Seminar this Wednesday: Estate Planning for Blended Families
How to be Happily Ever After Even After
Naomi Cahn, a law professor at George Washington University, has some good advice for those who’ve recently parted ways with their spouse. You can read her advice in her piece “Protect Those You Love in Divorce, and Remarriage,” posted at Slitopia. If you find yourself a member of the recently divorced, I recommend you read it.
When Dave Ramsey’s Wrong, He’s Really Wrong
I’ve listened to Dave Ramsey. My wife owns a couple of his books. I get what he does, and I think he probably does a some good–in the debt area, at least. But he’s not always right. For example, I don’t care for some of his opinions about life insurance and much of his investment advice is off the mark as well. Further, his one-size-fits-all approach and his dismissive attitude towards insurance agents and other financial advisors are a real turn off for me. Seems that everybody’s out to get you but Dave and those he recommends. (I have more to say on this point, but I won’t.)
In short, I’m basically not a fan.
So you will not be surprised that I’m posting this link to a blog post by attorney Richard Chamberlain in response to a wildly uniformed excerpt about living/revocable trusts from one of Dave’s books. Make sure to read the entire post and the links in the post.
I must add my two cents on living/revocable trusts: Though they are just one part of a well-executed estate plan, they are an important part. Among many good reasons to establish a living/revocable trust, there’s this: setting one up and funding it will help you and yours get your minds around what you own, how you own it, and how you want it distributed or handled upon your death or incapacity. Mind you, I could add more than two cents to this conversation, but I’ll stop here.
Divorced? Going through a Divorce? Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. And Change Your Beneficiary Designations
At least that’s the moral of this story. Actually, here’s the moral as stated at the end of that story:
“The moral of the story for practitioners is clear. Whenever you have a client that is either going through a divorce or is already divorced, do everything you can to get the client to change both his/her beneficiary designations and his/her will as soon as possible. The results in Smoot and Egelhoff could easily have been avoided with proper planning.”
Read the story and then follow the writer’s advice. Got it?