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...
It’s not a good idea to pass on leaving your passwords behind, Professor Gerry Beyer of Texas Tech University School of Law cautions. Those who work in the digital assets world are at the very beginning stages, he says, of determining how conventional estate planning...
December of 2014 marked the culmination of almost ten years of effort. In an important milestone for all disabled people in our country and their families, President Obama signed into law a bill called the ABLE Act. ABLE stands for Achieving a Better Life Experience....
“Most people getting remarried have little to no concept of the full legal impact of their new marriage”when it comes to estate planning, asserts John Scroggin in the Journal of Financial Planning. Scroggin points out two widely held misconceptions: Prenuptial...
“Estate planning isn’t just an issue to tackle with your older clients, it’s for young clients, too,” writes Tania Brown CFP® in Forbes. But do most young people, who don’t have a lot of assets, need an estate plan? Yes, if only to help loved ones pay for funeral and...
