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An estate plan centered around a Revocable Living Trust ("Living Trust") can be extremely beneficial to you and your family. The biggest advantages of a Living Trust are that it avoids probate upon your death, it avoids guardianship court proceedings in the event you become disabled, and it remains private, both during your lifetime and after your death. The catch is that it only works if you properly fund your Living Trust after you create it!What is funding? Funding is the process of changing the ownership of your assets so that they are...

Sure, you can print forms for a Will, Powers of Attorney for Health Care and Property, and a Living Will from the internet and fill in the blanks yourself. You can even prepare your own Living Trust using a form you find online, but do you really know what these forms will mean to you and your family? Do you have the correct number of witnesses and did you have the documents properly notarized? What about funding that trust that you just printed and signed?We have seen so many documents prepared without the help of an experienced estate pla...

Most of us make New Year’s resolutions to be a better version of the person we are: thinner, more patient, more organized. This year, how about resolving to take care of family business? Interested? Raise your hand and read the following aloud:Organ Donation: I resolve to make a choice about being an organ donor: Save your family from making hard choices by setting a gift in advance. Specify limitations: no gift, internal organs only, whole body to science. Put donor provisions in a will, sign an anatomical gift declaration and the back...

An Illinois man left a death benefit of more than $400,000 when he passed away suddenly from a heart attack. According to The National Law Review, the beneficiary on the policy was the man’s wife, to whom he had only been wed for a few years. The man’s grown children from another marriage claim that they found a completed document that the man never submitted stating that he wanted to change the beneficiary on the policy to be his children. A trial court ruled that because the completed form was never turned in, the wife would get the money...