If you have a child with special needs, you face long-run financial demands that cannot be fully met through federal and state assistance. What can you do to try and meet them?
SPECIAL NEEDS TRUSTS
ESTATE PLANNING FOR YOUR DIGITAL ASSETS
Social media and email accounts. Creative works, photos and keepsakes kept on home computers, the cloud or external storage drives. E-commerce accounts. Domain names. Bitcoin. These are all examples of digital assets. You will manage them closely as long as you live – but what will happen to them once you die?
USING CRUTs & CRATs TO SELL YOUR BUSINESS INTEREST
Discover a pair of underappreciated exit planning vehicles. Charitable remainder unit trusts (CRUTs) and charitable remainder annuity trusts (CRATs) are commonly seen as estate planning tools. What frequently goes unseen is their value in exit planning for business owners.
AN ESTATE PLANNING CHECKLIST
Estate planning is a task that people tend to put off, as any discussion of “the end” tends to be off-putting. However, those who die without their financial affairs in good order risk leaving their heirs some significant problems along with their legacies.
MINIMIZING PROBATE WHEN SETTING UP YOUR ESTATE
Probate subtly reduces the value of many estates. It can take more than a year in some cases, and attorney’s fees, appraiser’s fees and court costs may eat up as much as 5% of a decedent’s accumulated assets
THE VALUE OF LIFE INSURANCE TRUSTS
You may think of life insurance in very simple terms: you buy a policy so that your loved ones will have some financial assistance when you die. Its functionality doesn’t end there. If it looks like your accumulated wealth will be subject to estate taxes someday, life insurance may be a very useful tool for you. In fact, you might call life insurance the “Swiss army knife” of estate planning, especially when it is used in conjunction with trusts.
DO YOU NEED AN ESTATE PLAN?
You have an “estate”. It doesn’t matter if you own a mansion or a motor home. Rich or poor, when you die you leave behind an estate. For some, this could be real property, an investment portfolio and more. For others, it could be as straightforward as the $10 bill in their wallet and the clothes on their back. Either way, what you leave behind when you die is considered to be your “estate”.
COPING WITH AN INHERITANCE
Inheriting wealth can be a burden and a blessing. Even if you have an inclination that a family member may remember you in their last will and testament, there are many facets to the process of inheritance that you may not have considered. Here are some things you may want to keep in mind if it comes to pass.
A PRIMER FOR ESTATE PLANNING
Estate planning is a task that people tend to put off, as any discussion of “the end” tends to be off-putting. However, those who leave this world without their financial affairs in good order risk leaving their heirs some significant problems along with their legacies.
WILLS AND LIVING TRUSTS
Living trusts are created with a clearly defined objective: to avoid probate. Misconceptions about living trusts have spread to the point where people think they can accomplish much more than they really do. Here is a realistic assessment of living trusts.