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Even the best-drafted estate plan is useless if there is no way to access your money and property. That's why it is critical to account for things like your keys, PIN numbers, and passwords when drafting an estate plan.

If you do not properly account for these things, your family may be completely precluded from accessing electronic records, as well as cash and jewelry you keep somewhere secure like in a safe.

Here are five tips for keeping track of your passwords, keys, and PIN numbers:

It's never too late for a basic crash course on estate planning. Often, people confuse estate planning with financial planning. They assume that a financial planner can help with all of their estate planning needs.

While there are numerous posts and articles online about Estate Planning 101 and the basics of planning an estate, we can never be too redundant on that topic.

So, let's get back to basics here and talk about estate planning. Not everyone knows what it means. For starters, there's a difference between "financial planning" and "estate planning."

Gay marriage is in the news again, as a same-sex marriage pioneer has passed away in Los Angeles. Richard Adams died Dec. 17 at the age of 65, The New York Times reports.

Adams married Tony Sullivan, an Australian national, in 1975. The couple wed in Colorado during a brief period when such licenses were being granted to same-sex couples. After that, the couple fought incessantly to have their marriage recognized by the federal government, as the Immigration and Naturalization Service sought to deport Sullivan.

In response to an application for residency, an official rejection letter from the INS stated that the couple failed to establish "that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots," according to the Times.

Retirement accounts are critical to good estate planning and good financial planning.

You might already have a retirement account, but what happens if you're not happy with it? Did you know that it was possible to roll over your account?

You can change accounts and go with an entirely different brokerage. While you're not allowed to withdraw funds from an investment retirement account or from a 401(k) account without incurring a penalty, you are well within your rights to roll over an account.

How does this work?

The estate of J.R.R. Tolkien is suing Warner Brothers over the creation of an online slot machine, reports Hollywood Reporter. The lawsuit is claiming over $80 million in damages, claiming the merchandising was unauthorized.

This comes just weeks before the studio releases The Hobbit, based on a Tolkien book.

The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Los Angeles. It was brought by the Tolkien estate and HarperCollins. The lawsuit claims that Warner Brothers and Saul Zaentz, the rightsholder to the Lord of The Rings franchise, have infringed on the copyright and are in breach of contract.

Details on the estate of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger are slowly emerging, according to the New York Daily News.

Sulzberger, one of the most prolific publishers The New York Times had ever seen, passed away in the Hamptons last month. He was 86 years old.

During his lifetime, he was best known as the chairman and CEO of The New York Times Co., where he reigned supreme for 34 years.

Estate planning isn't the easiest area of law to understand so it's understandable why as a potential client, you might be daunted by the idea of visiting an estate planning attorney's office.

What documents will you need to bring? What will the estate planning lawyer ask you? Will you even understand anything the attorney has to say?

Relax. Remember that you're the one who is hiring the attorney. As such, you need to make an informed decision on whether or not to retain him or her.

Here are the top 4 questions you need to ask your estate planning attorney:

Maybe you were a skater as a kid, or maybe you enjoy heading up to the mountains to snowboard in the winter. If you do, you share the same passions as Tom Sims, who created the framework for current snowboards with metal edges and high-backed bindings.

Sims was so enthralled with skateboarding after a visit to L.A. as a child that it pushed him to make ways to continue to ride a board year-round, according to The New York Times. Besides the snowboard, Sims also started Sims Skateboards, which sponsored the biggest names in skateboarding in the 70s and 80s.

Sims, 61, passed away from complications after suffering cardiac arrest. He leaves behind his sister, his wife, three children, and two step-children.

NFL Films is best known for those slow-motion images of crushing hits on the field and footballs spiraling through the air. These images were the pioneering vision of Steve Sabol and his father Ed, who started the company to show the passion and epic nature of the game of football, according to The New York Times.

Sabol's passing makes us realize that there may be passions of our own that we devote our lives to. Perhaps you'd want to include a gift to charity or a business as part of your estate plan, so that even in death you can continue to contribute to your passion.

Are there special steps to leave all or part of your estate to a charity or business?

Anyone who listens to music or has been on a college campus lately will know that Dr. Dre is making money hand over fist. You must've at least seen one person with those Beats by Dr. Dre headphones plugged into her iPhone.

Forbes has recently listed the top earners in the hip-hop world with the good Doctor ranking No. 1, followed by Diddy, Jay-Z, Kanye, and Lil Wayne, respectively. Andre "Dr. Dre" Young pulled in $110 Million last year to rise to the top of this chart.

With all of Dre's assets in different investments, how would these ventures continue if he were to pass on without an estate plan?