Articles Posted in Estate Planning

You’ve been blessed to find a love for a second time. Congratulations!  A new (re)marriage can bring the joy of finding a loving partner twice in a lifetime and the promise of happy times to come.

So, it’s no wonder that amongst newly remarried couples sticky topics such as finances and blending of family dynamics can easily get pushed to the side.  After all, who wants to be distracted from the bliss of their new marriage to talk about who inherits what and how much?

But, addressing estate planning decisions is not something that should be put off – especially if you have just gotten remarried. When it comes to finances and inheritance, the best policy always combines honesty, clarity, and a proactive approach.

Even the most well-resourced and well-known people can get estate planning wrong.

The recent headlines about the dispute over the validity of Lisa Marie Presley’s Will is just the latest in a long list of stories involving celebrities in the entertainment industry whose last wishes have created a lot of contention amongst their families. 

The short version of the story is that Lisa’s mother, Priscilla Presley, is contesting her daughter’s living trust (which is standing in for a Will since Lisa Marie did not file a separate Will). 

It’s so confusing! HIPAA, Health Care Directives, Powers of Attorney. How does one differ from the others?

A HIPAA Authorization, a Health Care Directive, and a Health Care Power of Attorney can easily be confused because all three have to do with your permission about your medical care and medical information.

Plus, both health care directives (aka living wills) and health care powers of attorney are known as “advance directives,” which only adds to the confusion.

It may be hard to believe, but the fact is, millennials are all grown up. They are buying homes, starting families, and caring for aging parents. Also, they are—at 22% of the population—the largest living generation in the U.S.

In 2021, Trust & Will did a proprietary study involving 22,850 millennials. The results included many insights into how and why people ages 25 to 44 are creating estate plans.

For instance, while many respondents created a Will or a trust for the usual reasons (34% said that becoming a parent was the inspiration, and 17% said that the pandemic was what made them take action), others are taking a non-traditional approach to estate planning.

Whether you’re talking professional or college sports, season tickets for popular sports teams are usually very hard to come by.

And, once someone acquires season tickets, they aren’t likely to give them up. In many instances, fans literally have to wait for someone to die before they can move up the waiting list for available seats.

When someone has waited a long time and paid a lot of money to get their hands on those coveted tickets, it’s not surprising that they might also like to keep them in the family, even after they’ve gone to that big stadium in the sky.