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You spend hours setting up the perfect estate plan, and you are set up exactly the way you want. Everything seems perfect, and then it comes time to implement the plan. But wait, what is this? Your assets are transferring outside of the perfect plan? How can that be? What is going on? What happened? Is everything now ruined because of something … [Read more...]
Estate Planning 101: The Four Methods of Transfer & Who Gets What
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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [Read more...]
