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If you became incapacitated and advance planning had been done, your family will have the legal documents you need. Just as importantly, they will know what your wishes are for incapacity and end-of-life care.

Some reasons to update your will are more obvious than others, like marriage, divorce, remarriage, births and deaths.

Inheriting a home with a mortgage adds another layer of complexity to settling the estate, as explained in a recent article from Investopedia titled “Inheriting a House With a Mortgage.”

A pour-over will is a type of will that’s created in conjunction with a trust. It can help facilitate the transfer of assets, if a trust’s grantor (the person establishing the trust) has failed to transfer all intended assets into the trust.

Successful transition of wealth from generation to generation is best accomplished when family members have a shared understanding of the overall use of the family wealth.

Next Avenue’s recent article entitled “Your Top 10 Objects Your Kids Don’t Want” gives us a list of these items and what to do with them.

Even if divorce is the last thing on your mind, when an inheritance is received, its wise to treat it differently from your joint assets, advises a recent article “Revocable Inheritance Trust: Inexpensive Divorce Protection” from Forbes.

The IRS wants to know how much you’re gifting over the course of your lifetime. This is because while gifts may be based on generosity, they are also a strategy for avoiding taxes, including estate taxes, reports The Street in a recent article “Do I Need to File a Gift Tax Return?”

If you don’t plan appropriately and thoughtfully, problems may arise with respect to this property and your family when you are gone, says Kiplinger’s recent article entitled “Your Vacation Home Needs an Estate Plan!”

If you are worried how your pets will be cared for after you die you can create a pet trust. Pet trusts are a legally binding arrangement in which the donor (the person creating the trust) formally outlines their wishes for how they want their pet to be cared for