How does my estate plan impact my retirement accounts?
Life and Death: Understanding Your Various Retirement Accounts
What is a SRT and how does it work?
A Standalone Retirement Trust (SRT), also know as an IRA Beneficiary Trust, is a trust that acts as a qualified designated beneficiary for retirement accounts. Typically the SRT does not own any assets during your life, but will receive retirement accounts (or part of the retirement account), at your death, through beneficiary designation. By [...]
Should my retirement account be owned by or transferred to my Revocable Living Trust (RLT)?
No! Retirement accounts, like a 401(k), 403(b), or Individual Retirement Account (IRA), must stay in your individual name and an RLT cannot be the owner of such account. If you were to change the ownership to a Trust, the retirement account would have to be cashed out, and a trust-owned non-retirement investment account would [...]
I’m interested in donating to charity as part of my plan, what is the best way to do it?
Charitable and Planned Giving Webinar (Audio Recording)
How does life insurance factor into my estate plan? What if I already have a policy in place?
The Basics of Life Insurance
What is an ILIT and how does it work?
An ILIT is an irrevocable trust created to own certain life insurance policies outside of your estate. You, as the grantor, create the ILIT, which owns your policy. You do not maintain control over the policy and your selected Trustee is effectively the owner. As you are no longer the owner of the policy [...]
What happens to my life insurance policy if I get divorced? Will my estate plan need to change?
Drafting Considerations for Separation Agreements with Life Insurance
I am a small business owner, does that mean I need to take my LLC into account when estate planning?
Successful Business Succession Planning
What are some of the reasons to check in and update your plan on a regular basis?
The most straightforward reason to update an outdated estate plan is to include any desired changes in an individual’s family or to change any beneficiaries. An estate plan created some 20 years ago is likely to need updating for people who have both come and gone that the client would like to include or [...]
Have there been recent changes in trust & estate law that would affect my plan or family?
In 2012, Massachusetts adopted the Uniform Probate Code, which was the first true overhaul of state probate laws (some of the laws dated back to the inception of the Commonwealth). Therefore, it is clear that many of the laws governing an estate plan created 20+ years ago would be outdated and a revision could/should [...]