When creating an estate plan, one of the most basic documents you may wish to include is a will. If you have a more complicated estate, you might also need to have a trust in place. Both a will and a ...

Question: My estate plan leaves everything equally to my children, per stirpes. My son just adopted a little girl. My daughter has a stepson who she is raising, but she did not adopt him. If my son ...

The new system is known both as "representation," and "per capita at each generation," and is taken from the Uniform Probate Code. It has two basic principles, which are illustrated by the examples ...

Q: I am a newly widowed female with two full-grown children and they each have two adult grandchildren. I have about $1 million in retirement assets and I rent my home. How do I ensure my kids and/or ...

You've kept your will updated regularly to make sure your assets are distributed according to your wishes upon death. Have you done the same thing with your beneficiary designations? If not, your ...

Question: My mother signed her will in 1998 after my father died. It names her three children as equal beneficiaries. My sister died last year, so now it's just my brother and me. Will the share that ...