This book is intended to give women a roadmap to legal and financial protections, security, and opportunities they can create for themselves as they transition from one life phase to another-whether the transition is by choice or fate. It establishes a "how to" process so that a woman can protect herself. Further, it explores the legal, financial and estate planning ramifications women face as they transition through each life phase - leaving home the first time, choosing to marry (or not), building a career, having children or living without children, divorcing, facing a life crisis and, ultimately, being alone again after the death of a spouse or partner. Failure to do so can make or break their future security.

A Matter of Trust is a book for everyone - everyone, that is, who cares about what happens to them in the event of disability and to their legacy at the time of their death. Maggie Kinnick was a widow of comfortable means who created a revocable living trust on the advice of her trusted advisors after the death of her only child, Pat. Her trust was created to provide Maggie with financial caretakers and oversight in the event she could no longer handle her own affairs due to mental incompetence and to distribute her legacy at her death. Her trust met the letter of the law and had typical "lawyer language" giving broad discretion to the trustees to expend funds on her behalf. No one anticipated that "discretion" cuts both ways and the trustee would exercise discretion not to expend funds for Maggie - primarily out of an abundance of caution to preserve her assets. Instead of protecting Maggie, the trust and its interpretation by the trustees created a living nightmare for her -- one that continued even after her death. A Matter of Trust is the definitive guide to create legal directives so that Maggie's nightmare can be avoided and to provide guidance on the creation of personalized instructions to properly guide caretakers about when and how discretion should be exercised. Estate planning attorneys and authors, Peggy R. Hoyt and Candace M. Pollock, present the real truth about trusts, trustees, and about the need for proper estate planning. Join them on Maggie's journey through a living trust abyss. Create a different result for yourself!