A comprehensive estate plan can protect what matters most to you. For many, this means everything you own and everyone you love.

Obviously, this includes providing for the care of your children as an essential piece of your peace of mind. But many parents struggle with including such provisions as naming a legal guardian for their child in their plan. Even the fictional parents in the popular television sitcom Modern Family struggled with this issue. While Jay and Gloria agonized and argued about who they should name as a legal guardian for their children, their children were left at risk that if something happened to Jay and Gloria before they decided and properly named guardians in a legal document, a judge would make the decision for them. Not ideal, under any circumstances.

The pandemic has caused Americans to change their behavior in a number of different ways, and one of the most positive of these changes is related to estate planning. For the first time since the study’s inception, Caring.com’s 2021 Wills and Estate Planning Study found that young adults are now more likely to have an estate plan than middle-aged adults.

Even if you put a totally solid estate plan in place, it can turn out to be worthless for the people you love if it’s not regularly updated.

Estate planning is not a one-and-done type of deal—your plan should continuously evolve along with your life circumstances and other changing conditions, such as your assets and the law.

You have finished your estate plan and it is now complete. It will be taking care of your home, savings, and investments, making sure that your family will get those valuable estate items fairly and efficiently. Your plan will also protect your legacy from your children’s potential divorces or bankruptcies. What could go wrong?

In deciding who will inherit your property, the most simple way would be to divide it equally among the children. That is the straightforward choice when all your children are doing equally well.

But if not – if, for example, your son is a starving artist with mouths to feed and your childless daughter has made millions on Wall Street – the temptation is to leave more to him than to her.

William’s daughter heard from a friend that leaving property to heirs in a will may not be the best way. Wills often involve long and expensive court proceedings and there are other, more efficient ways to pass on savings to family. But William was a person who knew his own mind, and he felt sure that a simple will would be good enough for him.

The coronavirus pandemic brought on an explosion in the digital business space and this change is expected to become permanent. As social media platforms continue to expand surveillance capitalism as a primary sales method, so do users of those platforms expect e-commerce to bend toward personal e-commerce. There is an expectation that brands and businesses recall what consumers have previously purchased and help direct future purchases based on the data users provide while actively engaging with their sites and channels. To meet new consumer demand and operate within the pandemic limits, creative solutions to maintain a steady stream of revenue have become necessary for small businesses. Worth noting, Forbes has identified online business trends that will drive small businesses in 2021.

A living will outline a person’s wishes for end-of-life medical treatment. It is often accompanied by a health-care proxy or power of attorney, which allows someone to make treatment decisions for you if you are incapacitated and the living will do not have specific instructions for the situation at hand. “Living will” and “advance directive” is often used synonymously, but a living will legally only applies after a terminal diagnosis, whereas an advance directive is much more comprehensive and includes the health care proxy.

A dispute in business can end up being very expensive. But what constitutes a “business dispute?” In general, it is any kind of disagreement between two businesses that is based on the agreement the two businesses signed. Common disputes occur between a business and a contractor or supplier that is hired to perform work. Disagreements can range anywhere from untimely delivery of a product or service, the price charged, or the service performed.

Understanding the attorney’s role in probate court is essential, whether you are an heir or an executor. One of the biggest sources of conflict in probating the estate is understanding the role of the lawyer hired by the Executor of a probate estate. Many Executors do not understand the probate process and leave the tasks up to the lawyer. The heirs of the estate may hear only from the lawyer or may hear the Executor say, “This is what the lawyer says we have to do.” This often raises the question, does the lawyer owe a fiduciary duty to the heirs of the estate since the Executor owes a fiduciary duty to the heirs?

Establishing a conservatorship of an aging parent means accepting significant legal responsibility to act and advocate for their care. The duties include managing a parent’s daily care, medical care, and possibly financial decisions made on their behalf. Many conservators are family members who were previously caregivers, now cast into a formal legal role. At the same time, some are professional conservators appointed in order to circumvent problems of well-established family conflict and disagreement.

In a recent survey, small business owners were asked to share their top three business concerns for 2021. Because we represent a number of business owners, we thought it would be helpful to share this information along with input on how these concerns may be addressed.