In addition to guardianships and conservatorships, will contests, real estate disputes, and litigation over the true intentions of gifts, probate litigation may include guardianship disputes and conservatorship disputes. The most successful approach to mitigating or avoiding probate litigation risk is carefully planning for the future. Comprehensive estate plans that are routinely updated, careful consideration and […]
Estate planning presents unique challenges for families with special needs children. Optimizing your estate to use, enhance, and enrich assets for your special needs child while maintaining their enrollment in public benefits programs requires careful planning. An estate planning attorney can prepare a special needs trust to accomplish these and other goals you have for […]
Most likely, you have a beneficiary, as beneficiary designations are common in retirement accounts, wills, and trusts. A beneficiary is an individual (or legal entity) to receive the proceeds from a financial product or vehicle when the owner passes away. What begins as a simple directive in naming a beneficiary can suddenly become complex with […]
A Health Care Power of Attorney, also known as a Health Care Proxy or Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, lets you appoint someone (a proxy or agent) to make health care decisions on your behalf if you are incapable. If you are unable to manage your health care alone, you can give legal […]
At first glance, life insurance may not seem to have any bearing on how assets are distributed in your estate plan. However, life insurance can be an integral, indispensably important part of a well-thought-out estate plan. There are numerous other benefits to owning a life insurance policy aside from providing a large sum of money […]
What happens to your inheritance if your beneficiary has passed away? You may be wondering whether if you leave property to your brother Jim, but he dies before you, would his kids inherit the property in his place? The answer is, only if your will explicitly states as much. To ensure your document is correct, […]
As the baby boomer generation ages and international migration continues, the US senior citizen population is growing rapidly. Although the US average life expectancy has seen a slight three-year decline, many Americans, men, and women live well into their 80s, 90s, and beyond. An elder law attorney works with seniors, taking a holistic approach to […]
You can relieve the burden on your loved ones today by preparing and organizing your financial information for the future when you are no longer able to. It will ensure proper management of your financial situation and afford control over your end of life and legacy. The goal is to make and maintain an accurate […]
There is a question we hear all the time: “Can’t I just get a will off the internet, do a transfer-on-death deed for my land, and put my kids on my bank account?” It’s just not a good idea. For the plan to work as you would want it to, it should account for plenty […]
Individuals suffering from Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder, experience body tremors, limb rigidity, Bradykinesia (slow movement), as well as balance and gait problems. The cause of Parkinson’s disease (PD) remains largely unknown. One well-known indicator of PD is the dying off of predominately dopamine-producing neurons (dopaminergic) in a particular region of the brain. While the […]
The federal estate tax exemption allowance seems to be at risk of being reduced, and so it may be a good idea to reevaluate your estate plan. Senate Democrats are proposing to lower the current estate tax exemption from $12.06 million to $3.5 million for individuals and $24.12 million to $7 million for couples. Whether […]
A married couple, Ginny and George, had extended family they wanted to leave their assets to when they died. Unfortunately, Ginny was then diagnosed with cancer. She began to worry: What could happen if she died before George did, and George remarried? Or vice versa? What if the second spouse started pushing to get what […]