We Care
In our previous topic, we began by pointing out the importance of doing estate planning, no matter who you are. Both the wealthy and the not so wealthy can benefit from appropriate estate planning. Here we'd like to point out the importance of not considering estate...
Estate planning is for everybody, not just the wealthy or those with extraordinary situations. The biggest reason for this is that, without a plan of your own, your state will provide you with a "one-size-fits-all" plan through its intestacy statute. Because each...
As our readers may have heard us mention before, the end of 2012 will usher in big changes for the gift and estate tax regime. At present, taxpayers have the opportunity to pass on just over $5 million in wealth, free of estate tax. In 2013, that number is set to...
Estate planning, rather than being a task that one takes care of and checks off a list, is something best thought of as a process. After drawing up an initial estate plan, one should periodically review it and make any necessary changes. This ensures that the estate...
Last Friday, the estate of Michael Jackson won a victory when a federal judge ruled that a memorabilia dealer working with Katherine Jackson violated copyrights owned by the estate and cannot use intellectual property of the estate. At issue is material from the movie...
Our Alpharetta readers may have heard of asset protection trusts, or self-settled trusts, in the context of estate planning. Self-settled trusts are those in which the grantor and the beneficiary are the same person. Such trusts receive the type of protection from...
In our previous post, we began speaking about some uncomfortable yet important questions that can come up in the estate planning process, and the need to address these questions. As we noted, this is not always easy to do, but well worth it.There is an increasing...
A large part of doing estate planning is knowing the right questions to ask. Sometimes these questions can be uncomfortable, but asking them is the first step to coming up with strategies to address them.For many people, one of the most important questions that will...
One of the great functions of trusts in estate planning to is minimize estate taxes. For married couples, there is usually a concern that the surviving spouses have enough money to last until their death. One of the techniques married couples often use is to include a...
