A good legacy plan one made with the following ingredients: Clarity - Making sure your instructions and wishes are clear is imperative. Customized Plan - Your legacy plan must be crafted by your unique circumstances, personality, portfolio, morals, and more.  Consultation - You should consult with a qualified attorney that asks many questions...

Upon your passing, your will becomes a public document once it is probated. Probate is a formal legal process of your executor proving your will, being formally named executor, and accounting/distributing assets.

Because a Will is a public document upon probate, it is important to consider the possibility that someone may challenge your Will....

People always ask, what is the difference between these two documents? Will or trust, I'm still leaving my assets to the people I care most about, right? Sure, that is true, but there are several key differences between the two.

Trusts are usually pieces of a larger puzzle. For instance, you may have sizeable assets...

Beware of Trust Mills: Trusts mills are companies that sell trusts to senior citizens, without consultation by a lawyer. The motivation behind trust mills are two-fold: First, they charge a significant amount of money for un-customized documents that do a disservice to clients. Second, the companies, while building the trusts, send an affiliated...

One of the most difficult tasks in any estate plan is choosing who will manage your affairs while you’re alive and after you pass away. In addition, if you have children under eighteen, you also must consider who will step in as guardians if need be. An agent is a broad term, and...

Should You Worry About Probate?

When I first started practicing it was drilled into my head by other attorneys in this field across the country that probate should be avoided at all costs. But in Pennsylvania, the situation is a little different. Warning: This article is long! The true summary? Every case is different, and...

When I assist people in estate planning, we look at many scenarios.  We plan for the “god forbids” and hope they never happen, but if they do, that they happen far down the road. Who wants to plan 20, 30 or 40 years out when their true concern is how bad or good...

Are you an Executor or Administrator of an estate in Pennsylvania, or are you worried about your estate being handled properly when you pass? If you answered yes to either, you must be concerned about Pennsylvania Inheritance Taxes.

Pennsylvania imposes an inheritance tax (some call it a death tax, but it shouldn't be confused...

One of the more challenging aspects of estate planning can sometimes be choosing our agents—who will manage our affairs when we become sick (power of attorney), and who will manage them when we die (executor of a will or trustee of a trust). Not only do we need to choose agents, but we...