Probate is the legal process of estate administration. It exists to provide a window of opportunity for creditors to seek satisfaction from a deceased individual. Another purpose of probate is to offer a forum for anyone that may want to contest a will. These protections are useful from an overview, but if you are in line for an inheritance, probate is not necessarily a positive thing.One of the pitfalls of the probate process is the time factor. No inheritances can be distributed by the … [Read more...]
An Overview of the Estate Administration Process
Many people view estate planning as an exercise in document creation, and you do have to express your wishes in writing when you devise your plan. This being stated, you should carefully consider the events that will take place after you pass away.If you use a last will as the centerpiece of your estate plan, you would name an executor to handle the estate administration tasks after you are gone. The executor would not be able to act independently without supervision. Under the laws of the … [Read more...]
Confront the Eventualities of Aging
As elder law attorneys, we are forced to educate clients about some uncomfortable realities. If you stick your head in the sand, difficult situations can be all the worse when they arise if you are completely unprepared. With this in mind, we will look at the importance of incapacity planning in this blog post.The Twilight YearsWhen you are thinking about the life that you will live when you are a senior citizen, you probably envision the active retirement years. Without question, if you … [Read more...]
Succession Planning With Buy-Sell Agreements
There are some estate planning situations that are out of the ordinary, but there are many tools in the estate planning toolkit, so there is always a solution. One of these scenarios is succession planning for small business partners. We will explain this dynamic through the utilization of a simple example.Let’s say that you and one partner open up a restaurant, and it becomes very successful. You pour everything that you have into the business over the years, and your partner does the same. … [Read more...]
A Look at Two Asset Protection Structures
If you are establishing a small business, you should carefully consider the business structure that you utilize. Asset protection should certainly be part of the equation, because you can lose a great deal of personal property if you do not take the right legal steps. In this blog post, we will look at two business structures that are often used by people that have asset protection concerns.Limited Liability CompaniesOne of these asset protection structures is the limited liability company. … [Read more...]
