Estate Planning
Estate planning, by its name, sounds expensive.
To many people the word “estate” makes them think
of a large estate or large home sitting on a large amount of property.
In reality, in a legal context, "estate" simply means the home,
car, money and other things that are left behind after one dies.
Your estate could consist solely of a 1997 Ford pickup.
Many law firms hold to the old image of making
estate planning seem incredibly complex and expensive. In times
past, the estate tax exemption was so low that almost every person
could benefit through estate planning in regards to their estate
taxes (sometimes called death taxes). The real benefit of estate
planning was the avoidance of probate, but this benefit was sidelined
because that the majority of time and effort was spent
trying to keep the government from taking the majority of the
deceased person’s assets. The federal government
recently increased the estate tax exemption to such a point that for
the vast majority of Americans estate taxes are not at issue.
To see more about the estate tax deduction federal
government guidelines, click here.
The real reason to do estate planning is coming to the forefront.
However, this is not one that most attorneys want to discuss.
Many attorneys are happy to discuss the benefits of estate planning
when it relates to sheltering certain assets. This is because they
can charge extremely large fees for all
types of complex trusts designed save on taxes. However, the real benefit
of estate planning is the
avoidance of probate, and since it is estimated that a lawyer’s
fees in a probate is two to ten percent of the estate, the
probate attorneys will make much more money if in fact you do
not do estate planning.
If you do not have a will, then your estate
will be probated. If you do not have a will, your estate will
be probated. If you have a properly funded Revocable Living
Trust, your estate will not be probated. In this last scenario,
there are no fees to any attorney to probate your estate. In
times past, the attorney who drew up the will and trust was
also the attorney who was contacted for probate. Although Sullivent Law Firm does assist people in probates, it is our
wish that no person’s estate should ever have to be probated.
It is usually more costly, more time-consuming, and completely unnecessary
when you have a Revocable Living Trust. Take a few minutes with one of our
attorneys to review estate planning and find out how to properly fund your trust.
Keep in mind that a trust is not really a gift
to you, it is a gift to your spouse, your children, and your
friends. We encourage young people to talk to your parents about
estate planning and and assist your parents or grandparents in doing proper estate planning.
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At
this point, if you have had no experience with it, you’re
probably still wondering, "What exactly is estate planning." For
the majority of Americans, the legal aspects of estate planning mainly consists of
four separate documents:
Revocable Living Trust
Pourover Will
Durable Power of Attorney
Advanced Medical Directive
A
Revocable Living Trust creates a seperate entity into which
you transfer all of your assets, and you are the owner of that entity.
You will also list an alternate trustee and beneficiary who takes over and distribute
the money to the beneficiaries listed in the trust. It then operates
much like a life insurance policy and therefore is outside
the purview of the probate. So now, instead of transferring
assets to your spouse, children and other people, there is really
no transfer of assets. The trust is holds the assets, and when the
person dies the new trustee steps in and can then distribute
the assets as the trust agreement provides. This gives the you the
greatest control of your assets whether you are alive or deceased.
A Pourover
Will is a will that is in place as a backup. The Pourover
Will will take effect if you purchase something and
fail to place it in the trust. In that case, the Pourover Will is
shown to the Court and that asset is then placed in the
trust and can be distributed to the stated beneficiaries.
Durable
Power of Attorney – With today’s medical technology,
it is likely that an individual could be
incapacitated for some period of time before they die.
A person may become comatose following a serious accident, may
suffer a serious debilitating stroke or be in a persistent vegetative
state and are therefore completely unable to communicate in any
fashion. If this occurs, a Durable Power of Attorney authorizes
your attorney-in-fact, who could be anyone of your choosing
such as a spouse, brother or sister, or a child, to conduct business
for you in your name and therefore continue to deposit retirement
checks, pay bills and do anything that you could do if you were able.
Advanced
Medical Directive – An Advanced Medical Directive
is also sometimes called a Living Will. This means that if you are
comatose or in some other way incapacitated you are still
the boss related to your medical treatment. The Advanced Medical
Directive means that you are directing medical professionals in
advance and telling them what type of medical treatment you want
if you should become incapacitated. Many think this means
that you instruct medical professionals to not put you on life
support. In fact, an Advanced Medical Directive can be anything
you want. It can instruct medical professionals to rely
solely on a spouse or a friend’s instructions, or it can
specifically detail what type of medical treatment you want.
Incapacitation can have a great effect on a person’s
estate. A person who is in a persistent vegetative state, which
means that they show no brain activity and for all intents
and purposes are dead but for the medical technology keeping them
alive, can incur great expenses and use up all of their estate
when in all likelihood they will never recover. Therefore, it
is of the utmost importance that every person have an Advanced
Medical Directive directing the medical providers to follow their
wishes or the wishes of the person that they indicate in their
directive. It is important to have a Durable Power of Attorney
so that someone can step in and run your affairs should you become incapacitated
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As people get older, they frequently add children
on their bank accounts, on property deeds, and make other arrangements
in which other people are part owners of the property. You
should never rely on joint tenancy to protect your estate. If
the joint tenant is a spouse, meaning the husband and wife both
own their home, and the husband dies, if the wife does not have a Revocable
Living Trust, then when she dies that asset will be probated. Many times joint
tenancy only prolongs the probate. In addition,
by placing a child on your bank account it makes that child owner
of the assets, which can have several serious ramifications. Since
those assets are now partly owned by the child they can be subject
to taxes. In addition, if the child should get sued for any reason
a creditor could attach to that bank account and garnish virtually
all of the money. If you have a will in which the children
are to take equally but one of the children has been placed on
the bank account, then technically that bank account is now outside
the purview of probate and it is only the remaining assets that
will be distributed equally among the children. Therefore, that
child can be placed in a predicament in that they have received
more than the other children and must now transfer part of those
assets that are legally his to the other children if in fact
each child ultimately is to receive an equal amount.
If the issues related to joint tenancy seem complicated
it’s because it is. The negative consequences greatly outweigh
the benefits and joint tenancy should never be used in place of
a revocable living trust.
You
may ask yourself, Why should we use Sullivent Law Firm
to assist us in estate planning as opposed to some other law firm.
One reason is because we are committed to helping you avoid probate.
You will not come to our office
wanting a Revocable Living Trust and be convinced that you simply
need a will. Most law firms that prepare wills and trusts make
most of their income from the probate process. At Sullivent Law Firm we reach out to as many people as possible telling
them the benefits of a revocable living trust and clearly show
them that it is not expensive and not difficult to understand.
No person should be without a revocable living trust and no person
with a revocable living trust should fail to understand it or
fail to fund it. "Funding" simply means changing the name of your
bank account from your name to the name of your living trust.
That process costs virtually nothing and provides your family
and friends with incredible benefits.
Through our experience, we have found that many people
have no one to handle their affairs for them. In
addition, we found that many people have done minimal to no estate
planning.
Sullivent Law Firm is committed to
providing unbiased, effective and affordable assistance to all
people related to estate planning with our Revocable Living Trust
package. This package includes
a simple Revocable Living Trust, Pourover Will, Durable Power
of Attorney and Advanced Medical Directive. We provide on-site
assistance if needed. In fact, if necessary, we will come to your home,
hospital, or other location and prepare your estate planning documents
on-site, print the documents on-site, review the documents with
you on-site, and make sure that they are signed, witnessed, and
notarized properly. The fee for on-site service varies depending
on whether you need same day on-site service or some lesser amounts
of on-site service. We can also assist with the funding by preparing
any Quitclaim Deeds for real property such as home, businesses
and rental property. For pricing click Here.
We like what we do and we do it well. We want to help people and
we want to help you. If you have minor children, don’t make it necessary for the state to
determine where your children will be placed. Whether you have
children or not, don’t make it necessary for your family
and friends to hire an attorney and have your assets distributed
where the state says they should go. One call to us and we are
there for you.
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