Part of an estate planning attorney's job is to play devil's advocate and ask the question "what if?" What if you can't sign your own name?What if your mental capacity is diminished and you need a guardian?What if you can't make your own medical decisions? Let me...
After our initial post about the SECURE Act, we began to receive questions, and in response have created a list of FAQs. Each of you is in a unique situation and as such the below questions are general in nature. Reach out to a...
As an estate planning firm, we encourage all who we encounter to stop procrastinating and be proactive in creating a plan. Sometimes things occur in life that makes us all more aware of the need for an estate plan or at a minimum the need...
The law finds its way into a lot of movies. I might be so bold to say that law finds its way into MOST movies. Sometimes the law is an essential plot point of the movie. One recent example is Knives Out. As I watched...
The End of the Stretch IRA The Stretch IRA was a financial strategy that allowed inherited IRAs to be stretched out over the lifetime of a beneficiary. To put it another way, Stretch IRAs allowed a beneficiary who was younger than the former owner of the...
This year’s legislative session brought some changes to the Estates Code. Not all of these updates apply to each of our clients; however, sharing the most up-to-date information will allow you to be ready should a friend or loved one experience a unique situation. Number of...
Probate, estate, and property law are very state-specific. While all American probate, estate, and property law is deeply rooted in old, feudal, English law, there are idiosyncrasies from state-to-state that could have a big impact on your estate planning. This begs the question, what type...
Death avoidance permeates our culture. More than 50% of our neighbors don’t have an estate plan in place detailing distribution of assets let alone any written funeral and/or burial instructions. We, as a culture, hate to admit that we are getting older and do NOT...
Who is on first? What’s on second? Who all needs to be involved in writing an estate plan? Partnering with a highly qualified attorney is paramount when crafting a plan that disposes of your assets, plans for your medical care and strategizes for the care...
The internet has changed almost every aspect of our lives, some for the better, and some for worse. I read an article about a family in Arkansas that built a “3,500-square-foot, five-bedroom abode with a three-car garage and a two-story treehouse” using only online tutorials she...