Every good estate plan is built upon the foundation of the essential estate planning documents that cover all three phases of your life: while you're alive and well, if you become disabled, and after you die. Learn about these essential documents, including advance medical directives and living wills, powers of attorney, revocable living trusts, and last will and testaments.
Estate planning is about getting the right legal documents in place to plan for the possibility of mental incapacity and inevitable death. Learn all about the essential estate planning documents, including Last Will and Testaments, Revocable Living Trusts, Irrevocable Trusts, and more.
Depending upon your current family and financial situations, your estate plan will include four or five essential legal documents.
There are basically three types of legal documents necessary to plan for mental disability: Advance Medical Directives, including Living Wills, Powers of Attorney, and Revocable Living Trusts.
A Last Will and Testament is a legal document that's the first building block to your estate plan. After determining your need for an estate plan, your attorney will recommend either a will-based plan or a trust-based plan. Your Last Will and Testament will take on significantly different roles depending upon the type of plan that has been recommended.
If you fail to make a Last Will and Testament before you die, then your estate will be divided up based on the intestacy laws of the state where you live at the time of your death and the intestacy laws of any other state where you own real estate and/or tangible personal property.
Should you attempt to write your own will? This question has already been asked in the Wills & Estate Planning Forum and aside from my own comments several others, including estate planning attorneys and non-attorneys alike, chimed in with their own feedback. The resounding answer was - NO, do not attempt to write your own estate planning documents. Here's a summary of the reasons why not.
When it comes to creating a Last Will and Testament, it's very important for you to observe all of the formalities required by the laws of your state in order to make the Last Will legally valid and binding on your heirs.
A will contest is a type of lawsuit that is brought to challenge the validity of a Last Will and Testament and can be filed at one of two points during the probate process.
At least once a month I receive a call from a potential client who wants to contest the validity of a loved one's will, and at least once a month I explain the four legal reasons for challenging a will, how difficult it is to prove any one of the four, and how much it will cost to proceed. Most of the time I never hear from the potential client again.
A lawsuit that is brought to challenge the validity of a Last Will and Testament, commonly referred to as a will contest, can only be filed by a limited number of people and entities involved in the Testator's life. In legal terms this is referred to as "standing." So who has standing to file a will contest?
Will your Last Will and Testament work if you move to a new state? Like many aspects of estate planning, the answer to this question is, "it depends." Find out why your Last Will and Testament may not work the way you expect it to in your new state.
When someone dies, you've probably seen in the movies or on TV or read in a book about "the reading of the Will." Unfortunately, this is a pure theatrical device designed to create drama in a fictional story - today there's no legal requirement that a Will be read to anyone. Instead, the estate attorney has to determine who should be sent a copy of the Tesator's Will.
As long as you're mentally compentent, you can change, modify, update, or completely revoke your Last Will and Testament at any time. But how do you make changes to your Last Will that will be legally valid? Find out.
A Codicil is a legal document that changes specific provisions of a Last Will and Testament but leaves the other provisions unchanged. As long as you are mentally competent, you can change, modify, update, or completely revoke your Last Will and Testament at any time. But the question becomes, when should you make a Codicil and when should you write an entire new Last Will?
A Revocable Living Trust is a legal document that is created by an individual, called a Trustmaker, to hold and own the Trustmaker's assets, which are in turn invested and spent for the benefit of the Trustmaker by an individual or institution called the Trustee.
Many people confuse Living Wills with Living Trusts, and yet these legal documents serve two completely different purposes. Learn what a Living Will is, what a Living Trust is, and how to never confuse these two documents ever again.
One of the benefits of a Revocable Living Trust is that it gives you the flexibility to make changes to the terms of it at any time. But how can you make changes to your trust that will be legally valid? Find out.
A Trust Amendment is a legal document that changes specific provisions of a Revocable Living Trust but leaves the other provisions unchanged, while an Amendment and Restatement of Trust completely replaces and supercedes all of the provisions of the original Revocable Living Trust.
If you have assets valued at $200,000 or more in an IRA, then you should consider setting up a type of revocable living trust that's specifically designed to be the beneficiary of your IRA, commonly referred to as an IRA Trust, IRA Living Trust, IRA Inheritor's Trust, IRA Stretch Trust, or IRA Inheritance Trust.
If you have assets valued at $200,000 or more in an IRA, then you should consider setting up a special type of revocable living trust that's designed to be the beneficiary of your IRA. Here's why.
When someone dies, you've probably seen in the movies or on TV or read in a book about "the reading of the Will." Unfortunately, this is purely a theatrical device designed to create drama in a fictional story - today there's no legal requirement that a Will or a Revocable Living Trust be read to anyone. Instead, the trust attorney has to determine who should be sent a copy of the trust agreement.
When asked to fund assets into a Revocable Living Trust, often times financial institutions will request a copy of the trust agreement for their files. Many Trustmakers, however, do not like the fact that these institutions will have an entire copy of their trust agreement on record. This is where an Memorandum of Trust comes in handy.
In order to save you from making a list of all of the tangible personal property that you own, a blanket Assignment of Tangible Personal Property or Quitclaim Bill of Sale can be prepared in order to fund these assets into your Revocable Living Trust.
Planning for medical emergencies should be made a part of every estate plan. The legal document necessary to plan for a medical emergency is called an Advance Medical Directive.
Is your Advance Medical Directive too old? In 2001 Congress enacted rules governing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (or HIPAA). Part of the act deals with the privacy of medical records and who can and cannot have access to them. Thus, if your Advance Medical Directive was written before 2001, then its too old.
Planning for what happens to you if you suffer from a terminal illness or are critically injured should be made a part of your estate plan. The legal document necessary to put your wishes in writing is called a Living Will.
A Power of Attorney allows you to delegate your right to manage, invest, and spend assets held in your individual name to someone else, called your "attorney in fact."
Have you taken the time to make a plan for what will happen to your personal effects after you die? While in many instances these things will have little monetary value, they'll have a great deal of sentimental value to certain family members. And this, in turn, will lead to fights and may land your loved ones in court. Here are the options for dealing with your "stuff."
When you prepare your estate plan, one of the things that you'll need to consider is how you want your personal effects to be distributed. If you have specific people in mind to receive certain items, then you'll need to prepare a Memorandum of Tangible Personal Property to spell out your wishes.
Don't leave your loved ones with a mess. Organize your important documents now so that you can provide your family with a written, comprehensive list showing where your important papers are stored and who to contact in the event of your disability or death. Here's how to put together a location list for your important documents.
Don't leave your loved ones with a mess. Organize your important documents now so that you can provide your family with a written, comprehensive list showing where your important papers are stored and who to contact in the event of your disability or death. Here's how to create a contact list for your key advisors.
After someone dies, the surviving family members will need to gather up all of the decedent's important papers. This will give the family members and/or probate attorney who will be assisting with settling the decedent's final affairs all of the pertinent information needed to complete the settlement process. Here's the list of documents that will be needed to settle an estate or trust.
Another frequent question that I'm asked as an estate planning attorney is, "Where should I keep my original estate planning documents?" The answer is really simple - in a safe and accessible place. But what does that mean?
One of the most common questions that I'm asked as an estate planning attorney is, "Who should I tell about my estate plan?" As with most of estate planning, the answer isn't a simple one.
