estate planning

Don’t Give the IRS Money Just to Avoid Paying an Attorney to Draft an Estate Plan

A lot of people come into my office and ask me if they should transfer their real estate into their kid's name while they are still living. Here is the typical reason they give for wanting to do that: If my child goes on the title to the property, (1) I save money by not [...]

By |2020-06-16T20:17:32-07:00June 4th, 2017|Estate Planning, Landlords, Real Estate|0 Comments

Fact or Myth: If I Can’t Sign My Name, I Cannot Create an Estate Plan

I think some people believe that if someone can’t sign their name or read due to a physical disability, they can’t create an estate plan. That is simply not the case. The law allows a person to execute documents by making a mark. The legal capacity to sign with a mark instead of a signature [...]

By |2020-06-16T20:17:33-07:00August 1st, 2016|Estate Planning, Probate|0 Comments

Can a Funeral Home Hold a Loved One’s Remains Hostage For Unpaid Mortuary Bill?

I never would have thought I would be talking about this problem, but I have come across it recently. Some mortuaries and funeral homes are holding a loved one’s remains—not for safekeeping because no one claimed the remains, but because the family isn’t able to pay the balance due on the mortuary bill. For many [...]

By |2020-06-16T20:17:33-07:00June 20th, 2016|Estate Planning, Life Stuff, Probate|0 Comments

One Thing You Can Do So Your Children Never Speak to One Another, Ever Again

I was reading yet another sad story about a family that set up a sloppy estate plan. The plan involved a mother and four children. The mother had a bank account with roughly $400,000 in it, and she was going to split the cash into four equal shares. However, for lack of better judgment, the [...]

By |2016-08-01T08:38:42-07:00May 16th, 2016|Estate Planning, Life Stuff, Probate|0 Comments

I’m a Parent: How Can I Protect My Children’s Inheritance?

I recently came across a question by a father. He wanted to know how to protect his inheritance that he wanted to leave to his son and daughter. The father had acquired about four rental properties and wanted to give his son and daughter two properties each. All the properties had no mortgages and were [...]

By |2020-06-16T20:17:34-07:00May 2nd, 2016|Estate Planning, Real Estate|0 Comments

When to Update Your Estate Planning Documents

I was just reading a legal question-and-answer website about a couple who was dating and wanted to know when they needed to update their wills. The couple has a basic will plan, but they plan on getting married and having kids within the next few years. It sounds like this couple is on the ball [...]

By |2020-06-16T20:17:34-07:00April 18th, 2016|Estate Planning, Life Stuff, Real Estate|0 Comments

Don’t Lose Your Estate Planning Documents

I was just reading a legal question-and-answer site about a family who could not find their estate planning documents. They wanted to know what to do. Apparently, the family had done their estate planning quite a while ago, and the relative in question had just passed away. Now the family is furiously tearing up the [...]

By |2020-06-16T20:17:35-07:00April 4th, 2016|Estate Planning, Life Stuff, Probate, Uncategorized|0 Comments

This is Why You Should Create Your Own Estate Plan

On a legal website, I recently read a question asked by a child who wanted to know what is going to happen to her mother’s estate when she died. The child mentioned that the county, through a public guardian, had a conservatorship over the mother. The child also stated that the county had created a [...]

By |2020-06-16T20:17:35-07:00March 28th, 2016|Estate Planning, Life Stuff, Probate|0 Comments

Why Altering Your Will or Trust Unofficially Is a Bad Idea

I was recently reviewing a living trust estate plan for an individual. The plan had been outdated for quite some time. As I was reviewing this individual’s plan, I noticed that most of the plan was from the 1990s. But the pages were not all the same color or format, which indicated that pages had [...]

By |2016-03-25T07:51:36-07:00March 21st, 2016|Estate Planning, Life Stuff, Probate|0 Comments

Do I Need to Put My Cars in My Living Trust?

You may be wondering, Do I need to put my cars in my living trust? Here’s the short answer: if you are talking about the cars you use every day to go to and from work, you probably do not need to bother going down to the DMV and changing your ownership records. After all, [...]

By |2020-06-16T20:17:35-07:00March 8th, 2016|Estate Planning, Life Stuff, Probate|0 Comments