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

An irrevocable trust, on the other hand, may be the better choice if your priority is reducing taxes and protecting assets.

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 ...

Discover how to settle an estate without probate, explore alternatives, understand legal and financial implications, and ...

In last week's column, I answered a reader's question about how he could avoid probate. The key, I stated, was to make a list of every asset you own and then make sure each asset would transfer by ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

The meaning of probate is often misunderstood. Probate simply means a judge determines that your Will is valid and authorizes the person you have named in your Will to begin settling your estate. In ...