In many cases, people who pledge money to schools or institutions cannot see the effects that their money will lead to. Why? Those funds are usually not released until they pass away.
A better option for some individuals is the option for early activation. With early activation, the funds are released to the school sooner, so students are aided immediately. Additionally, donors can see how those funds are used and how they affect people in the system.
As you age, it is important to begin thinking about how to protect your assets. Even younger individuals need to do this, particularly if they've inherited money or earn a lot each year.
Asset protection isn't just for those wanting to preserve their assets for their loved ones. It's also for those who want to protect their assets against claims from creditors. Here's a little more on asset protection and what might help you keep your assets safe.
Most people know that creating a will is a normal part of growing older. You start to collect assets, so it only makes sense that you'd want to create a will to protect those assets and state who should receive them upon your death.
A will, also known as your Last Will and Testament, is a document that declares the heirs to your estate, names the person who will be in charge of disposition and assures the integrity of the disposition. This can be an iron-clad document if you're careful, but you have to be cautious of questions of testamentary capacity.
One of the reasons that estate administration is so difficult for people is because it is not very common and requires planning years in advance. That planning may or may not involve the person who will eventually take over the estate. No one likes to bring up death, but not doing so actually makes an executor's job harder.
After a person dies, the executor must make sure the will is carried out and that the estate is taken care of. That may mean paying bills, resolving debts or doling out property to beneficiaries. In fact, executors are entrusted with the responsibility to make sure a person's wishes are met, even after death. It is important that the executor will act in good faith and carry out the decedent's wishes in good time.
You've worked hard to live a life with many assets, and at this point, you just want to protect as many of them as you can. As you age, you know you could risk losing assets to the government if you do not plan carefully.
There is an easy solution. If you want to protect your assets, one of the things you can do is have an irrevocable trust. This trust cannot be terminated or modified without a beneficiary's permission. You, the grantor, transfer assets into the trust. This removes the assets from your ownership.
When you create an advance directive, you lay out your wishes for medical care in writing. These are decisions you would typically make in person, at the time they need to be made, but the advance directive gives you some insurance if you're unable to do that. You can address things like what lifesaving machines you want the doctors to use and whether or not you should be resuscitated.
Four reasons you may need an advance directive include:
If you watched a movie where a character passed away, you may have then watched a scene where all of the friends and relatives sat in a room while a lawyer read them that person's will. Does this really happen? Is that how you find out what was left to you?
While this scene can build a lot of suspense and works well in movies, it is not all that realistic in 2018. Instead, the person in charge of the estate makes copies of the will and then mails them out to those who are named in the document. This way, those people have hard copies and they can read them whenever they want. The family members do not have to arrange their schedules to meet up for a will reading, and there's no element of surprise.
You know that you want to be fair when you leave your money to your children. But does that necessarily mean leaving them equal amounts? This is one of the biggest questions that parents have to ask themselves.
For instance, one couple had three children. One of those children had done very well financially, to the point that they had enough money for expensive extras like a vacation house. The next child had not done that well, but did have enough to live without worry and to put money aside to retire.
You have an heir with special needs, and you are trying to figure out your best course of action during your estate planning. You want to provide for that person and help him or her significantly after you pass away, but you do not accidentally want to do something with unintended consequences. What should you do?
One option is to use a special needs trust. This sets money aside from your estate to help the individual, keeping it in the trust rather than passing it to the person directly. There are some major advantages to doing this, such as:
People often assume that estate disputes revolve solely around possessions. Two people want the same assets, they can't have them and so they start a long legal dispute to see who gets them.
Certainly, this does happen, and assets do change hands during these disputes. However, experts note that the real problem is often that someone has his or her feelings hurt.
