Picking a guardian for your child whether you are expecting or already have young children can be an emotional process. Trying to pick a family member from one person’s side or the other can cause tension or make you feel like you’re “picking sides”. Having a new baby and having children is a joyful yet challenging time. Naming the guardian(s) of your children shouldn’t be something you feel guilt over. Most assume that they must pick a family member, but you can actually name whomever you feel will be the best fit. In a Business Insider article, former financial advisor and mom, Katie Oelker, shares how she and her husband made the decision to pick guardians for their daughter and later daughters, before each child was born, and how they ultimately picked friends instead of family.
Modifying Your Estate Plan After a Divorce
Divorce is a tough process for everyone involved. Even in situations where both spouses want it and know it to be a good outcome, there are so many complicated, lengthy aspects to the process that can place more stress on the couple as well as their families.
If you have already planned your estate in marriage, a divorce will obviously require some work to reconfigure in light of your separation. Regardless, assets—and the ownership thereof—get more complicated after divorce, even if you didn’t set up an estate plan while still married.
Moving to a New State and Modifying Your Estate Plan
Not all families stay in one place forever. Whether it’s following work opportunities, finding a better home or just making a change of scenery, around 300,000 Americans each year end up moving to a new place to live.
If you’re one of the thousands trading your old home state for a new one, remember that important laws that affect your estate plan can be different! Moving away from Massachusetts might mean you’re playing by a different set of rules in your new home, regarding anything from taxes to qualification for government benefits.
But fret not, because finding your home in a new state doesn’t mean your estate plan has been knocked back to square one.
Tools of the Trade
Most people believe that having a proper estate plan in place is important to ensure that they and their families are taken care of. According to Caring.com’s 2019 survey, 76 percent of respondents believe that having a will is important, but only 40 percent of the respondents actually have one. While it’s great that 76% believe that a will is important, it is essential to realize that a will is just a tool that needs to be used in conjunction with other tools and is part of a larger holistic estate plan that needs to be continually updated. Today, we want to briefly go over the four main tools that will be used in your holistic estate plan.
Bear in mind, estate planning is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor; it is a customized plan designed to best protect you and your loved ones. Your estate plans will likely include the following components:
Vacation Homes and Estate Planning
If you invest in property at any point in your life, it’s likely that some of your real estate purchases become important assets in your estate plan. Second homes and vacation homes are a popular investment, between buying an attractive property in a growing area or using the space to make additional income through short-term rentals.
Second or vacation homes that have been in the family for a long time also accrue emotional attachment. Some family members—maybe your own children—grew up in them and made many enduring memories there. Both the emotional and financial value of a vacation home point to the need to include it in your estate plan.
Putting Humanity Back into Estate Planning
Pop culture presents estate planning as a singular event where you sign the dotted line in a will and move on with your life. Then after you die, as daytime soap operas portray, there is dramatic reading of your last will and testament by your attorney that results in family drama. This makes for great television, but a terrible real-life experience.
Self-Employed Mompreneur? This is for You!
Mompreneurs are a force to be reckoned with. These moms are balancing the work of being stay at home moms while also pursuing an entrepreneurial venture. The call to be a mompreneur stems from a desire for flexibility, the ability to be home and according to one candle making mompreneur quoted in an article from USA Today, “to show [our] children what it looks like to be a mom who also can support the family, sustain a business and create something that then sustains all of us.”
Vlog: Working With Friendly Institutions Is Better For You
Isabelle shares why working with friendly institutions is better for our clients.
What Does Peace of Mind Look Like?
Peace of mind is something that we’re always trying to achieve in our daily lives. We want to feel good about the choices that we’ve made, the interactions that we’ve had, and that we’ve told everyone we need to that we love them because we can’t predict what’s going to happen on any given day. Ultimately, it’s this inability to predict the future that unsettles us. The best way to have peace of mind about the unpredictable future is to have an estate plan that you can rely on.
Customize and Subscribe – The 21st Century Estate Planning Model
In today’s world, everything is about customization you can subscribe to. There has been an upward trend in brands offering customized subscription services to improve your life. From skincare offerings like Curology, customized hair care from Function of Beauty, clothing and personal stylists through Stitch Fix, daily vitamins from Persona Nutrition, auto-ship through Prime Pantry, movies and TV show suggestions from Netflix, the list goes on and on. Being able to customize your experience or order, give feedback, and subscribe so you have one less thing on your to-do list, is what makes these services so popular. Our world has become so personalized that people joke about how long it takes to order a Starbucks drink and complain about Google ads that follow them around or appear after they’ve talked with someone about a product.
