They Passed, But I Need To Get Into Their Bank Account
The situation is extremely typical among people who haven’t had to deal with a probate estate before, and my office gets these initial calls all the time. “So-and-so passed on, I need to get control of their checking account, but the bank said I need Letters Testamentary. Can you type those up for me?” Unfortunately, […]
Millennial Planning Challenges and Opportunities
Millennial planning consists of unique challenges that Boomers and Gen X have not had to face. These challenges include financial, legal, and family problems including estate planning issues probably unthought of by Boomers and the generations before them. The checklist includes: Having forgone college, or having massive student loan debt if they did go A […]
The Married ABC Trust and Tax ID Numbers
A big thanks to a subscriber who sent in a question about the “Married ABC Trust” and how the tax ID numbers work. In this video, I explain how the trust works while both members of a married couple are alive, and then how the tax-saving A, B, and C subtrust “compartments” work when the […]
Car “Accident” Leads to STD Case
Car “Accident” Leads to STD Case and $5.2 Million Bill to Car Insurance Company The media loves a sensationalized story, especially one that gets people angry enough to share and comment on social media. When a woman won $5.2 million from car insurance company GEICO because she contracted an STD in the backseat of one […]
DIY Trust Disaster Waiting To Happen
I occasionally go on Reddit and respond to posts in the r/estateplanning section. This time, it was to help warn someone about trying to do their own trust by getting a form online. Unfortunately, they didn’t know what they didn’t know, and despite the pleas of commentators suggesting that they get a lawyer, they took […]
The Estate Paparazzi
Estate Privacy When an estate goes through probate, privacy is out the door worse than Beyonce taking a stroll down Rodeo Drive. In this outtake from the webinar “Estate Planning… Bigger Than Beyonce” I review the loss of privacy that occurs to an estate mired in this court process. My name, account values, beneficiary contact […]
What’s All This ‘Hearsay’ Crap?
What is Hearsay? “Hearsay is a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.” In this reaction video, I explain in plain English the definition of ‘hearsay’ that kept popping up in the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial, and […]
The High Cost of “Low Probate Fees”
Probate Fees “Probate fees in our state are not that high.” Unfortunately, I hear this from some attorneys who focus their practice on handling probate, and probate is exactly what you get when you rely on a Last Will and Testament for your estate plan. Considering the massive attorney’s fees involved in handling full-blown probate […]
Anatomy of a Destroyed Estate Plan
Estate Plan Destroyed How do you destroy your own well-crafted, strategically created, solid estate plan in one move? In this podcast, I cover how one of our most airtight estate plans explicitly drafted to benefit a grandson with special needs ended up being placed in jeopardy… because the clients decided to perform their own DIY […]
NFTs and Revocable Living Trusts
One of the hot new investment trends is NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens. Because it is so new, questions come up about how this investment is funded into a revocable living trust. In this video, I run through the basics of NFTs and how they need to be titled to work with your revocable living trust […]