One of the most effective tools in the estate planning process is a trust, which can offer significant advantages-including the ability to bypass the often lengthy and costly probate process. Trusts, ...

Editor’s note: This is part one of an ongoing series about using trusts and LLCs in estate planning, asset protection and tax planning. The effectiveness of these powerful tools — especially for asset ...

A trust can be a valuable way to protect your estate, but there are many considerations to make when choosing the right type ...

Just because you are the proud owner of a revocable trust doesn’t mean that your estate planning is complete. In order to avoid probate and the associated time and costs, you must take the deliberate ...

Understand the importance of Estate Planning and Probate, including their definitions, how they interconnect, their special ...

IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED probate, then you know first-hand why many individuals wish to avoid it. Traditionally, the probate court serves an important function in supervising the administration of the ...

A reader shared a horrific story about a fight over his father’s estate and demanded to know why I was not telling people ...

Most Americans know the folly of dying without a will. Under the widely different state formulas devised for such cases, a widow can lose one-half of her husband’s estate to his relatives. Equally ...

Inheritance Funding reports probate delays can arise from will disputes, incomplete documents, complex assets, outstanding ...

Q: In 1995, my mother and father had a living trust created by their attorney. She transferred title to their house and several investment properties into the living trust. When my father died in 1998 ...

When you avoid probate, you avoid a court proceeding upon death. Wills are documents used in probate to inform the judge of your beneficiaries and executors. If you die with assets in your individual ...

When my husband and I set up our own trust, our attorney advised us to retitle our house in the trust’s name. My mom’s attorney told her that this wasn’t necessary for her. He said since she’s leaving ...