Katharine Paljug is a financial writer and editor with over a decade of industry experience. Her writing has covered nearly every aspect of the financial world, from investing in forex to paying for ...

Choosing a primary beneficiary - and contingent beneficiaries - is the only way to ensure that your funds are allocated according to your wishes. The per capita designation is usually the default ...

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 ...

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 ...

When it comes to your estate plan, there are a lot of decisions you’ll have to make. Arguably, one of the most important decisions involves identifying to whom, and how, you want assets to pass when ...

Ah, those Latin words that lawyers love. Or, at least, used to. These days most lawyers do try to communicate in English, but some Latin terms persist because they are shorthand for well understood in ...

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 ...

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 ...