Marriage after divorce can bring together more than just two people. There may be children from previous marriages, separate assets, different incomes, as well as different expectations about what each spouse wants to leave behind. Combining everything isn’t necessarily the solution. Most blended families will benefit from being much more deliberate about which financial goals are shared and which ones [...]
Financial planning is an inherently subjective endeavor. There is no single formula for how much someone should save, how they should invest, when they should retire, or what their estate plan ought to look like. Yet much of the conventional financial planning framework is built around a traditional path: get married, get a joint bank account, buy a home, raise [...]
I’ve written about this before, but I recently had an experience that reminded me of all the financial things that have to be handled when a spouse dies. In this case, a long-time client of mine died on a Monday. On Tuesday his wife called. She said, “You always told me to call you if anything happened to Steve. Well, [...]
In the old movie The Princess Bride, one of the primary characters constantly uses the word “inconceivable.” Eventually, one of the other characters says, “I do not think this means what you think it means.” The same thing applies to using Joint Tenants with Rights of Survivorship (JTWROS) as an estate planning tool. There are times when JTWROS is [...]
When Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, died in August 2018 she left behind a legendary career and a massive music legacy that touched millions of people. She also left an estate worth $80 million and a legendary family controversy because no one could find a Will, a Trust or any kind of estate plan that outlined her wishes. [...]
Having estate planning conversations with a spouse is not always the easiest thing to do because it’s a reminder of the inevitable. It can be even more difficult when one spouse is dying and the other spouse realizes there are estate issues that need to be addressed before death occurs. What should you do? Review estate plans currently in [...]
Remember that old adage, nothing is certain except death and taxes. Well, no matter your belief structure, or whether you’re reluctant to admit your own mortality, it’s a fact that none of us will live forever. And since no one knows if their demise will happen quickly or be proceeded by a lengthy illness, it’s good to make plans ahead [...]
Someone close to you dies and you are now the executor of the estate. You’ve never been in this position before and if you’re like many of my clients who have been faced with settling an estate, you’re a little panicked by the whole prospect—you’re staring into the great unknown with no idea of what it all entails. One [...]
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