What Happens to My Leased Car If I Die Before the Lease Term Ends? Navigating Vehicle Lease Contracts and Estate Implications After a Lessee's Death After a house, a car is often the second-most valuable piece of property a person owns.  About 15–20 percent of new vehicles are leased rather than purchased and financed. [...]

Including Noncitizens In Your Estate Planning How To Prevent Legal Issues When Involving A Non-Citizen In Your Estate Plan With our society becoming increasingly mobile and international travel becoming more affordable than ever before, families and family-like relationships have steadily grown far more diverse in terms of citizenship. It is no longer uncommon for [...]

Limited Impact of Estrangement on Estate Planning Balancing Legal Rights & Personal Choices In Estranged Family Estates Unfortunately, rifts sometimes arise between family members that are much more serious than just temporary squabbles. The result may be estrangement, defined as “the state of being alienated or separated in feeling or affection; a state of [...]

How Business Executives Can Set & Meet Their Estate Planning Goals The Essential Estate Planning Strategies For Business Executives As a business executive, you are used to strategizing and creating goals as part of your job. But have you devoted time to strategizing and creating goals to protect yourself and your loved ones? If [...]

Could a Testamentary Trust Be What Your Loved Ones Need? Revocable Living Trust vs. Testamentary Trust: An Overview One of the main reasons that a person creates a revocable living trust (a trust established during a person’s lifetime that they can amend or revoke) instead of relying on a will to transfer their money [...]

Should the Trustee of My Trust Be Different During My Incapacity Than at My Death? Understanding the Trustee's Role During Incapacity When you create a trust, choosing a trustee is one of the most important decisions you will make. If you create a revocable living trust—that is, a trust that you establish during your [...]

Bills, Services to Cancel & Keep When a Loved One Dies  Navigating Financial Responsibilities After a Loss A loved one’s passing is challenging on many different levels. In addition to the emotional difficulty of processing someone’s death, there are also the many tasks that must be dealt with, such as going through their various [...]

Why You Want to Avoid Intestacy What Happens When You Die Without a Will? About two out of three Americans will die without a will. This is known as dying intestate.  While the reasons for not having a will vary, the end result is the same for everyone: they do not get to choose [...]

Difference Between Transfer on Death & Payable on Death Designation The Basics of POD and TOD Accounts: A Comparison Adding a payable-on-death (POD) or transfer-on-death (TOD) designation to an account allows the assets (money and property) in that account to be passed to a named beneficiary when the original account holder dies. Like trusts, [...]

You Can Benefit from Giving Gifts Strategic Estate Planning: Three Trusts for Wealth Preservation & Transfer A benefit of working hard is sharing the fruits of your labor with your loved ones. However, gift or estate tax consequences may impact high-net-worth clients when they share their wealth. By crafting a comprehensive estate plan, we [...]