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The drama, the cost, the lost time, the broken relationships – there are so many ways that family problems about end-of-life care for a parent and inheritance can have serious repercussions when these problems reach the status of a legal filing and court case.

Inheritance in a blended family can create hurt feelings and inequitable distributions and may lead to court battles that can be lengthy and costly in dollars and family unity. While you cannot legislate from the grave, you can carefully prepare your estate plan, distinctly accounting for biological and stepchildren to minimize the potential for conflicts.

Avoiding probate through legal techniques is a great strategy to save taxes, keep your estate from public proceedings, and avoid the need for court approval every step of the way. It can save you time, frustration, and in many cases, significant attorney and court fees.

Traditional estate planning elements are mostly obsolete when it comes to digital assets. Crypto-assets may comprise significant individual wealth in the forms of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and noncurrency blockchain tokens.

The truth is none of us know the future. Significant uncertainty abounds as to the outcomes of US tax legislation proposals. Estate and gift tax exemptions may get cut in half or not, and whatever happens will likely affect all deaths and transfers of wealth after December 31, 2021.

You spend the first half of your adult life trying to achieve financial security and the second half of your life trying to maintain it. This adage is why many people spend substantial time and effort maximizing their legacy goals in their estate plan, ensuring their wishes come to pass.

The death of a spouse is a challenging life experience emotionally, spiritually, and often financially. It is common for one spouse to handle family tax and estate plans, and a widow(er) may be looking at a complex financial situation with more questions than answers.

At first thought, life insurance may not seem to have a bearing on how to dispose of your assets in your estate plan. However, life insurance can be an integral, indispensably important part of a well-thought-out estate plan. There are numerous other benefits to owning a life insurance policy aside from providing a large sum of money to beneficiaries.

Entrepreneurs share specific characteristics: motivation, creativity, persuasiveness, risk tolerance, versatility, vision, innovation, communication and collaboration, flexibility, and decisiveness. These individuals create new businesses bearing most of the risks and reaping most of the rewards if successful.

Assembling the right professional team to create your estate plan can provide you with the best advice and legal documentation to protect your legacy for your heirs. Aside from an estate planning attorney, who often specializes in elder law, you may need the services of a certified public accountant (CPA) and possibly even an insurance specialist.