Estate Plan

Our children know we are not your typical retirees when it comes to finances. I’m sure they figured that out from our funding eleven 529 plans, gifts and more often than not, picking up the check when families go out to eat, but that’s all they know. 
They have no idea of our income, no knowledge of our investments-what kind, or how much. They, of course, know we own two homes, but not our net worth. 

You or your parents may think a will is enough — until probate creates costly delays and stress. One simple document could help your family avoid a financial nightmare.
I recently helped a friend go through probate after her father passed away. Although he had a will, he did not have a Revocable Living trust — the document that can help families avoid lengthy and costly probate.
What many people do not realize is that a will alone does not avoid probate.

How your spouse handles an inherited IRA can shorten—or extend—your children’s tax-deferred growth.
I read, but did not comprehend the article (link below) which I received from Morningstar this morning, but think it may be of value to others.
Bottom line for me is I will inform my wife this morning that after my death she should not do anything with my traditional IRA until she discusses this issue with our estate attorney.
PS Does anyone else despise the term Kids as my wife and I do?

On August 13, 2025, my husband and I found my sister unresponsive in her home.
The moment was traumatic and terribly upsetting. My thoughts immediately turned
to my mother, how would I tell her she had lost her daughter while dealing with
her son’s terminal cancer diagnosis?
That was the personal side of loss. Days, weeks and months later came the
business side of dying.
My sister, Victoria, Tory to everyone who knew her, lived a full and colorful life.

I have found, especially as I get older, that there is a real benefit to simplifying many aspects of my life.  For me the reasons include:

Saving time
Easing decision making
Limiting behavioral mistakes, including thrashing or freezing, due to complexity 
Preparing for cognitive decline or physical incapacity
Preparing for ease of transferring responsibilities to spouse or children

Do you find that simplification helps you and if so what things have you done to simplify your financial situation and other aspects of your life?

Do you have any personal experience with Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts (MAPTs)?
To those unfamiliar, MAPTs are irrevocable trusts designed to preserve family’s assets while maximizing an applicant’s chances of qualifying for Medicaid.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this!

It appears that Vanguard on 9/20/2025 changed their lack of an option to transfer a joint taxable brokerage upon the death of the last owner to survive via a Transfer On Death designation. My understanding is you now may do so via completing a online form, printing, executing the form and mailing the completed form to Vanguard. Making that change does not yet appear to be an action you can currently do online.
I think you can find their form here.

I like the idea of writing my obituary in the first person. I have composed a few drafts of such an obituary. It has been fun recalling memories from my youth and of raising my children, and thinking about the 8,590 or so days that Chrissy and I have been together, even former occupations and the friends I have made along the way. 
It would begin something like this; If you’re reading this, you waited too long to call me;

Two practical questions for the group—because both have a huge impact on your family’s future:
1) Investing books:
If you had to recommend one or two investing books that truly changed how you invest (not hype, not theory-heavy), what are they—and what’s the key takeaway you still use? Something you would gift to your kids/grandkids.
2) End-of-Life planner / “If I get hit by a bus” file:
Do you have an end-of-life planner / estate organizer / family binder that your spouse or kids could use immediately if needed?

There was a very thoughtful post on here regarding family that is distant and solutions when there are health events.  I was going to comment but thought I would just start another post as this is more of a question than a solution.
Hubby (who has since passed away) and I moved from Fl to NC to be closer to our youngest daughter and family, including our youngest grandchild.  She is responsible and stable and I can rely on her for assistance when I need whether financial advice or otherwise.

Creating a will or trust is an important part of financial planning. Consider how the asset allocation of your retirement investments might change with age, perhaps being aggressive when you’re young and becoming more conservative as you get older. When you create your will as a young person with a growing family, your concerns are different from when you are older and evaluating your ability to retire.
For example, my first wife and I created wills that provided for each other if one of us died early,

Have any of you had to do guardianship for a relative with dementia?  I would be interested to hear anything you think we would need to know if this might become necessary for Spouse’s mom. Thanks, friends. Chris.

My father-in-law, while certainly not a wealthy man, holds assets in the mid six-figure range. The subject of inheritance came up during a recent visit to his home in Spain, sparked by a conversation that my wife, Suzie, and I had just finalized updates to our own will due to the sale of my business.
I raised a specific suggestion for his estate planning: given that his three children are all financially secure and truly don’t need the inheritance money,

This is a thought exercise…
Suppose you are the son or daughter of a reasonably tech competent older person. They have asked you to step in to act on their behalf should they be unable to do so on their own. The would name you as primary on their Durable Power of Attorney. You have agreed and are in the process of trying to understand how your parent deals with their finances now.
In your research you have discovered the following information:
1) Your parent uses a variety of tech equipment to deal with finances.

The Letter of Final Instructions
In many households, one spouse or partner will handle most of the financial and business matters. The other person often has little or no involvement in these matters.  This issue has been exacerbated over the past thirty years as many of these matters are now handled digitally which makes it even more difficult to pick up these duties without good documentation and an up-to-date status of all accounts.
I have done a zoom presentation to North Carolina government retirees numerous times in the past year about The Letter of Final Instructions.