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BC Counselors at Law, PLLC Our mission is to provide our clients with the plan, the tools, and most importantly, piece of mind.

Your Spouse Knows Your Passwords. Is That Enough?Probably not.Imagine you’re suddenly unable to manage your accounts.You...
10/05/2026

Your Spouse Knows Your Passwords. Is That Enough?

Probably not.

Imagine you’re suddenly unable to manage your accounts.

Your spouse is sitting at the kitchen table trying to pay the mortgage, find an insurance policy, access tax records, or locate an important business account.

They know some of your passwords.

But do they know what accounts exist, where to find them, and whether they actually have the legal authority to manage them?

Our lives are increasingly digital, but many estate plans still stop at the filing cabinet.

In this week’s blog, we cover:

✅ Which online accounts your family may need to find first
✅ Why sharing a password isn’t the same as giving legal authority
✅ How provider tools from companies like Apple and Google can affect your plan
✅ Why your power of attorney should be reviewed with digital assets in mind
✅ Why passwords and recovery codes should never go in your will
✅ How to start a secure digital inventory without turning it into an overwhelming project

You don’t need to catalog every app you’ve ever downloaded.

Start with one question:

If I couldn’t respond tomorrow, what would my family need to find first?

A modern estate plan isn’t just about making sure your family inherits what you own.

It’s also about making sure they can find and manage what matters when you can’t.

📖 Read this week’s blog to learn more:

Your Passwords Are Not Your Plan. Here’s What Your Family Needs

❤️ Should Your Life Insurance Go to Your Spouse or Your Trust?It sounds like a simple question on a beneficiary form.It ...
09/28/2026

❤️ Should Your Life Insurance Go to Your Spouse or Your Trust?

It sounds like a simple question on a beneficiary form.

It isn’t.

Imagine a $1 million life insurance policy meant to take care of your spouse and, eventually, help your children.

If you name your spouse directly, they generally receive the money outright and have the freedom to use it however they need.

If you name your trust, the money can be managed according to the instructions you created.

Neither choice is automatically right.

The better question is: What do you want this money to make possible for your family?

In this week’s blog, we cover:

✅ When naming your spouse directly may make sense
✅ When a trust may provide important structure
✅ Why blended families need to think carefully about this decision
✅ What can happen when minor children are named as backup beneficiaries
✅ Why simply naming a trust doesn’t automatically create the protection you expect
✅ Why your beneficiary form needs to work with the rest of your estate plan

You bought life insurance because someone depends on you.

Make sure the beneficiary designation actually accomplishes what you bought the policy to do.

📖 Read this week’s blog:

Should I Name My Spouse or My Trust as My Life Insurance Beneficiary?

❤️ What Happens to Your Estate If You and Your Spouse Die Days Apart?Most couples build their estate plan around a simpl...
09/21/2026

❤️ What Happens to Your Estate If You and Your Spouse Die Days Apart?

Most couples build their estate plan around a simple assumption:

One of us will still be here.

But what if you aren’t?

What if you and your spouse die in the same accident, or one of you survives the other by only a few hours or days?

Suddenly, questions most families have never considered become incredibly important:

Who inherited first?
How long did they have to survive to inherit?
Who receives the assets if they didn’t survive long enough?
Could property potentially pass through two estates?
And do your trust, will, beneficiary forms, and account titles all give the same answer?

In this week’s blog, we explain:

✅ What survivorship clauses actually do
✅ Why surviving your spouse by a few days may not mean you inherit
✅ How the 120-hour rule can come into play
✅ Why a joint trust doesn’t automatically solve the problem
✅ Why life insurance and retirement beneficiary forms need to match the rest of your plan
✅ The additional complications blended families should consider

You planned for one of you to carry on.

A complete plan should also answer what happens if neither of you can.

📖 Read this week’s blog:

Spouses With a Joint Trust: What Happens If You Die Days Apart?

💼 Your Adult Children Are Successful and Responsible. So Why Leave Their Inheritance in a Trust?It sounds counterintuiti...
09/14/2026

💼 Your Adult Children Are Successful and Responsible. So Why Leave Their Inheritance in a Trust?

It sounds counterintuitive.

Your daughter is a physician. Your son owns a business. Your children have careers, families, homes, and financial lives of their own.

Why would they need a trust?

Because responsibility doesn’t eliminate risk.

In fact, success can create more of it.

Lawsuits. Business guarantees. Divorce. Professional liability. Creditors. An inheritance received outright can suddenly become part of the same financial world your child has worked so hard to build.

A properly designed inheritance trust may provide another option.

In this week’s blog, we cover:

✅ Why successful adult children may still benefit from inheritance protection
✅ What protections can disappear when assets are inherited outright
✅ How a trust can provide flexibility without treating an adult like a child
✅ How careers, businesses, marriages, and other risks factor into the decision
✅ Why the right plan is about stewardship, not control

You worked a lifetime to build what you have.

The question isn’t simply who should inherit it?

It’s how should they inherit it so it continues to protect the people you built it for?

📖 Read this week’s blog:

Should You Leave an Inheritance in Trust for Adult Children?

For an individual in 2026, the 37% federal income tax bracket doesn’t begin until taxable income exceeds $640,600.For a ...
08/31/2026

For an individual in 2026, the 37% federal income tax bracket doesn’t begin until taxable income exceeds $640,600.

For a trust or estate?

$16,000.

That doesn’t automatically mean your trust is wrong. But if your estate plan predates the SECURE Act and a trust is named as the beneficiary of your IRA, it’s a very good reason to take another look.

The rules surrounding inherited retirement accounts have changed, and a plan designed years ago to protect your children may now have tax and distribution consequences you never intended.

In this week’s blog, we cover:

✅ How the SECURE Act changed inherited IRA planning
✅ Why the $16,000 trust tax threshold matters
✅ The difference between conduit and accumulation trusts
✅ Why minimizing taxes isn’t always the same as protecting your family
✅ Why your IRA beneficiary designation needs to match the rest of your estate plan

The goal is to make sure the wealth you built actually serves and protects the people you built it for.

If your trust or IRA beneficiary designation hasn’t been reviewed recently, now is a good time to bring the whole plan back to the table.

📖 Read this week’s blog to learn more.

Your Trust Could Reach the 37% Tax Bracket at Just $16,000

If Make-A-Will Month finally got you to create a will, that matters. You took an important step most families never get ...
08/24/2026

If Make-A-Will Month finally got you to create a will, that matters. You took an important step most families never get around to taking.

But a will is not the finish line.

It may not control your retirement accounts or life insurance. It does nothing if you become incapacitated. It won’t keep your family out of probate. And if you created a trust but never funded it, your family could still end up in court anyway.

This week’s blog covers what should come **after** the will:

✓ Review your beneficiary designations
✓ Make sure your trust is actually funded
✓ Put incapacity and healthcare documents in place
✓ Have a plan for keeping everything current as your life changes

Because the goal isn’t simply to have signed documents.

It’s to have a plan that actually works when your family needs it.

Read this week’s blog to see what your will can’t do, and what you may still need to put in place.

You Made a Will. Here’s What It Can’t Do.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s death was unexpected. The legal dispute that followed illustrates something every family should u...
08/17/2026

Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s death was unexpected. The legal dispute that followed illustrates something every family should understand:

Good intentions aren’t the same as a plan that actually works.

According to a lawsuit filed by his widow, commitments made in a premarital agreement (including life insurance, retirement funding, and annual payments) were allegedly never fully carried out.

And that’s where estate planning can fail.

A signed document is only the beginning. Policies have to be purchased and maintained. Accounts have to be funded. Beneficiaries have to stay current. Commitments have to be verified. And as your family and finances change, your plan has to change with them.

In this week’s blog, we look at the Warner family dispute through an estate-planning lens and the steps an ongoing planning relationship could have taken to help prevent it.

Because intention is not implementation.

Your family doesn’t just need documents. They need a plan that is built, funded, maintained, and ready to work when they need it most.

📖 Read this week’s blog to learn more:

The Cosby Show Made Him Famous. His Estate Plan Failed His Family. Here’s What I Would Have Done.

📄 Make-A-Will Month Is Here. But a Will Isn’t a Plan.August is a great reminder to finally get your estate planning done...
08/10/2026

📄 Make-A-Will Month Is Here. But a Will Isn’t a Plan.

August is a great reminder to finally get your estate planning done.

But here’s the part most families never hear:

A will is only one piece of the puzzle.

A will can name beneficiaries and guardians. But by itself, it does not:

• Avoid probate
• Protect you if you become incapacitated
• Control assets with outdated beneficiary designations
• Give someone immediate authority to care for your children in the first 72 hours after an emergency

That last one matters more than most parents realize.

In this week’s blog, we break down:

✅ What a will can actually do
✅ The important things it cannot do
✅ Why the first 72 hours matter for families with minor children
✅ How a Kids Protection Plan® closes a gap most parents never knew existed
✅ What estate planning looks like when it actually works

Make-A-Will Month is a good reason to start.

Just don’t stop at the will.

Read the full article:

Make-A-Will Month Is Here. But a Will Isn't a Plan.

You would step in if a friend was about to make a dangerous decision.So why do we stay quiet when someone we love has no...
08/03/2026

You would step in if a friend was about to make a dangerous decision.

So why do we stay quiet when someone we love has no plan in place?

Nearly three out of four Americans do not have a will. That means someone you care about is probably leaving their family vulnerable to court delays, frozen assets, confusion, and decisions no one was prepared to make.

The good news is that you do not need the perfect speech.

Sometimes one honest question is enough:

**“If something happened to you tomorrow, would your family know what to do?”**

In this week’s blog, we share:

✅ Why smart, responsible people still put estate planning off
✅ What families really face when no plan exists
✅ Simple ways to start the conversation without making it awkward
✅ Why referring a friend can be a genuine act of love
✅ How National Make a Will Month gives you an easy reason to bring it up now

You do not have to convince them.

You only have to open the door.

📖 Read and share the full article:

https://www.bccounselorsatlaw.com/our-blog/friends-dont-let-friends-go-without-an-estate-plan

Friends Don't Let Friends Go Without an Estate Plan

Many parents have never heard of the new **Trump Account**, and even those who have often don't realize there's an impor...
07/27/2026

Many parents have never heard of the new **Trump Account**, and even those who have often don't realize there's an important step required to claim the government's contribution.

But here's something that's getting even less attention...

Opening the account is only the beginning.

In this week's blog, we cover:

✅ Who qualifies for the $1,000 government contribution
✅ How to open a Trump Account and claim the benefit
✅ Why this new account should be coordinated with your estate plan
✅ What happens if something happens to you before your child turns 18
✅ How this account fits alongside trusts, wills, and your family's long-term goals

A new financial tool for your child is exciting.

Making sure it's protected as part of a complete Life & Legacy Plan is even more important.

Read this week's blog:

🔗

Trump Accounts: What Every Parent of a Baby Born 2025–2028 Needs to Know

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