6 Estate Planning Must-Haves
.6 Estate Planning Must-Haves
By GLENN CURTIS Updated February 27, 2022
Many people believe that having an estate plan simply means drafting a will or a trust. However, there is much more to include in your estate planning to make certain all of your assets are transferred seamlessly to your heirs upon your death. There are specific estate planning documents, like healthcare power of attorney and will or trust.
A successful estate plan also includes provisions allowing your family members to access or control your assets, should you become unable to do so yourself.
Will vs. Trust: What’s the Difference?
.Will vs. Trust: What’s the Difference?
Both transfer an estate to heirs, but only a trust can skip probate court
By Matthew Jarrell Updated May 17, 2022
Wills vs. Trusts: An Overview
Trusts are legal arrangements that protect assets and direct their use and disposition in accordance with their owners’ intentions. While wills take effect upon death, trusts may be used both during the life and after the death of their creators. Separately or together, wills and trusts can serve effective estate planning.1
This article will examine how these estate-planning tools can provide for your heirs, including:
The need for a will, a trust, or both
The different types of trusts
The advantages and disadvantages of wills and trusts
Why One Of The Wealthiest Empires In History Disintegrated In 17 Years
.Why One Of The Wealthiest Empires In History Disintegrated In 17 Years
Notes From the Field By Simon Black June 20, 2022
On June 17, 1631, the 38-year old chief consort of Shah Jahan, head of the Mughal Empire, was giving birth to their 14th child in the central Indian city of Burhanpur.
It had been a long and extremely difficult labor-- more than 30 hours in total. But the consort persisted and gave birth to a healthy baby girl. The consort herself, unfortunately, succumbed to uncontrollable postpartum bleeding, and she passed away that same day.
Estate Planning: 16 Things to Do Before You Die
.Estate Planning: 16 Things to Do Before You Die
When Aretha Franklin died intestate—without a legal will—in 2018, she joined a surprisingly long list of famous people, including Prince, who also did the same.12 By not preparing an estate plan, she made the task of settling her affairs more complicated for her survivors. While your estate may not be as large or complex as a famous singer's, it's still important to have a plan in place in the event of your death.
More Than a Last Will and Testament
Estate planning goes beyond drafting a will. Thorough planning means accounting for all of your assets and ensuring they transfer as smoothly as possible to the people or entities you wish to receive them. Along with implementing your plan, you must make sure others know about it and understand your wishes.
Should You Buy a House With Cash? Here's What to Consider
.Should You Buy a House With Cash? Here's What to Consider
Terri Williams Fri, June 17, 2022
In a hyper-competitive housing market, prospective buyers are pulling out all the stops to close bids on new homes—and for some, the winning tactic is a cash offer. In February 2022, 25 percent of home offers were all-cash, according to data from the National Association of Realtors, and in 2021, all-cash offers were more than four times as likely to win a bidding war.
With these chances, it's no surprise that prospective homebuyers have been going out of their way to make these offers. "Our quarterly report reveals that 57 percent of agents have seen buyers leverage their own retirement or securities funds to pay cash for a home," says Laura Tonelli, home trends expert at HomeLight, a San Francisco-based real estate referral company. In addition, she says that 49 percent of real estate agents polled have seen buyers take out a home equity loan or home equity line of credit for this purpose, and 38 percent of agents have seen buyers get short-term loans from friends or family.
10 Genius Ways to Protect Your Money
.10 Genius Ways to Protect Your Money
Mark Henricks Thu, June 16, 2022,
SmartAsset: 10 Asset Protection Strategies for 2022
Asset protection strategies can protect investors, professionals, business owners and those with significant assets from loss due to lawsuits, creditor claims and other risks. This often involves moving assets from the owner’s personal control into various legal entities in order to separate them from claims against the owner. While not necessarily simple, inexpensive or guaranteed to stop all claims, asset protection can be an important part of a financial plan. A financial advisor can help identify the assets and strategies appropriate to your individual situation.
What Is Asset Protection?
What Working with the Homeless Taught Me about Financial Planning
.What Working with the Homeless Taught Me about Financial Planning
Stacia Williams, Investment Adviser Representative, Founder Wed, June 15, 2022
I learned the importance of having a plan at an early age thanks to my father, a homeless camp and sack lunches. My father was a pastor, and he viewed helping the homeless as a calling. So, on Saturday afternoons, my family would prepare 125 sack lunches, with the contents of those lunches imprinted on my memory to this day – a bologna sandwich, a bag of potato chips and a Little Debbie.
We would rise at 6 on Sunday morning, load the sack lunches into a van and travel to a park where homeless people camped. There we handed out the treats. The sack lunches came with no strings attached, but my father took the opportunity to invite people to church, granting a hot lunch after the service to whomever accepted the offer.
The Invention of Money
.The Invention of Money
By John Lanchester July 29, 2019
When the system buckles, how do we know what money is really worth? In three centuries, the heresies of two bankers became the basis of our modern economy. When the Venetian merchant Marco Polo got to China, in the latter part of the thirteenth century, he saw many wonders—gunpowder and coal and eyeglasses and porcelain.
One of the things that astonished him most, however, was a new invention, implemented by Kublai Khan, a grandson of the great conqueror Genghis. It was paper money, introduced by Kublai in 1260. Polo could hardly believe his eyes when he saw what the Khan was doing:
He makes his money after this fashion. He makes them take of the bark of a certain tree, in fact of the mulberry tree, the leaves of which are the food of the silkworms, these trees being so numerous that whole districts are full of them.
Stop! Don't Make These 6 Dumb Mistakes With Your Financial Windfall
.Stop! Don't Make These 6 Dumb Mistakes With Your Financial Windfall
By Kentin Waits
Maybe your lottery numbers finally came in. Maybe a favorite aunt remembered you in her will. Heck, maybe one day while you were shootin' at some food, up through the ground came bubblin' crude — oil that is! Texas tea! Whatever the source, you're the lucky beneficiary of a financial windfall. Revel in it and protect your new-found wealth by avoiding these six dumb moves.
1. Act Impulsively
Receiving money unexpectedly is exciting, and it can send even normally down-to-earth folks straight into the stratosphere. In those dizzying weeks and months following a financial windfall, we're really not ourselves, so making big decisions during that time is usually a terrible idea.
Knowledge Is Not Understanding
.Knowledge Is Not Understanding
By Lawrence Yeo
The pursuit of knowledge is heralded as a virtue, but the attainment of understanding is far more important.
To explain what I mean here, we have to first delve into the difference between knowledge and understanding. On its surface, it may seem like a game of semantics, but if you explore this further, you’ll see that the nuances make all the difference.
The first question to address is: How do we attain knowledge?
Well, there are many ways we can approach this question, but a good place to start would be the current educational system.
What Is The Next Created Crisis?
.What Is The Next Created Crisis?
I think about the worker shortage the same way I think about the gas shortage.
It’s a created crisis. A made up mistake. In other words, and let me be crystal clear on this.
There is no worker shortage. How do I know? Because we are a capitalist country.
I see a bunch of old rich white men on television telling me how great capitalism is, and how it works for everybody. I even get to participate in capitalism. Like when the news says there is a gas shortage in North Carolina because the sky is falling, I pay double for a gallon of gas.
That is capitalism in action.