Are you considering how to best secure your future and ensure your loved ones are taken care of after you’re gone? You might be wondering whether a will or a living trust is the right choice for your estate planning needs. Each option has its unique advantages and drawbacks, and understanding these can help you…
Continue reading…Choosing a Trustee: Tips for Selecting and Empowering the Right Person
Choosing the right trustee is an important decision in estate planning. This role involves managing and protecting your assets, ensuring your wishes are fulfilled just as you planned. Ever wondered what makes a trustee exceptional? It’s not just about trust, but also about skill, understanding, and a keen sense of responsibility. How do you find…
Continue reading…Asset Protection Strategies to Keep in Mind When Estate Planning
Estate planning is crucial for safeguarding your assets, ensuring your legacy is secure for the future. Asset protection plays a pivotal role in this process, but which approach is most suited for your unique situation? Here we will explore effective asset protection strategies in estate planning so you can consider what might work best for…
Continue reading…Estate Planning 101: Should You Get A Will or A Trust?
Deciding whether you need a will or a trust can be difficult. Both offer estate planning options, but which is right for you? In this post, I will discuss the benefits of each and help you decide which is best for your needs. The Case for Trusts A Trust Avoids Probate Trusts offer certain benefits…
Continue reading…Estate Planning 101: Why It Is Important For Young Families
A Trusts and Estate Lawyer Talks About the Need for an Estate Plan for Young Families Becoming a new parent is an amazing experience, but it can also be overwhelming. One of the things you need to think about as a new parent is estate planning. Estate planning may not be the most exciting thing…
Continue reading…What Differentiates a Will from a Living Trust?
The wide world of estate planning is much faster than most people realize. There are so many estate planning tools of which you might not even be aware but can accomplish important goals for you and your family. Thus, it is worth your time to learn about your options. Did you know, for instance, that…
Continue reading…What is an Advance Directive?
An advance directive is an important part of an estate plan although it is much less discussed than other legal tools. There tends to be a focus on wills and other instruments that are used to distribute a person’s assets and property and advance directives do not do this. Instead, advance directives are critical parts…
Continue reading…Impact of Court Challenge of Minnesota Trust Taxation
Challenges to Minnesota’s trust taxation have weaved their way through the court system. Those who incurred tax liability on trusts fought the taxation and won. After appeals affirmed lower court decisions, the issue was finally submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule on the issue, which made the Minnesota…
Continue reading…Minnesota Trust Taxation
On June 28th, the Supreme Court denied review of a Minnesota case regarding the state’s taxation of trust income. The 2014 case was about Minnesota’s taxation of the income generated by four trusts. While the trustee, William Fielding, paid the tax bill, he filed suit after he was denied a $1 million refund, which represented…
Continue reading…Pet Trusts: Caring for Your Pet After You Pass
We love our pets as much as we love our family. Trusts can be set up to take care of our families after we die, but what about our pets? Until 2016, Minnesota had no laws allowing for this sort of posthumous care. In 2016, Minnesota became the last state to allow trusts to be…
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