According to Kiplinger, 56% of Americans do not have an estate plan when they die. Procrastination born of morbid dread is the reason typically cited for this. However, maybe the reason that you have not yet started estate planning is that you do not know where to...
Bridgewater New Jersey Estate Planning Law Blog
Becoming the administrator of an estate with no will
When someone dies without a will, it can leave family members unsure of what their next step should be. If you want to become the administrator of your loved one's estate, you have to follow the requirements carefully. We have often assisted people through the probate...
How does New Jersey’s inheritance tax work?
Inheritance taxes are one of the most confusing aspects of estate planning and asset protection law. New Jersey's inheritance taxes have a few twists and turns that you should know as you're making plans. 1. Your relationship to the deceased determines the inheritance...
What protections do discretionary lifetime trusts provide?
There are many different types of trusts that exist. A discretionary one is quite common. It's essentially an asset protection tool that allows for a grantor to appoint a trustee to make distributions. This type of trust is also different from other types of them in...
What are the benefits of a medical power of attorney?
A medical power of attorney is an estate planning document that designates someone as another person's agent when it comes to making medical decisions. That agent can make decisions that, legally speaking, work as if they came from the person themselves. It comes into...
Cancer affects what estate planning documents to draft
It's important for everyone to have an estate plan in place no matter how healthy or young that they are. Cancer and other illnesses don't discriminate after all. You can fall ill with a medical condition at any point in your life. If you've been diagnosed with cancer...
Why you shouldn’t rush to distribute assets after a testator dies
A testator's loved ones often come out of the woodworks en masse to stake claim to their loved ones' assets immediately following their death. You as the executor shouldn't give in though. It could be quite costly if you do.Some of the assets that you may not want to...
What are the tax implications of passing down a retirement plan?
One of perhaps the biggest guffaws that individuals make when planning their estates is not thinking of the tax implications that making certain decisions will have on their beneficiaries. Certain types of retirement investment plans require beneficiaries to take...
How should you fund your living trust?
Many individuals set up a revocable living trust to provide for their loved ones after they're gone. While many people assume that they have to have a tremendous amount of wealth to set up one of these, they don't. You can take some of your most valuable assets and...
Why irrevocable trusts are an important asset protection tool
Irrevocable trusts are those that generally cannot be modified once they've been formed and funded. This means that even the grantor, or the person who sets it up, generally can't ask to have the property that they've placed into the trust back. That individual can't...
