In early 2022, Bloomberg News reported that Americans can expect to inherit $72.6 trillion over the next quarter century—more than twice as much as a decade ago. With so much potential generational wealth on the line, there is always a risk that it will become the subject of a dispute.
Some people draft wills or trusts to ensure that the loved ones they will eventually leave behind own a piece of the properties the former will be leaving behind in case of their death.
Addressing an estranged child in your estate plan can be a complicated subject. If you get it wrong, all of your children may wind up in contentious estate litigation for years. And to make matters worse, your wishes might not be followed.
Here are some important parts of your estate plan that should be reviewed.
This post circulating on Facebook addressing do-it-yourself estate planning makes some good points but also contains some major falsehoods, especially as they apply to Louisiana. Learn what is good and not so good about this post intended for people outside of Louisiana.
While the number of older Americans with wills has been dropping in recent years, that doesn’t mean you should forego this legal document.
It’s hard for a family to recuperate when the patriarchs and matriarchs have gone to glory, leaving a battle for who will carry the family’s leadership role and manage the family’s transition of wealth.
Out of sight, out of mind isn’t just an everyday adage—it’s one of the reasons why people 50 and over fail to write a will, update a previous one, or make other estate planning decisions.
A competent elder law or estate attorney can discuss and use, where appropriate, such provisions as the family exemption, benefits to prepaying inheritance tax, even where the tax return is not yet complete and a listing of itemized deductions.
Louisiana law provides that once a married couple is divorced, the ex-spouse loses all rights under the will, but there are other ways your ex-sposue could inherit your assets.
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