I know that talking to your kids about your estate plan is probably not high on your priority list. In my experience kids frequently don’t want to discuss the possibility of their parents dying, and certainly don’t want to dwell on the subject. I had a client just the other day who brought her daughter with her, and the daughter broke down crying during the discussion. I didn't mean to cause anyone to cry, but the daughter was distraught at just the thought of Mom not being around. I understand that the conversation may be unpleasant and unwanted, but it needs to happen. Here are some … [Read more...]
Simplifying Your Estate Plan Doesn’t Mean Estate Planning is Simple
I recently had a client apologize to me for laughing at and questioning my legal fee for a certain document. This struck me as quite odd. I had simply explained how a certain document could accomplish her goal, and let her know how much it would cost to create the document to accomplish what she wanted. Perhaps because I had explained a somewhat complex process in simple terms, but she scoffed at the quoted fee. She then began to look into the process involved, and wrote me an apology via email. She let me know that she had started internet research into the legal document we had discussed, … [Read more...]
What Does it Take to be The Leading Estate Planning Attorney in Broomfield?
Decades ago, as a junior high student, I recall having lessons on advertising and advertisements. My teacher talked about how in advertising a company is allowed to say something like, “We are the best” at any time, but not “We are better,” without proof. My teacher explained that “best” meant that the advertiser could be the best, along with every other advertiser, but a comparison had to be backed up by research. At the time, my 13 year old mind accepted this explanation from my teacher without question. I am not quite as sure that I believe the explanation quite as strongly now, but I … [Read more...]
What You Need to Know About the SECURE Act
On December 20, 2019, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act) changed the rules concerning retirement accounts. The SECURE Act became effective January 1, 2020. The Act is the most impactful legislation affecting retirement accounts in decades. The SECURE Act has several positive changes: It increases the required beginning date (RBD) for required minimum distributions (RMDs) from your individual retirement accounts from 70 ½ to 72 years of age, and it eliminates the age restriction for contributions to qualified retirement accounts. However, perhaps the most … [Read more...]
Get Your Estate Plan Done Before Your Taxes This Year
We just came out of the holiday season, which was quite busy. Whether you got invited to a lot of Christmas parties, were busy with holiday shopping, just had a million different events to go to with your children, or had big plans to celebrate the new year, the last two weeks of December are extremely busy for everyone. Now that we are in a new year, and the major end of the year holidays are behind us, it would seem that we would have more time available. Yet, there are still many distractions that get in the way of getting an estate plan done. There are always distractions from … [Read more...]
Why Simple Wills & Trusts Aren’t So Simple
Almost every client I meet says to me, “well we’re very simple. We just want something simple and want something that should be easy.” I think that what most people mean when they say “we’re simple” is they don’t have much. They’re referring to the things they own - their assets. Something like, “We just have a house and a retirement account and a couple of bank accounts.” Since their assets are simple to describe, the person believes their estate plan can be simple. While your assets themselves might be simple and probably one of your goals is to make sure that those assets get passed … [Read more...]
“But I Don’t Want To!” Why You Need to Talk to Your Kids About Your Estate Plan
In my last blog post, I wrote about why kids, usually adult children, need to talk to their parents about the parents’ estate plan. In this post, I want to talk about how parents need to talk to their children about their estate plan. Mostly, both sides need to have the discussion about an estate plan and it needs to start somewhere. I advised the children to talk to their parents, or the discussion may never happen because parents will not bring up an estate plan. So, I challenge you parents: Bring the estate plan up with your children before they ask you! I know most of your kids … [Read more...]
“But I Don’t Want To!” Why You Need to Talk to Your Parents About Their Estate Plan
We have all heard that you should never discuss politics or religion in polite company. Those topics are divisive enough that people avoid them at all costs. This is, unfortunately, also true in most families concerning money or an estate plan. Discussing money is simply taboo and not discussed. As people age, at least having a discussion about an estate plan and money is important. As the children of aging parents, you will likely be tasked with caring for an aging parent, so you may need to be the one to start the conversation. You don’t want to rely on your parents to bring the … [Read more...]
Don’t Be Afraid of Your Estate Plan – Overcome Your Fears
Halloween has a fun component - children dressed in costumes, going door to door asking for candy. Halloween can also be considered a scary holiday, one which provides frightening experiences. Halloween decorations sometimes reflect these fears. Halloween decorations can be happy, like pumpkin lights, and happy ghost lights, but can also be frightening, like a Grim Reaper, a large spider, or a 12 foot tall phantom. All of those decorations are at my house, and while none of my Halloween decorations are too spooky, but they are based on some things that can be scary. My family and I went … [Read more...]
Estate Planning for the Blended Family: Planning to Keep a New Spouse and All the Kids Happy
The 1970’s TV show “The Brady Bunch” depicts a blended family - a family where the spouses have remarried and kids are not all from just the married couple. The theme song goes like this: “Here's the story of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls. All of them had hair of gold, like their mother, the youngest one in curls It's the story of a man named Brady, who was busy with three boys of his own. They were four men living all together, yet they were all alone. 'Til the one day when the lady met this fellow, and they knew that it was much more than a hunch, that this … [Read more...]
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