I had someone call me today who was in some trouble. Their husband had Alzheimer’s and had finally gotten to the point that they were no longer had full mental capacity. It was at that time that they realized there were certain things they wanted to do with their home, with their finances, and with their estate plan that would no be very difficult to do because of the current mental state of the husband. As I spoke with the…
A lot of people out there think the do it yourself will is the way to go. They think they will be saving money. They think “how hard could it be?” What most people don’t think about is, “what if you get wrong?” What if your kids don’t end up with the people you want them to? What if that deadbeat brother of yours gets a sizable inheritance because you didn’t disclaim him correctly? These are just a couple of…
We all know estate planning attorneys are expensive – at least the good ones are – and at least the good ones are when things start to get complicated. But why? Why are estate planning attorneys so expensive? It’s pretty simple really – good estate planning lawyers are expensive because they are providing a tremendous amount of value. Consider what you would be willing to pay to ensure that your family is protected. Consider what you would be willing to…
Imagine a scenario where your brother or sister is getting divorced. They are going through the process when your brother is tragically killed in an accident. Wouldn’t it be terrible to get the news that on top of having to deal with the tragic loss of your brother you are also going to have to deal with the fact that his soon to be ex-wife gets all of their jointly owned property and half of his separately owned property? Or,…
Hey everybody! I just wanted to give you this quick introduction to let you know exactly what this is. Because we want to be the best estate planning attorneys in the world, we are intentional about learning something new every day. One of the ways we do that is by reading one statute (aka law) every day. When we get to the end we go back to the beginning. I figured as long as we were reading it we might…
In case you are wondering, no, you did not miss episode 64. I just forgot to call out a show as number 64! So, enjoy 65! This was an interesting question today on the listserve. Someone had a client who passed down their Seahawks tickets and the estate planning attorney was wondering what the best way was to value them. Here’s what I came up with… Christopher Small is a Bellevue estate planning lawyer who helps people get rich and…
On this of the show I talk about the importance of ideals vs. preferences when thinking about estate planning for children… When we are thinking about estate planning for children we often get ideals and preferences mixed up. For example, the ideal might be to get a good education, which leads to the preference to require college out of our kids. But, we forget to think about technical school, coaching, or the school of hard knocks. By focusing on our…
