High Five: The Zen Guide to End-of-Life Transitions

We’ve been talking this month about the Zen of planning for end-of-life transitions, but even the five step approach we’ve been talking about can seem intimidating, especially when you’re reading words on a page (or screen). So we’ve simplified things even more with our infographic: the Zen Guide to End-of-Life Transitions. [Read More]

High Five: The Zen Guide to Planning for a Nursing Home Stay

If you’re dealing with a nursing home, it will quickly become clear that the options for paying the care bill are dizzying. Paying out of pocket is cost prohibitive. Long-term care insurance is probably not workable. For many, that leaves Medicaid, but those rules are spread over hundreds of pages of federal and state statutes, regulations, and policy manuals. What you need is an oasis from the stress, not the exponentially increasing stress that comes from trying to make sense of all those rules. Don’t despair. You can achieve calm in this whirlwind. Follow these five steps and you’ll soon find that the zen of nursing home planning is easily reached. [Read More]

High Five: The Zen Guide to Creating a Trust

Last week, we talked about the fact that many people see estate planning as an intimidating, even scary, process – only 45% of people have had their will prepared! But we also showed you the zen approach to creating your will with the help of an estate planning expert through planning ahead, organization, communication and clarity. And, surprise, those same principles apply to creating a trust. But, while the principles are the same, the zen of trust planning can be quite different from creating a will. [Read More]

High Five: The Zen Guide to Creating Your Will

Over the last seven years of advising clients, I have come to the realization that many people aren’t doing estate planning because it’s intimidating. It’s scary. Depressing. That’s a lot of negative emotion! But I don’t think estate planning is a negative experience – quite the opposite. Follow this guide to finding the Zen of creating your will, and you’ll soon discover that all those negative thoughts have been replaced by peace of mind about your final affairs. [Read More]