Estate Planning

Legal documents are the cornerstone of our society, serving as the foundation for agreements, contracts, and personal arrangements. However, there’s often a misconception about what makes a legal document truly valuable. The first and most basic aspect of a legal document is its enforceability. This refers to whether the document meets the minimum standards required by law to be considered valid and binding. Achieving this baseline is relatively straightforward. It requires understanding and following the relevant rules of law, and the document must be executed as required by these rules. For example, a will might need to be signed by ...

Do I need a trust in case something happens to me?

A record 80.5 million Americans have health coverage through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, largely because states have had to keep people enrolled during the coronavirus pandemic, according to new federal data released Monday.

Michigan Supreme Court Justice Megan K. Cavanaugh, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers announced legislation to reform state guardianship laws, following decades of criticism by families and elder advocates.

I know of someone who was joint account holder with his dad for many years, then later his dad then appointed him as power of attorney. How does that work? Is the son still a joint account holder?

My boyfriend and I have lived together for 13 years but he is still officially married to another woman. He has a life insurance policy and I’m the beneficiary, and I’m also the beneficiary of his 401(k). Do we need a will and do I have to worry about his wife getting the money?

The controversy surrounding the Biogen drug, including its potential cost, comes against a landscape of massive, unmet need for dementia treatment and a disease that costs the U.S. as much as $259 billion annually. More than six million Americans have Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, according to estimates from the Alzheimer’s Association, and by 2050 that number could reach over 12 million people at a cost of $1 trillion annually.

Whether you need to take required minimum distributions to live or find them to be a nuisance, here are some tips to make the most of withdrawing these funds.

Many of our parents completed their estate plans decades ago. The documents may still be valid. However, if they are stale or outdated, you may spend significant money trying to use them down the road.