Estate Planning

If you are in the hospital, the last thing you want is for a family member or a trusted friend to be denied information about your condition or prognosis.

For a variety of reasons, people sometimes want some or all of their assets to pass directly to specific individuals upon their deaths, outside of probate.  POD and TOD accounts are one way to accomplish this.

You aren't technically required to hire a lawyer to draft a will, but failing to do so could lead to costly problems for your family and other heirs.

A power of attorney may seem like a simple document, but there are several important decisions that need to be made when creating one.

A power of attorney allows a person you appoint -- your "attorney-in-fact" or agent -- to act in your place for financial or other purposes when and if you ever become incapacitated or if you can't act on your own...

Elderlaw 101

A trustee is the person or institution appointed to manage a trust.

Elderlaw 101

While you likely have the best of intentions regarding how you want your estate distributed when you die or your affairs handled should you become incapacitated, without proper planning your best intentions may not be enough.

An executor is the person responsible for managing the administration of a deceased person's estate.

Is your family of the “Leave It to Beaver” variety -- opposite-gender parents, the first marriage for each, one or more kids, all healthy and thriving? If so, your estate plan will probably be pretty straightforward. But if not, it's...