Estate Planning as a Career

According to common law, primogeniture is the right of the first born son to inherit the entire estate of the family regardless of other siblings. This system of inheritance began in 1066 in England, when the Normans brought the practice with them. According to this tradition, if no children resulted from a union, then the belongings of the deceased would go to blood relatives, in order of seniority.

Many variations of primogeniture exist. Four major monarchies in Europe, including Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium, eliminated the preference for a male heir and have instead instituted an absolute primogeniture, where the eldest child receives all, regardless of sex. Other variations of this type of inheritance include agnatic, cognatic, matrilineal, and uterine primogeniture. Agnatic inheritance is a purely male line, almost always to the total exclusion of women. The Cognatic tradition allows for a woman to inherit all the possessions if she has no male siblings and no deceased brothers who left eligible descendents. Matrilineal inheritance is the opposite of the Agnatic tradition. Female children inherit property, almost always to the total exclusion of male children. Finally, the uterine form of primogeniture involves male inheritance through a female spouse or ancestor. Spain followed this pattern in the 20^th century, with succession and inheritance usually received by the daughter’s husband.

The preference for males in this system probably originates from the perceived role of the monarch and ruler of the estate. A monarch must be a military leader, a role traditionally reserved for men. Benefits of primogeniture include less internal pressure to sell property. Additionally, this type of inheritance pattern slows the subdivision of estates and keeps wealth concentrated within families. Negative consequences of t (more…)

First things first. Financial Freedom is really just plain old freedom to do all of the the things you want to do in your last article I discussed what I believed to be some of the definitions of financial freedom, but I would like to briefly delve into what actual freedom is, or what it feels like. I am sure that many of you think you know, but I guarantee you have forgotten the feeling. I realized this for myself when I was watching my son play at the park and I couldn’t help but feeling enamored not only by the joy he was experiencing, but more because he was experiencing it in such an undistracted way. It’s probably been a long time for many of us since we’ve been able to go out to dinner during the week and not think about work, or go on vacation and not think about our financial lives; probably because we are thinking about how we can have the money to make our lives more like the vacation. So, in a nutshell the concept I am trying to propose is “joy without distraction”. When is the last time you felt this for longer than a few hours at a time? This single concept made me think from a financial perspective how a successful, active adult of any age could experience a life full of joy without distraction. One of the main conclusions is that having enough predictable passive income to take care of your day to day life, extracurricular activities you desire, and the ability to add to your principal to keep up with inflation gets us to financial freedom and the ability to maintain it on an ongoing basis. If this is starting to sound like joy without distraction then the next step is finding out how to get it? (Assuming that an individual must be responsible enough to know how much it costs them to maintain their lifestyle)

The following rules are a good start to making this happen:

1. Double digit returns

2. Capital preservation t (more…)

When you choose an executor for your will, you need to select someone who is not connected with the family in any way, rather than with an eye on the estate executor fee. It is important to note that by going in for a person who is not related in any way to your family, you are keeping the best interests of your family in mind.

On the other hand, by selecting a person related to the family to keep the executor fee structure low, you will tend to do the utmost harm to the interests of your family. This is because a relative is bound to be influenced by his relation with the family and will tend to have a conflict of interests. Due to this, he may not therefore be in a position to do full justice to the responsibility that the role of executor of the will requires of him.

It is always better in the long run to choose a completely independent executor of will. For, he will then be in a position to resolve the conflicts of interests of various different beneficiaries of the will in a manner that is completely unbiased towards any one of them. This especially may occur when the estate is a large one.

Another important aspect connected to the selection of a completely independent executor of the will is related to the fees that you need to pay to him for discharging his responsibility with complete devotion. This means that you need to pay him the maximum possible fee that is admissible as per law and the courts. This is important because you need to understand that the responsibility of an executor of the will is a difficult one even with the high fee structure.

Most individuals would not be prepared to take up the responsibility even with the high fees that they get. The job and life of an executor is the hardest in the first few weeks. It may continue to be a difficult for even the next few months. Normally, the maximum expected (more…)