Estate Planning

Parents often spend a long time thinking about the best and most reasonable way to split property among children in their estate plan. Some parents opt to evenly split everything among them. Others assign specific assets to certain people. Either approach has benefits...

Will contests sometimes occur when people who stand to inherit an estate, or who have been dropped from an estate plan and will, argue that they should get more than was left to them. To avoid this kind of trouble, one of the things you can do is set up a no-contest...

Michael Jackson’s estate has been involved in a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service for some time. The Internal Revenue Service had used an appraiser for the deceased celebrity’s estate, and the judge on the case made note that the appraiser was not necessarily...

Despite people often using the terms interchangeably, a last will is not the same thing as an estate plan. A last will is a specific document that many people include in their estate plan. An estate plan is a comprehensive plan that includes multiple documents and...

Maybe because of the state’s long and harsh winters, Minnesotans are some of the more resilient and resourceful citizens of the U.S. After all, getting through the cold months requires some planning and thought. You can and probably should apply that same resourceful...

Proper estate planning allows for successful estate administration. When someone doesn't think ahead, their executors are left scrambling to determine their wishes and follow them. The more assets that someone has, the more crucial proper estate planning is. Bigger...

Putting together a comprehensive estate plan can mean needing to consider issues that you would otherwise prefer to avoid. Planning for your death means that you have to reflect on your own mortality and on what will happen to the people you love if you aren't there...

While the American divorce rate is on the decline, separation remains common among U.S. couples. The American Psychological Association estimates that between 40 and 50% of marriages nationwide ultimately end in divorce. Naturally, many parents eventually remarry and...

Protecting your wishes can be as easy as creating a living will. A living will is a document that helps you state what your wishes are if you become seriously ill or impaired. Most people know what their wishes are if they’re hurt and able to speak for themselves, but...

When a person has a second or third marriage, he or she must carefully craft an estate plan to avoid arguments that may arise about inheritance. The situation becomes even more complicated when someone has children from several different relationships.  Review the...