Estate

Effective estate management enables you to manage your affairs during your lifetime and control the distribution of your wealth after death. An effective estate strategy can spell out your healthcare wishes and ensure that they're carried out – even if you are unable to communicate. It can even designate someone to manage your financial affairs should you be unable to do so.

Featured Video

Charitable Giving: Smart from the Heart

Do you have causes that you want to support with donations?

Safeguard Your Digital Estate

If you died, what would happen to your email archives, social profiles and online accounts?

White Elephant Inheritance

This article deals with how one might deal with a burdensome inheritance.

Estate Management 101

A will may be only one of the documents you need—and one factor to consider—when it comes to managing your estate.

• Articles

  Critical Estate Documents

  Sound estate management includes creating financial and healthcare documents. Here's an inside look.

  Managing an Inheritance

  A windfall from a loved one can be both rewarding and complicated.

  Understanding the Alternate Valuation Date

  Executors can value the estate on the date of death, or on its six-month anniversary —the “Alternate Valuation Date."

  Four Steps to Valuing an Estate

  Determining the value of your estate, or for someone who has passed away, can be a complex undertaking.

  4 Steps to Protecting a Child with Disabilities

  Planning for a child with special needs can be complicated, confusing, and even overwhelming.

  Intellectual Property and Your Estate

  Do you have intellectual property? Consider how you might include your IP into your estate strategy in this detailed article.

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• Calculators

  What Is My Current Net Worth?

  Use this calculator to estimate your net worth by adding up your assets and subtracting your liabilities.

  What's My Potential Estate Tax?

  This calculator helps estimate your federal estate tax liability.

  What Is My Life Expectancy?

  Estimate how many years you may need retirement assets or how long to provide income to a surviving spouse or children.

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• Videos

  Exit Strategies of the Rich and Famous

  Estate conservation is too important to put off. Do you have a smart exit strategy?

  Safeguard Your Digital Estate

  If you died, what would happen to your email archives, social profiles and online accounts?

  Charitable Giving: Smart from the Heart

  Do you have causes that you want to support with donations?

  When Special Care Is Needed: The Special Needs Trust

  A special needs trust helps care for a special needs child when you’re gone.

  When Do You Need a Will?

  When do you need a will? The answer is easy: Right Now.

  Estate Management 101

  A will may be only one of the documents you need—and one factor to consider—when it comes to managing your estate.

  View all videos