Recent Blog Posts
The Commitment Phobe’s Guide To Trusts
You know you are old when you start making New Year’s resolutions, because it means that you are old enough to understand that, while not everything is within your control, your actions have an effect on your life satisfaction. The trouble with New Year’s resolutions is that they require commitment, and you are a… Read More »
How Creditor Proof Is Your Retirement Account?
In some ways, worrying about whether the money in your retirement account is enough to sustain you in retirement is a high class worry; if you have an employer-provided retirement account, you are in a better position than most. At minimum, you will get Social Security income when you retire, plus a modest distribution… Read More »
Can The Personal Representative Of An Estate Resign From The Role?
No one enjoys being the personal representative of a deceased person’s estate, with the possible exception of lawyers who choose to focus their practice on estate planning and probate cases. It is at least as much work as filing your taxes, and even if you get an inheritance at the end, this inheritance is… Read More »
The Risk Of Identity Theft Does Not End When You Die
If you are a caregiver for an elderly family member, you are always on your guard against financial abuse. You monitor your elderly family member’s transactions, and perhaps you even have a power of attorney. You get suspicious when a professional caregiver or anyone else seems overly interested in befriending your family member. Maybe… Read More »
Probate Shortcuts For Small Estates
Estate planning is not just for rich people, but it is certainly more fun to daydream about your loved ones inheriting property than it is to imagine them paying your outstanding debts until there is nothing left. Probate is not fun for anyone, even if they inherit a sizable amount of property, but it… Read More »
Two Is A Crowd When It Comes To Personal Representatives Of An Estate
Diversifying your investments is one of the most fun parts of estate planning, especially since it does not require you to contemplate your mortality. If you adopt the mindset that diversity equals abundance and apply it to writing your will, you might decide to designate two or more people as personal representatives of your… Read More »
Regrouping After A Major Hurricane: An Estate Planning Lawyer’s Perspective
Estate planning lawyers operate on the assumption that the goal of estate planning is not to die with the most money or to share the least amount of one’s money with the IRS, but rather to make things less stressful for you and your loved ones in the face of adverse events. The usual… Read More »
You Can Live Without A Revocable Trust, And So Can Your Heirs
If you look for estate planning checklists online, you might see “establish a revocable trust and fund it” right after writing a will and signing a medical advance directive. Everyone needs a written expression of their wishes about their own medical care in a worst-case scenario, and almost everyone’s probate case would be simpler… Read More »
How Does Adoption Affect Probate Cases?
Many people who were adopted from foster care when they were in their infancy remember feeling a sense of relief at formalizing a permanent family situation after years of uncertainty. For people who were adopted as infants, the uncertainty often begins later, in adolescence or young adulthood, when they start wanting to find out… Read More »
Do You Dare To Retire In A House You Own Jointly With Someone Who Is Not Your Spouse?
More than 20 years ago, George Carlin ranted on stage about the wimpy names that had recently become popular. He singled out Todd as a silly name, along with other names such as Kyle and Cameron. Today, Todd, Kyle, and Cameron are names for prosecutors, real estate agents, and parents that every teacher dreads… Read More »
