A couple of years ago, a very nice couple visited with me in my office. They had moved from Wisconsin, where their attorney was also licensed in Florida and had just completed a revision of their revocable trusts and related pour-over will, durable powers of attorney, health care surrogates and living wills. They wanted me […]
Category Archives: Probate
It’s always a difficult time when you lose a loved one. Usually, one of the first places one visits will be the lawyer’s office that drew the will or trust. The will or trust isn’t usually read to a gathering of family “Hollywood style.” Rather, the lawyer discusses the administrative steps that the personal representative […]
An adult child of a client who recently passed away contacted me to discuss what she was to receive from her mother’s estate. She had no idea what mother owned, or what anything was worth. She only knew that our office prepared the documents, and that her mother directed to call us when her time […]
Several years ago, I took on an estate-planning client, “Kevin,” who had worked at the Eastman Kodak Company for his entire adult life. He had earned stock bonuses in the company over the years, so that by his retirement a significant portion of his net worth consisted of Kodak stock. Kevin asked me to draft […]
One never knows whether something written in social media was fabricated or is actually attributed to the correct party. Nevertheless, I came across this post in Facebook about the loss of loved ones that I thought was both insightful and poignant: “Alright, here goes. I’m old. What that means is that I’ve survived (so far) […]
When a loved one dies, whomever you name as the personal representative (executor) under the will or the trustee under a trust will be charged with the responsibility of ensuring that your estate or trust satisfies any outstanding creditors upon your death. Creditors might appear in the form of credit cards, hospital or medical bills, […]
I’m usually not a big proponent of procrastination. The longer one takes to act, the more difficult the decision usually becomes. Unless you’ve just lost a spouse or significant other. When that happens, there are many fears and concerns. Will there be enough income to pay all the bills? Should I put the house on […]
When you have a revocable trust, does that always mean that your estate will avoid the probate process when you die? You may be surprised to learn that the answer is “No.” Why is that? First, let’s review what the probate process is. Many people think that “probate” means “taxes.” Probate is not a tax. […]
“Stan” created a trust that first distributed the first $2 million to his wife, “Wendy” before making $500,000 bequests to each of his two daughters, Doris and Diane. When Stan created his trust, he considered the bequest to his wife to be enough for her to live off of the rest of her life, also […]
When a loved one dies, the last thing family members want to do is field calls from debt collectors. If you are the personal representative (executor) of the estate or trustee of your love one’s revocable trust, chances are you will have to deal with your loved one’s debts and creditors. But is it your […]