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Mental illness refers to a wide range of conditions that affect an individual’s mood, thinking, and behavior. These conditions can affect a person’s ability to function in daily life and can vary in severity from mild to severe.

When the SECURE Act passed in 2019, the biggest impact on estate planning was the elimination of the “lifetime stretch” for most beneficiaries of individual retirement plans (IRAs).

We use the phrase “estate plan” dozens of times every day. It is useful for us attorneys because it describes a group of documents. Unfortunately, estate planning sounds much fancier than it is.

Most people do not realize that a Will likely does not control who collects on a life insurance policy. The beneficiary named on the policy supersedes the Will. So long as the policy owner correctly designated a beneficiary on the policy, that designation controls.

Britt Burner discusses the importance of basic estate planning documents for all generations, including health care proxies, durable power of attorneys and last will and testaments for both your own planning as well as aging family members.

In New York State, a parent has no obligation to leave an inheritance to a child. Many other countries have “forced heirship” which prohibits parents from disinheriting children, but Louisiana is the only US state with such a law.

There is a long running joke about lawyers never giving straight answers. We prefer to give clients definitive answers but when clients ask us whether to add a child as a joint account holder, we always say, “it depends.”

There is much discourse about estate planning for married couples, but what about seniors who are widowed or have never married? Single people often have more complicated estates – especially if they do not have close natural heir such as a spouse or child.

For the charitably inclined, there is always a question of how to be most efficiently leave money to charities in your estate plan. Charitable giving ranges from simple small monetary amounts to more complicated charitable trusts.

The limited liability corporation, or LLC, is designed to combine the flexibility and simplicity of a basic partnership with the protection of a corporation. “LLC” stands for “Limited Liability Company” and owes its name to the fact that the members (owners) of the LLC are not personally liable for the debts and liabilities of the business.