Wealth Planning Blog

As if estate planning didn't already seem complicated enough, blended families now make up a growing portion of our demographic and pose many additional considerations when trying to plan for the transition of their estate. When I started my practice as a wealth planning attorney, I would say about two out of ten families that I met with for estate planning or administration purposes were what we call "blended families" - families where at least one person brought children from a prior marriage. 

Children bring a lot of joy to a parent’s life, but also come with a great amount of responsibility and stress. Prior to children, my hardest decision was whether or not to cook dinner or eat out with friends. That decision is a cake walk compared to the decisions I now make as a parent: daycare or nanny, bottles or sippy cups, feeding choices, public school or private school, sleeping habits, immunizations, etc.

March is here, and even with Winter Storm Titan presently passing overhead, March still makes me think of spring and gets me in the mood for spring cleaning. As I was packing up clothes our little one has grown out of and separating stuff to donate, I began to reflect on the past week at work and how most of my meetings involved people who's personal/financial worlds could use some spring cleaning of their own.

Hello, and welcome back to Part 2 of our “keeping real estate out of probate” series. Did everyone have a nice Valentine’s Day? We actually celebrated this Valentine’s Day as a big group with family, and I was utterly amazed at how excited the kids were about Valentine’s Day. I swear my niece and nephew were more excited about their candy and stuffed animals than they were about all the toys on Christmas.