Your Year-End Estate Plan Check-Up
The end of the year is a natural time to take stock, and your estate plan deserves a look too — plans drift out of date as accounts change, families grow, and life moves on. This checklist covers beneficiary designations, trust funding, key people, incapacity documents, and where everything is, before the new year.
Choosing Your Executor or Successor Trustee (and Whether to Name More Than One)
Deciding who will carry out your wishes is one of the most personal choices in estate planning. Here's what the role actually involves, what to look for, and what to weigh before you decide — including whether to name more than one person.
Leaving Money to Minor Children: Why Naming Them Directly Can Backfire
When a beneficiary is under 18, naming them directly can create problems most parents never intended: a minor generally can't take legal control of a significant amount of money, and a court may need to appoint a guardian of the estate. A trust for your children, or a custodian under California's Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, can work better.
If You Couldn’t Make Your Own Decisions Tomorrow, Who Would?
Some of the most important documents in a plan are the ones that work while you're still living. If an accident, a stroke, a sudden illness, or a complication from surgery left you unable to make your own decisions, an Advance Health Care Directive, a durable power of attorney, and a HIPAA authorization name who can act for you — and keep your family from needing a court-appointed conservator.