estate planning Tag

Valentines’ Day is upon us and we’re surrounded by images of hearts and flowers. Even if a person doesn’t celebrate the day, it’s hard to miss the pink and red reminders that we should show our loved ones how much we care. One way to do this is to finally take care of those pesky legal matters that you keep shoving under the bed to wait for another day. In our practice...

If you are in a non-traditional relationship — i.e., the unmarried couple living together for years, whether gay, straight or anyone in between — don’t you want to be the one who decides who takes care of you or manages your decisions if some catastrophe occurs? Of course you do. But if you don’t set up a plan, and you just “leave it up to the law,” the exact opposite of your...

A “disclaimer” is a legal document which is signed by somebody before they receive property to which they are entitled from an estate or trust. There are many situations in which a person is about to inherit money but doesn’t want to receive it for some reason, or wants it to go to somebody else. Let’s see what can happen...

What’s the meaning of a sentence in a Trust or a Will? once the ink is dry on the paper, the document is expected to “speak for itself” without the need to hunt for external evidence to understand the meaning of the words. A recent case called In the Trust of Roger S. Linn, decided by the Nebraska Supreme Court, illustrates the problems caused by ambiguous drafting. Roger...

I cannot tell you how many times over the years a client has told me that despite what is written in the Last Will and Testament of their parent or grandparent or Aunt or Uncle, “s/he said that s/he was leaving the house to X,” or “she wanted Y to get more because he moved in and was taking care of her at the end” or “she gave a lot of money to Z and intended him...

People often think of “estate planning” as just making a Last Will and Testament that directs who should inherit what. But a fundamental and necessary tenet of “estate planning” is to know just what you have, so that you can protect your heirs appropriately. Are any of your  accounts jointly owned? Depending on the circumstances, that might defeat the plan in your...

For those of you who who are dealing with legal issues involving documents in foreign languages, whether on behalf of yourself or your clients,  one of my readers from the Language Alliance brought the following to my attention. She said that this on-line article could be of use to you:  Certified Document Translation for Estate Planning and Probate Attorneys, and Finding Intent in a Foreign...

If you’ve been caring for your child who has special needs, you have deep personal knowledge of how your child behaves and responds. You know what they like and what they hate. You know what triggers an anxious or distressed reaction. It could be a flavor, a show, a color, or a person. As an aging parent, you are probably concerned about who will take care of your child when you are...

Here is a situation a client of mine encountered recently that I thought was worth sharing. The client gave me permission to quote her email verbatim. The parent had signed a Will some years ago leaving the estate equally to the 3 children. One provision said ” I direct that my 3 children obtain a joint appraisal of my coin collection. I then direct that the collection be sold to a...

Estate planning can be thought of as a life-long process. A young person may not have much in the way of worldly posessions, but may have particular opinions about who should make the medical and financial decisions for them if they become incapacitated. So a power of Attorney, health Care Directive and basic Will can be signed anytime starting at age 18. Later, you get into a relationship or...