executor Tag

IT’S SPRING CLEANING TIME! DUST OFF YOUR OLD ESTATE PLAN   Spring time is when people often take a look around and start freshening things up. Home repairs, paint jobs, new furniture, new clothes, maybe a different haircut…… there’s something about seeing the new buds on trees and the blooming daffodils that gets us thinking this way. It’s the perfect time to pull out your old estate plan...

What do you do if you can’t find the Will? Your loved one has passed away, you have pulled yourself through the mourning period, and now you are ready to tackle the estate. You remember that your loved one had a Will — maybe they kept mentioning it, or maybe you knew that they had signed it at their lawyer’s office at some point. You remember that they had told you they were...

A Last Will and Testament designates an Executor who has legal authority to handle the estate assets. The Will also specifies who receives what, and in what way; the language of the Will specifies if the share is to be put in a Trust or is to pass outright, and who will receive the share if the named beneficiary has died. If assets are jointly owned or if they have named beneficiaries, they...

When you create an estate plan, you are selecting people whom you trust to perform various jobs for you and your beneficiaries. You may be selecting an agent to act as your Power of Attorney. You may select a medical decision-maker in case you become mentally incapacitated. You may have a Trust and select the Trustee who will manage the money for the beneficiaries. And you may be selecting an...

“If I go into a nursing home, will the State take my house?” This is a commonly-asked question. The answer is “No, but …” If a person applies for long-term care Medicaid benefits, his available assets have to be below a certain level. The house he owns generally has to be listed for sale (called a “Plan of Liquidation”), but this requirement is waived...

Recently I got a call from the child of a client of mine who had just recently passed away. The child was panicky because they could not locate Mom’s Last Will and Testament. Mind you, this particular Mom was a very organized person. Bills were always paid on time; the house was meticulous; papers were looked at, dealt with, and either filed, scanned  or discarded. The Mom had reviewed...

Child moves into parent’s home with his family, with no lease, no written agreement. Stays there for decades and at some point, the parent dies.What rights do they have, and what obligations?  Aging parent moves into child’s home, perhaps a “mother-daughter” structure or perhaps using a bedroom within the main part of the house, with an informal arrangement for sharing...

Many of our clients are aged and many of our clients are fiduciaries for other people in  roles such as Agent under Power of Attorney, Estate Administrator or Executor. NJ Rev Stat § 46:2B-19 (2013)    In a typical week our clients have to ask banks to provide documents and services that are required to enable the client to file an application for public benefits, pay expenses for an estate,...

There’s a common misperception that putting all assets into joint names or “pay on death” format makes for easier estate administration if a person passes away. In fact, an estate needs cash to pay its taxes and bills. An Executor who is named in a Will to handle the administration only has authority to handle the assets that were in “probate format” —...

You may have heard that you should set things up to “avoid probate.” Bank or brokerage personnel may have recommended that you ” add a pay on death beneficiary, or a joint owner, so you can avoid probate.” There are fallacies built into that advice which can lead to unintended complications after death. Estate administration is a process that can include many elements...