Essential Elements of a Will or Living Trust Part II In this article, we will continue to explore the factors that we review for each of our clients when preparing your Will or Living Trust. Residue of the Estate A residuary clause is the final dispositive provision of a will or a trust. The r...

Essential Elements of A Will and Living Trust. This article outlines the factors that we review for each of our clients when drafting a Will or Living Trust. While Wills and Revocable Living Trusts ("trusts") are very dissimilar, there are a great many provisions that should be found in both do...

Path #6 - Write a Revocable Living Trust Question: What control do you have? Answer: A well written, fully funded Revocable Living Trust coupled with the appropriate ancillary documents, including a pour over will, assures that you will have total control of your affairs and that those you know ...

Path #4 - Holds Your Assets In TOD or POD Accounts (sometimes called "Totten Trusts" or "Informal Trusts") Question: What control do you have? Answer: Complete control because you can always change the designated beneficiary on the TOD and POD accounts until the day you die or become incompetent...

Path #3 - Holds Your Assets in Joint Ownership What control do you have? Answer: Limited control, in that all the joint owners must agree on any sale, refinance, lease, or other disposition of the property. What fees, costs and commissions have you saved? Answer: None. On the death of the survi...

Path #5 - Write a Will and Leave it at That What control do you have? Answer: As long as you are competent and alive, you can always change their will. What fees, costs and commissions have you saved? Answer: None. If you write a will and leave it at that, your estate is going to go through pro...

In various forms gifting away your entire estate can seem a reasonable and rewarding option.  You may have a very small estate and believe that simply gifting it now will prevent any issues later, or you have a larger estate and want to gift now to reduce estate taxes.  In either case, gifting will result in a total loss of control and may not provide the result you intended.

The Right Path for You Series will discuss the most common pathways used for estate planning and will compare the considerations of each. When you are deciding how to plan your estate there are generally two paths that will work for most clients:  a will centric estate or a trust-based estate.  ...