Estate planning

By coordinating with a client's other financial professionals, such as lawyers and accountants, financial advisors have the potential to deliver even more value.

Summer meetings might pose a scheduling challenge, but financial advisors could help clients avoid costly mistakes by guiding them away from the common bias in a midyear meeting.

Ultrawealthy clients looking to reduce taxable estates might consider spousal lifetime access trusts, but too-similar dual trusts can backfire.

In vitro fertilization, sperm donation and other reproductive techniques can lead to legal and financial risk. Here's how to help clients avoid exposure.

Advisors have a role to play in facilitating the great wealth transfer, and some wealth owners are uncertain about whether heirs are ready.

Clients aren't just curious about estate planning, they're insisting that their advisors provide it.

Claiming Social Security early might seem counterintuitive for the ultrawealthy, but one advisor says that when the benefits are used to fund life insurance in an irrevocable trust, the strategy could pay off for heirs.

Many retirement savers will have no trouble choosing between an IRA or a trust. But experts say there are some important factors that add complication to the decision.

Difficult personal experiences led the founder of virtual firm YGC Wealth to become the first strategic advisor to BestFarewell, a technology start-up that aims to help grieving families process and organize end-of-life planning documents.

A technicality in the federal law enacted in July 2025 changed how deductions work for estates and trusts, creating uncertainty over how taxes are allocated after a person's death.

Even if they must refer wealth families to a tax professional for a generation-skipping or dynasty trust, financial advisors can play a valuable role.

The Uniform Partition of Heirs' Property Act helps families avoid forced property sales in at least 24 states, according to a study sponsored by JPMorgan Chase.

Still, the number of widows who leave advisors is three times higher than the industry average. It doesn't have to be that bad.

Parents who don't effectively communicate estate plans to their children set them up to fail financially, emotionally and relationally.

A Wells Fargo executive is using her own cancer diagnosis as a wake-up call and teaching case for financial advisors and their clients' estate plans.

Most financial advisors and their clients are well aware of the in-progress great wealth transfer. But they also admit they're not ready for it.

Financial advisors and estate planning attorneys say arrangements can be as simple or complex as clients want them to be, but pet trusts are often the best option.

Many business owners wind up regretting how they exit from their ownership. That's why experts say financial advisors should ramp up their planning for it.

At the T3 Conference, leaders discussed how showcasing the value of the new tools can help advisors connect with clients.