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When faced with a terminal illness or condition, more people than ever are choosing hospicecare over starting or continuing expensive medical treatments. Hospice care is for patients whochoose not to undergo specific treatments or when they are no longer effective. Instead, thefocus is on the ...

Estate Planning Basics The first step to creating an estate plan checklist is to take an inventory of the estate. No matter how modest, everything someone owns is considered a part of their estate. (It is a myth that estate planning is only about money.) Taking stock of what is owned is the firs...

Estate Planning Basics The first step to creating an estate plan checklist is to take an inventory of the estate. No matter how modest, everything someone owns is considered a part of their estate. (It is a myth that estate planning is only about money.) Taking stock of what is owned is the firs...

The first step to creating any estate plan is to create an estate plan checklist. This checklist will help to determine what sort of estate plan fits your needs best as well as cutting down on the time necessary to create an estate plan Estate Planning Basics The first step to creating an estat...

Breakups and divorces are hard; there's no other way to put it. But breakups are necessary when it's time to move on and put someone behind, allowing you to get on with a new and improved life. However, you haven't truly moved on until you've revised your estate plan to reflect your relationship ...

Owning a family business of any size presents unique estate and succession planning issues. The HBO Max series, Succession, provides audiences with an excellent narrative outlining just how complicated, emotional, and chaotic succession planning for family businesses can be. Anytime an estate pl...

You know that old saying: “Nothing in life is certain, except for death and taxes.” It's pretty accurate, unfortunately. That said, there are strategies those of us in the estate planning business have that can minimize the impacts of taxes on posthumous wealth distribution. At present, the deat...

We love our children unconditionally, right? Right. That said, sometimes we shouldn't provide for them unconditionally. Maybe your child has consistently demonstrated risky spending behaviors, or perhaps they have a propensity for generating debt. We all have our talents, after all. Whatever the ...

Even those who can wrap their minds around blockchain technology may still wonder how cryptocurrency fits into their estate plan. A common question crypto investors have is: Can I gift cryptocurrency to my kids? As of this writing, the highest valued cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin and Ethereum, bu...

The acronym “S.O.L.” aptly describes a cryptocurrency holder who has lost their digital keys. Whether you've invested five dollars or multiple millions, losing your crypto passcode (or identifiers that would otherwise grant you access) is equivalent to locking the vault and throwing away the key....

Envision your spouse or children huddled around a laptop. Your heirs frantically enter the name of your most beloved dog, then your favorite restaurant. They curse your name, wondering aloud why you never took the time to bequeath your password-protected assets to them properly. Don't put your f...

There are a number of things we can do to make the future a better place for our children and grandchildren. We can recycle. We can buy electric cars. We can shop locally. Can we move the family business into a trust? (Yes, we can!) Of course, there will always be distant worries we hope our kid...

Trusts are excellent vehicles for holding assets. These legal tools can be strategically implemented to protect income and property from debts, lawsuits, and even certain tax liabilities. Depending on your needs, there are several trust types you can utilize to accomplish those goals. So, what c...

Trusts are legal tools used by financially savvy individuals to protect assets during life and after passing. Trusts can minimize tax consequences and limit asset exposure to lawsuits or debt claims. Importantly, there are a variety of trust types, and it's important that you create the kind of t...

Did you ever take your children to the toy store when they were younger and offer to buy only one of them a toy? Probably not. That would be madness! Chaos would ensue, and even if one kid did deserve the toy more than the other, you wouldn't risk disturbing the delicate equilibrium of peace in t...

Think of your favorite family-owned restaurant in San Diego? There's something about the notion of one generation handing down secret recipes to another that just makes the sauce taste better. That's the key to the business's generational success, right? It sure doesn't hurt, but in truth, the fa...

Charitable trusts offer the benefit of producing income for the grantor's designated beneficiaries while also making this wacky world a better place. For a trust to be charitable, the gift must be given to a charitable organization. While this may seem obvious, it's important to understand that t...

You might think estate planning doesn't apply to you.  You aren't old enough.  You don't have enough assets.  THINK AGAIN! Most people think they don't need an estate plan until they are older or have more money, but that is simply not true.  People at every age should put together an estate pla...