The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (or Secure Act) went into effect in December of 2019, affecting how people here in Raleigh can invest in retirement accounts. These changes in how people fund retirement also affect their estate plans, since retirement savings are part of a person’s assets. Here are four [...]
Estate planning can be a bit of an emotional process. Facing one’s mortality, hashing out family dynamics, and setting one’s legacy can be more taxing than people think. This is why finding the right estate lawyer for a person’s unique situation is important. In the Raleigh-Durham area, there are many lawyers to choose from, [...]
When deciding on an estate plan, many of our clients in Raleigh and Durham, NC aren’t too familiar with the differences between wills and trusts, so it’s difficult to decide which might be best for their specific situation. How our estate is dispersed is part of the legacy we leave our loved ones, so [...]
We’ve noticed that many people have the same few questions when looking into estate planning. While we are happy to talk with anyone interested in estate planning, we thought we’d answer the more popular questions that we hear a lot. Here are four of the most frequently asked questions about estate planning: When do [...]
A lot of people don’t think about estate planning until they marry, and possibly not until they have kids. Singles tend to not think about creating a will, but an estate is an estate, and there should always be a plan for it. An estate plan is possibly more important for those who are [...]
When people hear talk about setting up a trust, they immediately picture the uber-rich, jet-set crowdfunding their wild children. That’s not quite true. A trust is a legal arrangement where ownership of assets is transferred from the owner to the trust. We’re seeing this type of estate planning tool gain more popularity here in [...]
Blended families are very common in our world. With roughly half of all marriages ending in divorce, it’s fairly normal to see all sorts of different family dynamics. With all the changes that happen when families blend together, it’s easy to forget the changes that may happen to someone’s estate plan. At Thornton Law [...]
There are two main ways to set up an estate plan: a simple will and a living trust. Depending on a person’s needs and size of the estate, it makes a difference which tool is used. As an estate lawyer serving the Raleigh and Durham areas, I’ve put both types of plans into action [...]
One of the biggest deterrents for people getting a will or trust done is the cost. There’s this perception that anything with a lawyer is going to automatically be unaffordable, but that’s not always the case. In the Raleigh and Durham areas, wills and trusts cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to up [...]
With many of us having extra time at home, we’re taking the time to tackle those projects that are hard to get to during our normal schedules. For many, that means making sure their estate plan and assets are up to date and in order. Those with families might have some extra items to [...]