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What is probate and why do people want to avoid it?
You may have heard people discuss probate and how horrible it is. But what in the world is probate? And why do people want to avoid it?
Protect Your Digital Assets the Easy Way
A few years ago it was fairly unusual to think of including digital assets in your estate plan. These days it is just too important to ignore. So much of our lives happen online. It is crucial to now consider these things when creating an estate plan. What is a...
7 Things To Do BEFORE Your Parent Goes To a Nursing Home
Taking care of these seven things before your parent goes to the nursing home will save you time, money, and heartache. The decision to go into a nursing home is rarely an easy one, but there are things you can do to make the transition is a little easier. In this...
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3 Things to Do Before You Hit 70
Decision making gets harder as we age. Here are 3 crucial decisions you need to address before you turn 70. Researchers say that decision making gets harder as we age, even if we don't have dementia. What does this mean for you? There are many important decisions...
How to Protect My Kids From Wild Spending
So, where will your stuff go when you die? Think about it for a minute. Who will get your stuff and how much will they get? Will the inheritance you leave make a big difference in their financial lives? In many cases it will, and it may be a lot more money than they...
Mom Is Having Memory Trouble and the Family Is Worried
Every week we talk with several families who are worried about the challenges of aging and call us for help. Recently, a family was concerned about mom's declining memory and dementia. Mom is mostly unaware of her inability to handle things on her own and...
Who Needs a Life Care Plan?
In a recent blog post, we talked about the challenges that our extended lifespan creates these days. Because people are living into their 80's and 90's on a regular basis, this creates financial, physical, medical and emotional struggles. Seeing families struggle with...
Elder Care Advisors: Helping People Age Well
These days, our extended life span creates a lot of challenges when it comes to managing the financial, physical, medical, and emotional reality of aging in America. We recently asked those who are facing retirement, or beginning to struggle with the challenges of...
New Medicare Cards Continue to Be Mailed Out
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continue to mail out new Medicare cards to residents of Illinois. The rollout started in June, but continues into July. Sadly, along with any big wholesale change like this (affecting roughly 60 million seniors...
What Is a Trustee and When Might You Need One?
You've probably heard of trusts and trustees before - most likely in the context of a rich kid living off of their trust fund. However, trusts are not just legal tools for the wealthy. We've talked about trusts before, and if you want to delve a little deeper into...
4 Things You May Not Know About POA’s
Some people get nervous when they think about signing a Power of Attorney. Maybe they saw a movie where a guy was swindled out of a fortune when he signed one. Maybe giving someone control over your affairs is unsettling to you. Whatever the case may be, Powers of...
Forget About The “Estate” And Just Do Planning
Estate Planning isn't just for people with estates... I talk a lot about "estate planning," whatever that means. It sounds like lawyer talk and often makes people's eyes glaze over. Well, I want you to forget about the estate and just call it planning, because that's...
The Myth of a “Simple” Will
"I just want a simple will." We hear this a lot. The people who say it generally assume they have a "regular" family with straightforward assets. They don't want to pay a lot for elaborate documents they don't understand. They just want a last will and testament. We...