Choosing and Preparing Guardians

It may be the most dreaded thing for parents to contemplate. Who would raise their children, if both parents died? The most important advice: if you do not have a last will nominating a guardian for your minor children, get it done immediately. Without a last will, the court will decide…

Estate Planning Checklist

Estate plans, like Rome, are not built in a day. It takes time to map out how you want your estate distributed after death – and decide who will be in charge of your finances and health care in case of incapacity. An Updated Last Will and Testament Regardless the value of…

What Needs to be Done When a Loved One Dies?

Once the initial shock has subsided, there are many tasks to be done when a loved one dies. Unfortunately, a number of them are time sensitive and cannot be delayed. Most of these tasks fall to the surviving spouse, unless a trustworthy and well-organized sibling…

Family Business Succession Checklist

Succession is one of the most vulnerable parts of a family business. Protecting a family business so it can survive the retirement, incapacity, or death from one generation of owners to the next requires advance planning for the business and family members. How can a family protect itself and the family…

Business Buying Basics

Deciding which business to purchase, gathering information to evaluate profitability, and weighing risk and reward are part of the due diligence required before buying a business. When a potential buyer has all the right information, the decision often becomes crystal clear. What Information Is Needed Before Buying a Business? Buying a business…

Multiple Marriages and Blended Families Create Unique Situations

Planning for incapacity and death in a blended family requires a more complex approach than for traditional families. By its very nature, the blended family has more fault lines. As parents and stepparents age, planning needs to take this fact of modern life into consideration. Clarifying Roles…

How to Protect Your Minor Children

How to Protect Your Minor Children The need to protect each minor child begins the moment he or she is welcomed into the family. Planning for the future of your minor child is an essential responsibility that only you can exercise. Without an estate plan, the entire life of your orphaned minor child would be…

Understanding Short-Term and Long-Term Disability Insurance

For most of us in the workforce, we keep the thought of disability tucked away into the deepest, darkest recesses of our minds. If we do not think about it, it will not happen, right? The fact is, before 20-year-old workers hit retirement age, about one in four will be out of work for 12…