“Hey, when am I going to get my money?” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard beneficiaries ask that question when they’ve been named in a Will or Trust. It’s not uncommon for the beneficiary to put pressure on the executor or trustee to speed up the...
The Health Savings Account has been a wonderful addition to the financial landscape of people who are eligible for one.  They’re often thought of as a way to pay for qualified medical expenses with pre-tax money during your working years for things like deductibles, copays, and non-covered items—in other...
PROBATE—a word that strikes terror in the hearts of people planning the distribution of their estates. They worry that the probate process can drag on for months or years, that probate costs will eat up a chunk of what they want to leave their heirs, or that people will...
Saying you need an estate plan is like saying you need to eat your vegetables. You know it’s good for you but there are other things you’d rather do. A survey by Caring.com shows that in 2021, 25% of Americans ages 18-34 had some type of estate planning document,...
In 2012, the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) established, for the first time, a permanent estate tax and gift tax exemption. The exemption is the amount an individual can pass on at death without paying estate taxes. The legislation set the exemption at $5 million per person, indexed for...
Probate is a term most people have heard. It’s the court process required to settle an estate when a Will was used as the estate planning tool. What most people don’t know is that there are two types of probate—Common and Solemn. The executor chooses the one that is...
You need more than a Will or Trust to round out your estate plan. Alhambra's Bob Williams lists other Must Have planning documents.
Late rock star, Prince, once sang, “Money didn’t matter yesterday and it sure don’t matter tonight.” That may have been Prince’s attitude toward money, but it was definitely his attitude about estate planning—he had none! If there had been a plan, his estate could have been settled years ago....