Estate Planning Archives - Page 5 of 9 - Michael Bailey Law, LLC

It’s Your Estate Plan: Making it Truly Yours

Before I started my estate planning practice, I worked for a firm handling tax resolution cases. Basically, I tried to help people who owed past due taxes to the IRS or to the state tax departments. Mostly this consisted of negotiating payment plans - allowing people or businesses to pay back past due taxes over time, but I also helped eliminate … [Read more...]

What To Do If Someone Dies With An Estate Plan Already Set Up

Many of the topics I have covered on my blog have to do with what happens if someone dies without a plan, or how not having a plan can be problematic. I spend a lot of time encouraging people to set up a plan, so that they can have their affairs in order. Similar to my last blog post, where I talked about what you need to know about your estate … [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 … [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 … [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! … [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 … [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. … [Read more...]

Enjoy the Benefits of Personally Working With an Estate Planning Attorney

Last weekend I went up into the mountains and looked at a couple of mountain homes / cabins to potentially purchase. I have always been a bit jealous of friends whose families had cabins, and they got to go up to the cabin for a weekend, or longer during the summer. Thus, the trip into the mountains to see what was available. I had looked up … [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...]

What does it mean to be a Mobile Attorney and Why Do I Do It?

I have written before about what is mobile estate planning, but I still get questions on this topic. Questions like: Why would you want to do mobile estate planning? Where do you go and what do you do? How did you get started? Why don’t more people do mobile visits like you? I can answer some of these questions, but other answers elude me, … [Read more...]