Estate Planning

Movies, television, and books like to present wills in dramatic ways--handwritten notes, videos, deathbed utterances--but what actually makes a will valid? The law varies depending on what state you live in, but there are some basic rules. ...

When creating advance directives in order to plan for the possibility that you may one day be unable to make your own medical decisions, there can be confusion about the difference between a living will and a "do-not-resuscitate" order.

Parents want their children to be taken care of after they die. But children with disabilities have increased financial and care needs, so ensuring their long-term welfare can be tricky.

Legendary singer Aretha Franklin was thought to have died without a will, but the recent discovery of handwritten documents is calling that into question.

While it isn't possible to entirely prevent the possibility of power of attorney abuse, there are steps you can take in drafting a power of attorney to greatly reduce the chances.  ...

If you are over age 60 and you haven't changed your estate plan in many decades, it's almost certain that you need to update your documents and start reviewing them every five years.

While the 2017 federal tax cut means most estates won't be subject to the federal estate tax in 2018 and 2019, state estate tax is a different matter. Some states are not going along with the increase in the federal estate...

The new tax law makes it harder to claim a tax deduction for charitable contributions. While charitable giving should not be only about getting a tax break, if you want to get a tax benefit from your contributions, there are...

The median cost of a private nursing home room in the United States increased to $100,375 a year in 2018, up 3 percent from 2017, according to Genworth's annual Cost of Care survey.