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Whether your children are graduating with high school diplomas or completing higher education, it’s important to help them plan for their financial futures. You want to set a strong foundation for long-term financial stability by broadening their scope of financial literacy. Sharing the following tips can help prepare them.

With multiple generations getting together for holiday meals, gift exchanges and quality time, these annual gatherings present an opportunity to broach sensitive but important topics with your aging loved ones.

Estate planning is crucial when managing valuable assets and ensuring the smooth transfer of wealth to future generations. There are various types of estate planning tools available, some of which may be more useful depending on your circumstances. For some, a qualified terminable interest prop...

Anyone experiencing the struggle of simultaneously caring for children and aging parents is part of the sandwich generation. Although “generation” is part of the phrase, it doesn’t refer to people born at a specific time. Typically, these family caregivers will be in the 30- to 40-year-old age range, providing for their families and balancing care duties between the needs of children and parents.

Estate planning, or legacy planning, entails preparing your affairs for the future, including death and other life events. While older adults might give more thought to estate planning, it is an essential tool at any age.

A diagnosis of dementia, a category of diseases affecting memory and thinking that includes Alzheimer’s disease, can feel overwhelming and upsetting. You might worry that you will lose control over your life and ability to make your own decisions. Fortunately, receiving a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer’s does not mean that you cannot execute legal documents or make decisions about plans for your future finances and health care.

It is hard to know what documents to trash and when. Before you know it, your spare room, office, basement, or garage is overflowing with boxes of papers that all seem important.

Even if you've created an estate plan, are you sure you included everything you need to? There are certain provisions that people often forget to put in a will or estate plan that can have a big impact on a family.

All trusts should be reviewed every few years to make sure that they are up-to-date with the law and meet your current goals. Following is a checklist of trust features you can review yourself.

Increasingly, several generations of American families are living together. These multi-generational living arrangements present legal and financial challenges around home ownership.

Don’t assume your estate will automatically go to your spouse when you die. If you don’t have an estate plan, your spouse may have to share your estate with other family members.

I review a lot of existing estate plans, and I see a lot of estate plans that are terrible and beyond repair. Why? Sometimes the reason is they were created by a "trust mill".

More and more transactions are done digitally, but estate planning has lagged behind technology. That may be changing, though. Electronic wills are gaining legitimacy.

Many people believe that if they are single, they don't need a will or other estate planning documents. But estate planning is just as important for single people as it is for couples and families.

Allocating your personal possessions can be one of the most difficult tasks when creating an estate plan. To avoid family feuds after you are gone, it is important to have a plan and make your wishes clear.

There are many unknowns when planning an estate, but you can’t let the uncertainties get in the way of creating any kind of plan. Having an imperfect plan is usually better than having no plan at all.

As more and more people marry more than once, prenuptial agreements have become an important estate planning tool.

A letter of instruction is a legally non-binding document that gives your heirs information crucial to helping them tie up your affairs. Without such a letter, it can be easy for heirs to miss important items or become overwhelmed trying to sort through all the documents you left behind. The following are some items that can be included in a letter:

This question comes up a lot, but usually after one of the owners has died, unfortunately. I write "unfortunately", because more often than not result is not what the true account holder intended, and this results in a lot of family strife at a time when stress levels are high. The answer to this question is, as usual, it depends. Tennessee law is very clear on this, but usually when people open these types of accounts aren't particularly clear on what it means. Here are the options that the bank should offer you when you are opening an account in the names of two or more persons (or adding a person to an account formerly held by only one person) and what each option means:

Although some people are under the impression that things like planning an estate or creating a trust are for those with a lot of money and property, this is completely untrue. An estate planning attorney can assist you with creating basic but essential documents, including healthcare directives and a power of attorney which everyone, regardless of financial status, should have.

People have many reasons why they put off estate planning. Maybe they’re young and healthy and don’t think they need to worry about that any time soon. Others find the whole idea uncomfortable, the idea of death and what would happen to their loved ones. But no matter where you are in life, you should have your estate plan in place. This applies especially to first responders and law enforcement.

As 2019 draws to a close, it may be time to take a fresh look at your financial and legal documents to ensure that your affairs are in order and that you are ending the year on a solid foundation

It is rather common these days here in Fairfield Glade and Crossville, Tennessee for a married couple to reside in a home that is the separate property of one spouse, and often the owner has children from a previous marriage or relationship.  The owner of the home ultimately wants to leave the ho...

I answer a lot of "Ask A Lawyer" questions online. Here is one that came up recently (slightly edited for spelling and grammar): "My mom moved from GA to NC with me. We recently went to get a new license plate for her but we could not because the title of her car had her name and her deceased husband's name on it with no "and/or" beside the name. The plate office told us to go to the clerk of court with a will and death certificate. When we got to the clerk of court they told us we had to go to GA as the title was in GA. However, we are a minimum of 4 hours from GA. Is there anything else we can do switch the title without taking a long trip?"

There are lots of misconceptions about estate planning, and any one of them can result in costly mistakes. Understanding who needs an estate plan and what it should cover is key to creating a plan that is right for you.