The Importance of Updating Your Estate Plan
As you are finishing up spring cleaning and getting ready for your summer vacation, you happen upon that will an attorney drew up for you several years back. You take it out, dust it off and begin reading. Then you notice: the will says you have only one child, but now you actually have three […]
What Property Goes Through Probate?
Estate planning attorneys have long counseled clients to avoid probate, the court managed process of distributing a deceased person’s property and assets to his or her heirs. In Oklahoma, the time to complete a probate case ranges from 3-4 months for simple estates to a year or more for complex estates with property to be […]
Disadvantages of Joint Tenancy for Married Couples
How do you own your home? If you are married, chances are that like most married couples you own your home as joint tenants with your spouse. Why do so many of us own our homes and other property in joint tenancy, and what are the disadvantages to this common form of ownership? To start, […]
Aspirin Study Raises Hopes for Dementia Prevention
A common household drug could be more powerful than we previously thought. Doctors have long prescribed aspirin for heart attack and stroke prevention. Now, a medical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health is raising hopes that aspirin might also delay the onset of dementia. The theory is that inflammation in various parts of […]
The Advance Directive
Nobody wants to think about death. However, planning for the medical treatment you will receive at the end of your life is just as important as determining who will inherit your estate. As we’ve discussed, you can utilize a revocable living trust to have a successor trustee manage your property and assets in the event […]
Who Should Serve As Trustee?
So, you have decided in consultation with your estate planning attorney that a revocable living trust is best for you and your family. One of the first issues you will have to address is naming a trustee. It is likely that you will be the initial trustee. Therefore, the question becomes who will serve as […]
The Benefits of a Last Will and Testament
Although the revocable living trust is a powerful estate planning tool, it may not be right for everyone. For older adults who could potentially require long-term care in the near to medium term, establishing a revocable living trust might make them ineligible to receive assistance from Medicaid for nursing home or assisted-living facility costs. Others […]
Reviewing and Updating Your Estate Plan
I hope that everybody enjoyed the holiday season with family and friends. The new year is a time when many of us take stock of various things in our lives, be it our careers, our finances or that exercise routine we never got around to starting last year (guilty as charged). As 2015 begins, you […]
The Importance of Trust Funding
In recent posts, I have explored the advantages of a revocable living trust centered estate plan: namely, avoiding probate, providing for incapacity and the ability to dictate the manner in which your heirs receive their inheritance. For these advantages to be realized in your estate planning, your revocable living trust must be fully funded. What […]
Establishing Continuing Trusts for Your Beneficiaries
An advantage of the revocable living trust centered estate plan is the ability to control how distributions are made after your death. This is accomplished by drafting your revocable living trust so that following your death the property and assets of your revocable living trust continue to be held in trust for your beneficiaries. At […]