Courts Vow Legal Aid in Housing

The report, “Estate Planning: Dealing with Death and Taxes,” looked at estate planning online tools, resources and specialized services, as of last summer, at the various brokerage firms it tracks. According to David Rosenberg, senior analyst for brokerage firms at Corporate Insight, the top group of firms highlighted in the report include Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, Edward Jones, Charles Schwab, Wells Fargo Advisors and Ameriprise Financial. “These firms stand out from the others highlighted because they offer better mixes of estate planning services with online resources (e.g., articles, tools, information),” Mr. Rosenberg said in an e-mail. The other firms tended to offer either helpful online information or services from dedicated estate planning professionals rather than both. According to the report, two-thirds of brokerage firms that were tracked offer some form of estate planning services. And generally, most of the firms offering such services were full-service firms rather than discount brokerages. What firm and resources do you use for your estate planning needs and why?