Wills & Trusts
Where to keep the documents
A will that cannot be found is treated as revoked in many states, which makes storage a legal question rather than a housekeeping one.
Wills & Trusts
What each document does, and what it cannot do.
Wills & Trusts
Moving states and what it does to your plan
Documents drafted for one state generally remain valid elsewhere and may no longer produce the intended result.
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.
Wills & Trusts
Pets, personal effects and the things without value
Items of little financial worth cause a disproportionate share of estate disputes, and both problems are solvable in advance.
Wills & Trusts
Updating an estate plan and when to do it
Documents drafted once and filed become inaccurate quietly, and the discovery generally comes at the worst point.
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.
Wills & Trusts
Special needs planning
An inheritance can disqualify a beneficiary from the support they rely on, and the structures that prevent it are well established.
Wills & Trusts
Irrevocable trusts and what you give up
The protection comes precisely from the loss of control, which is the part people underestimate.
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.
Wills & Trusts
Advance directives and the conversation behind them
The document matters less than whether the person who will be asked knows what you would want.
Wills & Trusts
Powers of attorney and why they matter more than the will
The documents that operate while you are alive, and whose absence causes the most immediate difficulty.
Wills & Trusts
Revocable trusts, and whether you need one
A widely recommended and widely oversold instrument, with genuine uses that are narrower than the marketing suggests.
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.