Five Things You Should Not Put in Your Last Will and Testament
A Last Will and Testament is supposed to make things easier after you die. Unfortunately, people sometimes treat a Will as though it should contain every piece of information anyone might ever need about their estate. They list accounts, describe property, explain family disputes, include confidential information, and sometimes even try to control assets the […]
The Form That Destroys Your Estate Plan
Avoid Probate – Plan Your Estate When people hear “avoid probate,” the natural reaction is to start adding pay-on-death (POD) or transfer-on-death (TOD) beneficiary designations to every account they own. And to be fair, beneficiary designations do have a place in a well-coordinated estate plan. The problem is when those designations become the plan. At […]
Bitcoin & Your Living Trust
The Self-Custody vs Coinbase Estate Planning Trap Every few months, someone sits across from me and says something like this: “I’ve got some Bitcoin. It’s in a wallet. My trust covers everything, right?” And the honest answer is: maybe. It depends entirely on what you mean by “wallet.” When it comes to cryptocurrency, there are […]
Online Wills, Why I Throw Most Away
I’m an estate planning attorney, and this is a story about how I saved two PhDs who used online wills from accidentally disinheriting each other. They thought they were being clever by using an online will. Instead, they created a legal mess that could have cost their family everything. Their DIY documents eventually ended up […]
I Challenged a “Simple” Estate Plan
(And I Won) Why Simple Estate Plans Sometimes Create the Exact Problems Families Were Trying to Avoid. One of the things I say often is that estate planning problems rarely come from bad intentions. They usually come from plans that were meant to be simple. This story started only a few weeks after a grandmother […]
3 Beginners Estate Hacks REVEALED
When most people first start thinking about estate planning, they expect the process to be straightforward. They’ve been told they need a Will, or that they should “get their affairs in order,” so they schedule a meeting and assume it will be a simple conversation. Instead, many people walk out feeling overwhelmed. When I first […]