Kirk Estate Planning

Creating a will or a trust may be something you’d rather not think about, but here are 8 good reasons to take care of it sooner rather than later. #1 - Peace For Everyone This is perhaps the most important aspect of estate planning.   Planning ahead provides you with peace of mind and helps ensure harmony in your family. This can be more valuable than money as far as maintaining relationships. Peace in the family will mean that people are able to work in contentment even after you are gone.   You would probably be horrified at the idea of your children or relatives fighting over your property after your death, but that could easily happen unless your wishes are clear and legally enforceable. #2 – Provide For Your Family Without an estate plan in place, your family may get less and it will take them longer to get it. This means your loved ones will be left in limbo and might end up without enough money to pay bills and other living expenses. It’s not uncommon fo...

When thinking about estate planning, many families wonder how to safeguard assets for their children and prevent squandering of their hard-earned money, including life insurance proceeds, which can be considerable.   Even though children legally become adults at 18, most parents don’t believe their kids would be ready to manage a large amount of money at that age.   Looking back on their own teenage years, many people realize they couldn’t have handled an inheritance of any significance at 18.       There are a couple of common ways to protect assets from irresponsible spending when creating a revocable living trust:   first, by withholding an inheritance from children until they’ve reached a certain age and then giving it to them outright; and second, by safeguarding the children’s inheritance in a lifetime trust, then transferring control of that trust to the children at a designated age.    Using a revocable living trust, pare...