As you already know, on January 26, 2020, basketball legend Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash on a wooded hillside 30 miles north of Los Angeles. Also killed in the tragic accident was his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven other passengers, who were friends and colleagues of Kobe and his family. The exact cause of the crash remains under investigation. The 41-year-old former Los Angeles Laker was flying to Mamba Sports Academy, a youth sports center Kobe found

On January 1, 2020, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act) went into effect, and it represents the most significant retirement-planning legislation in decades. Indeed, the changes ushered in by the SECURE Act have dramatic implications for both your retirement and estate planning strategies—and not all of them are positive. While the law includes many taxpayer-friendly measures to boost your ability to save for retirement, it also contains

Following the death of the policy holder, how proceeds from a life insurance policy are paid to the beneficiary (or beneficiaries) is known as the settlement option. And you might be surprised to learn that there are a variety of settlement options available besides the most common method—a lump-sum payout. Depending on the life insurance company and policy, these options may be selected by the policy holder ahead of time or chosen by the beneficiary upon the insured’s death.

How to use estate planning to avoid adult guardianship.

One of the primary reasons business owners set up corporations and limited liability companies (LLC) is to shield their personal assets from

Probably every parent who has watched the news recently has felt the heartbreak over what’s happened to immigrant families at the border due to immigration regulations. As you likely know, the administration's “zero-tolerance” policy led to the initial separation of more than 2,300 children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border between May and June 2018 alone. Putting politics aside, with horror stories of toddlers being ripped from their mothers’ arms and audio re

In the weeks before her death from ovarian cancer, author Amy Krouse Rosenthal gave her husband Jason one of the most treasured gifts a person could receive. She penned the touching essay “You May Want to Marry My Husband” in the New York Times as a final love letter to him. The essay took the form of a heart-wrenching yet-humorous dating profile that encouraged him to begin dating again once she was gone. In her opening description of Jason, she writes: “He is an easy man

While the Kardashians are wealthy and famous, you too can provide the exact same level of protection for your kids, even with minimal financ

If you’re active on social media, Facebook probably plays a prominent role in your life. And now the social media titan can even play a role in your afterlife. Today, estate planning encompasses not only your tangible assets—bank accounts and real estate—but your digital assets as well, such as cryptocurrency, websites, and social media accounts. Though social media may seem trivial compared to the rest of your personal property, a Facebook account functions as a virtual diar

With the cost of long-term care (LTC) skyrocketing, you may be concerned about your (or your elderly parents’) ability to pay for lengthy stays in assisted living and/or a nursing home. Such care can be massively expensive, with the potential to overwhelm even the well-off. Because neither traditional health insurance nor Medicare will pay for LTC, some people are looking to Medicaid to help cover this cost. To become eligible for Medicaid, however, you must first exhaust nea