Estate Planning Strategies
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Helping Your Executor Fulfill Your Estate Planning Strategy
Too many estate planning strategies ignore one of the keys to their success. An important driver of a plan’s outcome is the job performed by your executor or administrator. You appoint this person, or several persons in your estate planing strategy, but you won’t be around to oversee or guide. Yet, there are steps you […]
How Interest Rates Affect Your Estate Planning
Interest rates were expected to rise the last couple of years. Instead, rates declined. They declined again to open 2016. Interest rate changes matter to your estate plan. Some strategies are better when rates are low and others when rates are higher. Especially when your estate might be taxable or you don’t want to shelter […]
Buildng the Complete Estate Planning Strategy
Many people think they have estate planing strategies but really don’t. I’m not talking about the many people who haven’t done any estate planning and don’t have even a basic will. I’m talking about people who have taken action on their estate planning and yet have plans that are woefully incomplete. There is more to […]
Learning Estate Planning Strategies from “Tony Soprano”
The passing of actor James Gandolfini, best known as Tony Soprano in The Sopranos, received a lot of publicity. Not all the publicity was in the entertainment or celebrity media. Financial and legal media pounced on Gandolfini’s will, generating a lot of commentary from lawyers and Estate Planning specialists, little of it positive. Gandolfini’s estate […]
Estate Planning Strategies for Asset Ownership
When your estate planning aims to help a grandchild financially, especially for college, an important question is: Who should own the assets? In fact, answering this question can be harder than determining how much money you should set aside and how it should be invested. Deciding who should own the property means looking at several […]
Low-Cost Estate Planning Strategies to Help the Family
You don’t need a lot of wealth to develop a simple Estate Planning Strategy that helps your loved ones. You also don’t need large gifts or other transfers as part of good estate planning. Estate planning strategies aren’t only for the very wealthy, and your loved ones don’t have to wait to benefit from your […]
Good Estate Planning Is Not All About the Money
Estate Planning isn’t all about the money. At least, it’s not if you want the plan to be successful. Long-time readers know I’ve been saying for years that estate planning isn’t all about taxes. You need an estate plan even when the estate isn’t likely to be hit with federal estate taxes. You also need […]
Estate Planning Tips for Surviving Spouses
Life can be difficult and complicated for surviving spouses. Contending with some financial rules and procedures in addition to everything else can amount to piling on. Yet, widows and widowers need to make key decisions about their finances, and some decisions need to be made within deadlines. Social Security, IRAs, employer retirement plans, and investments […]
