Protecting Your Kids While You’re on Vacation (and they’re at home) As I write this post I am flying over California with my wife on the way to Cabo San Lucas to celebrate my brother-in-law’s 40th birthday. And we are alone! This is our first vacation alone without our kids (5, 3, and 1), and I must say so far it’s quite nice (except that we are both literally looking around for someone to give a snack to, console,…
The Hard Truth About Estate Tax Planning Believe it or not a lot of people come to me to ask me estate tax advice and I end up telling them to do nothing… That is the hard truth about estate tax planning (at least the first one). You would think as an estate planning attorney I’d be all for people wanting to reduce their estate taxes, which, in Washington State, start at just $2.193MM right now (2018). And I do!…
How to Make 2018 Your Best Year Ever This is one of those episodes that isn’t directly related to my role as an estate planning attorney. This is related to my role as someone that actually cares about you and your life and your ability to get the most out of your life. I want to show you how to make 2018 your best year ever. This might sound a little woo woo, but for me it all starts with…
How to Choose a Guardian When You Can’t Agree From the moment you have a kid one thought tends to inhabit your mind: Who will take care of my kids if something happens to me? It’s such an overwhelming thought and the feelings to protect our kids are so strong that it can literally fill the back of our minds all day. Knowing how strong that desire is and how important making sure the right people are in place to…
Should I Add Someone to My Safety Deposit Box? I had someone come into the office the other day with a problem. Their mom had passed away and owned a safety deposit box. As mom fell ill, she wanted to make sure she had continued access to the safety deposit box even if she couldn’t go down there herself and access it. So she added someone to her safety deposit box to access it. When she passed away, they tried…
3 Benefits of Trust Planning (Other Than Avoiding Estate Taxes) We’ve spent a lot of time talking about trust planning as it relates to estate tax avoidance and reduction, and I wanted to take a little time to talk about some benefits of trusts outside of the estate tax arena. Some people either don’t qualify or don’t care about estate taxes, but that doesn’t mean you should just write off trust planning altogether. Here are a few things we talk…
Don’t Let Your Feelings Get In The Way of Probate This is a little rant based on a meeting I had a couple of weeks ago with someone I’m helping out with a probate. They are unhappy, not because the probate is progressing poorly, but because they are letting their emotional baggage cloud their judgment. When it comes to hiring a probate attorney or taking on the role of Personal Representative it’s important to understand that this kind of work…
