On the record—Every fact sourced to a primary record·The standard—Advisors never pay for placement·Independent—A publication of AdvisorWorld.com Inc·Verification—Credentials checked with the issuing body·Sourcing—The IRS, state departments of revenue, and the courts·Corrections—When we're wrong, we fix the record and say so·On the record—Every fact sourced to a primary record·The standard—Advisors never pay for placement·Independent—A publication of AdvisorWorld.com Inc·Verification—Credentials checked with the issuing body·Sourcing—The IRS, state departments of revenue, and the courts·Corrections—When we're wrong, we fix the record and say so·
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Planning Clusters

Sourced · Cited · Free

Long-form reference guides to the moving parts of estate and retirement planning — the mechanics a family, a journalist, or another professional can check line by line. Every legal and numeric claim is cited to a primary source: the Internal Revenue Code, a Treasury regulation, an IRS ruling, or a state statute, each re-verified on a published cadence. Educational only — no forms, no gates, nothing collected.

Trust Funding

Funding a Trust

A trust is only paper until it owns something. What actually goes in, how each asset type is retitled, and the tax traps — including the annuity rule most people never see coming.

5 pagesVerified July 20, 2026Wealth Transfer & Gifting

Gifting & Wealth Transfer

How value moves during life and at death: the annual exclusion, the 2026 lifetime exemption, the basis step-up, and the gift-versus-inherit question that basis usually settles.

6 pagesVerified July 20, 2026Retirement-Account Estate Planning

Retirement Accounts in Your Estate

IRAs and 401(k)s pass outside the will, by beneficiary form — and the SECURE Act rewrote what heirs must do next. The 10-year rule, the beneficiary audit, and the Roth question.

6 pagesVerified July 20, 2026Long-Term-Care Planning

Long-Term-Care Planning

The cost most likely to derail an estate, and the tax rules around planning for it: how qualified LTC coverage is taxed, the hybrid contracts, and the self-fund-versus-insure question.

5 pagesVerified July 20, 2026Charitable Planning

Charitable Planning

The vehicles and tax rules of charitable giving — QCDs, gift annuities, charitable trusts, and DAFs vs. foundations — current to the 2026 law, including the new deduction floor.

5 pagesVerified July 20, 2026Business Succession & Exit

Business Succession & Exit

Moving a closely held business to the next owner: buy-sell agreements (after the Connelly decision), what the business is worth, key-person risk, and the exit timeline.

5 pagesVerified July 20, 2026Medicaid Asset Protection

Medicaid Asset Protection

How Medicaid long-term-care eligibility actually works — the five-year lookback, asset-protection trusts, compliant annuities — and the honest limits of each. Federal framework; state variance flagged.

5 pagesVerified July 20, 2026
Trusts & ILITs

The ILIT Cluster

The irrevocable life insurance trust in plain English — how it keeps a death benefit out of the taxable estate, and the candid case for why most families don't need one.

Public-service guides

The Library

Plain-English guides for the hardest weeks of a family's life: what to do when someone dies, elder financial abuse, survivor benefits, and passing down the farm.