There are many reasons to have a will, but avoiding probate is not among them. Other tools such as a living trust can help achieve that goal. There are legal documents and procedures beyond having a valid Last Will & Testament that constitute “estate planning”. A person’s “estate” is his/her “net worth” at any moment. […]
Archives for September 2014
The Seventeenth Amendment: Destroying State Sovereignty
September 16, 2014 by
From 1789 to 1913 the power to choose United States Senators was vested by the Constitution in the State legislatures. The Seventeenth Amendment altered the process by providing for direct election of Senators by the people. This fundamentally altered a carefully balanced power structure built into the unamended Constitution that served important purposes: to limit federal power […]
The Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution
September 10, 2014 by
“The Tenth Amendment is the foundation of the Constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson Among the questions raised by opponents of the Constitution during the ratification debates was the lack of an express limit on federal power, and that it would be a danger to individual freedoms and to the powers of the states. In response to […]
US Declaration of Independence: Unprecedented Change to the World
On June 7, 1776 Virginia’s Richard Henry Lee stood up in the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia and offered a resolution that would forever change the course of American and world history. “Resolved: that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance […]