संपादकीय नीति

Independence and audience

The Estate Guide is an impersonal educational publication for readers and professionals who want a structured map of estate-planning subjects. Editorial coverage is not tailored to an individual and is not influenced by an advertiser, sponsor, affiliate, directory placement, or a person seeking favorable treatment.

Paid placement, if introduced, must be labeled at the point of use and visually distinguished from editorial content. A commercial relationship cannot buy a factual conclusion, topic omission, ranking, credential claim, or recommendation.

Source hierarchy and citations

For federal legal and tax claims, we begin with the United States Code, codified regulations, Congress, the IRS, Treasury, responsible agencies, official forms and instructions, and relevant courts. For state claims, we begin with the named state’s enacted code, legislature, revenue department, court system, agency publications, and official forms.

Model acts and institutional materials can explain a framework but are not substituted for a state’s actual enactment. Reputable law firms, universities, professional associations, and treatises may provide context after primary authority. Generic blogs do not replace authoritative support when it is available.

We summarize and cite; we do not reproduce copyrighted commentary. A source link is not an endorsement.

Legal and tax maintenance

Time-sensitive records are designed around jurisdiction, effective date, tax year, last review date, source, and review status. Automated monitoring may identify a possible change in legislation, regulations, forms, guidance, or cases, but detection alone does not publish or revise a legal conclusion. A human editorial review must confirm scope, status, date, and source before publication.

When no reviewed value or rule is available, the Site should state why it is missing. It must not convert “not reviewed,” “not published,” “not applicable,” and “unknown” into the same blank or zero.

News: real items, named publishers, working source links

The news section publishes or summarizes real articles, official releases, guidance, legislation, and decisions only. Every item must identify its publisher or issuing authority, show a publication date, and link to the original working source. Fabricated headlines, invented publishers, placeholder stories, unattributed paraphrases, and articles created to simulate current events are prohibited.

News selection favors developments with a meaningful connection to federal tax, state tax, the IRS, Treasury, trusts, probate, court decisions, legislation, retirement accounts, charitable planning, business succession, and family wealth. A news summary links back to evergreen pages in The Estate Guide so a reader can understand the lasting concept. Inclusion is not endorsement.

A bill is labeled as proposed or pending; a court decision is identified by jurisdiction and status; guidance is not described as a statute; and an announced future change is not presented as currently effective.

AI provenance and human responsibility

Content is compiled partly through AI-assisted research; figures are indicative and should be verified against primary sources. AI can support classification, drafting, relationship mapping, question matching, and change detection. It cannot supply authority merely because the output sounds plausible.

AI-assisted material follows the same citation, date, jurisdiction, and corrections standards as other content. Detected changes require human review before publication. Ask The Estate Guide answers from selected site material, must distinguish general and state-specific information, and cannot establish an attorney-client or other professional relationship.

Authors, reviewers, and credentials

Pages should identify the author and legal or tax reviewer where a verified person has actually performed that work and consented to the attribution. We do not invent staff names, credentials, professional roles, biographies, or review claims. When no individual reviewer is available, the page should rely on transparent sources and a truthful editorial status rather than a fictional byline.

Corrections

A correction report should identify the page, statement, jurisdiction, tax year or effective date, and an authoritative source. We investigate the class of issue, not only the reported instance. A verified correction should update the affected content and its review information. Material errors should be corrected promptly; disagreements about interpretation are labeled and sourced rather than silently resolved by assertion.

Use Contact to report an issue. Submitted material is a lead and does not publish automatically.