Your estate planning is complete. A living trust was created because it was the best vehicle to accomplish what you want to do. Now you can breathe easily. Or so you think.
Over the years, I’ve had new clients come to me who had invested lots of time and money...
Many of us who have lived a while have been conditioned to think that estate taxes are the number one issue when creating an estate plan—how do you avoid them; how do you reduce them? But in 2020, the first $11.58 million of a taxable estate is free from...
Do I need a will or a trust? That’s the most basic question to begin creating an estate plan. And, let’s face it, you really do want a say in who gets what after your gone. That’s just human nature. Without some kind of legal instructions, you can’t guarantee...
It’s one of the most obscure taxes in the IRS code, but it can be one of the most devastating at a time when you can least afford it. It’s called the Widow’s Penalty Tax—a stealth tax you never see coming—that can cause a widow or widower to struggle...
Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Noplann, there lived a group of people who thought they would live forever. They raised families. They had careers. But when it came to thinking about their demise, they just stuck their heads in the sand. To them, planning for their...
We’ve been focused on Covid for so long that a lot of things have taken a back seat. We’re still regrouping, trying to find the new normal. Estate planning is one of the things that’s easy to forget in this new normal. Why not? You did the estate planning,...
Alhambra's Bob Williams describes the difference between Common and Solemn Probate and the pros and cons of each.
“So, who do I want
to get my IRA? My spouse? My kids? But I don’t want to leave out the grandkids.
Oh, I’ll just fill it in later.”
You’d
be surprised how often that mental conversation goes on when someone is looking
at the beneficiary section of their IRA application. And for most,...
The government giveth, and the government taketh away. And so it is with the Stretch IRA. For years, the stretch IRA has been a financial planning strategy used to extend the tax-deferred status of an IRA by passing it on to a non-spouse beneficiary, such as children or grandchildren,...