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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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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? […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
