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| Acknowledgments | |
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| Introduction | |
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| How to use this book | |
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| Preparing to Inherit | |
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| Your Relationship with Your Parents | |
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| Estate planning questions: The quick list | |
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| Opening the Conversation | |
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| Before You Talk to Your Parents, First Talk to Yourself | |
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| Sidebar: A checklist of emotional inheritance issues | |
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| Parents' primary concerns | |
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| After Talking to Yourself, Confer with Your Siblings | |
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| Before Approaching Your Parents, You May Want to Consult a Professional | |
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| Approaching Your Parents | |
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| Assembling Your Parents' Vital Documents | |
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| Estate Planning Issues | |
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| Managing Your Parents' Affairs before They Die | |
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| Minimizing Estate Taxes | |
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| Sidebar: Estate, inheritance, and gift taxes | |
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| Protecting against Incompetence or Disability | |
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| Durable general power of attorney | |
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| A living (or "revocable") trust | |
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| Preparing for Death | |
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| Have your parents written their wills? | |
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| Plan the funeral | |
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| Get to know your parents' advisers | |
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| What if your parent has remarried? | |
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| Understanding Irrevocable Trusts | |
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| Is a Trust Necessary? | |
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| Using Trusts to Reduce Taxes | |
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| Sidebar: How long can a trust last? | |
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| The Alternative to a Trust | |
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| If a Trust Is Necessary | |
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| How many trusts? | |
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| Choosing an estate attorney | |
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| Locating a trust's "home base" | |
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| Choosing a Trustee | |
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| Anticipating Disputes and Attaching Strings | |
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| What Does a Trust Cost? | |
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| Once the Trust Document Is Written, Then What? | |
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| When Wealth Changes Hands | |
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| Steps to Take When Your Parent or Spouse Dies | |
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| At the Time of Death | |
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| After the Funeral | |
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| In the Months after Death | |
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| Sidebar: The estate of Donald B.: A sample timetable | |
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| The Executor | |
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| Duties of Executors | |
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| If You Are the Executor | |
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| Local Estate and Inheritance Taxes | |
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| Your Inheritance | |
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| If There Is No Will | |
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| If There Is a Will | |
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| What to expect | |
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| Your right to access the will | |
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| Contesting a will | |
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| After the Will Is Settled | |
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| Can money change you? | |
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| Dealing with grief issues | |
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| Quick Tips | |
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| Choosing Professional Advisers | |
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| Family advisers, or choose your own? | |
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| A Quick Guide to Professional Advisers | |
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| Lawyers | |
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| Accountants | |
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| Investment advisers | |
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| Stockbrokers | |
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| Financial planners | |
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| Insurance agents | |
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| Therapists | |
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| To Commingle Assets or Not? | |
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| Rewriting Your Own Will | |
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| Handling New Wealth | |
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| Managing Your Direct Inheritance | |
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| Utilizing Your Professional Advisers | |
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| Investing | |
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| If You're a Surviving Spouse | |
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| Planning Your Own Estate | |
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| Living with an Irrevocable Trust | |
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| Your Goals as a Trust Beneficiary | |
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| Your Rights to Information about the Management of Your Trust | |
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| Dealing with Trustees | |
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| Improving your trustee's performance | |
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| Checking investment performance | |
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| Challenging management fees | |
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| Is your trustee ripping you off? | |
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| Settling Disputes: Confrontational Tactics | |
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| Going semi-public | |
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| Going public | |
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| Going to the government | |
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| Suing a trustee | |
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| Removing your trustee | |
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| Choosing a Successor Trustee | |
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| Dealing with Your Fellow Beneficiaries | |
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| Inheritors' Lifestyle Issues | |
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| The Importance of Work | |
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| The Rewards of Philanthropy | |
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| A Closing Thought | |
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| Resources | |
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| Support Groups | |
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| Inheritors' Support Groups | |
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| Related Support Groups | |
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| Inheritance and Wealth Advisers | |
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| Personal and Technical Money Issues | |
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| Family Business Consultants | |
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| Philanthropic Consultants | |
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| Psychological Issues | |
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| Organizations | |
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| Family Therapy | |
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| Publications | |
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| Books | |
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| General Resource Guides | |
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| Trusts and Estates | |
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| Psychology of Inheritance | |
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| Money Management and Personal Finance | |
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| Meaningful Work | |
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| Contributing Your Time | |
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| Socially Responsible Investing | |
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| Philanthropy | |
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| Selected Articles | |
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| Magazines | |
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| Papers | |
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| Newspapers | |
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| Government Agencies | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Index | |