How to Manage Your Digital Accounts After Your Death Part 1 If you have preferences about what happens to your digital footprint after your death, you need to take action. Otherwise, your online legacy will be determined for you—and not by you. If you have any online accounts, such as Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Apple, or Amazon, you have a digital legacy, and that legacy is yours to preserve or lose. Following your death, unless you’ve planned ahead, some of your online accounts will survive indefinitely, while others automatically expire after a period of inactivity, and still, others have specific…Read More
Is It Time To Update Your Company’s Insurance? 5 Events That Necessitate A Review Of Your Coverage Putting in place the right types and amounts of business insurance is a key part of your company’s LIFT risk-mitigation and asset-protection foundation. However, like other foundational business systems, if your business insurance isn’t regularly reviewed and updated as your operation grows, your coverage can prove inadequate, putting your business at serious risk in the event you are hit with a lawsuit, judgment, or an unforeseen accident or disaster. It’s typically a good idea to review your company’s insurance coverage on an annual…Read More
3 Critical Considerations For How To Save For Your Child’s (or Grandchild's) College Education—Part 2 If you have started to save for your child or grandchild’s college education, it’s worth considering whether to use a 529 plan, an education savings account, or an irrevocable trust. Last week, in part one of this series, we discussed 529 plans and education savings accounts, which are both popular options for saving for college education. One of the main reasons for their popularity is their tax-saving advantages. The money you contribute to a 529 account grows on a tax-deferred basis, and withdrawals are tax-free,…Read More
How Using The Right Legal Agreements Can Safeguard Your Intellectual Property Using independent contractors (ICs) can give your company an edge in today’s thriving gig economy, but if you are not careful, contractors can also be a serious liability. In fact, working with ICs comes with a number of unique legal and financial risks that can be potentially ruinous to your business if not handled properly. Beyond getting sued or hit with hefty fines for misclassifying an employee as a contractor, you must also be careful to properly secure ownership of anything an IC creates for you. This is particularly…Read More
3 Critical Considerations For How To Save For Your Child’s (or Grandchild's) College Education—Part 1 If you have started to save for your child or grandchild’s college education, it’s worth considering whether to use a 529 plan, an education savings account, or an Irrevocable Trust. Here’s what we think you should consider as you decide: First, consider whether you want your offspring to have broader options than just the traditional college experience. Since the start of the pandemic, college enrollments have declined by over one million students over the past two years, and with college tuition getting more and more…Read More
How to Separate Yourself From Your Business—And Why It’s So Important When you run your own business, oftentimes one of the most confusing aspects of the job, especially if you are new to the experience, is understanding how to separate yourself from your business. And this issue can show up in so many ways, from achieving a work/life balance and managing your time to how you get paid and even how much taxes you owe. With this in mind, here we will offer a big-picture overview of this issue, and in future articles, we’ll drill down to some of the…Read More
4 Essential Strategies For Protecting Your Family’s Assets You might think that only the super wealthy need to worry about asset protection planning. But the truth is that if you don’t have millions, you may be at even greater risk. For instance, if you are a multi-millionaire, a $50,000 judgment against you might not be that big of a deal. But for a family with a modest income, savings, and home, it could be devastating. Furthermore, asset protection planning isn’t something you can put off until something happens. Once you are under threat of a lawsuit, it’s likely too late…Read More
How Estate Planning Can Reduce The High Cost Of Dying—Part 2 Despite the fact that it happens to every single one of us and is as every bit as natural as birth, very few among us are properly prepared for death—whether our own death or the death of a loved one. Yet the pandemic might be changing this. According to Census figures, the pandemic caused the U.S. death rate to spike by nearly 20% between 2019 and 2020, the largest increase in American mortality in 100 years. More than two years and 1 million deaths later, it's more clear than…Read More
What Happens To Your Business When You Get Sick or Die? 4 Fundamentals To Know If you dream of one day leaving your company to your family, but you haven’t properly included your business in your estate plan, that dream could become a nightmare for your heirs—and for your partners, team members, and clients, too. In fact, properly planning for what would happen to your business upon your death or incapacity is one of the most important things you can do for your company. Without a proper estate plan, the business you worked so hard to build could be in…Read More
How Estate Planning Can Reduce The High Cost Of Dying—Part 1 Despite the fact that it happens to every single one of us and is as every bit as natural as birth, very few among us are properly prepared for death—whether our own death or the death of a loved one. Yet the pandemic might be changing this. According to Census figures, the pandemic caused the U.S. death rate to spike by nearly 20% between 2019 and 2020, the largest increase in American mortality in 100 years. More than two years and 1 million deaths later, it's more clear than…Read More
