In this video, we discuss why your Power of Attorney (POA) might be rejected by your bank as 'too old' and what you can do about it. Many banks have policies regarding the acceptance of older POAs, which can lead to unexpected challenges. Watch to learn why this happens and how you can ensure you...

Estate planning has five major purposes, one or more of which will surely apply to you. With a good estate plan you can: 1. Designate how your assets are to be distributed among beneficiaries after you die. 2. Avoid or minimize the delays and expense of probate. 3. Appoint a guardian for your minor children and a person to manage the children’s assets. 4. Provide for the possibility that you will become incapacitated and unable to manage your finances or make medical and other decisions for yourself. 5. Eliminate or minimize estate taxes.

Avoiding Probate. Probate, the court-supervised process of distributing your estate, can be time-consuming and expensive. You can minimize the assets that need to pass through probate or eliminate probate altogether by using certain devices such as: Revocable living trusts. Joint tenancie...

A revocable living trust is a trust that you create to hold your property while you are alive and to distribute it among your beneficiaries on your death. The three main reasons for using a living trust (rather than a will) as the central feature of your estate plan are to (1) avoid probate, ...

WHAT IS PROBATE? Probate is the legal process for settling an estate after someone has died. It is also known as estate administration.The main purpose of probate is to provide inheritors of a deceased person's property with clear title to the property. During probate, the decedent's personal...

Q: WHO CAN MAKE A WILL? A. Any individual can make a will so long as he or she is of legal age (in most states 18 years of age; in Georgia you can make a will at the age of 14)) and is mentally competent. In other words, a person needs to know and understand that he or she is executing a will and...