Family & Disputes
The letter that goes with the will
A document with no legal force that does more than most of the legal ones to prevent conflict.
Margaret Ashcombe
25 articles by Ashcombe
Business Succession
The family meeting about the business
Consistently identified as the highest-value step in family business succession, and the one most often avoided.
Beneficiary Designations
The annual review nobody schedules
An hour a year keeps an estate plan accurate, and the absence of it is why most plans no longer reflect their author.
Family & Disputes
Disinheriting someone
Possible for most relatives, restricted for spouses, and requiring specific drafting to survive a challenge.
Estate Tax
Gifts made shortly before death
Transfers in the final months attract scrutiny from tax authorities, from Medicaid assessors and from disappointed relatives.
Beneficiary Designations
Unmarried partners and what they are not entitled to
Long cohabitation creates almost no automatic rights in most jurisdictions, and the belief that it does causes real harm.
Family & Disputes
Caregiving, expectations and the estate
One child providing years of care while others do not is among the most reliable sources of estate conflict.
Estate Tax
Estate income tax during administration
An estate is a taxpayer in its own right, and executors frequently discover this after the deadline has passed.
Probate
How long administration actually takes
Beneficiaries expect weeks, executors discover months, and the reasons for the delay are mostly structural.
Wills & Trusts
Do-it-yourself wills and where they fail
Online and template wills are adequate for genuinely simple situations and produce expensive failures elsewhere.
Business Succession
Business owners without an obvious successor
A common position, and the choices narrow considerably the longer it goes unaddressed.
Estate Tax
Portability and the return nobody files
A married couple can double their exemption, and the election is forfeited by default because no return seemed necessary.
Beneficiary Designations
Naming charities and non-individuals as beneficiaries
The tax treatment differs sharply from naming a person, and the drafting details cause more problems than the concept.
Wills & Trusts
Choosing a trustee
A role that may last decades, carries fiduciary duties, and is frequently given to whoever seemed obvious at the time.
Business Succession
Selling the business instead of passing it on
Frequently the right answer, and the preparation determines whether it happens at a reasonable price.
Probate
What an executor does in the first two weeks
A practical sequence for the period when nobody is thinking clearly and several things genuinely cannot wait.
Beneficiary Designations
Life insurance beneficiaries and the details that matter
Proceeds arrive quickly and outside probate, which makes the designation one of the most consequential forms in a household.
Family & Disputes
Talking to your family about your plans
Most estate disputes trace to information that arrived after death rather than before it.
Estate Tax
Charitable bequests and how to structure them
Which asset goes to charity matters as much as how much, because the tax treatment differs enormously.
Probate
Small estates and simplified procedures
Most states offer shortcuts for modest estates, and many families go through full administration without knowing they exist.
Wills & Trusts
Wills for people with young children
The guardian nomination is the reason to make a will at thirty, and the money arrangements matter almost as much.
Family & Disputes
When families fight over an estate
Disputes are rarely about the money and almost always about something older, which is why they are so difficult to settle.
Estate Tax
Estate tax: who it actually affects
Federal exemption levels mean very few estates pay it, and state-level taxes catch a considerably broader group.
Beneficiary Designations
Naming a trust as beneficiary of a retirement account
Sometimes the right answer and technically demanding, with drafting errors that are expensive and discovered too late.
Wills & Trusts
What actually happens if you die without a will
Intestacy rules decide for you, and what they decide is frequently not what anyone would have chosen.