If you are reading this, you need an estate plan. Why? The short answer is that everyone age 18 and older needs an estate plan. It does not matter whether you are old or young, have built up considerable wealth or are just entering adulthood—you need a written plan to control what...
Category: Incapacity
Does Your Revocable Living Trust Reduce Your Federal Estate Tax Bill?
Many believe that once they set up and fund a revocable living trust, property held in the trust will completely avoid federal estate taxes after they die. In reality, a living trust does not provide any unique estate tax avoidance strategies.
The primary mechanisms for reducing estate taxes—the unlimited...
Incapacity Planning: The Other Part of Estate Planning
Why You Need to Worry About Incapacity Planning
Death is the elephant in the room when we talk about estate planning. We often use phrases like pass away and pass on to make our meetings feel more comfortable and avoid being overly macabre, but the not-so-subtle subtext of an...
What You Can Learn from the Leno Conservatorship Proceedings
When most people think about creating an estate plan, they usually focus on what will happen when they die. They typically do not consider what their wishes would be if they were alive but unable to manage their own affairs (in other words, if they are alive but incapacitated). In many cases,...
What Can I Not Do as Trustmaker and Trustee of a Revocable Living Trust?
Wills and living trusts are two of the most fundamental estate planning documents. While both accomplish the same primary objective in an estate plan of directing the distributions of your money and property to your desired beneficiaries after you pass away, a revocable living trust, often referred to simply as a living...
What to Do When a Disability Throws Your Estate Plan into Chaos
As poet Robert Burns mused centuries ago, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Despite thoughtful effort and a concerted strategy, you cannot prepare for every emergency in life. A car accident, sudden illness, workplace injury, or chronic medical condition can force you to reevaluate the core assumptions you...
How to Choose the Right Agents for Your Incapacity Plan
Many people believe that estate planning is only about planning for their death. But planning for what happens after you die is only one piece of the estate-planning puzzle. It is just as important to plan for what happens if you become unable to manage your own financial or medical affairs while...
5 Essential Legal Documents You Need for Incapacity Planning
Comprehensive estate planning involves more than just planning for your legacy after your death, avoiding probate, and reducing taxes. Good estate planning also appoints people to make legal, financial, and medical decisions for you if you are alive but unable to make those decisions for yourself (in other words, if you are...
Beware of Nonlawyers Acting Like Lawyers
When people think about creating an estate plan, they may think it just involves getting a set of forms that convey their wishes regarding their finances, health, and what will happen to their stuff when they die. Although the documents that comprise an estate plan may seem like simple forms, these important...
Should the Trustee of My Trust Be Different during My Incapacity Than at My Death?
When you create a trust, choosing a trustee is one of the most important decisions you will make. If you create a revocable living trust—that is, a trust that you establish during your lifetime and can revoke or amend—you may opt to act as trustee for your trust, retaining the full control...