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3 Advantages of Having a Living Trust

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Many people choose to draft a living trust in addition to–or instead of–a traditional will. The main difference between the two is that with the first, your assets are placed into a trust which you can continue to use to your benefit while you’re alive. A will only comes into effect after your death. Here are the 3 most important reasons to have your estate planning attorney in Northridge help you plan your living trust.

Avoid Probate
The main reason people have living trusts is so their assets can be distributed more quickly after their death. Wills have to go through probate, which involves a lot of time and expense–it may be months or years before your family receives their inheritance. Living trusts allow your loved ones to avoid probate and have your assets distributed by your appointed trustee in as little as a few weeks.

Protect Your Privacy
After your death, the will you leave will be made public record, so anyone will be able to find out the details. Living trusts, on the other hand, are kept private, as is the distribution of your property and other assets. If there is a dispute–a family member who has been disinherited, for example–a copy of the trust may be made available to them during the course of a lawsuit; however, a trust will still keep the public at large from finding out personal details about how your assets were distributed.

Choose Your Successor
Living wills can be a great benefit to you during your lifetime as well as after your death. If you become incapacitated through injury or mental illness, your appointed successor will be able to take control of your trust directly. Not only does this save a lot of time, it also allows them to pay your medical bills and other expenses with money taken from the trust. Otherwise your relatives might be left paying your expenses out of their own pockets.

Talk to your estate planning attorney in Northridge to see how else you could benefit from starting a living trust.

Know Before You Go: Making a Road Trip More Affordable

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Road trips are exciting, unpredictable adventures that are a great way to enjoy a weekend or a summer break. Exploring your independence and having the freedom to roam anywhere and everywhere… what could be better? Well, it would certainly be a better if you were completely insured! Better still if you can do it cheaply…
By heading out on a road trip, you’re already choosing a budget-friendly option in place of a holiday abroad, but there are still ways to make it even cheaper. This may surprise you, but if you hire a car to travel in, you are not always fully protected by the insurance cover that the company offers. In fact, you may find that coverage from the rental company is significantly more expensive than taking out your own car hire excess insurance.

What the Hire Companies Offer

• Collision Damage Waiver (CDW)

This is what rental companies mean when they offer an ‘all-inclusive’ deal. Having CDW means that you will not have to pay the full charge for any repair costs. Notice the word full. Despite this ‘all-inclusive’ insurance, the policy holder is still expected to contribute towards the costs. This is called the ‘excess’, and the agreed price can be in the thousands, depending on the damage. Not only that, but CDW does not actually cover all areas of the car, so you could end up paying even more.

• Theft Protection (TP)

Again, this insurance tends to be included in the price but does not provide full protection. You will still have an excess to pay if the vehicle is stolen; however if this happens as a result of negligence (e.g. leaving the doors unlocked), then the hire company doesn’t cover this at all.

• Super Collision Damage Waiver (SCDW)

This is an extra policy that you can take out with the rental company, and it’s advertised as being able to reduce your liability to zero. However, much like CDW, sometimes there are parts of the car that remain unprotected. Not to mention that SCDW can make a huge difference to the amount you’re paying to the hire company, as it’s often notably expensive.

• Personal Accident Insurance (PAI)

This is an additional cost, but most likely already covered by your travel insurance. PAI covers any injuries to you or other passengers. You may also be offered PEP (Personal Effects Protection), but this too, is usually covered by your travel or home insurance already.

Obtaining car hire excess insurance on top of what the company include in the rental vehicle price is the best option to save money. It usually offers far better protection, and is significantly cheaper than other excess waivers.

Avoiding the unexpected costs that a car hire company can throw at you can be a confusing business, but hopefully this has somewhat spelt out the basics. In short, purchasing car hire excess insurance from a separate company usually does the trick when it comes to keeping a road trip low-cost. Sort your protection today, and save yourself the trouble later.

Author Plate

Ethan Bailey is an experienced adventure traveller and insurance expert with the team at Let’s Go Insure. Ethan’s passion is to inspire his clients to go just that little bit further, deeper and higher on their travels and his expertise in providing the ideal insurance cover allows them to do just that. If you’re looking for the best car hire excess insurance Let’s Go works with the most experienced underwriters, intermediaries and insurers to offer a range of competitive insurance without compromising on cover.

Utah’s Eagle Point Resort: Skiing in Style

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The ideal resort for those looking to get away from the busier and more crowded slopes of the most popular locations, Eagle Point in Utah offers skiing opportunities for all abilities. It’s also set in the heart of a simply breathtaking landscape.
What to Expect

Positioned up in the Tushar Mountains, the resort is undoubtedly one of the most highly regarded in southern Utah. After a scenic approach to Eagle Point, you’ll catch a glimpse of the steep and snow-heavy independent resort, which stretches out across 650 acres that enjoy a yearly average of around 400 inches of snow.

With slopes ranging from the smooth, straightforward beginner pistes to the steeper, more challenging runs reserved for expert skiers, Eagle Point really does have something for skiers of any ability.

Standing out from the much more crowded larger resorts of Utah, Eagle Point continues to distinguish itself by constantly enhancing its accommodation, dining and skiing offerings. The modern Aspen Crest, Eagle Point’s most luxurious residential accommodation, was recently built right in the heart of the resort.

Fine Dining in Style

High-quality cuisine and fine dining are on offer, too, at the Canyonside Lodge Bar & Grill, which also hosts live entertainment at the weekend. The Lodge’s tasteful interiors, high ceilings and cosy, rustic feel has made it very popular among those looking for a top-of-the-range dining experience.

The Lodge’s elegant and classy setting is accompanied by a menu offering everything from amazing appetizers to sumptuous seafood, and plenty in between. You can enjoy a locally-sourced beer on tap in the bar, or relax with a bite to eat in the spacious main restaurant.

Excellence All Round

Receiving the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for providing an outstanding service and experience to all of its visitors, Eagle Point has consistently performed extremely well in the eyes of many reviewers.

The resort offers a diverse range of accommodation, with the numerous luxury holiday homes the ideal choice for anyone looking for a spacious, authentic and well-equipped base from which to enjoy the slopes. Lodges in the village’s centre offer an alternative cosy and comfortable place to stay, whilst the highlights for many visiting the resort are the queue-free lifts, uncrowded slopes and extremely helpful staff.

Eagle Point is the perfect resort for those looking to escape to somewhere new. The slopes are beautifully maintained and not crowded, the tranquillity is absorbing and the atmosphere is friendly and inviting.

Before You Go

Before departing for Eagle Point (or any other ski resort in the world!), it would be wise to purchase a comprehensive ski travel insurance policy. Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned skier or a total beginner it’s imperative to put in place, just in case of the unlikely event something goes wrong,

Having a good ski travel insurance policy sorted before you set off on your holiday will put your mind at rest and ensure that you can enjoy a hassle-free trip.

Author Plate

Patrick Chong is the Managing Director of InsureMore, an award-winning team of specialists in global single trip, family, annual, cruise travel and winter sports insurance. If you’re looking for the best ski travel insurance, InsureMore will cover you for any destination worldwide. Besides offering great deals on travel insurance, Patrick also collects and shares the best free travel competitions to help his clients get the most out of their holidays.

Best Way to Conduct Asphalt Marshall Stability Test

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Every asphalt is not made equivalent — any other means to deal with the vital loads wouldn’t be ideal! Utilizing the Marshall Stability Equipment, engineers conduct the Marshall Stability Test to foresee how well an asphalt mixture will perform and the greatest burden it can uphold. Let us get familiarized with what the Marshall Stability Test is, the reason it’s utilized and the way that it is performed.
Definition of Marshall Stability Test?

The “Marshall” in Marshall Stability Test alludes to a particular Marshall mix, which is the sort of asphalt we find in streets nowadays. The Marshall Mix plan method assists engineers with choosing the ideal asphalt binding content at a thickness that meets stability and stream esteem prerequisites. While different tests have been created and refined related to this test, the stability test is as yet one of the most generally utilized asphalt mix plan methods around the world.

The Marshall method of asphalt mix configuration is generally drilled in development materials labs to choose and extent total and asphalt materials for asphalt development. This comprehensive way to deal with asphalt mix configuration includes the choice of mineral total and cover materials, readiness of preliminary examples, load testing for strength and stream of materials, and lab tests of material properties. The attention is on the assurance of an ideal asphalt content that will furnish most extreme solidarity to the mix with least disfigurement from pivot loads. Marshall stability and stream test values, thickness, and air voids in the mix and the mineral total are completely utilized for assessment of preliminary mixtures of lab-mixed, lab-compacted (LMLC) asphalt mixtures. Marshall stability and stream tests can likewise screen the development of the asphalt mixture utilizing plant mix, research facility compacted (PMLC) tests.

Proper method to Conduct Mix Stability Test

While there are distinctive ways that go into the Marshall test for asphalt, they’re direct and easy to perform with the right appratus available to you.

First Step: Aggregate Selection of Mix

Asphalt is made of two primary parts, bitumen and totals. Bitumen is the fluid cover that keeps the total mix intact and makes the last mix we know as asphalt. To choose a total, you’ll have to test different actual properties like sturdiness and scraped area, molecule shape, degree and size, solidness, explicit gravity and assimilation. Assuming totals are coming from more than one source; perform preliminary mixing computations until the appropriate mix configuration is accomplished.

Second Step: Select the Asphalt Binder

For this part of the test, most engineers will allude to the Super pave PG folio framework since the Marshall test has no fastener assessment and choice methodology. Tests performed on the asphalt folio ought to decide the connection among temperature and viscosity.

Stage 3: Preparation of Sample

The Marshall Stability Test normally generally needs an assortment of test bitumen-binder content with various degrees of cover content to decide the best one for an application. By and large, there will be 5 bitumen-total binders with 3 unique binder — 15 samples are taken altogether. This step permits engineers to decide the ideal asphalt binding content and which mix does the best task of dealing with the necessary loads.

As a component of test testing, the examples are warmed to the anticipated compaction temperature. Then, a Marshall Compatibility device, typically a hammer, is utilized to minimize the examples with sturdy pressure.

Step 4: True Stability Testing

Presently the genuine stability testing can start. Utilizing Marshall Stability test frameworks like the Hveem Stabilometer, engineers can quantify the greatest burden a specific mix will actually want to deal with. Examples are stacked at a pace of 50.8mm/minute (or around 2 inches each moment), gradually expanding until the greatest burden is reached. A dial check will for the most part likewise measure the example’s plastic stream because of stacking.

Step 5: Thickness and Air Void Examination

At last, explicit gravity tests and air void tests can be performed on the various samples to guarantee they meet neighborhood and state rules. This will assure that the appropriate bitumen, total and air volumes are gone after an ideal eventual result.

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