If you have invested in cryptocurrency—or if you’re considering it—one of the matters that is worth taking into account is how it could impact your estate plan. Virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others can create some unique challenges that must be accounted for.
In this post, we’ll look at four strategies to consider using when planning for cryptocurrency in your estate.
The potential for large returns makes venture capital investing an attractive option, but it’s also a high-risk endeavor. Those risks include legal matters such as contract negotiations and regulatory compliance. Mitigating those risks is key to making sure your investments pay off, whether you’re operating as part of a firm or investing your own funds.
Following are four legal tips to consider in the course of venture capital investing.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) governs benefits provided to elderly or disabled individuals. The benefits received through Social Security can have an impact on your estate, so it’s important to account for that when creating your estate plan.
Exactly what is covered by Social Security depends on the type of benefits you receive. Some of the uses for Social Security include:
A fiduciary is defined as any person or party who acts on behalf of another party. As such, they have a duty—referred to as a fiduciary duty—to put their client’s interests above their own. Often, this involves the management of other people’s money, such as a shareholder’s investment in a company or the funds placed in a trust.
Put simply, the duty of a fiduciary is to look after the best interests of their clients, even if that means putting the client’s interests above their own. For example, a trustee has a fiduciary responsibility toward the beneficiaries of the trust, and therefore must manage the trust in such a way that it benefits the estate beneficiaries rather than their own selves.
Crypto investors are taking their operations overseas, and it’s easy to see why—many foreign countries have far more favorable laws when it comes to taxes, reporting, and cryptocurrency in general. These structures should be set up in a way that is consistent with both foreign and domestic laws, and that takes planning.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the advantages and requirements of offshore crypto-asset protection structures along with some general tips for success.
One item that is absolutely vital to an ironclad estate plan is an advance directive. An advance directive spells out your wishes regarding medical treatment in the event that you become incapacitated or incapable of making your own decisions.
Also commonly called a healthcare directive or healthcare power of attorney, an advance directive is simply a document with written legal instructions on medical treatment. It only takes effect if you become incapable of making those decisions on your own, such as if you are put in a coma, become incapacitated, etc. The purpose is to help medical professionals and caregivers make the right choices regarding medical treatment.
It’s important to know how to safeguard your wealth against creditors. A carefully constructed asset protection plan can help you tremendously in the event that you become subject to a lawsuit, and it’s an essential part of estate planning as well.
That said, there are a number of pitfalls that you should avoid when creating an asset protection plan. We’ll go over a few of the most common here.
The death of a loved one is always heartbreaking, but it’s especially tragic when it happens as the result of another person’s negligent actions. In these cases, Illinois residents have two forms of legal recourse, both of which can be filed as part of probate proceedings for the deceased person’s estate. These are wrongful death and survival actions.
These two forms of legal actions differ in terms of who is compensated for the accident and its resulting expenses. These differences are as follows:
A major part of estate planning is minimizing the impact that probate has on the distribution of your estate. In some cases, this means using special tactics to handle certain aspects of your estate, but in some cases, an estate may be small enough to be able to avoid probate altogether.
In these cases, a small estate affidavit may be filed by your estate’s administrator after you pass away.
Probate has the potential to be a bit long and drawn out, especially if there’s any dispute over how your estate should be disbursed. When planning how to handle your estate, it helps to know which types of assets go through probate and which ones don’t.
Following is a breakdown of which assets go through probate in the state of Illinois.
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