5 Ways To Distribute Your Trust Assets To Your Kids A question I often get from clients is “how should I distribute my assets to my kids via my trust when I die?” I thought everyone might want to know about the different options so here we go with this week’s episode of Estate Planning TV. To begin, there are essentially 5 ways you can distribute your trust assets to your kids. Let’s just run down them. 1. Distribute Outright….
The Estate Plan For People with $100k of Assets If you have $100k or less of assets and you don’t think you need an estate plan, you are wrong. It’s not a question of whether you have enough assets to need an estate plan because everyone needs an estate plan, no matter what their asset make up looks like. I have clients come in all the time who are at this level because they understand the importance of having an…
Three Estate Planning Lessons from “Gifted” I am a sucker for movies with cute kids in them, particularly when they face real struggle and overcome it. “Gifted” is just such a movie, so I wasn’t surprised when I liked it after watching it. What I WAS surprised by, however, were all of the important estate planning lessons intertwined throughout. The movie was basically one long advertisement for estate planning (especially if you have kids). The lessons were so good, in…
“Why do we even NEED a probate attorney?” Debbie asked about 30 seconds into our phone call. I knew I was going to like Debbie right away. She wasn’t afraid to ask the questions that really mattered. Now that the question was asked, however, I was forced to answer it. “It depends,” I said. “Here are a couple of things to consider. Let’s just start at the top.” A Probate Attorney Does the Hard Work For You Probate is a…
New Trustee? Do This First. People are rarely ready to become the trustee of a trust. It’s not something that usually has a specific start date. For that reason, when it does happen one is often thrust into a new role. There is often little guidance, little help, and very little idea of what to actually do. If you are a new trustee and you are wondering what to do first, this post is for you. Before I get into…
3 Reasons to Use a Professional Trustee Whenever a client decides to create a trust we talk about who they’d like to name as the successor trustee (the person that becomes the trustee after they die). Often people aren’t sure who to name. They consider naming a family member but aren’t sure if they have anyone that is up to the job. They consider naming a professional trustee but aren’t sure if the fees are too high or if they…
The Biggest Estate Planning Mistake I See I am a huge golfer. HUGE. And my enthusiasm for the sport tends to rub off on people. That means I get to hear about their lessons. Remarkably, often their experience dovetails nicely with people’s meetings with estate planning attorneys. A lot of jargon. Fast talking. Too many possibilities. Too man options. And THAT is your biggest estate planning mistake: getting too complicated to fast. Your estate plan should be an ever evolving…
