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29 results for "Jordan S. Simon"
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How to Pay Living Expenses While Money's Tied Up in Probate
Your unanticipated death could create an immediate financial crisis for your family. Family allowance statutes enable the probate court to provide money for the support of your spouse and minor children [more…]
Found in: Probate -
How to Protect Your Property from the Estate Recovery Act
The Estate Recovery Act technically isn’t a tax, but it involves the government taking money out of your estate after you die. In fact, the Estate Recovery Act can have a far more devastating impact on [more…]
Found in: Estate Planning - Taxes -
Estate Planning with Protective Trusts to Cover Your Assets
Protective trusts — spendthrift, supplemental needs and special needs, education, and minor’s trusts — let you parcel out money when you feel the time is right or specify exactly how the trust money is [more…]
Found in: Trusts -
Status of Your Will: Testate or Intestate?
If you have a valid will, you are said to die testate, meaning you have spelled out your intentions completely and legally in your last will and testament. A will status of intestate [more…]
Found in: Wills -
Using Will Substitutes to Reduce Estate Taxes
Why would you want to use a will substitute (a legal agreement that transfers ownership upon your death) rather than your will for certain property? Property covered by a will substitute is transferred [more…]
Found in: Estate Planning - Taxes -
Calculating the Value of Everything You Own for Estate Planning
Before you can plan how to distribute your assets after your death, you need to understand what your estate is. In the most casual sense, your estate is your stuff or all your possessions. In addition [more…]
Found in: Estate Planning -
Reasons Why You May Want to Change Your Will
Your will is a living document. Although a will’s intent is to provide for what happens to your estate after you have died, your will needs to change as your life changes. Don’t make the mistake of putting [more…]
Found in: Wills -
How to Bypass Probate with Joint Tenancy
Joint tenancy means that you share ownership of property. Property held in joint tenancy isn’t part of the probate process; creditors don’t have access to property held as joint tenants. [more…]
Found in: Probate -
What Are Grantor-Retained Trusts All About?
Grantor-retained trusts let you create a “noncharitable” trust. Instead of the property in the trust eventually going to a charitable organization, the property goes to [more…]
Found in: Trusts -
Trust Fund Payment Plans: Intervivos and Testamentary
A trust that makes annual payments to a beneficiary while you’re still alive is an intervivos trust. If you set up a trust to become effective and start making payments after your death, you’ve set up [more…]
Found in: Trusts -
How Marital Trusts Work
Most marriage-oriented trusts postpone payment of estate taxes until both spouses in a marriage have died. A marital deduction trust allows you to put property in trust with your spouse as the beneficiary [more…]
Found in: Trusts -
What to Include in a Simple Will
Almost always, a simple will is the will of choice for you. A simple will is a single legal document that applies only to you (unlike a joint will for you and your spouse). A simple will describes [more…]
Found in: Wills -
Estate Planning with Homestead Statutes in Mind
You definitely want your home to be protected after you die. Some states have homestead allowance statutes to make sure that your spouse and any minor children have a place to live after you die. Your [more…]
Found in: Understanding Estate Planning -
Avoiding Estate Taxes with an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust
One common way to get around estate taxes on your life insurance is to create an irrevocable life insurance trust. You transfer the ownership of your life insurance policy to the trust, effectively taking [more…]
Found in: Trusts -
What Is a Trust?
A trust agreement is a document that spells out the rules that you want followed for property held in trust for your beneficiaries. Common objectives for trusts are to reduce the estate tax liability, [more…]
Found in: Trusts -
Making Sense of Your State's Inheritance and Estate Taxes
Some states are repealing or phasing out their inheritance or estate taxes, but other states that currently don’t have estate-related taxes are instituting an inheritance or estate tax. Whereas most state [more…]
Found in: Estate Planning - Taxes -
How to Make Your Will a Reflection of Your Wishes
Even the simplest wills are filled with confusing legal terminology. Discuss your will requirements with an attorney: Cover the value of your estate and your tax situation, the individuals and institutions [more…]
Found in: Wills -
What Are Charitable Trusts All About?
Setting up a charitable trust to leave property to a qualified charitable organization can reduce your estate taxes similar to the way giving gifts to charitable organizations offers the charitable deduction [more…]
Found in: Trusts -
Benefits of Setting Up a Trust
Trusts are an important part of your estate plan when you want to leave money to your minor children. Trusts ensure that money, managed by a trustee, is set aside and made available to them when they reach [more…]
Found in: Trusts -
Revocable versus Irrevocable Trusts
Estate planning often involves setting up revocable or irrevocable trusts. Each one of those trusts begins with an intervivos trust — a trust you set up that goes into effect while you're still alive. [more…]
Found in: Trusts -
Beyond the Simple Will: Other Kinds of Wills
Although the simple will is right for just about everyone, you do have other options for your will. Other types of wills, along with the drawbacks of each, include: [more…]
Found in: Wills -
Probing Probate: What You Should Know
Probate is a term that is used in several different ways. Probate can refer to the act of presenting a will to a court officer for filing — such as, to [more…]
Found in: Probate -
Estate-Related Taxes You Need to Know About
Depending on the value of your estate, you may not have to deal with at least some of the federal taxes, but you or your surviving beneficiaries may have a substantial amount of tax-related paperwork to [more…]
Found in: Estate Planning - Taxes -
Federal Laws Help Ease Tax Burden in Estate Planning
The federal tax system includes a gift tax, generation skipping transfer tax (GSTT), and estate (death) tax that work together to make as much of your estate as possible disappear. The laws and rules for [more…]
Found in: Estate Planning - Taxes -
Things to Remember When You're Writing Your Will
Basically, probate is the method by which your estate is legally transferred after you die. When planning your estate and writing your will, keep these tips in mind to help the probate process run smoothly [more…]
Found in: Wills
