Videos

Welcome to Trust Estate Planning for New Families. I'm Tara, the owner. I'm so glad you're here as we get into more detail about estate planning. The big question first is, what is an estate plan? An estate plan very simply put, is a series of documents that will address the management and disposition of your property during your life and after your death. That sounds simple, but can also seem a little scary. So simply put, it allows you to decide where your property goes and who takes care of your kids if something were to happen [...]

Welcome to Trust, Estate Planning for New Families. I'm Tara, the owner of Trust, and today we're going to chat a little bit about what happens if I don't have an estate plan. The truth is most people know they should have an estate plan, but don't necessarily know what happens if they don't. The biggest thing to remember is that if you don't have an estate plan, your state and state statute will make one for you. In Illinois, half of all your assets would go to your spouse and the other half to your children. Maybe [...]

Welcome to Trust, Estate Planning for New Families. I'm Tara, the owner of Trust, and today we are going to address why everybody doesn't have an estate plan. Some of this probably sounds really familiar because studies show that over 60% of adults don't have an estate plan. There's a lot of reasons why. Probably the biggest one is that it's really easy to procrastinate. We have jobs, kids and life just gets in the way and this really important task always gets put on the bottom of the to-do list. It's also really tough to think about, [...]

Welcome to Trust: Estate Planning for New Families. I'm Tara, the owner of Trust, and I want to address something really important right now. People tend to think that estate planning is just for the really old or the really rich, and that if you're neither of those, you don't need an estate plan; that couldn't be farther from the truth. There's a lot of really important reasons why you need an estate plan, even if you don't come to this process feeling like you have a hundred million dollars in the bank or that you are [...]

Welcome to Trust Estate Planning for New Families. I'm Tara, the owner of Trust, and we are going to cover what are all the important estate planning documents to have in your estate plan. The first one is a will. The majority of my clients get on the phone with me and say, "I know I need a will." What exactly is a will? Simply put, a will is a declaration of your wishes regarding the disposition of your property upon death. But more importantly, most of my clients come to me because they say, "I want [...]

Welcome to Trust, Estate Planning for New Families. I'm Tara, the owner of Trust, and as we continue to learn about the various estate planning documents that make up an estate plan, we are going to talk about what is a trust? A lot of people feel like they hear they should have a trust, but don't know exactly why. We're going to cover the basics right now. A trust is essentially a set of instructions for how your property should be managed during your life and upon your death. There are a lot of benefits to having [...]

Welcome to Trust - Estate Planning for New Families. I'm Tara, the owner of Trust, and we're really briefly going to cover one of the most common estate planning documents out there. Those are your powers of attorney. Almost everyone has heard the expression powers of attorney, but what exactly does that mean? There's two basic types. The first is a power of attorney for property. A power of attorney for property allows you to name an agent to make financial decisions for you if you are alive but incapacitated and unable to do so. Similarly, a [...]

Welcome to Trust: Estate Planning for New Families. I'm Tara, the owner of Trust. And now we're going to address something that keeps every parent up at night. How do I protect my kids? What happens if something happens to me? That is usually the first thing out of my clients' mouths when we sit down to talk about their estate plan is, "I want to make sure my kids are taken care of." The biggest and most important thing you can do is put your estate plan together. This is how you determine who will take [...]

Welcome to "Trust Estate Planning for New Families." I'm Tara, the owner of Trust, and we're going to really briefly talk about a big question that weighs on parents' mind, and that is, "Who should I name as the guardian for my children if something happens to me and my spouse?" I spend lots of time talking to lots of parents about this very thing. The first thing to keep in mind is that this is a second-best option. The biggest option, the best option, is for you to take care of your children. So this takes [...]

Welcome to Trust, Estate Planning for New Families. I'm Tara, the Owner of Trust. What is the hardest part of an estate plan? Well, obviously getting started, but once we get past that, usually what gives parents the hardest time is thinking about who to name as the guardian for their children. And this is also why a lot of parents put off this really important task because they don't want to address it. The bad news, this is a tough decision to make. The good news, I'm here. I have worked with hundreds of couples and talked [...]

Welcome to Trust: Estate Planning for New Families. I'm Tara, the owner of Trust. Congratulations, you've taken the first step and decided that you want to move forward with an estate plan. Now, what does that actually look like? With me, it's really, really simple. We have an initial phone call where we discuss some of the preliminary details. I send you a questionnaire form, which gives you the opportunity to think about some of the details on your own. We have another call where we discuss your plan in detail, and that's a good time for you [...]

Welcome to Trust, Estate Planning for New Families. I'm Tara, the owner of Trust, and I always, always get asked, "How long does it take to complete an estate plan?" The good news is we can do this really quick. As soon as I get information from you, we can turn your documents around and have them signed and completed. I often get requests from people right before their next vacation to get their estate planning done, and the good news is we can do that. Once we decide that we want to work together, we can [...]