You and fellow family members may anticipate receiving assets from a trust created by an elder family member. As such, you want the trustee to manage the trust appropriately for your benefit. This does not always happen though, or there may be other defects with the...
Caring.com's 2022 Wills Survey uncovered that 33% of Americans do not have an estate plan. Those individuals who do have a plan may still not understand what could happen after their deaths. One potential complication is someone contesting a trust. People often use...
Trustees hold enormous power over your financial future. If they make wise decisions, it can ease your financial future. If they make poor ones, you could see your inheritance withered away to nothing before you know it. If you keep an eye on the decisions they make,...
There are many reasons why it’s a good idea to set up a trust as part of your estate planning process. For most people, it can result in great benefits which include avoiding having to navigate probate and making sure your beneficiaries receive what you intended for...
Trusts are created for all kinds of reasons, and their grantors sometimes have very specific ideas about what makes someone worthy to benefit from those assets. This is where incentive trusts come into play. Incentive trusts are designed to exert a bit of “dead-hand...
Wills are one of the most straightforward and transparent estate planning tools. They spell out what assets the deceased left and how they wanted them to be distributed. If you see someone getting something you thought you would inherit, you may be able to file a...
A trust has to be managed by someone, so the people who fund a trust do their best to pick the best person or entity for the job – and it’s a big job. There are lots of decisions that have to be made, including when, where and how to invest those funds so that the...
The trustee overseeing a trust has a significant influence on the lives of others. They have to manage the assets in the trust. A trustee may need to physically secure and maintain assets like real estate, or they may need to make investment decisions about financial...
A trust contest can jeopardize your last wishes, deplete your estate and create a lasting rift in your family. Strange things happen – or rather, people act strangely – when money is at stake. A trust content can divide a family for generations. Besides, the cost of...
An irrevocable trust is forever, right? Well, not necessarily. When a trust no longer seems to serve the purposes for which it was intended or the laws have changed in ways that no longer work well with the terms of the trust, an old trust can sometimes be “decanted”...
