Whether you are just starting to think about putting together an estate plan, or you need to change one that you already have, it is helpful to think of estate planning in terms of the “three p’s”. What are the Three P’s of Estate Planning? Put simply, the three p’s of estate planning are the people and property that you need to include in your plan, as well as the plan that you put together to deal with them. To help make this more clear, let’s discuss these one at a time. People that you care about As you start […]
Life Insurance
What is a Trust and Why Do I need one for Estate Planning?
One of the most common questions I get from people during their initial meeting in my office is “what is a trust and why do I need one ?” It’s a question I get asked over and over, in part because a trust is one of the foundational elements of a comprehensive estate plan. So the purpose of this blog post is to give you a quick rundown of trust basics in North Carolina. And clearly, when I wrote this post, I didn’t realize that I had previously written a comprehensive post on using trusts in your estate plan over […]
Life Insurance and Estate Planning… Like Peanut Butter and Jelly
Life Insurance and Estate Planning go together perfectly. You really can’t (or shouldn’t) have one without the other. Just like peanut butter and jelly… and I love me a good PB&J… yum. But until about 6 years ago, I had never given life insurance (or estate planning) much thought. My Wife’s Grandfather was a career New York Life Agent, so she had brought up the topic of buying life insurance a few times, but it never went anywhere. Then a couple of things happened. First, we got pregnant with our first child. Knowing that we were soon going to be […]
