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Every estate plan should include a document naming someone else to handle medical decisions when you are no longer able to.  The terminology most commonly associated with this document includes: a medical directive, advanced directive, living will, patient advocate, and health care power of attorney.  No matter the name, this document contains important language about

One of the primary reasons people create a trust is to avoid probate.  A revocable living trust is the most typical trust used to ensure that your wishes are carried out.  But sometimes this well-intended plan falls short if the trust is never funded. I always tell clients that their estate plan is not done

This is often a difficult decision. Some people struggle because they’d like to name all of their children, but understand that may only complicate the process. Others have a child or person in mind who is very capable, but he or she lives far away from them. Other people don’t have any children or friends

It is a very personal decision to determine whether to share your estate plan with your family. Except for the most extreme of circumstances, you will never be required to share the plan while you are alive. So, when the question of whether to share the plan is asked of me as an estate planner,

If you have worked with an estate planning attorney before, it goes without saying that your primary focus was on the documents themselves – a will, maybe a trust, powers of attorney, etc. And hopefully when you concluded the process and your estate planning documents were signed, you also received some instruction on the next

Terror is not a word regularly associated with a trust but there are times when the two terms meet. A “terror clause,” “in terrorem clause,” or “no-contest clause” can be used in both wills and trusts to warn someone to think twice about contesting the terms of a will or trust. The clause usually states

Over the last few years, if you have read any articles in this space about estate planning or have taken the steps to create your own estate plan, then you are probably aware of the importance of having a general durable power of attorney and a healthcare power of attorney in place. These are the