Living Trust Planning | Estate Planning Attorney

Tag: probate court

  • Can You Rely on Legal Insurance for Your Estate Plan?

    Can You Rely on Legal Insurance for Your Estate Plan?

    As the need for affordable legal services becomes even more important in today’s world, it’s common to opt for group legal insurance offered through your workplace benefits. These group insurance plans provide free legal assistance for a variety of needs from law firms that have contracted with the insurance company to provide the legal work.

    While group legal insurance might seem like an easy option to save on your family’s legal needs, it’s often inadequate for creating the kind of estate plan you really need to protect your assets, your choices, and your loved ones. In fact – the type of estate plan, will, or trust created through legal insurance programs could leave your family with a big mess.

    Here are the reasons why estate planning for your family demands a heart-centered, counseling-oriented approach and guidance beyond the scope of your group legal insurance coverage. I’ll help you understand the potential pitfalls of using group legal insurance for estate planning and share suitable alternatives to ensure your assets are properly protected and that your loved ones are left with a legacy of love, and not a big mess.

    One Size Doesn’t Fit All

    When it comes to estate planning, if you have people you love and assets you care about, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all plan that works for you and your family. While there are almost always at least, and sometimes 4 key documents in a standard estate plan–a will, trust, health care directive, and power of attorney–there are additional pieces of planning that are quite important for your family, depending on the specifics of your family dynamics and the nature of your assets, to ensure that your plan actually will work when your family needs it. Not to mention the content of these 4 documents must be specifically tailored to meet the unique needs of your family.

    Each person and each family has unique circumstances that require custom planning to ensure their plan works the way you want it to. Your financial, medical, and personal needs must be taken into account to craft a comprehensive plan that will serve you now and pass on your assets in the best way after you’re gone, all while ensuring the best use of your resources during your life. 

    Your group legal insurance plan may have the 4 key documents of an estate plan, but a generic set of planning documents is unlikely to work for you the way you want, and will almost certainly guarantee your family will end up lost and confused when something actually happens to you, and your family needs the support of the plan you created to guide them. 

    To create a plan that will truly work for you and your family, your planning process needs to begin with an evaluation of your assets and family dynamics and needs to educate you about the application of the law to your specific situation. This is why we don’t have a one-size-fits-all solution, but instead begin our planning with you looking holistically at everything you have, everyone you love, and what you desire for the people you love.  

    The type of cookie-cutter estate plan you’re likely to receive through your group legal insurance simply won’t include the kind of comprehensive considerations and counseling necessary to deliver a plan that will serve you and your loved ones in the way you would want while keeping your family out of court and conflict.

    Legal Insurance Nickel and Dimes

    Many group legal insurance plans boast free legal services after your deductible is paid, but what isn’t revealed is the limit of the coverage that’s covered for free.

    Only certain types of legal services are covered under group legal insurance plans. Estate planning is frequently covered, but the kind of plan you will receive is a mere set of documents, similar to what you could create yourself online, and not a customized, well-counseled plan that will be sure to work when your family needs it.

    Plus, some items that are essential to the creation of your plan, like notary stamps or fees to file documents with the state, aren’t included in the covered service and are instead charged to you as an extra expense.

    More importantly, most legal insurance plans have limits to the amount of claims you can file for each type of service each year. For example, you may only be covered to create a will once a year, but won’t be covered if you need to update your estate plan mid-year if circumstances change or someone dies. Estate planning isn’t something you do once, as your life will change, your assets will change, and the law will change. A legal insurance covered plan won’t keep up with those changes, so you may receive documents, but those documents aren’t likely to be what your family needs when something happens to you.

    You Need a Heart-Centered, Counseling-Based Planning Approach

    Creating an estate plan isn’t just about a will or a trust or passing on your money after you’ve died. It’s about making wise decisions about the use of your resources throughout your life, leaving your assets in a way that creates a legacy, not a mess, and creating the best reality possible for yourself and your loved ones. 

    I take a holistic approach to serving you by working closely with you and your family to understand what matters to you, your family’s dynamics and values, and the aspirations you have for your family as a whole. Then I review and consider all of your assets, including the intangible assets often left out of planning. Then together we create a truly personalized plan that takes into account every aspect of your family’s well-being for the near and long-term

    What’s more, your needs and your family’s needs will change over time. You’ll buy new assets and sell others. You may have another child, or become a grandparent. Your son may start a business or your sister may develop a disability.

    That’s why it’s crucial to coordinate your estate plan with the circumstances of your loved ones so that your wishes are honored and your assets are protected no matter how their situation changes over time.

    To do this, I look at how your wishes and the circumstances of your loved ones intersect and can provide you with personalized guidance at any stage in life’s journey.

    In addition, our planning process includes creating an inventory of all of your assets and we review your entire plan, including all of your decisions and your asset inventory for free every three years to make sure the plan we created for you will continue to serve you and your family in the way you intended. By doing this, we can identify any areas of your plan that need to be changed and any new assets that need to be coordinated into your plan.

    Legal Insurance Plans Lack Long-Term Considerations

    Estate planning is a journey that spans a lifetime. As your finances, needs, and wishes evolve over time, your estate plan must adapt accordingly. Relying solely on group legal insurance won’t provide the ongoing support and guidance needed to address changing circumstances over the years. 

    Under group legal insurance, your choice of attorneys is limited to the firms that have contracts with the insurance company, and there is no guarantee that the attorney you worked with this year will be available to help with changes to your plan next year.

    Your children will grow into adults. That means you’ll lose your ability to make decisions for them unless you update your estate plan to nominate a permanent guardian or power of attorney for them. We can help with that.

    You may wish to leave your house to your daughter but you worry about the longevity of her marriage. We’ll help you look at all of these considerations as part of our planning with you now and as they come up in the years that follow.

    Time-sensitive changes to your plan that are needed as a result of a sudden emergency or death in the family may be impossible to carry out when using an attorney through group legal insurance. Instead, you want to work with an attorney who knows your family’s story and can pick up right where you left off, allowing them to quickly and effectively address any needed changes to your plan with just a phone call.

    Trusted Expertise in Estate Planning

    While group legal insurance may seem like the ultimate way to protect your loved one’s future legal needs and your family’s wallet, sadly, the services available through these group insurance plans simply aren’t comprehensive enough to ensure you and your family get the support and guidance they need and deserve.

    Instead, it’s crucial to work with an experienced estate planning attorney who gets to know your family on a personal level and can guide you every step of the way.

    Your estate planning journey deserves personalized attention, compassionate understanding, and unwavering dedication. That’s why I have dedicated my practice to using a form of estate planning we call Life & Legacy Planning, allowing me to guide you skillfully through the decision-making process while looking ahead to proactively avoid issues in the future. 

    If you want to make sure your loved ones are always cared for no matter what the future holds, call me at (650) 600-1735 and I’ll share all the details of our Family Wealth Planning Session, which kicks off our Life & Legacy Planning process. 

    This article is a service of Jeannette Marsala, Personal Family Lawyer. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session, during which you’ll get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

  • Why “Just a Will” Is Never Enough

    Why “Just a Will” Is Never Enough

    When you think of estate planning, a will is usually the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, most people who contact me tell me they don’t need anything complicated for their estate- just a will. Indeed, wills have a reputation as the number one estate planning tool and can be seen all over TV shows and movies, from the dramatic “reading of the will” (which rarely happens in real life) to characters plotting how best to defraud their billionaire uncle’s will in order to inherit his lavish estate.

    But although wills are a key part of your estate plan – and a big part of the movies – relying on a will alone won’t solve your estate planning needs – no matter what Hollywood says. Instead, using just a will to plan your final wishes is likely to leave your loved ones with an expensive mess that won’t distribute your assets in the way you intended.  

    What’s more, a will alone won’t ensure that you’re taken care of in the event of incapacity, and contrary to what you might think, relying on only a will actually guarantees that your family will need to go to court when you die.

    If you don’t want to leave your family with a mess if something happens to you, it’s important to know how a will works and when it can be used to benefit you and your family. 

    What Exactly Is a Will and How Does it Work?

    A will is a written document that directs how the creator of the will wants their possessions disposed of after their death. The creator of the will is called the testator or testatrix. In your will you can name someone you trust to manage the distribution of your assets, called your personal representative or executor. You can also write out what you want to have happen to your property, what charitable gifts you want to make, and who will receive them.

    A will can be a complex document or a very simple document. You can even write your will on a napkin if you really want to!

    With that said, a will isn’t a legally binding document unless it’s executed according to the laws of the state where you reside. In general, you need to sign your will in front of a witness, and sometimes a notary. 

    Some states have laws that allow you to create a will that isn’t witnessed at all so long as it is handwritten by the testator themselves. But because every state has different laws for the creation of a will, it’s important to consult with an experienced estate planning attorney (like me) to create your will rather than trying to write your own.

    A Will Requires Probate Court

    One of the biggest estate planning myths I hear from clients is the belief that by having a will, their loved ones won’t need to go to court after they die.

    This is sadly the opposite of the truth.

    If you use only a will as your main method of estate planning, you are actually guaranteeing that your loved ones will go to court after you die because a will is required by law to go through the court system called probate before any of your assets can be distributed. In fact, a will is only effective within the probate court.

    Once your will is admitted to the court after your death, your personal representative or executor will be given official authority to move your assets under the court’s supervision. This ensures your property is distributed according to your wishes and that the court can intervene if there are any disputes over who gets what.

    While court oversight can be helpful if there is any confusion or disagreement about your estate, the probate process is long and expensive. For very small estates, the process may take about 6 months, but for most estates, the process can take 12 – 18 months or sometimes even more. 

    Due to the length and complexity of the process, going through probate can easily cost your family tens of thousands of dollars. Some states even require that probate cost a certain percentage of your estate’s value.

    In addition, because probate is a public court proceeding, your will becomes part of the public record upon your death, allowing everyone to see the contents of your estate, who your beneficiaries are, and what they’ll receive. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for scammers to use this information to try to take advantage of young or vulnerable beneficiaries who just inherited money from you.

    A Will Does Not Apply to All of Your Assets or All of Your Needs

    Although movies make it seem like you can and should leave all your property to your loved ones through your will, a will actually only covers certain items of your property, including any property owned solely in your name and any property that doesn’t have a beneficiary designation.

    A will doesn’t cover property co-owned by you with others listed as joint tenants or owned as marital property, meaning you can only give away your share of any property you own with others, not the entire property.

    Any assets that have a beneficiary designation, like retirement accounts or life insurance, aren’t controlled by your will at all but will instead be paid out to the person listed as your beneficiary on each account. Because of this, it’s especially important to make sure your account beneficiaries are up to date.

    In addition, a will has no power until you die, so you can’t use it to give someone you trust the power to make decisions for you if you’re incapacitated due to illness or injury. Even if you named someone in your will to manage your estate or watch over your children, that person will have no authority to do so while you’re alive. 

    Don’t Just Get a Will, Get an Estate Plan

    With all the issues that using a will for estate planning can create, you might be wondering why a will is even used at all. The thing is, a will isn’t the one-and-done solution that most people are led to believe by TV shows and even some lawyers.

    Instead, a will should be used as a piece of your overall estate plan, not as the entire plan itself.  And ideally, your will shouldn’t even need to be used at all. 

    How can that be? Well, an estate plan isn’t just one or two documents – it’s a range of tools and coordinated planning that makes sure everything and everyone you love is taken care of.

    And by using better tools like a trust instead of a will as your main tool for estate planning, you can direct what happens to your property while avoiding probate court entirely and ensuring the people you trust can step in and manage your assets immediately if you become incapacitated because of an illness or injury. 

    In addition, any assets you put in the name of your trust are entirely private, meaning the court and the public will never know what you own or who will inherit it after you’re gone. 

    When using a trust-based estate plan, you’ll still have a will, but your will should only need to serve as a backup and safety net to make sure that any assets that are accidentally left out of your trust at your death are added back into your trust.

    And, even more important than both a will and a trust, is an inventory of your assets so your family knows what you have, where it is, and how to find it when you become incapacitated or die. Without an inventory of your assets, your family will be literally lost when something happens to you. A comprehensive inventory updated throughout your lifetime is a critical, and often overlooked, piece of an estate plan that is not “just a will.”

    If you’re ready to see how having an estate plan for your family is different than having “just a will,” schedule your Family Wealth Planning Session today. During the session, we’ll review an inventory of everything you have and everyone you love, and together look at what would happen to your possessions and loved ones when something does happen. Then I’ll help you develop a plan to make sure your loved ones are taken care of when you can’t be there and that your plan works for you, and for them, exactly as you want it – at your budget and within your desires. 

    Most importantly, I don’t just create documents. I guide you and your family through every step of the process, now and at the time of your passing. I even help all of my clients pass on something more valuable than their money – their values, stories, and wisdom – through a Family Legacy Interview.

    To get clear on what you really do need for yourself and the people you love, call (650) 600-1735 so you can get on the road to your Family Wealth Planning Session today.

    This article is a service of Jeannette Marsala, Personal Family Lawyer. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session, during which you’ll get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

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