MARCH 3, 2014 VOLUME 21 NUMBER 9 Let’s say that Billy signs a power of attorney, naming his friend Joyce as his agent. Later Billy becomes incapacitated, and his agent needs legal advice about her rights and responsibilities. Who will pay for their legal advice? Generally speaking, you are not supposed to have to spend…
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FEBRUARY 24, 2014 VOLUME 21 NUMBER 8 News reached us this month of a November, 2013, probate court order in Australia admitting an unusual will to probate, and it made us wonder if we should anticipate a digital future for estate planning. An Australian probate decision would have to be pretty unusual to get noticed…
FEBRUARY 17, 2014 VOLUME 21 NUMBER 7 When Albert Findlay (not his real name) died in 2002, he left a trust for the benefit of his wife Sharon. Sharon was named as trustee, and the trust document directed that she was to receive “the entire net income” from the trust for the rest of her…
FEBRUARY 10, 2014 VOLUME 21 NUMBER 6 Last week we gave you short definitions of some common estate planning terms, like “will” (and “pourover will”), “trust” (including both “living” and “testamentary” trust), “grantor trust” and more. This week we want to continue that project with another batch of common terms: Durable power of attorney —…
FEBRUARY 3, 2014 VOLUME 21 NUMBER 5 Judging from the questions we field online and from clients, there is a lot of confusion about some of the basic terms commonly used in estate planning. We thought maybe we could do a service (and make our own explanations a little easier) by collecting some of the…
JANUARY 27, 2014 VOLUME 21 NUMBER 4 Arizona has a relatively strong statute dealing with exploitation of vulnerable adults. An exploiter can be charged criminally, and might receive a longer sentence or larger fine because of the victim’s vulnerability. But the strongest part of the Arizona law is probably the provision that lets the victim…
JANUARY 20, 2014 VOLUME 21 NUMBER 3 Cynthia Madsen (not her real name) was, according to her doctor, already showing signs of dementia in 2007. In fact, her doctor wrote that she was not able to manage her own financial affairs. By mid-2009, her condition had worsened; her doctor wrote that she could not make…
JANUARY 13, 2014 VOLUME 21 NUMBER 2 In the past four or five decades there has been a tremendous growth in the use of trusts (usually, but not always, revocable living trusts) for estate planning purposes. Once very rare, they are now very popular. Perhaps as many as half of our estate planning clients choose…
JANUARY 6, 2014 VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 Here’s an estate planning question we get asked a lot: if you have created a revocable living trust and transferred essentially all of your assets to the trust’s name, should you also make the trust beneficiary of your IRA, 401(k) and other retirement accounts? It’s a great question,…
DECEMBER 30, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 49 Helene Jackson (not her real name) was a minor when she underwent heart surgery, and the outcome was not positive. She was seriously injured, and her parents Stephen and Jacqueline (also not their real names) ended up suing the doctors and the manufacturers of medical devices used in…