5 Key Questions to Answer When Creating Your Will

By Eric P. Rothenberg, Esq. If you don’t want important decisions to be left up to the state when you’re gone, you need a will. If the idea of creating a will feels like you’re tempting fate, think of it as a road map you’re leaving your family, so they don’t have to stress over making the right decisions on your behalf. First, you need to understand the differences between a living will and a last will and testament, usually referred to as a will. These are two different documents that serve different purposes. A living will allows you to state your wishes in the event you cannot communicate and is only effective if you are alive. This is a legal document which outlines which life support services you approve or disapprove of in certain situations and removes the difficulty of such decisions from your children or other heirs. It

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The Superior Alternative to “I Love You” Wills

Posted by Robert L. Arone – Guide Your Clients to Lifetime Beneficiary Directed Trusts Instead As Valentine’s Day brings heart-shaped chocolate boxes and roses by the dozen into your clients’ imaginations, seize the moment to educate them about the drawbacks of “I love you” wills and introduce them to the estate planning move that’s actually going to ensure they do well by their loved ones: a lifetime beneficiary trust. You may already be well aware of what estate attorneys call “I love you” wills. You can recognize these wills because they are often short and their hallmark is that the maker of the will leaves everything, outright, to his or her surviving spouse. Hence the “I love you” name: “I love you so much, I’m leaving everything to you.” But this all-too-common approach creates significant risk for beneficiaries and, contrary to their name, is often not the most caring of

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