Author Archives: Linda Fisher
What’s the Best Way to Make a Life Insurance Claim?
You might get a phone call, a letter or even a text that claims you are the designated beneficiary of their life insurance policy. If and when that happens, request the paperwork. When the person has passed away, it will make the request for the life insurance claim much easier. Forbes’ recent article entitled… Read More »
How Do I Avoid the Three Biggest Estate Planning Mistakes?
After you die, your last will and testament must be approved by the local probate court. The judge will determine if the document is the last will of the deceased, review the inventory of the estate and confirm who will administer the estate proceeds. It’s known as “executing” a will. Wealth Advisor’s recent article… Read More »
How a Charitable Remainder Trust Works
The least popular beneficiary is almost always the federal government. Most people are concerned that their estate will need to pay taxes and do what they can through estate planning to keep federal (and state) estate tax liability to a minimum. However, with federal estate and gift tax exemptions at $11.58 million per person… Read More »
What You Need to Know about Trusts
Some people still think that trusts and estate planning are just for wealthy people. However, that’s simply not true. Many people are good candidates for trusts, used to protect their assets and their families. Trusts can also be used to avoid probate, says the article “Common misconceptions about trusts” from the Rome Sentinel. Who… Read More »
Update Will at These 12 Times in Your Life
Estate planning lawyers hear it all the time—people meaning to update their will, but somehow never getting around to actually getting it done. The only group larger than the ones who mean to “someday, ” are the ones who don’t think they ever need to update their documents, says the article “12 Different Times… Read More »
How Can You Disinherit Someone and Be Sure it Sticks?
Let’s say you want to leave everything you own to your children, but you can’t stand and don’t trust their spouses. That might make you want to delay making an estate plan, because it’s a hard thing to come to terms with, says a recent article “Dealing with disinheritance, spouses” from the Times Herald-Record…. Read More »
What You Need to Know about Drafting Your Will
A last will and testament is just one of the legal documents that you should have in place to help your loved ones know what your wishes are, if you can’t say so yourself, advises CNBC’s recent article entitled, “Here’s what you need to know about creating a will.” In this pandemic, the coronavirus… Read More »
How Should I Take My Pension?
The number of pension plans decreased to just 46, 700 in 2017, from 103, 000 in 1975. At the same time, defined-contribution plans, such as the 401(k) grew to 662, 800, from 207, 700, says CNBC’s recent article entitled “Pandemic creates pension plan tension: Take the lump sum or trust lifetime payments.” With so… Read More »
Are You Making the Most of the SECURE and CARES Acts?
The SECURE Act made a number of changes to IRAs, effective January 1, 2020. It was followed by the CARES Act, effective March 27, 2020, which brought even more changes. A recent article from the Milwaukee Business Journal, titled “IRA planning tips for changes associated with the SECURE and CARES acts, ” explains what… Read More »
Don’t Shrink Your Estate with Last Minute Tax Planning
In the best-case scenario, you’d start talking with your estate planning attorney early on about your overall goals and the various tools available to minimize tax liability and transfer wealth to the next generation. Whether your estate is modest or significant, the article “A Recipe for Risk—Last-Minute Tax Planning for Estates” from The Legal… Read More »