Illingworth Dennis

What Is the Difference Between a Lawyer and an Attorney?

People often use the terms lawyer and attorney interchangeably, but did you know there are differences? This article will explain what you need to know.

Top 10 Mistakes Made When Hiring a Lawyer

Hiring a lawyer is an intensive process. You will often hear people complaining about their relationship with their attorney. Issues can be circumvented if you make a concerted effort to avoid the following common mistakes when hiring an attorney. Not checking a lawyer's area of expertise. Some attorneys can do well outside of their area of expertise, but many do not know the nuances in other areas of the law. Therefore, if you need a contract lawyer, do not hire a divorce attorney…

3 Warning Signs That Your Lawyer's No Good

We all have different tastes, and varying notions of what makes a thing great. Some of us tend to the simple yet sophisticated, while others are into ostentation and flair. Just like there is no one way to be well-dressed...

10 Questions for an Elder Law Attorney

Many concerns and questions can arise as we grow older. In the last decade or so, a new category of law has emerged that specializes in helping retirees answer their questions and learn their rights. Here, 10 questions for an elder law attorney.

How to Build Better Retirement Plans

Three experts from Morningstar offer their ideas on how to increase retirement savings.

Top 5 Things Real Estate Agents Wish Buyers Wouldn't Do

Having a strong relationship with your real estate agent is important when you're in the market for a new home. But making any of the following mistakes...

Top 3 Myths About Personal Injury Lawsuits

Injury cases are often highly controversial. For example, people often disagree strongly about whether legal remedies are required to compensate for an injury, or whether the person received a fair or excessive amount.In this context, there are numerous myths surrounding...

Estate Planning Begins with Good Questions

Your choice of attorney and your own clear thinking is a good beginning. Asking yourself the right questions before you get started in looking toward creating an estate plan is good preliminary work, even before hiring a good estate attorney, according to Market Watch in "Giving your money away when...

How Can Beneficiary Designations Wreck My Estate Plan?

Beneficiary designations are a crucial part of estate planning, yet they are often overlooked. Once you have signed your estate planning documents, you need to make sure that your beneficiary designations are consistent with the rest of your estate plan.

What Is a Fiduciary in Estate Planning?

There are some terms used in the estate planning realm that may be unfamiliar to some laypeople. One of them is “fiduciary,” and we will demystify the term in this post.

Who Gets Your Personal Property? Estate Planning Considerations

It is more likely that your family will come to blows over Great Grandmother’s favorite serving platter than over a bank account. Sentimental value attached to minor items are more likely to cause upset and drama, and those are the items most often left out of estate plans. For most...

What are the Benefits of Estate Planning?

Many people choose to put off estate planning because they feel it is not a necessity until a later time in life. The truth is, everyone needs to have an estate plan in place.

What Goes into an Estate Plan?

The Benefits of an Estate Plan

Living without an Estate Plan can be risky business. Find out why.

Wallace: Why haven't you done your estate plan?

You have done no estate planning — no will, no trust, no financial power of attorney and no health care power of attorney. Congratulations! You are with the majority of Michiganders. Over half of our state's adult residents have no estate plan.

When Estate Plans Fail

Nowadays more people are considering pets—and even children posthumously conceived from frozen sperm—in their estate-planning mix. Here's what you need to know.

Is Estate Planning Important for Young Adults?

For many young adults, the consequences of not having an estate plan in place can be dire.

Will Planning and Estate Planning? Not the Same

Estate planning goes the distance in caring for your family. Will planning and estate planning are often confused. However, the important difference is that a will focuses on distribution of assets but estate planning goes much deeper, according to Lexology in “The Differences Between Will Planning & Estate Planning.” An...

Estate Planning: Filling in the Blanks?

Even though smart people really know that hiring an experienced estate planning attorney certainly is a better choice, there are plenty of form wills and estate planning documents out there in our Internet world that can be used. They may get the job done, and using something like this is certainly better than doing nothing, yet if you do go this route, beware of mistakes people commonly make when preparing their own wills.