At a time of record home unaffordability, more people are teaming up with friends and relatives to realize the home ownership dream. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), more than 75 percent of homes on the market now are too expensive for middle-income buyers. Just five years ago, this same income group could […]
One of the main reasons that a person creates a revocable living trust (a trust established during a person’s lifetime that they can amend or revoke) instead of relying on a will to transfer their money and property to their beneficiaries is to avoid probate. Probate is the court process during which a person’s will […]
When tackling estate planning, adding a payable-on-death (POD) or transfer-on-death (TOD) designation to an account allows the assets (money and property) in that account to be passed to a named beneficiary when the original account holder dies. Like trusts, POD and TOD accounts bypass probate. They are also fast, easy, and usually free to set […]
Small business owners will have one more item on their compliance to-do list when the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) takes effect next year. The CTA,[1] enacted as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AMLA), places new reporting requirements on many business entities in an effort to expose illegal activities, including the use of shell […]
