The Savvy Client's Guide to Trusts


Book Description

Should you have a trust as part of your estate plan? Would you like to be well-informed and confident before you meet with your attorney? In this second volume of the Savvy Client Series, attorney Mary L. Barrow answers your questions about trusts in a practical, easy-to-understand way. The Savvy Client is you!




Estate Planning for the Savvy Client


Book Description

With this book you'll discover: what you need to know to eliminate confusion about estate planning and give you a clear path to achieving your goals, how to decide if you really need a will, revocable living trust, power of attorney, or any of the other options available, how to choose the right attorney to help you plan your estate. It will tell you what you need to know before you meet with your attorney or prospective attorney.




Family Trusts


Book Description

An insightful and practical guide to family trusts Family Trusts is a step-by-step guide for anyone involved in family trusts: trust creators, trustees, beneficiaries, and advisors. It will help families create and administer a culture that recognizes trusts as a gift of love. Marrying the practical and emotional aspects of family wealth, this book provides a hands-on primer that focuses on fostering positive relationships, and structuring the trust appropriately for the situation and the people involved. It tackles difficult topics with frank and honest discussion, from the first beneficiary meeting to working with addictions, and more. Written by a team of experts in family wealth, this information is becoming increasingly crucial to the successful execution of a trust; you'll learn what type of person makes the best trustee, how to be an excellent beneficiary, and the technical aspects that help you build a better trust from the very beginning. There's been a staggering increase in trustee/beneficiary litigation and hostility, but that doesn't mean it's inevitable. Plenty of trusts are running smoothly, with positive experiences on all sides. This book shows you how to set up your trust to succeed from the start, with step-by-step guidance and expert insight. Express clear and thoughtful intent for the trust Create a healthy and supportive culture Select the right trustee, trust protector, and trust advisor Take the time to prepare before initially meeting the beneficiary Conduct a productive first meeting to set a tone for the relationship Historically, there has been little consideration given to the culture of trusts, and this oversight may be a key driver of the behavior that's becoming more prevalent. Family Trusts explores the nature of these relationships, and shows you how to build a trust that retains the nature and spirit with which it was intended.




Yours, Mine & Ours


Book Description

"If you are a member of a blended family, this is the handbook to enable your estate plan to assure that your financial wealth will lead to your family's future well-being. Read it, follow its wisdom and practices, and smile." —James (Jay) E. Hughes Jr, Author of Complete Family Wealth and Family: The Compact Among Generations

As parents, we spend our lives caring and providing for our children. However, many of us lack the foresight to create a plan that will ensure our children are supported even after we are gone. Parents neglect to handle their estates and affairs during their lifetime and leave their grieving children drowning in paperwork and tough decisions. It is even more demanding and grueling for stepchildren and members of blending families to sort through these estates. As a member of a blended family himself, tax attorney Paul Hood has pooled his personal and professional knowledge to create this comprehensive guide to estate planning for blended families. In Yours, Mine & Ours, Hood offers real-world advice while cover crucial topics such as:

  • Property Ownership
  • Documents for Planning
  • Important Payers in Planning
  • Challenges One will Face
  • Words of Wisdom

When nearly 70% of estate plans yield unfavorable results for the family, the need for a meticulous estate plan cannot be overstated. Hood’s guide to estate planning will allow individuals to rest assured that their families are provided for thoroughly.




Living Trusts for Everyone


Book Description

Explains how living trusts work, discusses the different types of trusts, compares living trusts with wills, and offers advice on selecting an attorney.




The Savvy Investor’s Pocket Guide


Book Description

Your guide to becoming financially savvy quickly and successfully! The Savvy Investor’s Pocket Guide is a self-improvement guide that provides ordinary people with the tools that will enable them to become financially savvy quickly and successfully. Identifying the common mistakes people make when dealing with their finances, the guide sets out how to rectify them. It also highlights how one can achieve financial independence by cutting back on some expenses, like luxury cars, and the benefits of starting to save as early as possible. The book also explains in easy-to-understand terms how to draw up and stick to a budget; make shrewd investments in various investment vehicles; consolidate and eliminate debt; draw up a will; get the most out of short-term and life insurance; and save enough money to retire. The Savvy Investor’s Pocket Guide serves as a wake-up call to stop wasting money and start investing for a financially secure future. A must-read for anyone who wants to not only improve their finances, but also their life in general.




The Complete Book of Wills, Estates, and Trusts


Book Description

The best legal guide to wills and estates—with more than 80,000 copies sold—now updated to cover the current asset protection options and estate laws. Whether grappling with modest or extensive assets, The Complete Book of Wills, Estates, and Trusts has long been the indispensable guide for protecting an estate for loved ones. In this completely revised third edition, updated to cover the latest changes in estate law, attorney Alexander A. Bove, Jr., clearly explains how to use a will to avoid probate and legal complications how trusts work and how to use trusts to save taxes how to contest a will and how to avoid a contest how to settle an estate or make a claim against one how to establish a durable power of attorney how to protect assets from creditors In his straightforward and humorous style, Bove shares easy-to-understand legal definitions, savvy advice on taxes, and pragmatic and simple sample forms, all illustrated with entertaining examples and actual cases. The Complete Book of Wills, Estates, and Trusts is the best guide available for defending your financial legacy.




Estate Planning For Dummies


Book Description

Planning for your family's future made easy! If you’re like most people, you want to be sure that, once you’ve passed on, no more of your property and money will be lost to the government than is absolutely necessary. You want to know that you’ll be leaving your heirs your assets and not your debts. You want to be absolutely certain that your will is ship-shape, your insurance policies are structured properly, and that every conceivable hole in your estate plan has been filled. And most of all, you’d like to do all of this without driving yourself crazy trying to make sense of the complicated jargon, jumble of paperwork, and welter of state and federal laws involved in the estate planning process. Written by two estate planning pros, this simple, easy-to-use guide takes the pain out of planning for your ultimate financial future. In plain English, the authors walk you step-by-step through everything you need to know to: Put your estate into order Minimize estate taxes Write a proper will Deal with probate Set up trusts Make sure your insurance policies are structured properly Plan for special situations, like becoming incompetent and pet care Craft a solid estate plan and keep it up-to-date Don’t leave the final disposition of your estate up to chance and the whims of bureaucrats. Estate Planning For Dummies gives you the complete lowdown on: Figuring out what you're really worth Mastering the basics of wills and probate Using will substitutes and dodging probate taxes Setting up protective trusts, charitable trusts, living trusts and more Making sense of state and federal inheritance taxes Avoiding the generation skipping transfer tax Minimizing all your estate-related taxes Estate planning for family businesses Creating a comprehensive estate plan Straightforward, reader-friendly, easy-to-use, Estate Planning For Dummies is the ultimate guide to planning your family’s future.




The Savvy Businessperson's Guide to Property & Casualty Insurance


Book Description

"Gitty Up" shouted the driver, as he encouraged the laboring horses to pull the ladened "prairie schooner" faster westward across the prairie. In the "prairie schooners" the people were excited and anxious to reach the vast prairie of Nebraska. They wanted to rush to the land, select their free land, and build their homes. Among the settlers on the Nebraska plains were the Author's parents. In this book the reader has a glimpse of their simple home, the care of the livestock on the farm, the planting and harvesting of the crops, the brutal weather, and the challenges of isolation. Every family depended on their horses for survival. Man power combined with horse power with determination resulted in permanent settlements. When tractors began to emerge for farming, then horses retired from field work. Whoa!




J.K. Lasser Pro Real Estate Investment Trusts


Book Description

Benefit from the outstanding investment opportunities that currently exist in the REIT industry The growth of REITs as an asset class has created an excellent opportunity for small investors to participate in the ownership of institutional-quality real estate. Are you ready to help your clients make the most of this opportunity? J.K. Lasser Pro Real Estate Investment Trusts thoroughly explains the nature of REITs and explores how this investment vehicle can be integrated and implemented into almost any client’s portfolio. This invaluable resource discusses the benefits and performance characteristics of REITs and includes a chapter on each of the following forms of REITs available, including: Residential REITs Manufactured home community REITs Office REITs Industrial property REITs Retail REITs Hotel property REITs Health care REITs Self-storage REITs Specialized, diversified, and mortgage REITs Filled with practical guidance, vital information, and in-depth interviews with some of the most respected individuals in the REIT industry, J.K. Lasser Pro Real Estate Investment Trusts is a valuable road map to an investment vehicle that can help you stabilize and grow any investor’s portfolio. Please visit our Web site at www.jklasser.com