The Death Readiness Podcast: Not your dad’s estate planning podcast

What Divorced Parents Need to Know About Life Insurance

Your parenting plan may require you to maintain life insurance for your children. But does your beneficiary designation actually accomplish what the court order requires?

Why Your Responsible Child Might Be the Wrong Trustee

What actually happens after a professional trustee takes over a trust and a beneficiary asks for money? In this episode, Jill sits down with longtime friend and trust ad

Why Your Pour-Over Will Won’t Avoid Probate

You created a revocable trust to avoid probate. So why did your attorney also give you a Will? That Will is a pour-over Will, designed to catch assets that are still in

Why Turning 18 Changes Everything in a Medical Crisis

What You’ll Learn in This Episode What really changes when your child turns 18. Being Mom or Dad no longer necessarily means you’re entitled to healthcare information or

Why Reading the Will Looks Nothing Like in the Movies

You’ve seen the scene in movies: the family gathers in a lawyer’s office, the Will is dramatically read aloud, and everyone discovers who inherited what. Real life looks

Why You Shouldn't Add Your Child to Your Deed or Bank Account

Should you add your child to your deed or bank account? It sounds like a simple way to avoid probate or make things easier if you need help later in life. But that estat

Why Your Original Will Matters More Than You Think

Have you ever wondered whether a photocopy of your Will is enough? In this episode of The Death Readiness Podcast, estate planning attorney Jill Mastroianni explains why

How to Overcome Estate Planning Jargon and Overwhelm

The biggest obstacle to estate planning isn't procrastination. It's confusion and overwhelm. In this episode, Jill shares why she changed the way she practices law, the s

How to Avoid Costly Mistakes After a Death

Losing someone you love is hard enough. Figuring out what to do next can feel overwhelming. In this episode, estate planning attorney Jill Mastroianni sits down with est

Why I Won't Leave My Kids Cash

If your children inherited a million dollars tomorrow, would you want them to receive a check—or a trusted guide? In this episode, Jill pulls back the curtain on her own

What You Need to Know Before Editing Your Will

What happens if you simply cross out part of your Will, write “VOID” above it, and initial the change? The answer is more complicated, and riskier, than most people real

Why Your Power of Attorney Can't Do Everything

When someone you love names you as agent under a power of attorney, it can feel like you'll be able to step in and handle whatever needs to be done. But what happens when

What You Need to Know About Corporate Trustees

Michael thought he had done everything right. He created a revocable trust, avoided probate, and named a neutral third party to serve as trustee after his death. But when

How Creditors Can Delay a Probate Estate

Can you open a probate estate, distribute the assets, close the file, and move on without worrying about creditors? Not quite. In this episode of The Death Readiness Po

What You Need to Know About Estate Planning at 30

What estate planning documents does a healthy 30-year-old actually need? In this episode of The Death Readiness Podcast, Jill answers a question from a young listener wh

How to Prepare for Retirement Without Panic

Jill Mastroianni is joined by her close friend and financial advisor, Blair Coffman Martin, to discuss how to approach retirement planning, long-term care, and helping ad

How Do You Know If Mom Can Still Sign

What happens when someone with memory changes needs to sign a will, trust, or power of attorney? Who actually decides whether they’re “competent” enough to sign, and what

How to Update Estate Planning After a Dementia Diagnosis

What happens when a parent develops dementia and an attorney tells your family it’s “too late” to update estate planning? In this week’s Tuesday Triage episode, Jill walk

How to Take Your Estate Plan Off Script

You can follow all the estate planning rules and still end up with the wrong plan. In this episode, Jill walks through a question from a young attorney who’s been handed

Why your life insurance trust might not work

New clients came in with two life insurance trusts—professionally drafted, signed, notarized, and organized in beautiful binders. There was just one problem: the trusts d