Estate Planning in a Nutshell

Many people believe once they set up a Revocable Living Trust and transfer assets into the Trust, those assets are protected from lawsuits. This is absolutely not true. While Trusts commonly provide asset protection for beneficiaries – few Trusts protect assets owned by the person who created the Trust. No Immediate Asset Protection For You?…

Well…in my opinion yes…and it could be a real dog fight! I’ll explain further at the end. We are discussing a Pet Trust which is statutorily established in Arizona and Utah, where I practice law. For many pet owners, pets are members of the family. These individuals often say that if something happens to them,…

A true and sad story. I was retained by the beneficiaries of a deceased father to settle an estate. Their father had created a Living Trust in another state. Again, I did not create this Living Trust for the deceased father. The beneficiaries were two siblings in their sixties. The estate was not too large,…

Whether you are a physician or not, you probably know that the practice of medicine is a profession fraught with liability – but it seems even the act of walking out your front door has substantial risk these days. Seriously, the normal person has many of the same risks as a physician! It’s not just…

Estate planning attorneys are often asked where original estate planning documents – wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives – should be stored for safekeeping. While there is no right or wrong answer to this question, consider the following: 1. Should you store your original estate planning documents in your safe deposit box? Many…

I would like to meet with financial advisors, CPAs, or EAs who need to find an exceptional attorney to refer their clients to — an experienced estate planning attorney who will treat the client like royalty and will expertly inform them of all of their options in a way in which they will be extremely…

One of the first things you should do as a newly appointed executor of a deceased person’s probate estate or successor trustee of a deceased trustmaker’s trust is ask the post office to forward the deceased person’s mail to your address. Unfortunately, along with important pieces of mail – statements, bills, and refunds – many…

In a landmark, unanimous decision handed down on June 12, 2014, the United States Supreme Court’s Clark v. Rameker decision held that inherited IRAs (IRAs which are inherited by your children) are not classified as “retirement funds” and can be reached by the creditors of your children when they inherit your IRA. Thus, the IRA…

Revocable Living Trusts have become the basic building block of estate plans for people of all ages, personal backgrounds, and financial situations. A Revocable Living Trust plan is uniquely suited to make sure that while you are living your assets are properly managed and, after death, they go to who you want, when you want,…

After a loved one dies, you need to gather the important documents that are necessary to settle their final affairs. While the documents required will vary depending on what your loved one owned and owed, below is a list of common documents you will need to find: As you can see, a significant amount of…