many people have the desire to leave a legacy of ideas and values along with tangible inheritances. The centuries-old concept of passing along ethical teachings to ones heirs has found its way into modern estate planning in the form of “ethical wills”...

Is it possible to use your estate plan to pass along your value system to your beneficiaries along with your “stuff”? That’s the question posed by Robert Powell in a 2012 Wall Street Journal article on estate planning. “Educators, financial advisers and technology...

As the U.S. Supreme Court put it, “The right of a testator to attach to a gift in his will any lawful terms he sees fit…is widely, if not universally, recognized.” Conditional bequests in an estate planning document stipulate that a particular beneficiary will receive...

If someone dies at a hospital or nursing home, the staff will usually know whom to contact, the authors of Indiana Laws of Aging explain. But what if the death occurs at home or somewhere else? You’ll need to call the coroner or a doctor or 911 EMT to verify the...