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For decades, common financial planning wisdom has encouraged almost all American workers to maximize their contributions to qualified retirement accounts. Indeed, doing so can be a powerful way to reduce your current income tax liability, grow your savings exponentially tax-free, and, in most states, protect your savings from claims of creditors. And by and large, this is what most American workers have done. The result is that Americans have gradually amassed huge amounts of wealth …

When your child is under the age of 18, you, as their parent, can make most, if not all decisions, on their behalf. However, when your child turns 18, the law views them as an adult, and you no longer have the ability to control what and how decisions are made, or even receive relevant information about those decisions. For most parents, this is a rite of passage. They just have to sit back and …

An estate plan that includes a revocable living trust is an excellent way to protect yourself and your loved ones upon your passing or in the event you are unable to manage your own affairs. As opposed to other estate planning options, a revocable living trust gives you the ability to keep control of and enjoy your accounts and property during your lifetime and to maintain privacy in how the accounts and property are managed, …

Most people think of probate (the process of collecting, managing, and distributing a deceased person’s money and property) as a private process. However, because wills are filed at the courthouse, probated estates become a matter of public record. That means your nosy neighbor Nellie can simply go down to the courthouse or hop online and find out about your probate. Really.  It’s Not Just Nellie That Has Access… After a death, most states require that …

For most people, it is perfectly natural to think about estate planning only in terms of planning for death. While planning for your death is very important, if that is all you plan for, your planning can quickly become woefully inadequate. As medical knowledge and technology have improved over the decades, so too has modern medicine’s ability to keep people alive for much longer. It is no accident that in many areas of the country, …