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A properly prepared and funded living trust has many benefits, including avoiding court interference at death and incapacity. But people often make mistakes that prevent their trusts from working the way they intended.

This article examines the unique planning requirements of families with children, grandchildren, or other family members (such as parents) with special needs. There are many misconceptions in this area that result in costly mistakes in planning for the special needs beneficiaries. It is therefore very important to ensure that our clients understand all of their options.

Some of my estate plan clients are concerned not only with transmitting their estates in a tax-efficient manner, and with the protections a trust affords, but also structuring their estate plans such that the lives of their children (and, perhaps, grandchildren and more remote descendants as well) are truly enhanced when they become beneficiaries.

Virginia became the thirteenth state to permit a settlor to establish an irrevocable trust of which the settlor is a beneficiary and receive spendthrift protection against the claims of the settlor’s creditors beginning on July 1, 2012.

Many people, especially seniors, see joint ownership of investment and bank accounts as a cheap and easy way to avoid probate since joint property passes automatically to the joint owner at death. Joint ownership can also be an easy way to plan for incapacity since the joint owner of accounts can pay bills and manage investments if the primary owner ...

People often hear things about living trusts from friends, family members and the media, and just assume they are true without taking the time to check them out. Here are some common misconceptions—and the facts.

Many clients and attorneys now prefer an estate plan that uses a revocable living trust over a will as the primary estate planning document.

Choosing the best form requires consideration of three important factors: Liability insulation, tax treatment, convenience of formation and administration.

What good does it do to build a business if you never know how much is enough, what it will take to sell it, what it will take to keep it running after you retire, how it will provide your retirement, or even what it is worth right now while you are still in charge?

Unfortunately for many injury victims, their personal injury lawyers are fantastic at obtaining great monetary results in the litigation and consulting with them on the value of their case but when it comes time for properly protecting them financially post-settlement or recovery they often fail to offer any advice at all.