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Quiz: Is My Family Ready for Their Inheritance?
Have you taken the necessary steps to prepare your family for their inheritance? Estate planning isn't just about securing your financial future; it's also about preparing your heirs for the inheritance they will receive one day. Ensuring your loved ones are...
Will or Trust: Which One Should You Choose? 5 Compelling Reasons to Consider a Trust
Whether you are wealthy or working class, Trusts can be a very valuable planning tool when it comes to creating an effective estate plan. When people think about estate planning, they often think about a Last Will & Testament. While Wills are the most basic estate...
11 Major Reasons to Update Your Estate Planning in Illinois
If you have an estate plan, you are already doing better than many. Creating an initial estate plan is certainly challenging, and it’s often an emotionally difficult process. It's understandable that you don't want to repeat the experience and update your plan. But as...
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Why You Need a Healthcare POA
What does signing a Healthcare POA do for me? We talked previously about how a POA differs from a DNR (which is now referred to as a POLST). A Healthcare Power of Attorney is a very useful legal document that provides authorization for someone to act on your behalf...
Why a Care Plan Is Essential to Your Peace of Mind
We all know that aging is a part of life. However, when it comes to caring for aging loved...
Hey Kids! Don’t Sell the Farm!
Here’s a true story about a family where the kids didn’t follow their dad’s advice about the family farm.
Post-it Notes Are Not Legally Binding
I once heard of someone asking her grandchildren to go around the house putting Post-it notes on the things they wanted after she was gone. For several years, every time her grandchildren would come over the post-it notes were still scattered around the house. Yellow...
How Innovative Medicaid Planning Helped Save the Relationship of Two Sisters
This is the real-life story of two sisters, an annuity, nursing home costs, and why Medicaid Planning matters. Mom did not have much, but she owned her home, had a steady retirement income, and had purchased two annuities. Each in the amount of $50,000. Each daughter...
Joint Ownership Seems So Fair and Easy…
Many families think that joint ownership will make things fairer or even help avoid probate. What they don't know is that it can really cause some problems. It can go a little something like this... Grandad left his property to Dad. Then when Dad passed away he left...
Old Assets Can “Stink” After a While
Years ago, when I was single, I went out of town and a few days later my condo neighbors called 'cause they smelled a terrible stench. Nothing had died, but turns out I had forgotten to take out the trash before I left. (Thanks Mom and Dad, who made arrangements to...
7 Questions to Ask Before the Age of 70
People are living longer than ever these days, and while that is a good thing, it definitely presents challenges. Regardless of you or your loved one’s stage in life, good planning requires that you ask good questions. And asking good questions can sometimes be...
3 Real-life Examples of Important Asset Protection
We’ve previously talked about asset protection, but before we jump into some real-life examples, let’s review: Asset protection is simply protecting the things you own. This could be your house, your savings accounts, your IRAs, farmland, etc. Life is unpredictable,...
What’s Worse Than Probate?
Today we're going to talk about what's worse than probate. But first, let's talk about what it is exactly. What is Probate? Probate is where the judge has to get involved in carrying out an estate after death. This means nothing can be done until the judge signs the...