Imagine your life as a movie where you are the star, and your estate plan is the script that ensures your legacy is told the way you envision. By viewing estate planning through the lens of storytelling—focusing on characters, conflicts, and resolutions—you can create a more engaging and personal experience that transforms a daunting process into a meaningful narrative for you and your loved ones.

After the death of a loved one, it’s important to review and update your estate plan to reflect any changes, such as removing deceased beneficiaries or decision-makers like trustees, agents, or guardians. Ensuring these updates are made can prevent future complications and ensure your wishes are carried out.

To ensure an inheritance lasts, avoid hasty decisions, set up an emergency fund, consider legal implications of joint accounts or gifting, and work with a team of professionals, including financial, tax, and estate planning advisors, to create a long-term plan. Proper planning can help preserve your inheritance for future generations.

Purchasing a new home is a significant life event that requires updating your address, ensuring the home's title aligns with your estate plan, and reviewing your life insurance coverage and beneficiary designations. It's important to coordinate these steps to protect both your investment and your loved ones.

Different forms of ownership—such as trusts, LLCs, or tenancy by the entirety—offer various advantages for primary residences, vacation homes, and rental properties. Consulting with an estate planning attorney ensures your real estate is protected and transferred according to your wishes while minimizing risks and legal complexities

Life changes require estate plan updates. Major events like marriage, a new child, divorce, or financial shifts should prompt a review. Obsidian Ridge is here to ensure your estate plan fits your evolving life

The movie Rain Man offers several lessons in estate planning, particularly around how parents can plan for children with different needs and personalities. In the film, Charlie and Raymond Babbitt receive very different inheritances: Raymond, who has autism, gets a trust managed by a doctor, while Charlie, who has had past issues, is largely cut out. This highlights that estate planning isn’t one-size-fits-all. Parents can tailor their plans to suit their children’s unique situations and even use trusts to encourage family bonding or responsible behavior. Open communication before death can also help avoid conflict and surprises

Your estate plan is like writing the script to your life’s story. Just as every great movie has main characters, conflict, and resolution, your estate plan reflects these elements too. You are the main character, your loved ones are the supporting cast, and the challenges your family might face are the conflicts. Creating an estate plan helps you address potential family conflicts and ensures a clear resolution, securing your legacy and taking care of those who matter most. Ultimately, your estate plan lets you take control of your story and write a lasting legacy for your loved ones.

Your estate plan is like writing the script to your life’s story. Just as every great movie has main characters, conflict, and resolution, your estate plan reflects these elements too. You are the main character, your loved ones are the supporting cast, and the challenges your family might face are the conflicts. Creating an estate plan helps you address potential family conflicts and ensures a clear resolution, securing your legacy and taking care of those who matter most. Ultimately, your estate plan lets you take control of your story and write a lasting legacy for your loved ones.

As a First Responder, whether you're a police officer, firefighter, EMT, or paramedic, your career is marked by dedication, service, and an inherent level of risk. You put your life on the line daily to protect your community. In light of these risks, it's crucial to have a solid estate plan in place to protect both your legacy and your loved ones in the event of the unexpected.

While it's easy to focus on the day-to-day demands of your profession, taking the time to establish an estate plan can bring you and your family peace of mind. Estate planning ensures that your wishes are honored, your assets are distributed appropriately, and your loved ones are cared for in the way you envision.

Young adults are not known for being the most fiscally responsible people. Yet financial planning is more important than ever for a generation that is struggling with high inflation and debt and has a tendency to prioritize spending over saving. 

If your advice is falling on deaf ears, try putting yourself in your child’s position and seeing the current economic environment through their eyes. Professional guidance can also help break through money management barriers and prepare a young adult for a lifetime of financial success. 

Estate planning attorneys focus on reminding clients of two basic and interrelated points: estate planning is not just for the wealthy, and everyone over the age of 18 should have an estate plan, no matter their financial situation. A will is essential whether your net worth is $1 million or $100. Individuals with a higher income level and a high net worth are more likely to have an existing estate plan, and they may require additional tools in their plan to address their concerns adequately. But everyone should still have an estate plan regardless of their net worth. Unfortunately, people who do not have a will often mistakenly believe they lack sufficient assets to warrant one.

As summer fades into fall and school resumes, millions of seniors are entering the home stretch of their high school careers and marking their official entry into legal adulthood at age 18. 

According to cognitive scientists, some individuals’ brains do not finish developing until they are in their late 20s or early 30s, and many parents would be quick to agree. But in the eyes of the law, when a child reaches 18, they can vote, get married, sign a mortgage, join the military, move out of their parents’ home, and do many other things that only adults are allowed to do. This also includes creating an estate plan. 

Increasing costs and rising interest rates have impacted many businesses. If your business is in crisis, there are steps you can take that could improve your business’s financial condition and help it successfully move forward. Entrepreneurs are competent, but they cannot do everything on their own. There comes a time when a business owner needs to ask for help from a team that can provide counsel and services to help them overcome their financial distress. 

Written contracts are the backbone of business relationships. They outline the rights, obligations, and expectations between parties and provide a legal framework that ensures parties keep their promises. Absent written contracts, business relationships are less clear, trust is tenuous, and deals may be unenforceable.