Probate Attorney Blog

The best Christmas gift you can give is safety and peace of mind for you, your family, and future generations. Easiest way to do that is with an estate plan. Happy Holidays! Cheers, Christopher Small Estate Planning Attorney PS – Click here to schedule a FREE strategy session with an estate planning attorney.

A common estate planning attorney question I get is “how can I make sure no one challenges my will?” I always tell everyone the same thing: “There is no way to prevent someone from challenging your will if they want to. If they have money and motivation, they can file the paperwork to challenge. What we want to do is make it so they can’t win.” And that’s exactly what we do. The easiest way to do that is to…

A common idea when people are thinking about estate planning is to quitclaim their home to their kids. The thinking is it will allow one to avoid probate and just make things simple. The problem, however, is that it can create a bunch of unintended problems. Let’s just run down the list of all the ways this is wrong. :) First, quit claiming the property eliminates the potential for a step-up in tax basis. The tax basis of property is…

When my estate planning clients are done creating their revocable living trust I usually do two things: 1. I move all of their real estate into the trust; and 2. I counsel them to update all of their beneficiary and transfer on death designees to be the trust. This has the effect of putting all of the real estate in the trust and leaving the financial accounts out of the trust until they die. The primary reason I do this…

How estate planning can get complicated even when it seems simple. <a href=”https://cmslawfirm.com/strategysession” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Click here to schedule a FREE strategy session with an estate planning attorney.</a>https://estatemeeting.com

Zappos CEO Tony Hseih didn’t have a will. Maybe he didn’t need one. – <a href=”https://cmslawfirm.com/strategysession” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Click here to schedule a FREE strategy session with an estate planning attorney.</a>

How to plan for large estates. <a href=”https://cmslawfirm.com/strategysession” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Click here to schedule a FREE strategy session with an estate planning attorney.</a>https://estatemeeting.com