You did the right thing for your family. You sat down and drew up a will. Maybe you saw the WillMaker program on sale at Costco, or maybe you said, "I drew up my will 30 years ago and like it the way it is, and I don’t need to pay no stinkin' lawyer to [...]
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 [...]
When we are preparing estate plans and creating a living trust for real estate, I often get this question about the tax implications for a trust. The main question is whether the transfer of real estate into a living trust will trigger a reassessment from the county tax assessor’s office. The key reason people worry [...]
More and more trust documents are being created due to an aging population. I’m seeing increasing problems administering trusts with provisions that allow family and loved ones to reside in a property included in the trust. Problems that commonly occur are payment of home expenses, exclusive possession of the premises, and downright disagreements among the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
I just got finished reading another online post about a living trust plan going wrong. The decedent had used Legal Zoom to create his legal trust plan. According to the post, the decedent had sent form letters provided by Legal Zoom to his banks and financial institutions to change the title of his assets to [...]
What does an executor do? I get this question a lot from people who are curious about what an executor of an estate does especially if the decedent's estate will need to be probated. An executor is a person nominated in someone's will who is in charge of finalizing or finishing out the decedent’s business [...]
Can I modify the terms of a living trust? I run across this question a lot in my office and online from spouses and children of families who have created living trusts to protect their families and assets. The short answer is this: It depends. Let’s look at some ways a living trust can be [...]
