Orange County Estate Planning Lawyer BlogHOW TO ACCESS CASH ON DEATH
(CASH AVAILABILITY PLANNING)
By: David L. Crockett, Attorney, CPA
Articles Posted in Estate Planning
Second Spouse Trust Planning
SECOND SPOUSE TRUST PLANNING
By: David L. Crockett, Attorney, CPA
UCLA Law School ’69, UC Berkeley ’66
CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ESTATE PLANNING
CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ESTATE PLANNING
By: David L. Crockett, Attorney, CPA
UCLA Law School ’69, UC Berkeley ’66
Trust Distributions (when do I get my money?)
TRUST DISTRIBUTIONS
(“When do I get my money?”)
By: David L. Crockett, Attorney, Certified Public Accountant
Estate Planning Where Lack of Mental Capacity
Planning Can Still Be Done Where There is Lack of Mental Capacity
TYPICAL BASIC ESTATE PLAN GOALS THWARTED
People generally do a living trust and will to avoid probate proceedings and to have more flexibility about who will inherit their estate and when it will be inherited. However, on occasion people wait too long to do their estate planning and get sick or incapacitated and then it is too late. This is where consideration of “Lack of Mental Capacity” enter the discussion.The alternative to not having an estate plan is that the person’s money and property has to go through expensive and lengthy probate proceedings and the person has no choice about how to divide up his or her estate. The mandatory attorneys fees in probate on a $1,500,000 estate are $28,000. If probate can be avoided the fees to administer an estate are typically 1/3rd or less of what probate attorneys fees would be. The law allows a person to divide up his or her estate in any percentage that he or she feels like and there is no requirement that once estate be left to family members or relatives. However, without an estate plan, the surviving spouse and children and perhaps other relatives will be the ultimate recipients of the estate and the maker of the will or trust will have nothing to say about it.
Guardianships For Children
Who Will Take Care of My Children and Their Inheritance if the Worst Happens?
Types of Guardianships For Children
Guardianships For Children – A guardianship is a legal status whereby an adult is given authority to take care of the person of a minor child and/or the estate of the minor child. A “guardianship of the estate” is where the Guardian has control and custody of assets, property and accounts belonging to a minor child. A “guardianship of the person” is where the Guardian is responsible for the care, protection, or custody and medical issues of a minor child. Guardianships typically arise in the unfortunate circumstance in which both parents have passed away. Guardianships may also arise where parents are unable or unwilling to care for their children.
Probate Counting of Pre-Death Transfers
Let’s Subtract the Money Johnny Got From His Share of the Estate
TYPICAL SITUATION
A father dies without a will leaving an estate of $100,000. Under the laws of intestate succession which apply because there is no will, his 4 children are to receive equal shares of the estate which would be $25,000 each. However, during the 10 years leading up to his death, the father had transferred $20,000 cash in total to his son Johnny thus creating a pre-death transfer. There was no documentation stating whether the $20,000 was a gift or a loan or an advancement against Johnny share of the father’s estate.
Does Everybody Have to Know About the Trust?
Can I give everything to the “love of my life” and keep it secret?
NO DISCLOSURE TO OMITTED HEIRS?
Up until 1997 a person could legally change his or her estate plan and the people previously benefited did not have any legal way to find out what the situation was. Before the law was changed to require disclosure as it is now, the state legislature committee reviewing the proposed legislation was presented with a case of a 90-year-old man who met the “love of his life” on a bar stool and married her three months later.
Don’t Give Away the House Too Soon
INCOME TAX & PROPERTY TAX TRAP FOR PREMATURE GIFT OF HOUSE
WAYS TO HANDLE THE FAMILY HOME TRANSFER
Retired couples typically have choices about how to pass on the family home. Might they make a mistake and give away the house too soon? They could sell the home and put the cash in the bank and rent. Another way people sometimes handle this is to draw up and record a deed transferring a home now to their children. The logic is that the children are going to get the house anyway so why not just given to them now. The third choice is to continue ownership of the house until both husband and wife have passed away and transfer the house to the children through their will or better yet through their living trust.
Estate Planning – Successor Trustees
Define Who Will Take Over and Control the Trust After the Trust Creators are Gone
TRUST CONTINUES AFTER DEATH OF CREATORS
A trust that is typically established to plan for distribution of family assets to the next generation has provisions for successor trustees. Initially, the trust creators, who are known in trust law as “Trustors”, also serve as the trustees of the trust. The trustees are the ones who are legally charged with administering the assets of the trust, signing on checks and bank statements, and dealing with the trust assets as any owner would. Trusts which are typically established are also known as “living trusts” and are revocable and changeable while the Trustors are alive and competent.
