The Wall Street Journal Complete Estate Planning Guidebook

Let’s face it: you can't avoid death or taxes. But you can create an estate plan that will make both a whole lot easier for your loved ones and put you in control of how your assets will get passed to your heirs. Here, Wall Street Journal personal-finance reporter Rachel Emma Silverman walks you step-by-step through the process. Chock-full of clear and solid advice on how to get the most out of the main estate planning tools - including wills, trusts, life insurance, guardianship papers, and powers-of-attorney documents - the Wall Street Journal Complete Estate-Planning Guidebook will help make your estate-planning process as simple, smooth, and unintimidating as possible. This book will help you: · Clarify your estate-planning goals, such as dividing up property for heirs, reducing taxes or leaving money for charity · Understand the key estate-planning documents you’ll need, including wills, beneficiary-designation forms, powers-of-attorney and health-care advance directives · Decode the technical jargon that estate planners often use, so you feel comfortable discussing QTIPs and QPRTs when you sit down with your lawyer. · Reduce possible estate, gift or generation-skipping taxes and legal and probate fees – decreasing what goes to the tax man and increasing what goes to your heirs · Learn strategies to divide money and personal property among your heirs, and reduce the possibility of family fights · Discuss sensitive estate-planning issues with your family · Maintain your estate-plan over time, including how to store and when to update your documents With completely up-to-date information on how to navigate the new 2011 estate tax legislation, and thoughtful advice on how to handle your estate in complicated situations – like if you’re single, in a same-sex relationship, or wish to provide for children with special needs - this is the estae-planning guide for today’s messy and complicated world. One of the biggest estate planning mistakes people make, says Silverman, is waiting too long to start. Which is why the Wall Street Journal Complete Estate-Planning Guidebook isn’t just for those planning for retirement or their golden years. It’s for anyone, of any age, who wants the peace of mind of knowing that your wishes will be respected and your hard-earned money will get passed on as you would like.

Let’s face it: you can't avoid death or taxes. But you can create an estate plan that will make both a whole lot easier for your loved ones and put you in control of how your assets will get passed to your heirs. Here, Wall Street Journal personal-finance reporter Rachel Emma Silverman walks you step-by-step through the process. Chock-full of clear and solid advice on how to get the most out of the main estate planning tools - including wills, trusts, life insurance, guardianship papers, and powers-of-attorney documents - the Wall Street Journal Complete Estate-Planning Guidebook will help make your estate-planning process as simple, smooth, and unintimidating as possible. This book will help you: · Clarify your estate-planning goals, such as dividing up property for heirs, reducing taxes or leaving money for charity · Understand the key estate-planning documents you’ll need, including wills, beneficiary-designation forms, powers-of-attorney and health-care advance directives · Decode the technical jargon that estate planners often use, so you feel comfortable discussing QTIPs and QPRTs when you sit down with your lawyer. · Reduce possible estate, gift or generation-skipping taxes and legal and probate fees – decreasing what goes to the tax man and increasing what goes to your heirs · Learn strategies to divide money and personal property among your heirs, and reduce the possibility of family fights · Discuss sensitive estate-planning issues with your family · Maintain your estate-plan over time, including how to store and when to update your documents With completely up-to-date information on how to navigate the new 2011 estate tax legislation, and thoughtful advice on how to handle your estate in complicated situations – like if you’re single, in a same-sex relationship, or wish to provide for children with special needs - this is the estae-planning guide for today’s messy and complicated world. One of the biggest estate planning mistakes people make, says Silverman, is waiting too long to start. Which is why the Wall Street Journal Complete Estate-Planning Guidebook isn’t just for those planning for retirement or their golden years. It’s for anyone, of any age, who wants the peace of mind of knowing that your wishes will be respected and your hard-earned money will get passed on as you would like.

The conservative, thoughtful, thrifty investor’s guide to building a real-estate empire. Profitable real-estate investing opportunities exist everywhere as long as you know what to look for and understand how to make prudent deals that transform property into profits. David Crook, of The Wall Street Journal, shows how to make safe and sane investments that ensure a good night’s sleep as your real-estate portfolio grows, your properties appreciate and your income increases. The Wall Street Journal Complete Real-Estate Investing Guidebook offers the most authoritative information on: • Why real-estate investing is a great wealth-building alternative to stocks and bonds and why it’s crucial that you avoid get-rich schemes • How to get the financing and make the contacts to get started • How to start small and local, be hands-on and go step-by-step with a vacation home to rent out, a pure rental property or a small apartment building • How to find and value great properties, do the numbers and ensure you have that beautiful thing called cash flow • How the government blesses real-estate investors with tax breaks and loopholes, and how you can be one of the anointed • How to deal with the nuts-and-bolts of being a landlord and have a strife-free relationship with your tenants

Unravel the Mysteries of the Financial Markets—the Language, the Players, and the Strategies for Success Understanding money and investing has never been more important than it is today, as many of us are called upon to manage our own retirement planning, college savings funds, and health-care costs. Up-to-date and expertly written, The Wall Street Journal Complete Money and Investing Guidebook provides investors with a simple—but not simplistic—grounding in the world of finance. It breaks down the basics of how money and investing work, explaining: • What must-have information you need to invest in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds • How to see through the inscrutable theories and arcane jargon of financial insiders and advisers • What market players, investing strategies, and money and investing history you should know • Why individual investors should pay attention to the economy Written in a clear, engaging style by Dave Kansas, one of America’s top business journalists and editor of The Wall Street Journal Money & Investing section, this straightforward book is full of helpful charts, graphs, and illustrations and is an essential source for novice and experienced investors alike. Get your financial life in order with help from The Wall Street Journal. Look for: • The Wall Street Journal Complete Personal Finance Guidebook • The Wall Street Journal Personal Finance Workbook • The Wall Street Journal Complete Real Estate Investing Guidebook

The country's most-trusted source for financial information offers business and lifestyle strategies that can help turn small-business dreams into sustainable successes.

A practical approach to affording your kids from cradle to college. Bringing home your bouncing baby boy or girl should be an exciting time of celebration–not cause for worry about how you’re going to pay for feeding, clothing, and caring for your new bundle of expenses. The average family will spend between $11,000 and $16,000 during a new baby’s first year, and more than $200,000 before a kid’s eighteenth birthday. Unfortunately, a second child only doubles your costs, with little economy of scale for each additional baby. Before you start using these statistics as birth control, take a deep breath and know that you can have a family and make a comfortable future for your children while saving for your own important goals. The Wall Street Journal Financial Guidebook for New Parents shows you the way, with information on how to: • Safeguard your child’s well-being with wills, trusts, and life insurance • Best weigh your child-care options and decide whether to go back to work • Save on taxes with child-friendly tax credits and deductions plus tax-advantaged benefits at work • Manage your family’s health-care costs • Save for long-term costs by setting up a college fund • Spend smart and save money at every stage of your child’s development • Continue to contribute to your own retirement savings From maternity (and paternity) leave to flexible spending accounts to 529 college plans, The Wall Street Journal Financial Guidebook for New Parents provides all the information you need to meet your child’s expenses while also protecting your family’s financial security.

In this primer on personal finance, designed to educate without intimidating, Opdyke takes readers through the essentials of modern money management, including chapters on banking, investing, borrowing, insurance, financial planning, and takes. It offers dozens of useful suggestions for how to make the right financial decisions in the present and how to plan best for the future.

Your Road to Lifelong Financial Independence It’s about time you felt empowered to better manage your money because–in tough economic times more than ever–your financial freedom depends on making smart choices. But it’s hard to know where to begin, especially when you’re just starting out. And of course, it only gets more complicated as you go through life: How do you establish good credit? Do you buy or rent? What kinds of health coverage do you really need? How do you actually stay afloat in an uncertain market? The Wall Street Journal Guide to Starting Your Financial Life gets you off on the right financial foot, from tackling everyday choices like cell-phone plans and pet ownership to big decisions such as smart investment strategies and buying a car or a house. You’ll learn: • How to open your first checking and savings accounts, get your first credit card, and establish good credit • The ins and outs of starting a job, including information about taxes, choosing health insurance options, and saving for retirement • How to budget for big purchases and expenses, such as paying off student loans, buying a car, and affording your housing • Strategies for buying the little things you want and need without going broke • The basics of investing, how to manage an inheritance, and the documents you need to protect your assets This valuable resource puts you in the driver’s seat, so you will be in control of your money and on your way to achieving lifelong financial independence across any economic terrain.