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The ability to control the disposition of bodily remains after a person’s death (including cremation and burial) is something that should not be a bone of contention between family members. Once upon a time, Georgia law provided that the “next of kin” had the power to decide what would be done.

For some people making a charitable bequest in a will is a big mistake and it’s not because the charity is not deserving. It’s because the will may not be the best source of that charitable gift if there are retirement accounts that are going to the children of the testator (the person making the will).

The answers to that question in this post assume that the estate is in Georgia. In any other state similar or dramatically different procedures will be used depended on how much that state’s probate code differs from Georgia’s.

How you handle the beneficiary designations on your life insurance and retirement accounts can be just as important as naming the beneficiaries of your probate estate in your last will and testament.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal about including your digital assets in your estate planning got me thinking about how electronic files and communications are becoming integral to our everyday lives.

My law practice has been concentrated on estate planning since about 1992. I have had plenty of time to see clients five to ten years after the completion of their wills and other estate plan documents.

A good estate plan only starts with well-drafted documents.

A retirement account can be the key to long-term financial security. It also can be a person's largest financial asset, if not in the present at least in the future.

It is such a simple question when you are completing a life insurance policy application. Who do you want to receive the death benefit in the event of your death?

Let's face it. We are all getting older. Life gives all those under the age of 30 a psychological "immunity" to any worry about that fact of life.