Sometimes the authority to make health care decisions for another person does not work out. It can especially founder on a common limitation: it might not include mental health powers. Without authority over mental health decisions, the agent, guardian or family member may be unable to arrange for sufficient care. Arizona law distinguishes between making…
We have written and talked before about pets and the elderly client in our office. But most of that discussion has focused on how to make plans for your pets after your inevitable demise. What about taking care of pets — and having them help take care of you — as you age? As we…
It’s not uncommon for family members to make a gift to a married couple. Usually, when a generous family member contemplates the couple, they assume that the marriage will continue. It also allows for a doubling of the annual gift tax exclusion amount (the well-known $15,000 figure). But sometimes the gift was really intended to…
It will come as no surprise that there is an election in November, 2020. Depending on the outcome, there might be significant changes in estate, gift and generation-skipping taxes as soon as next year. Are there things that you need to consider in your planning for 2021? Yes, there are some. Mostly, though, the planning…
Time for your next podcast class: Trust Funding 201. You signed your living trust (and related documents). Good. You’re halfway done. The rest of the job: transferring assets to the trust. In last week’s podcast we focused on some of the basic funding issues, in what we called Trust Funding 101. This week we offer…
It is often difficult to figure out how to complete your retirement account beneficiary designation. Do you have a living trust? Should you name your trust as beneficiary? Are you married? Do you intend to leave money to charities — and should that money come from your retirement account(s)? All of these questions make it…
It can be challenging to figure out how to title assets after you have created a revocable living trust. We’re calling this initial review Trust Funding 101. We discuss some of the common titling issues. In a later episode (Trust Funding 201) we will cover some of the more complicated trust funding issues. That’s when…
The “community property” rules sometimes confuse or alarm lawyers from states that apply the “common-law” property rules. Arizona community property is not really that complicated, but it can be foreign to estate planning practitioners from other states. In this podcast episode, we try to simplify some of the Arizona community property rules. They seem second…
We often consult with blended families about their estate planning. Those families — sometimes with “yours, mine and our” kids, or disparate young-adult backgrounds — can pose special concerns for us to work through. How common are concerns? The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 1,300 new step-families are formed every day. More than half of…
Suppose a married couple signs wills leaving everything to one another, and naming each other as personal representative of their estate. What happens when they later divorce? In Arizona, our broad “revocation on divorce” law kicks in. The concept is straightforward. After a divorce you probably want to change your estate planning documents. Maybe you…