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Thank you to all the followers and visitors of The Common Executor for contributing to a phenomenal year. In 2017, the blog reached all goals. In 2018, the blog tripled all goals and set the bar high for 2019. Since I like a good challenge, I will continue to post for a fourth year.
The Year in Review
In 2018, the traffic tripled from the previous year. In addition to the momentum from 2017, traffic exploded as a result of adding security to the blog.
Additionally, because of the growth in traffic, revenues from my Amazon Affiliation increased enough to cover some expenses to run the blog.
Although I didn’t post as often, improvements were made to allow for additional features in the coming year. Basically, 2018 was spent on the business side of the blog than solely on content creation. The good news, even though there were fewer articles, the traffic continued to grow.
Finally, the poll this year asked, ”Do you have concerns about estate planning?” The results were as follows:
- 90% answered that they have no concerns. They know what they want to do.
- 5% replied that they plan to spend everything and leave nothing.
- 5% admitted that they don’t know where to begin.
The poll resulted in a good cross section of replies. Although most respondents know what they want to do, they still visit this blog. So, hopefully this blog provided a benefit to them. The remaining respondents proved that apathy still exists because of not caring or confused about the planning process. Either way, there is still a need for The Common Executor.
Plans for Next Year
In 2019, I plan to continue posting based on visitor interaction. Last year, search terms and questions from visitors determined the topic for the articles and the amount of posts. I will employ the same process this year.
As promised last year, the blog articles will always remain free. However, the costs of running this blog keep growing. Therefore, my goal this year is to raise enough money to cover the expenses. I will try to accomplish this in the following ways:
- Through increased sales with my affiliation with Amazon.
- Provide PDF’s at a low cost. These PDF’s will help estate planners avoid the pitfalls of estate planning and will help executors plan for a smooth estate administration.
Basically, the goals remain the same: Boost visitor engagement and raise money to keep this blog running.
Top Posts in 2018
In 2018, there was a good mix of interest in the articles that makes me hopeful that people are looking at all aspects of estate planning and estate administration. The top 5 posts for 2018:
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How to Handle a Belligerent Beneficiary
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Inherited Traditional IRA | Distribution Rules for Estate as Beneficiary
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Closing an Estate in a Formal Probate Process
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Communicating with Beneficiaries: Executors Should Use Common Sense
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Good Record Keeping: Crucial for an Executor
That’s it. Have a Happy Holiday Season!!!
In estate planning, utilizing the life estate agreement is rare, but can be effective in transferring property. Accordingly, the key reasons why people implement the life estate in their estate plans are as follows: 
In common estates, suspect executor behavior will create suspicious beneficiaries. Although the beneficiary may view the executor behavior as suspect, the behavior may not be suspect at all. As described in the article 
The accounting process of an estate is an integral part of the probate process. Although estate law is different in many states, all states allow beneficiaries access to a final accounting. Therefore, an executor of an estate must produce a final accounting to close the estate.
