Marriage and property
It was excellent news last year when a pair of Supreme Court decisions allowed same-sex marriage to remain legal in California, and for it to be recognized under federal law. I’m seeing lots of newly married and soon-to-be-married same sex couples for estate planning. Some of have been together for decades and have well-established ideas about how they want to own property and have it distributed after their deaths. Others are just starting to understand what it means, legally and financially, to be married in California. Marriage changes, among other things, one’s relationship to one’s...
Read MoreWhat is property?
It’s so much more than what many people think of when they hear that word. They may think it’s the house or their Tahoe time share or the motorcycle in the garage. Property is a legal term meaning anything one owns. In the law, traditionally, property falls into three categories: Real property which is buildings and land—you can pick up a brick or a clump of dirt—it’s “real”; Intangible personal property, which is cash and its equivalents. It’s sort of invisible (and, yes, it can easily disappear); and Tangible personal property: that’s anything you can touch, such as jewelry, artwork,...
Read MoreWho is the client?
The phone rings and I pick it up. “Hello, my name is John Simmons. You’ve worked with my mother Betty Simmons?” “Yes, that’s right,” I say. “Well, we need to change her Will. Now.” “Who’s ‘we’?” I ask. “We is me and my sister April. We need to change Mom’s Will. Now. “ “John, I’ve worked with your mother, and if she would like to change her trust, which we did a number of years ago, I’ll need to have her call me. She can come in and we can discuss the changes she’d like to make, and I’d be happy to work with her on that.” “Oh, well, she can’t really do that.” “Why not?” “Well, she can’t...
Read MoreWhom to choose?
One of the biggest stumbling blocks clients find in estate planning is the question of whom they will choose as trustees of their trusts, executors of their wills and agents for their powers of attorney.
Read MoreFunny what some people think about estate planning.
Ask your average person on the street about any number of topics—baseball stats, the latest scandal news running on CNN, where to buy a good lawn mower, whatever—and you’ll probably get an earful of mostly accurate information. Ask the average person what he or she knows about estate planning and you might get some real doozies of misinformation. I think that’s because estate planning is about getting old, death, family and finances—and that’s a combination a lot of people would rather not think about. I am continually amazed by some of the things new clients tell me when it comes to estate...
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