Death tax, inheritance tax, estate tax—call it what you will, they all mean that some government entity wants to put its hand in your pocket or your heirs’ pockets, after your demise.
On the federal level, the estate tax issue is not as big a deal as it was back...
You’ve done all the planning. Your trust is set up. You’re comfortable that your estate will be distributed exactly as you want. There’s just one more decision to make—an important one. Who should be the trustee?
James J. Ferraro, JD is vice president and legal counsel at Argent Trust Company....
You spend a lifetime earning, saving, acquiring. But the old adage is true—you can’t take it with you. So, what do you do with your assets when you’re gone? How do you want them distributed? That’s where a good estate plan comes in. However, some estate plans are based...
For months now, we’ve been told by the media and by friends and neighbors about all the ways people have been affected by COVID-19. But here’s one you may not have heard about—losing the family home after the death of parents or grandparents who were receiving Medicaid benefits for...
Oh, my! I cringe every time I hear that someone has added their kids’ names to the deed of their house as an estate planning technique. It’s done for the right reasons, but it often backfires.
Sometimes, elderly people will add kids to the deed, thinking they’re removing the house...
My parents were depression-era babies. And like many of their generation who experienced those years of economic desperation, when things improved, they planned and saved for the future to avoid that kind of distress ever again. They taught me to do the same.
But there was another philosophy prevalent among...
No question about it, Americans are living longer. My own family is a perfect example. My great grandfather died at age 65. My grandpa died at 82. My dad passed when he was 90. Longer lifespans are becoming much more common. And with that longevity often comes added responsibility...
The financial world is filled to the brim with planning—financial planning, estate planning, retirement planning, longevity planning—and that only scratches the surface. With all this focus on planning, there’s almost no discussion about—Parent Planning.
Caring for elderly parents is a growing issue in the United States. A survey conducted by...
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...