Many families purchase vacation homes that they and other generations in their family can all enjoy together. However, vacation homes can also lead to some serious family feuds when it comes to estate planning. One of the biggest mistakes in estate planning when a vacation home is involved is to…
A lawsuit recently filed in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas has challenged the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) assessment that a family owes the government millions in taxes for artwork that they claim is actually owned by a company. The estate of Joe Allbritton and his…
The responsibilities of being named as the executor of an estate can be overwhelming, especially when you are still grieving over the loss of a loved one. Becoming the executor of an estate comes with a multitude of administrative tasks, and getting something wrong could make you liable for damages.…
The common thought when estate planning is to split the inheritance equally among your children. The main goal of the distribution is to be fair to each child, but that is not always the case. Sometimes there are special considerations that need to be made for one or more children…
As adult children delay marriage and elderly parents are living longer, estate planning can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. A recent survey showed that only about 55% of all parents have an estate plan or even a simple will. In addition, almost 25% of people ages 65 years and…
Long-term care insurance is one of the biggest topics of conversation among retirees and estate planners. The industry is going through a period of turmoil with many policyholders now cashing in on their long-term care needs and few new buyers signing up for long-term care insurance. As a result, companies…
There are many couples at retirement age that have been together for years but have opted to not get married for personal, professional, or legal reasons. For these unmarried couples, estate planning is crucial if you want your partner to inherit from your estate. If the homeowner dies without a…
In the age of the internet, concern must be paid to the digital assets in addition to the physical assets of your estate when you pass away. While there have been considerable issues with this in the past, social media companies are finally instituting policies to handle the social media…
Celebrity estate stories are rife with lessons about mistakes to avoid when creating an estate plan, such as problems with the estates of James Gandolfini, James Brown, and Anna Nicole Smith. Poor estate planning can lead to probate, taxes, and family disputes. Failing to create an estate plan or drafting…
When a couple is getting married the last thing that they are typically worried about is estate planning. However, once the honeymoon is over you should sit down with your new spouse and update your individual estate plans to reflect the new status of your marriage. The following tips are…