Is Dying Legal?

Many public surveys have shown that 70-80 percent of Americans don't have an up-to-date will. So what?

Well, for you it's no big deal, right? After all, you have nothing more to worry about. You're now resting quietly unable to voice your opinions. While your enemies might like that, it may not go well for your family if you don't have a will, especially if you have young children, assets and maybe even a divorced spouse hanging around to see what he or she can collect when the state decides what to do with your assets and your children.

Most people have no idea of the consequences for not making your final requests part of the permanent legal record. Without a guide for the probate judge to go by, the state then takes over and takes a healthy portion of what you once owned and then maybe your family might get some of the pie.

So why not get a will done now? There are dozens of excuses. Here are a few.

"I have nothing anybody wants." - How do you know? Some of the most insignificant items are fought over by families because the deceased didn't bother to tell anyone who would get them. "I don't have the money to pay a lawyer to create a will." - This is actually a fairly good excuse. But if you have Pre-Paid Legal Family Plan, a will comes free with the service for the husband and wife or domestic partners. The service costs only $19.95 per month with no contract. So now a real lawyer can draft your wills for less than $20 per month. Is lack of money really an excuse? "My children under 18 will go to my sister or brother." - Maybe and maybe not. You now have no control over what a judge will do with your children if you and your wife suddenly passed away. On 911 about 3000 people did not anticipate losing their lives. Consequently, many of the children of those families ended up in foster homes because their parents did not have wills. "I have a will from years ago on a piece of paper somewhere." - That document may not hold up in probate. Suppose you have a piece of property that you want to transfer to a family member after you die. If the documents of transfer aren't drawn up properly, how do you know your wishes will be carried out?

You see, dying is a legal process just like birth. You will generate paper work regardless of your status. For example, my sister is a hospice administrator who constantly signs death certificates and must ensure the accuracy of those certificates as best she can so that the government knows where you are.

In closing, we spend so much time in life creating family and accumulating assets. Doesn't it make sense to make sure they are transferred properly according to your wishes?

For more information on legal plans for your family, go to www.neverquitworking.com.

Tips in Making a Family Tree for Your Estate Plan   Retirement Planning: It's About More Than Just Finances   Preparing and Writing Your Own Living Will   How to Avoid a Guardianship   How to Include Your Pets in Your Estate Plan   

Picking Estate Fiduciaries

A fiduciary is someone who monitors assets for you, with your best interests in mind. This may be a financial institution, a property management company or a trustee. Fiduciaries are not only an important part of life; they are also essential during your disability and after your death. During the estate planning process, you must take care when choosing your attorney-in-fact, health care agent, successor trustee, or estate executor.

Loyalty

Every fiduciary that you name must be loyal to you and to your heirs. You are placing a great deal of responsibility into the hands of your chosen agent, and you must be sure that person will act honestly in all actions. It is against the law for any fiduciary to use your assets for his or her gain.

Reliable

You must also choose a fiduciary you and your family can rely on. Your agent must have the time and willingness to handle the matters you have asked of him or her. Your family must be able to count on the chosen fiduciary completing all assigned duties.

Good with Finances

Your selected advocate must be organized and able to manage finances. The most complicated of fiduciary duties revolve around managing your financial assets if you become disabled as well as after your death. An estate executor or successor trustee must handle every single asset and debt that you have. This process requires organization and attention to detail.

Reasonable

Your fiduciary may have to work with family members who are in disagreement over the state of your final affairs. Pick a fiduciary that can remain emotionally and intellectually apart from issues and make reasonable, rather than emotional, decisions. The ability to deal with and put aside family arguments after the death of a loved one is perhaps the hardest duty your fiduciary will face. Choose someone who has the strength to accomplish this feat.

Tips in Making a Family Tree for Your Estate Plan   Retirement Planning: It's About More Than Just Finances   Preparing and Writing Your Own Living Will   How to Include Your Pets in Your Estate Plan   Planning For Your Personal Effects   

What's the Difference Between a Last Will and a Living Trust?

Before visiting your estate lawyer, it's a good idea to spend some time learning about the various documents and procedures involved with estate planning.

An essential topic to every estate plan is probate. Probate is a court-supervised procedure for transferring the legal title of your assets after death to your beneficiaries. The probate process involves:

Proving to the Court that a Will exists and is valid. Appointing a legal representative with authority to act on behalf of the estate. Identifying and appraising the property of the estate. Paying debts and taxes. Distributing the remaining property according to the beneficiaries.

Probate proceedings are public records and typically last several months. Any property listed in your name that does not automatically transfer upon your death, is considered probate property. For this reason, a last will goes to probate and a living trust does not.

You may have been told that a trust is more ideal than a will since it can avoid probate. However, there are other details to consider when choosing an estate plan.

Last Will and Testaments After a will is drawn up, it must go through a formal legal procedure called executing the will. This requires witnesses to the signing of the will. A will is put into effect only upon death, with the provisions controlling all assets subject to probate. Any assigned accounts are not subject to probate and will not be distributed under the terms of a will. Non-probate property such as life insurance, retirement plans, and joint tenancy accounts will pass directly to the named beneficiaries by the institution holding the account.

When it comes to costs, wills are usually cheaper to create, but more expensive down the road when heirs have to manage the estate. A will provides little assistance for asset management while the person is living. If a person becomes physically or mentally incapacitated, the court must appoint a guardian to manage the estate. Even with a good power of attorney, this process is usually burdensome and expensive.

Every state has its own variation of laws that pertain to last wills. When a will is clearly laid out, the accepted rule is that if a will was valid in the state it was made, it remains valid even when moving to a different state. However, if there are any uncertainties or exclusions, the will is usually interpreted by the laws of the state of residency. Thus, other state-specific documents should be created in the new state after each move.

In order to change or add anything in a last will, a codicil must be filed. A codicil is an amendment which must be executed with the same formalities as the original will. Sometimes it is simpler to draw up a new will instead. The original will and any codicils must be presented after death.

While a last will must go through probate, there are simpler types of probate depending on size and type of assets and whether or not there is any contest to the will.

Living Trusts A living trust is a contract between the creator of the contract and the trustee who agrees to hold assets for the beneficiaries. Each trust has three necessary parties: grantor, trustee, and beneficiary. Typically, one person is all three. The grantor retains all rights to manage the trust while alive and legally competent.

Any terms and conditions can be added, since living trusts are contractual; and because there is much less variation in state trust laws, they can be carried to different states without significant problems. Assets can be added and removed at any time without any tax penalties. As with other contractual arrangements, trusts are not usually required to become public knowledge.

Living trusts are more expensive to create and maintain, but leave fewer burdens on a spouse, children or other heirs later. If the grantor becomes incapacitated, the living trust names a successor trustee to take over and continue to manage the trust. Asset management as a successor trustee is generally much simpler than through the use of a power of attorney.

At the death of the grantor, the terms of the trust define who inherits the trust. The assets can be distributed to the beneficiaries in any manner the grantor chooses. The distribution is private and does not need any court supervision, so the successor trustee can immediately access any accounts held in the trust.

A living trust is designed so that the assets are not a part of the probate process. However, this only works if the provisions are properly put in place during life.

Estate Planning Both wills and trusts are effective tools to manage an estate during and after life. There are no "one size fits all" plans, so it's important to discuss your options with an estate lawyer.

Tips in Making a Family Tree for Your Estate Plan   Retirement Planning: It's About More Than Just Finances   Preparing and Writing Your Own Living Will   How to Include Your Pets in Your Estate Plan   Planning For Your Personal Effects   How to Avoid a Guardianship   

Estate Planning - Living Wills and Durable Powers of Attorney For Health and Finance

Estate planning frequently involves more than just having a Will. Living wills as well as durable powers of attorney for health care and finance protect your estate in case your are incapacitated, but not deceased.

A living will permits you to express your wishes regarding resuscitation and life maintaining measures in the event you later become incapable of communicating your desires. It can help you try to avoid what some believe to be an undignified existence by allowing you to decline medical treatment, food, and water if these things are "artificially" keeping you alive. The choice is yours to make and physicians will honor your wishes if the proper documents are submitted.

A durable power of attorney for health care, on the other hand, allows you to appoint another person to make decisions for you regarding your medical care in the event you cannot. This power is broader than the living will. It, too, covers situations where you may be terminally ill and need resuscitation or other life maintaining measures to stay alive. Your agent, or attorney-in-fact, can decline these treatments if you give them that power. It also applies to situations where a health care decision is required but you cannot make that decision yourself (i.e., you are unconscious as a result of injury). Your agent could authorize or decline medical treatment on your behalf.

A durable power of attorney for finance allows you to appoint another person to make decisions for you regarding your real and personal property. This power is broad and covers situations where you are terminally ill or unconscious as a result of injury, but still living. Your agent, or attorney-in-fact, can manage your financial affairs as you so wish.

If you decide to create either a living will or a durable power of attorney for health care and/or finance, you will need to consider several things before you complete the documents. You will have to provide the name and contact information for the individual(s) that you nominate to make decisions for you in the event that you cannot make them.

Be sure to inform the person you nominate of your wishes. You can permit or refuse to permit donation of your organs for transplant. You can also permit or refuse to permit donation of your body for scientific or educational purposes. Some people wish to spend their last days at home rather than in a hospital. Some people wish to nominate one person to act as their attorney-in-fact for health care and another for their finance. You can express your wishes regarding these issues in these documents. Finally, you can express your wishes about funeral arrangements.

Please consult with an attorney if you desire to execute or have questions regarding estate planning documents.

Tips in Making a Family Tree for Your Estate Plan   Retirement Planning: It's About More Than Just Finances   Preparing and Writing Your Own Living Will   Planning For Your Personal Effects   How to Avoid a Guardianship   

Need Legal Advice on Wills and Trusts?

If you're putting your life in order, and preparing to look after both your assets and the people that you love and care for, then it is a good idea to seek legal advice on wills and trusts. It makes financial sense to create a plan and provide documentation to ensure that your assets are shared out in the way you prefer.

If you are not married, or have had a civil union, but want to leave your partner your assets, or want to specify specific mementos for them to own, then you'll need to write this down. The law will distribute your assets according to who is your closest kin by law if you haven't supplied information that supersedes this. It's important to make sure you've provided for your partner in this eventuality.

Alternatively, if you have been married or in a civil union and you are no longer, you may want to instruct that your previous partner receives nothing, or less than they would have before.

It can also help protect your assets from extra taxes and costs, leaving the people you are passing it onto in a better financial position.

Even if you are married or are in a civil union without children, and it all looks straight forward, you still may need legal advice on wills and trusts. Your asset disbursement can be contested and legal proceedings can eat away at your assets, and prolong the length of time before the assets are moved from your estate to the people or organisations you would have passed them onto.

For some, succession planning is not just about writing a will, but is also about establishing a trust that can look after assets regardless of your health in later years, and protect your interests and those of your family from others who may have influence over the outcome. This can include ex married or civil union partners of your offspring.

We can spend our lives building up our assets and creating something from what we were given, be it our own inheritance, or from the education and inspiration from the people who have influenced us. Protecting all that you've built so that the next generation can expand on it and/or pass it on again, is an excellent reason to seek legal advice on wills and trusts. Your assets and your loved ones will both benefit.

Tips in Making a Family Tree for Your Estate Plan   Retirement Planning: It's About More Than Just Finances   Preparing and Writing Your Own Living Will   How to Avoid a Guardianship   How to Include Your Pets in Your Estate Plan   

Trust Planning: Wills Vs Trusts

Wills vs Trusts: which is best for you?

A trust is basically a legal contract that transfers property and assets from one person, the grantor, to another person or group of person, the beneficiaries, through the trustee. The GRANTOR is the person with the property or asset to transfer. The TRUSTEE takes care of the assets and or property for the benefits of the BENEFICIARIES. This is often done while the grantor is still alive, hence, the name Living Trust.

A will, on the other hand is a deed that states how you would like your property, assets and other effects managed and distributed or divided upon your death. There is also PROBATE, the process in which the will is submitted to a court for administration after your passing and for accomplishment. The EXECUTOR of the will, usually a person named in the will and usually a lawyer, is the person responsible for managing the affairs of the estate as it goes through probate. The court will then supervise your estate and the distribution of your assets as descried in your will with specifications on the requisites for transfer of your assets.

Choosing: pros and cons

When looking at wills vs trusts, trusts seem to have the upper hand. Trusts, as stated above, are acted upon while you are still alive, thus giving you the opportunity to supervise the transfer of ownership of assets and property personally. With living trusts, there are revocable and irrevocable trusts. The revocable trust can be changed at anytime if the grantor is not satisfied or is having second thoughts about the beneficiary or the trustee. Irrevocable trusts cannot be changed, well not without a lengthy process, so the grantor should be careful when trust planning an irrevocable trust.

When it comes to a will, given that you will be dead by the time the will is executed, you can not oversee the transfer yourself. Although the will is very specific in what you want done, it usually takes a long time to process. The probate, for one thing, takes a lot of time, and also requires a lawyer which incurs cost to your estate.

So, in the comparison of wills vs. trusts, the living trusts come out as the strong and practical choice. But in choosing which is best for you is up to you. The trick is to research more and finding out more about them in other wills vs trusts comparison.

It all comes down to careful planning.

Tips in Making a Family Tree for Your Estate Plan   Retirement Planning: It's About More Than Just Finances   Preparing and Writing Your Own Living Will   Planning For Your Personal Effects