Estate planning is making decisions today for what you want to happen in the future.

While no one wants to think about his or her own death, planning for the inevitable is an important part of protecting your assets and those you love.

The new, buzzy Netflix documentary on the late, beloved, iconic public broadcasting TV host, painter Bob Ross—“Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed”—documents how the artist’s son, Steve, now 55, was allegedly robbed of his late father’s inheritance by the artist’s business partners.

Unless you spend your winters in Aspen and your summers in the Hamptons, you probably don’t have to worry about paying federal estate taxes on an inheritance. In 2021, the federal estate tax doesn’t kick in unless an estate exceeds $11.7 million.

One reason for having a will is to make sure your wishes are carried out. If you die “intestate” (without a will), your assets will be distributed by state law, not by your desires.

Since you began working, Social Security has recorded your reported earnings under your name and Social Security number. Social Security updates your record each time your employer (or you, if you’re self-employed) report your earnings. Your earnings determine your benefit amount.

At some point in your life, there’s a good chance you’ll be tasked with acting as the executor of an estate. The designation is both an honor and an obligation.

If you’re merely dipping your toe in cryptocurrency, it can be hard to imagine your crypto as something worth talking to an estate attorney about. But that $100 in fun money could grow to a significant percentage of your total investments, sometimes overnight.

Doctors should no longer routinely start most people who are at high risk of heart disease on a daily regimen of low-dose aspirin, according to new draft guidelines by a U.S. panel of experts.

Not having an estate plan can create problems for the people you love the most.