He was a classy, hard working old gent and he owned his home free and clear. He didn't owe anything to anyone. He passed away unexpectedly one day without leaving a will. Now, several thousand dollars of attorney's fees have piled up yet basically nothing has been accomplished to bring his estate to closure. Therein lies the legacy of my father-in-law.

There are two ways to handle the planning of your estate settlement. You can learn what you need to know and execute what is generally a fairly simple plan, or you can ignore the fact that some day you'll fade away from this life and thereby leave the distribution of your assets to the law and to chance. My recommendation is that you begin the learning process right this very minute. What you learn through this blog post could actually affect your heirs for decades to come.

It's a very small matter, yet an incredibly powerful one and it has come to my attention that even a few seasoned bank tellers don't fully understand the legal difference between the words and / or. It's as simple as this: when you open a joint financial account, you make the joint designation with one of those two words. The account can be in the names of John and Jane Doe, or alternatively it can read John or Jane Doe.

The word and designates co-authority over an account, whereas the word or designates that either party has independent authority over the account. This means that the and account requires the signature of both account holders when conducting business, while the or account can be utilized by either individual without the signature of the other account holder.