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I am amazed at how often people want a will written to make sure their assets go where they want when they die, but have never considered what other methods of transferring assets exist. And...what different types of asset transfer options are available to use. These people want me to write a will to make sure assets go where the individual desires. At the same time, they want to know which document will win, a will, or something else. Although I would love to see the documents fight things out in a little arena of document battle, I am unsure how that would work, since they are made of … [Read more...]
How to Determine Mental Capacity for a Will or Estate Plan
Your mind matters! I often have people I meet who feel the need to apologize to me for not having created an estate plan before they met with me. Many times this comes from an older couple who realized that they should have planned sooner. I think I addressed that attitude in my last blog about putting things off until tomorrow, but I often reassure these types of people by talking about the two threshold requirement to put together an estate plan, as follows: You need to be alive. You need to be mentally competent. There may be a lot of other things that need to happen to set … [Read more...]
I’ll Get To It Tomorrow
As a child, I watched the movie “Annie” where the little orphan Annie sings the lines: “Tomorrow, tomorrow. I love ya, tomorrow. You’re always a day away.” Annie is singing about how the sun will come out tomorrow, and that she will have brighter prospects for her life in the orphanage because of the sunny day that will come. However, she makes an interesting point with the line “You’re always a day away.” Tomorrow is always in the future, as tomorrow refers to a future time, and once tomorrow gets here, we call it today. Tomorrow is an ever present barrier to getting an estate … [Read more...]
How Are Trusts Taxed (and Trust Assets Inside Them)
I had a client a few years back who had me draft a trust for them, one that needed its own separate tax return. The client also hired me prepare the tax return for the trust after the first year of the trust’s existence. After the next year, the client decided that I was too expensive in preparing the taxes and hired someone else to do the tax preparation. I didn’t think much of that, until the client called and was very upset that the trust I created was so expensive on taxes. Apparently the other tax preparer had calculated tax on the value of all assets contributed to the trust instead … [Read more...]
So, You Didn’t Have a Will? Now What?
Let me start this blog by being very upfront: I do not handle probate cases, and I don’t represent anyone in probate. However, I must know about the probate rules, and what happens in the probate process since I work to either minimize what goes through probate, or to make the probate process easier on those who stand to inherit property after someone has passed away. That’s what estate planning is all about - setting up a plan that is simple to execute once someone has passed away. If you want to avoid all of what you see below, set up your own estate plan. Sometimes the plan involves … [Read more...]
Where there’s no Will, There is a Way
When someone asks me, “Well, if I set things up right, I don’t even need a will or a trust, right?” I often wonder if the person asking the question wants an actual answer, or just wants me to agree with them. I think I understand what the person is asking, but I am not sure why someone would want me, an estate planning attorney, to simply agree that the work I normally do serves no purpose. Perhaps it is because people want to look for easy ways to do things, or they don’t want to be involved with the courts after a loved one or relative passes away. Or, perhaps people just don’t want to … [Read more...]
7 Reasons Why Estate Planning is Cool
I attend many networking meetings. At these meetings, I am generally invited to share a 30 - 60 second “commercial” of what I do and what I am looking for in a client, or a referral. I have several versions of this introductory speech, but one of them goes something like this, “My name is Michael Bailey, and I own and operate my own law firm. I practice in the area of estate planning law, which is dreadfully boring, but only when I am working there.” This generally gets me a laugh, and then I go on to explain that what I do is not necessarily exciting and fun, but rather, necessary. In … [Read more...]
7 Things About End Of Life Planning Your Dad Wants To Know
I’d like to start this blog with a story. Recently a 70 year old man arrived at an emergency room in Florida: unconscious, critically ill and without any form of identification. As his care team sprang into action, they found he had a tattoo on his chest that said “DO NOT RESUSCITATE” with his signature tattooed below. The team of physicians was unsure about how to proceed: should they honor the man’s tattoo as his binding wish, or take lifesaving measures to help revive him? A previous case from five years earlier outlined the story of a man with a similar tattoo who said he wanted … [Read more...]
Talk Among Yourselves: Why Professional Advisors Communicating Matters
Almost everyone has someone in their life who they look to for advice and guidance. Most people look at their parents this way (I certainly do!), but people also have other influential advisors -- whether it be a school teacher, church leader, business mentor or some other sort of influential advisor. These people help show us the way through life, and sometimes they are not confined to one category. I have a church leader who taught me lessons that transformed how I conduct my business, and that have led me to be more successful in service to my customers. I find I am able to pass along … [Read more...]
End of Life Planning: A Quick Reference Guide to Protecting Assets
As part of my estate planning practice, I try to educate people concerning issues that may arise in the future, especially for those who are nearing the end of life. I teach a seminar that I call the “Human Ostrich” seminar, where I teach people how to avoid losing everything they have worked so hard to achieve. Human Ostrich is a silly name for my seminar but I wanted to illustrate a point that most people stick their head in the sand as they get older, hoping that bad things won’t happen to them. Often people delay making important decisions because they feel that they are not ready to … [Read more...]
