Monthly Archives: February 2026
What Would Happen If an Irrevocable Trust Owned Your House?
Trusts do more than make monthly payments to spoiled children and to spoiled adults whose trust fund payments prevent them from having to grow up. The main purpose of trusts is to keep assets out of probate, so that your heirs can inherit them directly, without creditors getting first dibs, which is what happens… Read More »
How to Stop Your Job as Personal Representative of an Estate From Driving You Crazy
For some people, family life is a constant source of stress. For others, family interactions are usually so painless that you wonder why everyone else is in such a foul mood during the holidays, since you enjoy spending the holidays with your relatives, and even with your spouse’s relatives. Some events involve such a… Read More »
A Letter of Wishes Can Say What Legal Boilerplate Cannot
The hardest part of losing a family member is the unanswered questions. If the deceased family member is older than you, then you probably spent most of your life expecting him or her to predecease you, and as your family member grew older and sicker, you made peace with how life would be when… Read More »
An Estate Plan That Does Not Include Your Children as Beneficiaries of Your Will
When you think about parents disinheriting your children, you probably imagine an exhausted grandmother opening her laptop after Christmas dinner and revising her will because her son and daughter-in-law made one rude comment too many, and the testator decided that she had endured enough years of disrespect and ingratitude from this side of the… Read More »
Inheriting a 401(k) Account, What To Expect
If you have a 401(k) account, count your blessings. Homeownership is the most visible sign of financial stability, but 401(k) accounts count for a lot, too. A 401(k) account is an employer-provided retirement account; many employers match the employee’s contributions to the account up to a certain amount per year. Therefore, you can accumulate… Read More »
A Simple Estate Is Not the Ticket to Simplicity That You Think It Is
While almost everyone else makes themselves miserable trying to get rich, you have figured out a more certain path to happiness. Specifically, you have embraced the simple life, where you are content with your modest possessions, and you spend your efforts appreciating the things that money cannot buy. You might think that, by embracing… Read More »