Estate planning is an essential but complex process, encompassing various financial, legal, and personal decisions. Organizing records and information properly can make this process smoother and more efficient. This article offers tips and links to helpful checklists to prepare for estate planning.

This article explains why young parents need to make estate plans more urgently than the older generation that raised them.

When an estate plan depends on someone to “do the right thing,” someone will inevitably dispute

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] Tom Selleck and other charming celebrities have pitched reverse mortgage plans to senior citizens for years in television ads like Selleck’s ad posted on YouTube. Mr. Selleck says reverse mortgages are not “too good to be true,” but should people believe him? Well, it depends… […]

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] We have heard people tell us for decades that they want to “avoid probate.” They say it as if they want to avoid cancer. Most people have no idea what it is that they think they should avoid. Fewer people know that the “probate” concept […]

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] Too people say about estate planning, “I’m not ready for that yet.” A person must be able to think clearly enough to make a will, trust, power of attorney, deed, health care directive or other estate plan document. As we wrote in our blog article, […]

The basic purpose for estate planning is to prepare for future situations by empowering people to solve problems or adapt to changing circumstances. Unfortunately, this old planning truism still applies: The finest plans of mice and men often fall apart and leave us with only grief and pain instead of joyful hearts. (Our paraphrased excerpt […]

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] People buy and use life insurance for many reasons. Unfortunately, too many people make poor life insurance purchase and use decisions because they do not try to understand their options. Instead, they rely on insurance promoters and amateur advisors to tell them what they need […]

The retirement plan concept leads us to believe that we should contribute as much as possible to IRAs and other tax-deferred retirement plans, and avoid withdrawing more than the required minimum distributions. While this strategy will maximize retirement plan growth and the likelihood that it will provide income late in life, it also sets up […]

[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] Most of our blog articles encourage people to make estate plans while they are healthy to avoid a legal and financial crisis when they get sick. Unfortunately, many people are too deep in denial to admit that they to plan, or they procrastinate until it […]