A person’s estate is all of their property owned at death. If you have a Will, that document states who inherits your estate. If you die without a Will, state law determine who will inherit your estate. In both cases, if you have enough assets, a probate court has to supervise the settling of the estate. A trust is a legal agreement in which a person (called a Grantor) states that one or more people (called Trustees) hold the Grantor’s assets for certain people (called the beneficiaries) subject to certain duties and the terms of the agreement. The most common type of trust is called... (Read More ...)
So, I have a weird job in that I, literally, talk to people about getting their estate plans up to date many times a week. And I’ve done this for TEN YEARS. Over and over, people tell me that they’ve been procrastinating and feel badly that they haven’t gotten things taken care of. And I listen. In fact, my first question is almost always what prompted my clients to finally make the appointment and get the job done. It’s almost always one of these four things: An upcoming trip. A scary diagnosis or test. A death in the family or a death of a friend. The birth of a child. Let’s... (Read More ...)
Many Baby Boomer aged clients come to me needing to update existing wills which have become terribly out of date as their children age out of needing legal guardianship and the size of their estates become more significant. A question they frequently wrestle with is who should be named Executor/Co-Executor of their estates. They know that they each want to serve as the executor of the other’s estate, but a dilemma they often wrestle with is who should be named as a third party Executor/Co-Executor, a role only necessary if and when something happens to both of them. Often, they choose to... (Read More ...)
He had that look. That look that he was busy, rich and important. I could tell from the moment I walked into the plane that he thought he should be flying alone and certainly not in coach. He glared as each passenger walked down the aisle. We mere mortals were apparently holding him up from something important. I was inclined to give the man the benefit of the doubt. After all, I’ve had bad days and bad flights. As I tried to stuff my briefcase into the overhead compartment, I tossed some light joke across the aisle to break the tension. While one gentleman got up to help me, the oh-so-important... (Read More ...)
The terms of the lease will bind the parties for a considerable period of time and it is important, therefore, to carefully draft the lease up front. Also, often times, when the lease term is coming to an end and the parties want to negotiate an extension of the lease term, landlords are tempted to just amend the lease time and time again to extend the term. Certainly that is the quickest method to keep the lease going, but after a series of amendments, the underlying (original lease) may be 10 years or older. It may well be time to engage counsel, reevaluate the lease, and be sure it meets current-day... (Read More ...)
