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Estate Planning blog
When a child with a disability turns eighteen: a beneficiary checklistA checklist for the 18th-birthday transition: decision-making authority, beneficiary and trust review, adult-child coverage, benefits eligibility and records.The arithmetic of paying premiums with the annual gift exclusionA worksheet for counting donors, recipients and premium dollars against the 2026 annual gift exclusion, including gift splitting, Crummey rights and the margin.Beneficiary directly or through a trust: a decision list by situationCriteria for choosing between naming people and naming a trust as life insurance beneficiary, ending in a scored decision list for minors and blended families.Naming beneficiaries in a blended family without leaving anyone outFour hypothetical households, from a second marriage with adult children to a late-life remarriage, showing how each beneficiary and share choice plays out.Protecting a spouse and children from a first marriage with insuranceDecision criteria for sharing assets between a current spouse and earlier children: ownership, trust design, who is beneficiary and how to prevent disputes.Business debts and personal guarantees after an owner dies, answeredPlain answers on which business debts survive an owner's death, what a personal guarantee does, what a lender can reach and how life insurance proceeds fit in.What to check and when in a buy-sell agreement's yearly reviewA month-by-month review calendar for a funded buy-sell: valuation, ownership changes, face amounts, premium payment, health changes and new partners.The traps owners miss with company-owned buy-sell policiesEight mistakes in company-owned buy-sell insurance, from wrong policy owners and stale prices to creditor reach and entity types, and how to avoid each.Buy-sell funding when partners differ in age, health and shareFour hypothetical partnerships with an uninsurable partner, a wide age gap, five owners and unequal shares show how policy count and funding method change.Name a charity as beneficiary or donate the policy outrightNaming a charity beneficiary versus giving it the policy: control, deduction concepts, premium gifts, estate tax and what to settle with the charity first.Securing child support with life insurance: who should own the policyThree ways to hold a policy that backs child support: payer owns, recipient owns, or a trust owns. Control, missed-premium risk, lapse notices and open gaps.Whose money paid the premium, and community property in a claim disputeFour hypothetical households show how marital earnings, mixed funds, a move between states and a divorce can give a spouse a stake in a policy.Can creditors take your life insurance? Myths and what varies by stateNine common beliefs about debts, lawsuits and life insurance, tested against how death benefits, cash value and beneficiaries work and where state law differs.Can creditors reach a life insurance payout? Beneficiary, estate and debtsEight beliefs about debts, collectors and life insurance payouts, tested one at a time, with notes on state exemptions and on the estate as payee.How a Crummey notice cycle works through one year of trust premiumsFollow one year of trust premiums: the gift, the written notice, the 30-day withdrawal window, the lapse of the right, the payment and the trustee's records.Leaving life insurance to a disabled adult child without losing benefitsWhy a death benefit paid straight to an adult with a disability can end SSI and Medicaid, how a special needs trust fits, and a decision list for an attorney.Writing life insurance into a divorce settlementTen steps to secure child support or alimony with life insurance: amount and term, ownership, proof of coverage, enforcement, and what to do if it lapses.Equalizing an inheritance between children with a permanent policyFour hypothetical families where one child inherits a farm or business and a permanent policy evens things out, with the arithmetic, ownership and pitfalls.Equalizing inheritances when one child inherits the family businessFour hypothetical families show how a policy can balance the estate for children outside the business, with ownership, premium, trust and fairness issues.Estate tax myths now that the federal exclusion is $15 millionNine common beliefs about who owes estate tax, who still needs a trust, state taxes, spouses and liquidity, tested against the 2026 federal rules.Farm and ranch families: using coverage to keep the land in the familyThree hypothetical farm families show how life insurance can equalize inheritances, cover estate costs and debts, and reduce the chance of a forced land sale.The first 90 days after a death: money tasks in a sensible orderA week-by-week order for money work after a death: certificates, agencies, finding policies, filing claims, protecting accounts and mail, and what can wait.Reporting life insurance on an estate tax return and who files whatQuestions and answers on when an estate files, what the insurer's Form 712 statement does, how ownership and beneficiary change reporting, and who prepares it.A grandparent buys a policy on a grandchild, so who owns it and pays taxOwnership, premiums, gift tax, cash value control and what changes at 18, with a decision list for grandparents weighing coverage on a young grandchild.Naming a guardian: how the will, the trust and the policy fit togetherAn end-to-end walkthrough for parents of minors: pick a guardian, decide who controls the money, set up a trust beneficiary, align the papers and test the plan.What a trust can do when gifts no longer cover the policy premiumWhat an ILIT trustee can do when premiums rise or the donor cannot keep giving: reduced paid-up, loans, a sale, lapse, and the gift tax limit.Choosing a trustee for a life insurance trust, family, friend or firmCriteria for picking who holds an ILIT's policy: the yearly duties, conflicts if the insured or spouse serves, successor trustees, cost, and a decision list.The yearly cycle of an irrevocable trust that owns a permanent policyA year of an irrevocable life insurance trust: gift, withdrawal notice, premium payment, records and attorney checkpoints, with worked gift arithmetic.Seven slip-ups that bring life insurance proceeds back into your estateSeven process errors, from keeping a policy right to a late transfer or a skipped trust notice, and how to avoid each when planning around the estate tax.Business owner policy ownership: personal, business-owned or partner-ownedCompares a policy owned by the owner, the company or a partner on control, premiums, tax, creditor exposure and what happens when an owner leaves.Permanent coverage to pay estate costs: when the need is realA decision guide to buying permanent life insurance for estate liquidity, with three hypothetical estates, the arithmetic, and a list of if-then rules.Permanent life insurance for a family with a special-needs childFour hypothetical households show when lifetime coverage fits a child with a disability, how a special needs trust beneficiary works, and what to ask a lawyer.Portability or insurance, and how a married couple weighs the choiceCompare a portability election, a credit shelter trust and life insurance for a married couple's estate, with hypothetical estates and state-tax caveats.Can a power of attorney change a beneficiary? An agent's limitsTwelve questions on what a power of attorney lets an agent do with a life insurance policy, why insurers often refuse a beneficiary change, and safer routes.Premium financing in principle: loan, collateral and exit planHow a third-party loan pays for a large policy's premiums, what the collateral and interest terms mean, how the exit works, and what has to go right.Retirement legacy planning: using a policy to treat heirs fairlyThree invented families show how a death benefit can balance an inheritance when one child takes a business or home: the formula, the arithmetic, the limits.What happens to key person and buy-sell policies when an owner retiresA timeline from five years before an owner retires to the year after: converting, transferring, re-pricing or ending business policies, with tax checks.Sole proprietor with no partner: a plan so the family is coveredEight mistakes solo owners make with life insurance, wills and business instructions, and how to separate household needs from business needs before it matters.Term life when a child will need lifelong financial supportWhy a standard term policy can end before a disabled child's needs do, how a special needs trust fits, and how conversion rights can stretch coverage.Planning life insurance for a child with disabilities, step by stepOrdered steps for parents: check benefit rules, set up a third-party needs trust, decide who owns and pays, name the beneficiary and add an ABLE account.Choosing a successor caregiver and trustee for a dependent adultHow to weigh a sibling, a professional fiduciary or a pooled trust for care and money decisions, what each costs, and how life insurance funds the arrangement.Special needs trusts and life insurance: protecting benefits eligibilityWhy naming a disabled child as beneficiary can cost them needs-based benefits, how a special needs trust solves it, and what to ask the estate attorney.Survivorship life insurance and how it pays at the second deathWhy a policy on two lives costs less than two single policies, how it is underwritten and paid, and what happens at the first death, a divorce or a tax change.Second-to-die policies in four family situations where they fit or failFour hypothetical households show what a survivorship policy does for an illiquid estate, a special-needs child, a blended family and a modest estate.Giving away a policy shortly before death and the three-year ruleQuestions and answers on the three-year look-back for transferred life insurance: what counts as a transfer, what a gift tax return changes and who is affected.How to move an existing policy into an irrevocable life insurance trustSteps for transferring a policy you own into an ILIT: trustee and trust drafting, insurer forms, valuing the gift, and the three-year clock.What spouses get automatically that unmarried partners must buildA checklist of the protections marriage supplies by default and the paperwork and insurance steps unmarried partners need to cover each gap.Unmarried partners and life insurance: protecting each otherInsurable interest, naming a partner, who should own the policy, what an unmarried partner has no right to by default, and a decision list for couples.