By Liza Weiman Hanks NABBW’s Estate Planning Associate Dear Liza,  My father passed away recently, and all of his and my mom’s assets are held in a living trust (except an individual checking account), of which I am now the Trustee.  A few collection agencies are now contacting me about collecting on some credit card balances, […]

Dear Liza: My dad named his mother as his beneficiary, but she passed away in 2004.  My dad died in 2013 but didn’t change his beneficiary. I am my father’s only child and he has no wife, so who gets the money ?  When a person dies and there’s no surviving beneficiary named for an account, the assets […]

Buying Mom’s House: Be Careful By Liza Weiman Hanks NABBW’s Estate Planning Expert Dear Liza, The only asset funding my Mother’s Trust is her primary residence. However, she recently moved from CA to live with me in WA. My sister would like to purchase the home but doesn’t have the full amount. She would pay […]

What Do I Put In a Living Trust? By Liza Weiman Hanks NABBW’s Estate Planning Expert Dear Liza: I am trying to prepare a living trust on behalf of my father. He owns his home and vehicles outright and also has two bank accounts. I am the POD beneficiary of all of his accounts, as […]

Recovering Stolen Property in Probate By Liza Weiman Hanks NABBW’s Estate Planning Expert Dear Liza: I have a sister who came into my father’s house after he passed away and took the only valuable item in the house. My grandmother gave it to my father over 30 years ago. It was in the house as […]

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 […]

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 […]

Many Baby Boomer aged clients come to me needing to update existing wills which have become terribly out of date as their children age out of needing legal guardianship and the size of their estates become more significant.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 […]