Designating a beneficiary on your IRA might seem like a simple process of just writing down the name of your spouse or child. However, as...

The pending tax court battle between Michael Jackson's estate and the IRS centers on the precise amount Jackson's name and likeness were...

A recent article in the Washington Post, entitled "When a doctor and patient disagree about care at the end of life," is an interesting...

Life insurance is a key component of many estate plans. Because life insurance payments are supposed to be made immediately they can...

Recently, the Funeral Consumers Alliance and the Consumer Federation of America conducted a survey of 150 funeral homes in the U.S. to...

For most people thinking about the end of their own lives is psychologically difficult. This has stopped many from getting living wills...

People who inherit a house often wonder what they can and should do with it. These are not always easy questions to answer especially for...

The estate tax is a common source of complaints both by and to politicians. In all of the discussion about the tax what often gets lost...

Churches are used to receiving gifts from their parishioners as part of those parishioners' estates. Most such gifts come in the form of...

It might seem to some people that the law loves nothing more than to be confusing to laypersons. In some states, a guardian is needed to...

Deciding who the trustee of your trust will be can sometimes be scary. The trustee has a lot of power and the success of the trust often...

Even a family comedy show realize that talking and planning for this sensitive subject is a real life dilemma for most families. But if...

John’s Pizzeria is an institution in New York with locations all over the area. When owner Madeline Castelloti passed away in 2004, her...

It is very common to for pet owners to arrange for a friend or family member to take care of a pet after the owner passes away. Siblings...

Like any other form of property, stocks have their own transfer rules. What happens to them after the owner passes away is determined by...

If you want someone else to have access to your digital accounts after you pass away, then you will need to go through specific processes...

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has recently released some documents that were seized during the raid on Osama Bin...

The digital age has created changes for people in many aspects of life. This is certainly the case in estate planning, as estate laws...

Because there is a dispute over this claim with the rest of the family in court, the board felt they should avoid further controversy and...

When you create an "irrevocable trust" for your estate plan, then you have only just begun the process. An irrevocable trust, like a...