Estate Planning, Probate & Trusts Article Archives

Estate Planning, Probate & Trusts Frequently Asked Questions

March, 2017

What is an estate plan? What exactly is a trust and why might I need one? Can an estate plan help reduce taxes? I am in a same-sex relationship. How can we protect ourselves beyond a basic estate plan? I’ve heard about revocable living trusts. Should I have one? What is probate? My assets are relatively modest. Do I still need an estate plan? What happens if I die without a Will? I am young and healthy. Do I really need a financial Power of Attorney and Advance Medical Directive?

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Selecting Your Executor And Trustee

Your ability to select the person to manage your affairs after your death is one of the advantages of making a will or a trust. If you make a will, or a revocable trust as a substitute for a will, you nominate a person to settle your estate. If you create a trust, you name a person to be the “trustee” of the trust. The trustee is duty bound to follow the instructions in the trust instrument and the law governing trusts.

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The Probate Process

Most people encounter probate for the first time after a close family member dies. Probate is simply the legal name for wrapping up the affairs of the deceased so that title to his or her wealth is validly changed over to the beneficiaries of the estate. This brief list of questions and answers is an effort to provide a perspective on the probate process.

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Here Is Your Will – Do You Want Tax Planning To Go With That?

May, 2016 | By Carl E. Eastwick

These days only a few wealthy families will pay the federal estate tax. But for residents of Maryland, the state estate tax may perplex people planning to pass on more modest wealth. Since the federal and Maryland estate tax systems will be out of phase until 2019, estate planners should contemplate crafting special Maryland-only provisions into plans until the tax laws are again in synch.

For most people, the federal estate tax is dead! If you die this year, 2016, your family and friends will not have to deal with the IRS’s “Death Tax” unless you have more than $5,450,000 to leave to them. Only a handful of the U.S. citizens dying each year have taxable estates larger.

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