|
|
Blooming Boomers - Women and Retirement
Blooming Boomers – Women and Retirement Is your retirement looming off in the not too distant future? Do you have dreams of a life filled with rest and relaxation? Perhaps you envision vacationing year round. Those images sound pretty idyllic,...
Budget Leftovers
It is extremely difficult to setup a budget, especially when you are behind on some of your bills. Even if you can make your regular bills and expenses fit neatly into your budget, what can you do if you don't have the money to catch up? I have...
Can You See Clearly Now?
Can You See Clearly Now?
by Lady Camelot
Johnny Nash's song, "I Can See Clearly Now," is one of those musical tunes that are not only dear to my heart, but a "pick-me-up" mantra as well. The lyrics are as follows:
I can see clearly now, the...
Honey I can’t afford the kids
Sex has a lot to answer for … babies usually … which then with time and much financial investment grow up to be beautiful mutations of their parents. Yet as the family absorbs more money as it grows, the need for financial planning and protection...
Is Online Dating Right For You?
For many singles, jumping into the online dating world is a scary decision. But ask yourself, what do you have to lose? There are many great reasons to join an online dating service. At the very least you have the opportunity to expand your social...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Try to Avoid Probate
Below is a discussion of how to handle probate.
First of all, what is probate? We’ve heard various things about probate and we are pretty sure that it deals with court matters that involve our property. We generally know that probate is something that happens after we die and it’s a negative experience because it is expensive and it takes a lot of time. True, the two main problems with probate are that it can take up to a year to accomplish its own goals (not ours) and it is an expensive purchase of attorney advice and court costs when it may not be necessary at all.
In fact, it usually serves no real purpose except that the attorneys who defend it claim that it controls fraud in dividing up property owned by a deceased person and that it handles the claims of creditors fairly. Consider though, that in the usual case, there will probably be no major creditor claims and the property will go to a small group of family members.
This is what happens in probate. The attorney may make a couple of court appearances but most probably the case will be handled by mail. Your attorney will charge you a fee for taking care of this (as high as 5% of the estate), even though most probate cases do not require any special lawyerly skills like drafting of documents, the ability to resolve conflicts or fight for you in court, or perform any extensive legal research, since usually there is no fight going on and thus no need for a court appearance. What is necessary is the filling out of forms and filing them at the right time, a job usually performed by the attorney’s
secretary.
The attorney may charge what the court approves as appropriate and reasonable, or his fee may be based on a percentage of the estate. Even though the assets may be the home of the deceased or other personal property, the lawyer’s fees and attendant court costs and appraiser’s fees may require you to make an out-of-pocket payment of 5%. So, if your estate is even only $500,000, you could owe your attorney as much as $25,000. Although you cannot legally hold an attorney to this arrangement, you could try to get an attorney to agree to help you at a lower than average fee.
Note that the power to select the attorney normally resides with your executor.
To help reduce the cost of probate, it is possible to study the extensive volume of educational materials found in public law libraries regarding the probate system in order to do much of the work yourself or require the executor to attempt this. Your executor can complete and file most of the forms completed by the attorney’s secretary.
The best idea, however, is to avoid probate altogether. Look at the Revocable Living Trust - http://www.legalhelpmate.com/living-trust-online.aspx
About the author:
Jeffrey Broobin is a free-lance writer on family and finance issues; his main goal is to help people during their complicated period of life, to find a right legal solution in regards to family relationship.
Website: Legal helper Corp. Email: jeffreyb@legalhelper.ws
|
|
|
|
|
Kiplinger.com - Timely, Trusted Personal Finance Advice, Financial ... |
Investing, personal finance, calculators and financial advice. |
www.kiplinger.com |
  |
Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine - Your Guide to Making Money ... |
Subscibe to Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine to help you manage your finances. Achieve your financial goals and objectives with help from our ... |
www.kiplinger.com |
  |
Personal finance advice, news - CNNMoney |
News & advice on retirement planning, college saving, taxes, mortgages, autos, real estate, investing and more from CNNMoney.com. |
money.cnn.com |
  |
Business, financial, personal finance news - CNNMoney |
Combines practical personal finance advice, calculators and investing tips with business news, stock quotes, and financial market coverage from the editors ... |
money.cnn.com |
  |
Personal Finance, Personal Finances, and Financial Advice - Forbes.com |
Personal Finance - Get financial advice and information from Forbes.com. |
www.forbes.com |
  |
SmartMoney.com — Investing, Saving and Personal Finance |
SmartMoney has daily stock and mutual fund recommendations, hourly market updates, personal finance investing research tools and advice, ... |
www.smartmoney.com |
  |
Personal Finance Home (Personal Finance: Personal Finance ... |
Links to articles covering a range of topics where monetary planning is or should be involved. |
www.smartmoney.com |
  |
Personal Finance - Front Page |
Read the details in Personal Finance this Saturday. Also in this weekend's edition:; You should take financial services companies' marketing material with a ... |
www.persfin.co.za |
  |
Get stock quotes, market news, rates, and more - Netscape Money ... |
Market News. • Market News. • News Search. Financial Planning. • Finance Calculators. • Saving for College. • Personal Finance ... |
money.netscape.cnn.com |
  |
globeandmail.com: Personal Finance |
Personal Finance. Home · National · British Columbia · Prairies · Ontario · Quebec · Atlantic · Politics · World · Americas · Europe · Asia-Pacific ... |
www.theglobeandmail.com |
  |
Personal Finance - MSNBC.com |
Answer Desk: Submit your question about personal finance or the world of business ... Personal Finance. • Learn more about RSS ... |
www.msnbc.msn.com |
  |
Personal Finance Newsletter |
7600 Leesburg Pike, West Building Suite 300 • Falls Church, VA 22043 703-394-4931 (ph) • 703-905-8100 (fax) • personalfinance@kci-com.com ... |
www.pfnewsletter.com |
  |
Personal Finance Advice - Personal Finance Management - Personal ... |
Tips and stories for managing your personal finances. |
www.marketwatch.com |
  |
CNBC.com: Personal Finance |
Investing home page features investment tools like stock quotes, charts, a portfolio manager and much more. Plus market news and financial commentary from ... |
moneycentral.msn.com |
  |
Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Business: Personal ... |
Knowing retirement, health plans can help avert disaster · At one firm, financial crisis crushed 401(k)s, insurance · Personal finance news briefs ... |
www.dallasnews.com |
  |
Morningstar: Personal Finance |
Sharpen your personal finance and investing skills with Morningstar. Access articles covering stocks, mutual funds, bonds, retirement, 401(k)s and 529 plans ... |
www.morningstar.com |
  |
Fool.com: Personal Finance |
Personal Finance - The Motley Fool exists to educate, amuse, and enrich the individual investor; to prove to you that the best person to manage your money ... |
www.fool.com |
  |
Fool.com: Investing, Stock Research, and Personal Finance |
Expert advice on picking stocks, investing for retirement, and dealing with life's major personal finance decisions. |
www.fool.com |
  |
Telegraph | Money |
Market news from the Telegraph newspaper online. Includes money product finders. |
www.telegraph.co.uk |
  |
Compare Prices and Read Reviews on Personal Finance at Epinions.com |
Epinions has the best comparison shopping information on Personal Finance. Compare prices from across the web and read reviews from other consumers on ... |
www.epinions.com |
  |
|