When investigators entered the home of legendary actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Machiko Arakawa, in a gated community outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, on February 26, 2025, they found the couple dead under mysterious circumstances. Following their investigation, authorities pieced together a timeline of the couple’s last days, indicating that a period of […]
Your name is one of the most personal things about you. It can tell the rest of the world so much about your family, your history, and occasionally even your personality. But not everyone keeps the same name they were given at birth. If you are a beneficiary or a creditor of an estate, or if […]
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been rapidly impacting education and the workforce with users using a variety of platforms, such as ChatGPT, CoPilot, Gemini, and other large language models. These tools have led to the expansion of learning opportunities available at one’s fingertips. By using AI to generate questions for your initial estate planning consultation, these […]
Farming and ranching is more than just a livelihood; it is about preserving a legacy and a way of life. Unfortunately, many farmers and ranchers fail to create a comprehensive estate plan—or any estate plan at all. Without a proper estate plan, the family farm or ranch, passed down for generations, can end up being […]
A primary goal of estate planning is to financially provide for your loved ones. One way to ensure that they are set up for lifelong success is with an inheritance that pays for their education. Higher levels of education are positively correlated with better life outcomes, including improved health, longer lifespans, and higher incomes.[1] However, education […]
If you have created a trust that you intend to last for decades, choosing the right trustee is critical to ensuring the trust’s longevity and ultimate success. Initially, you may think that a relative (for example, Uncle Bill to your children, who are the initial beneficiaries of your trust) will be the best choice as […]
When somebody close to us passes away, we are left with constant reminders of the memories. Maybe it is a jacket hanging in the closet that still bears the scent of their cologne, a dog-eared book on their nightstand, their handwriting on a scrap of paper, a bench where they sat and fed the ducks, […]
Trusts are widely used in estate planning to protect and transfer a person’s assets (money, accounts, property, etc.), sometimes in a tax-advantaged manner. Some trusts are highly complex, with multiple parties, intricate structures, specialized legal terms, and references to arcane tax law that can be difficult for the average person to understand. Scammers have long taken […]
Many estate plans contain revocable living trusts (or trusts which can be changed or terminated by the creator). These trusts later become irrevocable (cannot be easily changed or terminated) when the trustmaker, also known as the Grantor, dies. Such trusts may benefit the surviving spouse during their lifetime and may continue for the benefit of […]
In many families, everyone gets along, happily gathering for the holidays, sharing laughs, telling stories, and enjoying each other’s company. Then the matriarch or patriarch becomes incapacitated. Suddenly everyone wants to step forward to be the loving, responsible relative. Questions of who will be the primary decision-maker for grandma or grandpa can lead to tension. […]
