Probate Attorney Blog

The Give and Take of Estate Planning Estate planning is like most anything else… For every give, there is a take. Today I wanted to focus on that and remind you that no matter what you do there will be benefits and consequences. This discussion came from a potential client meeting I had the other day where we were discussing estate taxes and how to avoid estate taxes. Here are a couple of quotes from that meeting. “You can avoid…

Hello! Hope you are having a great day, week, month, year, and life. Be Selfish… We all know the instructions we hear before a plane is about to take off and about what to do if the oxygen masks drop while the plane is in flight. “Please take care of yourself before taking care of any children or helping anyone around you.” The same principles apply in estate planning. What does that mean exactly? Too often I have people come…

Be Selfish… I can’t tell you how many people come into my office wanting to talk estate planning and immediately try to do everything they can to live as poorly as they can to leave as much as they can to their family. I tell them all the same thing: BE SELFISH. You know those instructions they give you before you take off in a plane? “If the oxygen mask falls place it over your mouth before helping others…” That…

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…