Why Deathbed Planning Might Give You Additional Grief
None of us likes to think about our own death or enjoys planning for that occasion. However, if you do not create an estate plan or fail to update it regularly, you are likely setting your loved ones up for even more stress and grief after you pass away. It may add to your own […]
Will Our Child Have to Manage Multiple Trusts After Our Death?
When a married couple creates an estate plan using a revocable living trust, they have the option of creating a single joint trust or two separate individual trusts. While the pros and cons of each are beyond the scope of this article, spouses may choose to create separate trusts for a variety of reasons including […]
What is a Blind Trust?
Trusts are typically set up for the benefit of a trustmaker’s loved ones, a charitable organization, or a third party, with the trust money and property being distributed to the beneficiaries upon the trustmaker’s death. But there are situations in which a person may want to set up a trust to be used during their […]
Ways to Leave Oklahoma Real Estate to Your Loved Ones
Updated 10/3/2023 Owning real estate continues to be a very popular investment vehicle for individuals and couples alike. One attractive feature of investing in real estate is that investment property can also double as a personal residence. In other cases, real estate investments may be rental, recreational, commercial, or farm properties. Whatever the case, it […]
Things to Consider Before Accepting Your Inheritance
The news that you will be receiving an inheritance is often bittersweet because it means that somebody close to you has passed away. But you might also have mixed emotions about your inheritance for reasons that have to do with the actual accounts or property you are inheriting. Accepting an inheritance is a free and […]
3 Reasons for Considering a Family Office in Oklahoma
A family office provides management services to a family whose businesses and wealth have become too complex and significant to manage by themselves. A family office often combines investment, legal, and tax services along with lifestyle and administrative services, such as making travel arrangements or coordinating the use of a vacation property. In addition to […]
How to Protect Yourself from Claims of Self-Dealing When Serving as a Trustee
What Is self-dealing in trust administration? A trustee usually has quite a bit of discretion in their management of a trust’s accounts, money, and property. At the same time, as a fiduciary, a trustee also owes the trust’s beneficiaries a duty of loyalty, which prohibits the trustee from self-dealing. In the simplest terms, self-dealing happens […]
Red Flags When Hiring a Professional to be Your Trustee
When you form a trust as part of your estate plan, one of the most important decisions you will make is who will oversee the trust’s management when you are no longer able to manage it (also known as your successor trustee). Because a trustee’s work may be time-consuming, complicated, and risk liability, many people […]
How to Prove You Are Mentally Competent for Your Will or Trust in Oklahoma
Although we would all like to believe that our family and loved ones will honor our wishes as expressed in our estate plan, contests are more common than you might think. Sometimes, a family member does not receive what they thought they would after a loved one passes away. To try to get what they […]
Statements of Intent or Purpose in Your Oklahoma Estate Plan
The reasons you create a trust are certainly special and important to you, but your intent or purpose for creating a trust can also have significant legal ramifications. For this reason, it is often critical that an Oklahoma trustmaker express in writing their purpose for creating the trust. There are essentially two different ways of […]