5 Questions To Ask Before Hiring An Estate Planning Lawyer—Part 2

Since you’ll be discussing topics like death, incapacity, and other frightening life events, hiring an estate planning lawyer may feel intimidating or morbid. But it definitely doesn’t have to be that way.

Instead, it can be the most empowering decision you ever make for yourself and your loved ones. The key to transforming the experience of hiring a lawyer from one that you dread into one that empowers you is to educate yourself first.

Last week we presented two of five questions to ask to ensure you don’t end up paying for legal services that you don’t need, expect, or want. Here are the remaining three questions.

5 Questions To Ask Before Hiring An Estate Planning Lawyer—Part 1

Since you’ll be discussing topics like death, incapacity, and other frightening life events, hiring an estate planning lawyer may feel intimidating or morbid. But it definitely doesn’t have to be that way.

Instead, it can be the most empowering decision you ever make for yourself and your loved ones. The key to transforming the experience of hiring a lawyer from one that you dread into one that empowers you is to educate yourself first.

To this end, here are the first two of five questions to ask to ensure you don’t end up paying for legal services that you don’t need, expect, or want.

6 Things You Should NOT Include In Your Will

There are specific assets that are not subject to a Last Will and Testament, meaning these assets will not be distributed pursuant to the terms of your Will. Joint ownership and beneficiary designations, for example, fall out of the purview of your Will. These assets should be addressed separately.

Estate Planning, probateErica EndykeNovember 30, 2020estate plan, estate planning attorney maComment

The Dirty Little Secret Most Business Owners Won't Talk About

Whether you develop smartphone apps, offer consulting services, or brew craft beer, you are no doubt extremely talented and driven when it comes to your core product or service.

Yet, when it comes to the dry, nitty-gritty parts of running a business—crunching numbers, negotiating contracts, dealing with insurance, and managing taxes—you likely don’t have nearly the same passion or surety. You might project an outer facade of confidence about the state of your company, but you may secretly fear that it’s going to fail.

Will Your Estate Plan Actually Work When Your Family Needs It?

If you’re like most people, you likely think estate planning is just one more task to check off of your life’s endless “to-do” list.

You may shop around and find a lawyer to create planning documents for you, or you might try creating your own DIY plan using online documents. Then, you’ll put those documents into a drawer, mentally check estate planning off your to-do list, and forget about them.

The problem is, estate planning is not a one-and-done type of deal.

Black Panther Star Chadwick Boseman Dies Without A Will—Part 2

In our recent article on Black Panther Star Chadwick Boseman’s death and lack of a will, we discussed a few potential explanations for this apparent blind spot in his estate plan, and how the young actor might have prevented the situation by creating a pour-over will to be used as a backup to any trusts he had put in place. Here in part two, we’ll focus on another critical component of Boseman’s estate plan—incapacity planning.

Black Panther Star Chadwick Boseman Dies Without A Will—Part 1

On October 15th, nearly two months after the death of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, his wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, filed documents with the Los Angeles probate court seeking to be named administrator of his estate. Earlier this year, Boseman and Ledward were married, and the marriage gives Ledward the right to any assets held in Boseman’s name at his death.

Boseman died at age 43 on August 28th following a four-year battle with colon cancer, and based on the court documents, it seems the young actor died without a will.

Start Planning Now to Prepare Your Estate for a Possible Democratic Sweep—Part 2

No matter who you vote for on November 3rd, you may want to start considering the potential legal, financial, and tax impacts a change of leadership might have on your family’s planning. As you’ll learn here, there are a number of reasons why you may want to start strategizing now if you could be impacted, because if you wait until after the election, it could be too late.

While we don’t yet know the outcome of the election, Biden could win and the Democrats could take a majority in both houses of Congress. If that does happen, a Democratic sweep would have far-reaching consequences on a number of policy fronts. But in terms of financial, tax, and estate planning, it’s almost certain that we’ll see radical changes to the tax landscape that could seriously impact your planning priorities. And while it’s unlikely that a tax bill would be enacted right away, there’s always the possibility such legislation could be applied retroactively to Jan. 1, 2021.

4 Reasons Why You Can’t Afford to Go Without An Estate Plan

Without a plan in place, your family will spend timeless money and energy handling all the matters you have left behind.

Erica EndykeOctober 16, 2020

Start Planning Now to Prepare Your Estate for a Possible Democratic Sweep—Part 1

No matter who you are voting for on November 3rd, you may want to start considering the potential legal, financial, and tax impacts a change of leadership might have on your family’s planning. And as you’ll learn here, there are a number of reasons why you should start strategizing now, because if you wait until after the election, it will very likely be too late.

4 Ways Estate Planning Can Improve Relationships with Loved Ones

Estate Planning is not just about the documents you create, but also your morals, your lessons, your values, your insights. It’s about your legacy.

Erica EndykeOctober 14, 2020Comment

THINK ESTATE PLANNING IS JUST FOR THE WEALTHY? THINK AGAIN!

There is a rumor that has been floating around that only the rich need estate planning. That is extremely false. Everyone needs an estate plan, but the wealthy don’t need estate planning as much as the middle-class and working-class folks. The truth of the matter is that the wealthy have a lot more to lose and still pass on substantial wealth. This may not be the case for the average working family who have loved ones that rely on them to pass down their hard-earned money.

Erica EndykeOctober 13, 2020Comment

What You Should Know Before Agreeing to Serve as Trustee

Being asked by a loved one to serve as trustee for their trust upon their death can be quite an honor, but it’s also a major responsibility—and the role is definitely not for everyone. Indeed, serving as a trustee entails a broad array of duties, and you are both ethically and legally required to properly execute those duties or face potential liability.

In the end, your responsibility as a trustee will vary greatly depending on the size of the estate, the type of assets covered by the trust, the type of trust, how many beneficiaries there are, and the document’s terms. In light of this, you should carefully review the specifics of the trust you would be managing before making your decision to serve.

6 Changes to Watch For In Your 2020 Taxes

Although you may have just filed your 2019 income taxes in July, now is the time to start thinking about your 2020 return due next April. While it’s always a good idea to be proactive when it comes to tax planning, it’s particularly important this year.

In addition to annual updates for inflation, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provides individual taxpayers with several new tax breaks, most of which will only be available this year. The sooner you learn about the different forms of tax-savings available, the more time you will have to take advantage of them.

Here are 6 ways your 2020 return will differ from prior years:

COVID-19, TaxesErica EndykeSeptember 30, 2020tax savings, Tax exemption, COVID-19, CARES Act, retirement account, tax filing

Don’t Transfer Ownership of Your House to Your Kids Before You Read This

With the cost of long-term care (LTC) skyrocketing, you may be concerned about your (or your elderly parents’) ability to pay for lengthy stays in assisted living and/or a nursing home. Such care can be massively expensive, with the potential to overwhelm even the well-off.

Because neither traditional health insurance nor Medicare will pay for LTC, some people are looking to Medicaid to help cover this cost. To become eligible for Medicaid, however, you must first exhaust nearly every penny of your savings.

Given this, you may have heard that if you transfer your house to your adult children, you can avoid selling the home if you need to qualify for Medicaid.

Lost An Old 401(k)? Here Are 6 Tips For Finding It

The days of working for a single employer for decades until you retire are over. Today, you are much more likely to change jobs multiple times during your career. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, today’s workers have held an average of 12 jobs by the time they reach their 50s.

Since people change jobs so frequently, it is easy to see you might lose track of an old 401(k) or retirement account, especially if you only worked in a position for a short time. In fact, forgetting plans is quite common: it’s estimated that roughly 900,000 workers lose track of their 401(k) plans each year. And when you forget to cash out your 401(k) upon leaving a job, your former employer might no longer have control of your account.

The Need For a Go-Bag Is Even More Important During a Pandemic

In response to a series of wildfires that ravaged Southern California in 2017, I read an article written by my mentor explaining “why your family should have a “go-bag” ready in the event a natural disaster or other emergency strikes your home. Go-bags originated with the US military, which requires its personnel to always keep one on-hand packed with the essential items needed to survive for at least three days following a disaster.

When you have just minutes to evacuate, you won’t have time to think about what you should pack to survive the days—or weeks—to come, so the time to prepare for your family’s safety is now.

COVID-19, Estate PlanningErica EndykeSeptember 9, 2020preparedness, go-bag, documents, COVID-19, natural disasters, estate plan, living will

What the Netflix Series Tiger King Can Teach You About Asset Protection Planning-Part 3

Anyone who has seen the hit Netflix documentary Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness can attest that it’s one of the most outlandish stories to come out in a year full of outlandish stories. And while Tiger King’s sordid tale of big cats, murder-for-hire, polygamy, and a missing millionaire may seem too outrageous to have any relevance to your own life, the series actually sheds light on a number of critical estate planning and asset protection issues that could apply to your family.

In part one and part two of this series, we discussed how the nightmarish ordeal Don Lewis’ daughters experienced following his death could have been entirely avoided if Don had worked with a lawyer to create his estate plan. Here in part three, we’re going to shift gears and focus on the estate planning mistakes made by the self-proclaimed Tiger King himself, Joe Exotic.