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If you are about to get remarried, you obviously want to celebrate, but you need to consider the advice my sister gave me when I go married. She told me, “It is great to get married, but then life just kind of goes on, but you are married. You are married, and that is GREAT, but you still need to live your normal life.” My sister was not trying to kill my excitement about getting married, but rather was trying to prepare me to be married. If possible, you should start to plan before you get married. If you are already on your second, or third, or subsequent marriage, the best time to … [Read more...]
An Estate Planning Carol: How Your Estate Plan is the Perfect Final Gift For Your Children
In Charles Dickens’ classic Christmas tale “A Christmas Carol” the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge is taught the true meaning of Christmas. The lesson is taught by three ghosts, the ghost of Christmas Past, ghost of Christmas Present, and ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. In the end, Ebeneezer Scrooge learns his lesson and becomes a generous, happy soul. Christmas this year seems to be filled with displays of Santa Claus popping up in businesses everywhere. It seems like every other advertisement is using the Christmas holiday to promote their product as the perfect gift. I have already taken my … [Read more...]
Creating Certainty in a Time of Uncertainty
A couple of weeks ago I was participating in a seminar with a financial planner friend. Our presentation discussed how to best approach financial concerns in retirement, and how to make money last through retirement. My part was to talk a bit about the legal planning necessary for retirement, including the basics of estate planning, like a will, living will, financial and medical powers of attorney, and also the role of trusts in estate planning. The seminar covered basic information and was not intended to be a comprehensive look at anything, or provide specific legal advice. After the … [Read more...]
What You Need to Do Before Meeting With Your Estate Planning Attorney
It is no secret that I offer a free initial consultation to everyone who is looking to set up an estate plan. The offer is on my website, and I tell everyone who calls me that I offer a free initial consultation. What may not be so clear is what happens during that initial consultation. Sometimes I have someone who thinks the initial consultation is a time for them to ask any question they want about the law and have me answer it for them. Others think that they can present me with whatever situation they have, and want me to give them free legal advice on what course of action they … [Read more...]
Don’t Make Your Kids Handle the Scary Decisions, Make Your Own Plan
I met with a mother and her daughter not long ago. We were discussing updating the mother’s estate plan, which was long overdue since her husband had passed away over a decade ago. As we discussed potential updates to the estate plan, the mother started to ask me what I thought of the Neptune Society. For those of you who do not know, the Neptune Society is an organization that handles cremation services for the deceased. The Neptune Society cremates the body, and depending on what package someone chooses, the Neptune Society will pick up the body of the deceased and handle the cremation … [Read more...]
Do You Like Scary Movies? Is Your Estate Plan Scary, Too?
October means Halloween will be here soon. I always loved going trick-or-treating as a kid, probably because of the candy...I still like candy as an adult, but for some reason people are not keen on giving candy to me now if I go out trick-or-treating on Halloween, as an adult. I suppose I am not as cute as a kid, even if I have a cool costume! I do understand that I have aged, so trick-or-treating is now more about going with my kids than just for me, but I still miss the candy! Halloween also brings out the scary side of entertainment. I see the advertisements for 31 days of Halloween … [Read more...]
Not All Estate Plans Are the Same – Make Sure You Have the Right Tool for the Job
I recently was having a conversation with my friend who told me about a time right after he moved to Colorado. It went something like this: “I was so blown away at the scene I witnessed while walking out of my church in Lafayette after a snowstorm. I had just moved to Colorado and was new to the area and checking out new churches. This church was the largest I had come across so I figured it was due time to check it out. Walking out of the church felt like a scene out of a movie: at the exact same time, everyone was clearing snow off of their vehicles so they could drive home. The … [Read more...]
Don’t Lose Your Messaging: How To Be As Clear As You Can With Your Estate Plan
2020 has been a crazy year. A pandemic, an election year, social unrest, fires, ash raining down from the sky, and a snowstorm on September 8th, protests concerning racial inequaliites, protests of government action, or inaction, and protests that have devovled into vandalism, rioting, looting, assault, and murder. There has been a lot to take in, and a lot to observe. While observing many of these events, I have noticed a lot about how an event occurs. Then, when people respond to that event, the message the responder is trying to send gets lost in how the response is carried out. When … [Read more...]
What Do You Have to Lose? Protecting What Is Most Important In Your Estate Plan
I was talking to my friend the other day, and related the following quote from Steve Jobs: "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose." I am fairly sure that had I not been an estate planning attorney, the quote would not have been all that intriguing to me, but I started to think about what this meant, and how it would apply in the context of estate planning. Much of estate planning has to do with figuring out what happens to your assets - your stuff - when you die. So, we are dealing with the stuff that you … [Read more...]
How To Legally Protect Your House & Cover Long Term Medical Costs
A few years ago, I heard a commercial on the radio exhorting people to use a Realtor to buy or sell their house. The commercial’s reasoning was that Realtors have a higher level of training and education. The commercial talked about how your house is often your most valuable asset, and that a Realtor could help you in protecting your house. Mostly, I think the commercial was about how to maximize the amount you get from selling your house, or, if you are buying a house, how to pay as little as possible. The commercial also touched on the concept that a Realtor has experience in buying or … [Read more...]
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