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A trust is a very useful and helpful estate planning document. The trust itself contains the instructions for what to do with assets owned by the trust, usually in the form of a written trust agreement. The written trust agreement should have the names of beneficiaries who are to receive the assets of the trust, whether the named beneficiaries … [Read more...]
Why Every Homeowner Needs and Estate Plan: Tips for Protecting Your Property
Most people that I know are fairly normal, regular people. They aren’t rich, and they aren’t poor, but they are somewhere in the middle. They own a house, have a few kids, and generally just go to work, pay their bills, and take a vacation every now and then. I am one of these people, and so I understand how this type of life works on a regular … [Read more...]
How the Estate Planning Process Benefits You – And What Does This Have To Do With Cookies?
How the Estate Planning Process Benefits You - And What Does This Have To Do With Cookies? I am not a huge baker. I cook fairly well, but I don’t really bake as much. My daughter loves to bake, and she makes cookies often. I get to benefit from her making cookies, as I get to eat the cookies at the end. Eating the cookies is an obvious benefit … [Read more...]
Three Important Questions You Should Consider Before Meeting With An Estate Planning Attorney
I often sit down to meet with people who want me to do absolutely everything for them, and they are somewhat shocked that I do not tell them everything to do with their estate plan. Sometimes I have to explain that I cannot decide who should get their assets, as I do not know their family situation, nor do I know who they think deserves assets, or … [Read more...]
How Do I Leave My Car, Boat, House, Money, Family Cabin, Family Business, Family Farm, Monkey, Cat, Dog, or Anything Else To My Family After I Die?
I get asked the question above a lot! OK, so not the whole question at once...mostly I am asked about one part, or the other, and not all of the items at the same time, but I do get asked about how to deal with specific assets quite a bit. I am not sure if people think that each different thing they own needs to be treated separately, or if … [Read more...]
What’s the Big Deal with Transfer on Death and Pay On Death Designations?
Years ago, I was in a professional networking group with an individual who wanted to know how to avoid probate. I discussed how they might use a trust, or joint ownership or joint tenancy for real estate, or a beneficiary’s deed, or other methods that do not need to go through probate. This person listened and said, “Yeah, sure, that is how … [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 … [Read more...]
Why Emergency Estate Planning is a Bad Idea
Among the reasons that I chose estate planning as a practice area is that there are fewer emergencies, so I can have more predictable work hours, and have less intrusions on the time that I spend with my family away from work. I like to see my family from time to time, like on the weekends, or in the evenings, so I don’t schedule many appointments … [Read more...]
Making Beneficiary Designations Work for You
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...]
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...]
