All estate planning attorneys should be talking with their clients about charitable giving during an initial consultation. Ignoring the possibility of donating to charity can result in a lost opportunity both to you as the client and to the community. Here are three questions your attorney should be asking you about charitable giving, either on your initial client worksheet or during your initial consultation.

Preparing your company for your incapacity or death is vital to the survival of the enterprise. Otherwise, your business will be disrupted, harming your customers, employees, vendors, and ultimately, your family. For this reason, proactive financial planning -- including your business and your estate plan -- is key. Below are some tips on how to protect your company and keep the business on track and operating day-to-day in your absence.

Executor’s Duties An executor, sometimes called a personal representative, is the person who is named in a will, appointed by the court, and responsible for probating the will...

As more people are dipping their toes in to the secretive, and notoriously volatile, cryptocurrency markets, such as bitcoin, estate planning attorneys are starting to think about how...

These days, nearly everyone has email, a facebook account, and digital photos.  But what happens to your digital assets after you die?  According to a recent article in...

When you hire an attorney for estate planning, help with a loved one’s estate, or any other legal matter you want to make sure that the work gets...

The new tax legislation raises the federal estate tax exemption to $11.2 million for individuals and $22.4 million for couples. The increase means that an exceedingly small number of estates (only about 1,800, nationally) will have to worry about federal estate taxes in 2018, according to estimates from the nonpartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. So, you may be wondering, is estate planning even still necessary? To put it simply: Yes!

Michael Joyce has Alzheimer’s and suffers from memory loss. The disease had progressed so much that he forgot he was married to his wife, Linda Joyce, of 38 years. However, he had not forgotten that he was in love with her. Recently, Michael asked Linda to marry him, again. Instead of telling him they were already married, Linda said “Of course I will.” To her surprise, the next morning Michael woke up and asked, “So, when are we doing this?”

A payable-on-death account, also called a POD account or sometimes a transfer-on-death (TOD) account, is a common way to keep bank and investment accounts out of probate, the court-supervised process that oversees distributing a deceased person’s property. Most people want to avoid their estate going through probate because their heirs will receive the inheritance faster, privately, and at lower cost. Is a POD account an appropriate solution for your needs? Let’s examine what POD accounts do and how they fit into the overall picture.

In 2015, in the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of same-sex couples to marry in all 50 states, bringing marriage equality to...