Complete Legal Planning Questionnaire
All adults should have a comprehensive estate plan, not only to identify the distribution of their assets after death, but also to protect themselves (and their families) prior to death if they sustain a serious illness, and also to minimize their estate taxes.
Those involved in non-traditional relationships (such as second marriages or those who are cohabiting) have many additional reasons for developing well-considered estate plans.
If you’re in a second marriage, you have some very unique challenges to work through to make sure that your estate plan achieves your goals to protect your current spouse, your children from a prior relationship, and maybe even your own business. [If you haven’t read about these unique hurdles you face in a second marriage, click here to learn more about them].
If you’re living together in a long-term, committed relationship, you have even more challenges to overcome to protect your loved one because Massachusetts doesn’t recognize common law marriage. Even if you’ve been living together for more than 7 years, you simply don’t have the same protections that married people do! [Learn more about the legal challenges you face in a cohabiting relationship].
Research indicates that a majority of people are leaving it up to state law to decide how their finances will be passed on and even how health care decisions will be made.
That’s pretty scary, particularly for those in a second marriage with a blended family because your estate might not end up in the hands of the people to whom you most want it to be left.
And, it’s even more frightening if you’re living together because you might be completely shut out of your loved one’s financial affairs and even his/her funeral arrangements!
At this session, we can learn about your estate, and advise as to the cost for preparing a comprehensive estate plan that will address your needs and wishes.
Can I name more than one successor Trustee for my living trust? You betcha! You can certainly name more than one person to serve as a successor Trustee of your Massachusetts living trust when you’re gone. They are called co-Trustees….
If you live in Massachusetts and you can’t find the original deed to your house or other real estate, there’s no real need to worry. As long as that original deed was recorded at a Registry of Deeds or in…