Estate Planning

Estate Planning

What to do with unexpected assets

How to handle burial plots and other unexpected assets.

By Camilla Cornell |April 4, 2014

9 min read

Estate Planning

Advise clients about potential forced heirship

One of the fundamental goals clients have when they put wills in place is deciding the “who, what, when, where, why and how” of how to pass their property upon death.

By Margaret O’Sullivan |March 21, 2014

3 min read

Estate Planning

Help clients prioritize retirement

Saving for retirement has taken a back seat to debt repayment.

By Staff |March 17, 2014

1 min read

Estate Planning

Help an ailing business owner

Options for an indebted software entrepreneur facing a health crisis

By Dean DiSpalatro |March 14, 2014

10 min read

Estate Planning

Don’t make estate administration mistakes

Executors can be held personally liable

By Elaine Blades |March 14, 2014

5 min read

Estate Planning

Will assets pass away with your clients?

Only 2% of heirs plan on keeping assets with their parents’ advisors, according to Investor Economics. This means you’ll likely lose assets to other advisors. And lack of loyalty is just the tip of the iceberg.

By Mark O'Farrell |March 11, 2014

3 min read

Estate Planning

How to buy U.S. real estate

Prepare clients for all costs of owning, renting or selling property.

By Suzanne Yar Khan |March 7, 2014

7 min read

Estate Planning

Client collapses trust to fund daughter’s education

Elsa Koertig, 48, is a single mom and schoolteacher in Moose Jaw, Sask. She earns $65,000 annually and her daughter Ingrid is heading to university. Ingrid’s straight As and clean sweep of provincial and national science fairs caught the attention of Ivy League schools, and her heart’s set on Princeton. She’s earned generous scholarships, but even after factoring in RESPs, the family faces a $10,000 annual shortfall. Elsa’s coming off a messy divorce and is saddled with mortgage, car and other debt payments. But if she could access the $100,000 stock-and-bond portfolio her deceased parents left her in trust, she’d be able to send Ingrid to Princeton. Elsa’s foggy on the details. She knows how much is in the trust, and remembers her parents saying they wanted it to fund her retirement. Can she tap the trust sooner?

By Dean DiSpalatro |March 7, 2014

4 min read