The One Big Beautiful Bill made headlines for increasing the federal estate tax exemption to $15 million per person. But that's not the change trust owners should be watching. Buried deep in the legislation is a little-known deduction limitation that tax professionals warn could result in unexpected double taxation for certain family trusts, including some special needs trusts with assets of just $400,000. If you have a trust, here's what you need to know now and why it's worth reviewing your plan. Read more…

Whether you had an estate plan before your marriage or never got around to creating one, your divorce changed the landscape completely. The divorce agreement may have addressed custody, parenting schedules, and dividing assets. What it likely didn't address is what happens to your children, your money, and the people making decisions if you're no longer here. For divorced and separated fathers, that's one of the biggest planning gaps I see and it exists far more often than people realize. Here's what actually needs to be reviewed and updated. Read more…

Whether due to a breakup, divorce, or the passing of a significant other, all relationships inevitably reach a conclusion. The extent to which you've prepared for such an eventuality can significantly affect you, your partner, and your assets. Discover more.

Last week, we started to explore 10 life changes that might affect your estate plan. This week, we’re coving five more life events that mean it’s time to review your plan. Read more…

If you have a current estate plan, I'll bet you plan to leave your assets to your children outright and unprotected by age 35 or maybe a little later. Go take a look at your estate plan, and see what it does right now. And, if you don’t have an estate plan and you have kids or other people you care about, contact us today and let’s get that handled for you. 

If you do have a plan and it distributes your assets outright to your kids -- even in stages, over time, some at 25, then half of what’s left at 30, and balance at 35 (or something along those lines), you’ve overlooked d an incredibly valuable gift you can give your children (and the rest of your descendants for generations); a gift that only you can give them. And a gift that, once you’ve died and left them their inheritance outright, is lost and cannot be reclaimed. 

Whether it’s to qualify for Medicaid, avoid probate, or reduce your tax burden, transferring ownership of your home to your adult child during your lifetime may seem like a smart move. But in nearly all cases, it’s actually a huge mistake, which can lead to dire consequences for everyone involved.

With this in mind, before you sign over the title to your family’s beloved homestead, consider the following potential risks.

Even if the process is amicable, divorce can be one of life's most stressful events. With so many major changes taking place, it’s easy to forget to update your estate plan—or simply put it off until it's too late. After all, dealing with yet another lawyer is probably the last thing you want to do.

However, neglecting to update your estate plan for divorce can have potentially tragic consequences. And you shouldn’t wait until the divorce is final to rework your plan—you should update it as soon as you realize the split is inevitable.

Here’s why: Your marriage is legally still in full effect until your divorce is final, so if you die or become incapacitated while your divorce is ongoing and haven’t changed your estate plan, your soon-to-be ex-spouse could wind up with complete control over your life and assets. Unless you want your ex to have that kind of power, you need to take action as soon as possible.

Here, in the second part of this series, we’ll first look at the different ways a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust would have benefited Larry’s children. From there, we’ll discuss the complications that are likely to arise given that two of Larry’s children died before he had the chance to update his plan—and the planning lessons we can take away from this mistake.

Legendary TV and radio host, Larry King, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on January 23rd, 2021 at age 87. Larry was hospitalized in December due to COVID-19, but he’d recently been moved from the ICU to a regular hospital room after recovering from the virus. However, the famed broadcaster suffered from a number of other health conditions over the years, including multiple heart attacks, kidney failure, and diabetes, and he passed away from sepsis that was the result of an unrelated infection.

Current research shows that only about half of Americans have a will, and probably less than that have changed their wills when certain life circumstances dictate that a change is in order.  There are several common occurrences that can trigger a change to your will.