Estate planning. We all know we should do it, but current studies estimate that 67% of Americans have not. The planning process varies by estate planner, but a handful of myths about the process stop many people from ever contacting an estate planner. This article addresses five of those myths. Myth 1: Estate planning is […]

A client recently told me my engagement letter was scary. At my last firm, an engagement letter with attachments was about 12 pages long. That was a Big Law engagement letter, and I wanted something different for my solo practice. “Scary” was a legitimate surprise to me. The letter I sent was about 2-1/2 pages […]

Most trusts allow for distributions for health, education, maintenance, and support because the IRS and the revenue code see those kinds of distributions as safe. I mentioned the HEMS standards in my last post. In more advanced planning, HEMS may be abandoned in favor of giving an independent trustee broad discretion over distributions. Of course, that requires an […]