If you have a parent over the age of, say, 65, thoughts about their future may have started to creep into your mind. However, because end-of-life planning can be emotional and overwhelming, it’s tempting to put these conversations off—and even more pleasing to avoid them altogether.
Discussing estate planning with your parents is a conversation that can be difficult to have. You might not want to think about the day they are no longer here, or even consider that they might experience a decline in health that severely limits their ability to think clearly or communicate with you.
In a nutshell, it might be better for your mom to put the home in a living trust that allows her to control the home while she is alive and allows you to inherit the home through the trust upon her death.
Digital assets have been around for quite some time. However, they seem to be dominating headlines again this year. In part, you can thank high-profile figures, such as Elon Musk, for promoting cryptocurrency, or music artist Grimes for selling $6 million in NFTs.
Would your loved ones have necessary access to your bank accounts after you die to help carry out your last wishes and handle arrangements?
If your life changes, so should your estate plan. Marriage, divorce, death of a spouse, a birth and a changing relationship with a child are just some of the life changes that may affect your estate plan.
Children may have moved away or lost touch. Old contacts may have died or become disabled. You cannot trust everyone and criminal cases based on misuse of a power of attorney do exist.
Whatever the reason, whether your life is a bed of roses or a getting-worse-nightmare, there are things you can do now to insure what you leave will go to who you want. And when. And in what portion or portions.
As you know, a power of attorney (POA) allows another person, the Attorney-in-Fact (AIF), to conduct business on behalf of the principal. The POA authorizes the AIF to sign for and on behalf of the principal.
A trustee is a fiduciary which, essentially, is a person that owes a legal, ethical and, perhaps, moral obligation to act in the interest of another.
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