Living Trust Planning | Estate Planning Attorney

Tag: probate

  • From ‘I Do’ to ‘What If’: Estate Planning Must-Do’s for Newlyweds – Part 2

    From ‘I Do’ to ‘What If’: Estate Planning Must-Do’s for Newlyweds – Part 2

    < Read Part 1

    Getting married and starting a new chapter in your life is an exciting time. It’s also a time that requires a lot of housekeeping such as updating your address if your marriage includes a move, changing your tax filing status with your employer, and adding your new spouse to your bank and credit card accounts. 

    But did you know that creating (or updating) your estate plan should also be on your post-wedding to-do list? 

    Last week we started to explore the key estate planning components every newlywed couple needs to protect their rights, wishes, and plans for their assets now and in the future. This week, we’re continuing the conversation with three more estate planning must-do’s for newlyweds.

    04 | A Living Trust

    Are you surprised to see a trust on our list before a will? Here’s why a trust is next on your to-do list. If you’re newly married, there’s a strong likelihood that you’re relatively young in your life and your career, which means there will be many changes in your assets, family, and wishes as the years go by.

    Or you might be re-marrying or getting married later in life and already have a well-established home, financial portfolio, and family that you’re now combining with your partner’s life. 

    In either situation, you’re in a position of blending your life as a single person with the life and wishes of someone else, and the best way to make sure your wishes for your assets and your new family are honored during your lifetime and after your death is to legally document them through a trust.

    With a will, assets must first pass through a court process known as probate before they can be transferred to your spouse or any other beneficiary. But once probate is completed, your loved ones can do whatever they want with the assets they received from you through your will. The purpose and power of your will ends when probate ends.

    The court probate process required for wills can take months or even years to complete, and can often lead to ugly conflicts between your spouse and other family members. Plus, a will only governs the distribution of assets upon your death that aren’t already covered under your trust or by your beneficiary designations.

    With a trust, no court involvement is needed, and you can set parameters for how you want your assets distributed over a predetermined amount of time. For example, if you have children or plan to, you can ensure the assets are safeguarded in the trust until your children reach a certain age. If you have children from a prior relationship, you can also make sure that your new spouse is financially supported by your assets during their lifetime but that your remaining assets will be returned to your children after your new spouse’s death instead of going to your spouse’s side of the family.

    Having a trust hold your children’s inheritance can also help eliminate conflict between step-siblings and between your children and your spouse. Even if your children are adults, leaving their inheritance in a trust can help avoid family conflict and provide them with a lifetime of asset protection from creditors and lawsuits.

    Finally, using a trust as the main vehicle to distribute your assets during your incapacity and after your death allows you to design a custom plan for what happens to your assets far into the future, ensuring that the goals you have for your loved ones are nourished and that your assets are carefully managed and protected even after you’re gone. You can do this by creating contingencies and incentives in your trust that encourage your heirs to behave in certain ways. For example, for your sibling to receive their inheritance, you could require that they seek drug counseling first, or that your children pursue a course of study before receiving a distribution of income from the trust.

    05 | A Will

    A will allows you to designate who should receive any assets of yours that aren’t already included in your trust or directed by beneficiary designations. Ideally, your trust will include all of your assets. But, if you forget to add an asset to your trust, a will ensures that the forgotten asset is “poured over” into your trust and included under its terms for how you want your assets to be distributed and managed.

    If you don’t have a trust, your will designates who will receive your assets through the court probate process. Your will may also direct any charitable donations you want to make and can be used to create a trust upon your death if the circumstances call for it- such as if one of your heirs is disabled at the time of your death.

    Even if you don’t think you need a will because you don’t have many assets or have other estate planning pieces in place, having a will as a backup or “pour-over” tool is an essential part of your estate plan. Plus, depending on state law and whether or not you have children, your assets may not get divided according to your wishes if you don’t have a will, so it’s always a good idea to create one (or update your old one) when you get married. 

    06 | Legal Guardians for Your Minor Children

    Finally, if either you or your spouse have minor children from a prior relationship, or if you’re planning to have kids of your own soon, it’s crucial that you select and legally document guardians for your children. Guardians are people legally named to care for your children in the event that you or your spouse die or become incapacitated. 

    To make sure your children are never left in the care of strangers for even a minute, it’s crucial to name both long-term and short-term legal guardians for your kids. That way, someone you trust will always have the authority to be with your children during a short-term emergency or a long-term situation.

    Don’t assume that just because you have named godparents or have grandparents living nearby that they will automatically have the authority to care for your children if you can’t. The only way to ensure that your children are cared for by the people you would want is to name guardians in a legal document. Otherwise, you risk creating needless conflict between family members and a potentially long, expensive court process for your loved ones.

    Planning for a Lifetime of Happiness

    If you’re newly married or are planning to be married soon, I wish you true happiness in your marriage and your new life ahead, and I truly want to help you protect the dream and future you are building with your new spouse. With the excitement of your wedding coming to an end, now is the best time to create an estate plan for your new family, and it may even be the most crucial time to create a plan for them. 

    We often think that incapacity and death simply don’t happen to newly married couples, but unfortunately, no one can predict the future. If an illness or tragedy does strike you or your new spouse, the ramifications of not having an estate plan in place can be even worse than for a couple who has been married for a long time.

    No matter the stage of your relationship or marriage, I can help make sure your spouse and family are protected and cared for now and for years to come. Through our Life & Legacy Planning Session process, I’ll guide you from the heart on the estate planning questions and decisions that are essential for your family’s well-being and that feel comfortable to you.

    To learn more about how I can help protect your family’s future, schedule a free 15-minute discovery call today. 

    Here’s to a very happy ever after. 

    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 Life & Legacy 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 Life and Legacy Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

  • AARP and The Red Cross Celebrate Make-A-Will Month, But Here’s What They Didn’t Tell You

    AARP and The Red Cross Celebrate Make-A-Will Month, But Here’s What They Didn’t Tell You

    August is National Make-A-Will Month and you may have received an advertisement in your inbox or mailbox from AARP or the American Red Cross reminding you to get your will taken care of this month. Both AARP and the Red Cross promoted their partnerships with FreeWill.com, a website that claims to help you create a legally valid will in just 20 minutes. 

    A will is usually the first thing that comes to mind when you think of getting your affairs in order, so the advice presented by AARP, the Red Cross, and National Make-A-Will Month itself sounds really good. But in reality, the message of AARP and the Red Cross for Make-A-Will Month could leave your family with a stressful mess when you die or if you become incapacitated first.

    To understand why, it’s important to know what a will does and where its limits lie.

    A Will Doesn’t Cover All of Your Assets

    Advertisements and public campaigns about making a will can make it seem like a will can take care of all of your needs and all of your assets after you’ve died. In reality, a will 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.

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

    Assets such as retirement accounts and life insurance policies that have beneficiary designations are not controlled by your will at all but will instead be paid out directly 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. And that you have backup designations in case your chosen beneficiary isn’t living at the time of your death.

    Even if your will states that you want your wishes to apply to all of your assets, the wishes in your will are always trumped by beneficiary designations and co-ownership laws.

    A Will Does Nothing For You If You Become Incapacitated

    Since your will doesn’t have any authority until after you’ve died, 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. An incapacity can occur as a result of a car accident, an injury sustained while playing with your softball league, or due to an illness, and may be temporary or permanent.

    Tasks like paying your bills, managing your money, and maintaining your home may all require help if you become incapacitated. Likewise, you’ll need someone who can make medical decisions for you if you’re unconscious or unable to communicate your medical choices effectively, such as if you’re in an induced coma in the hospital or have memory problems due to an injury or degenerative condition.

    Unfortunately, the people named in your will have no authority to make decisions for you or act on your behalf while you’re alive unless you’ve given them that power through a separate power of attorney. Without it, your loved ones may need to go through a court guardianship process to gain the authority to take care of you and your home.

    A Will Must Be Filed in Court to Be Used

    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.

    Sadly, this is the opposite of the truth.

    A will only has the authority to control your assets and represent your decisions when it is filed under a probate case in court after your death. 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. 

    Your chosen representatives can only begin the process of managing your assets and following the wishes you’ve left in your will only after a judge or court commissioner has formally given them the power. While court oversight can be helpful if there is any confusion or disagreement about your estate, the probate process can be long and expensive. Often, the process can take 12 – 18 months or sometimes even longer. 

    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 is Not an Estate Plan

    Organizations often promote a message of the importance of creating a will because a will is a tool that most people have heard of and are familiar with, which makes it an easy launching point to talk about the importance of planning for your assets and your loved ones. But the thing is, a will isn’t the one-and-done solution that most people are led to believe. 

    The terms “will” and “estate plan” are often used interchangeably to mean a tool for dispersing your assets and protecting your wishes, but these two terms are not the same. In reality, a will is just one piece of your overall estate plan, not the entire plan itself. An estate plan isn’t just one or two documents – it’s a range of strategic decisions about the allocation and title of your assets, and it’s a set of tools and counseling-oriented planning that make sure everything and everyone you love is taken care of both while you’re alive and after you’re gone. 

    Your complete estate plan may include a will, a trust, powers of attorney, and other tools that are tailored to your specific situation, local laws, and your vision for the future. 

    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 lost when something happens to you. A comprehensive inventory updated throughout your lifetime is a critical, and often overlooked, piece of an estate plan.

    Trusted Guidance and Counseling

    An online program may be able to give you a legally valid will or other legal documents, but just because something is legally valid doesn’t mean it will be effective. And any document created through a 20-minute online tool is almost guaranteed not to work for you and your loved ones when they need it. 

    If you’re ready to see how having an estate plan created for your family with heart-forward professional guidance is different than just creating a will online, 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 that works exactly as you want it – at your budget and with your vision – to make sure your loved ones are taken care of when you can’t be there.

    Most importantly, any document created using an online tool will lack the knowledge, guidance, and personal counseling of a trusted expert who knows your situation and cares about your plan’s effectiveness.

    That’s why 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 clarity on what you and the people you love truly need, call me at (650) 600-1735 so you can take the first step toward 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.

  • 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.

  • Stephen “tWitch” Boss Dies Without a Will

    Stephen “tWitch” Boss Dies Without a Will

    Stephen Laurel Boss, also known as “tWitch,” was an American DJ, hip-hop dancer, choreographer, television producer, and actor whose personality lit up the stage on So You Think You Can Dance and as a producer and frequent guest host on The Ellen Degeneres Show. Boss also co-hosted the TV show Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings alongside his wife and fellow dancer, Allison Holkers. 

    Boss and Holkers shared a seemingly extremely happy life together in Los Angeles, California where they were raising their three children, ages 3, 7, and 14. Sadly, on December 13, 2022, Boss died by suicide at the age of 40. Boss’ death was a complete shock to fans and loved ones who reported the star seemed happy in the weeks leading up to his death. 

    Boss died without a will or trust in place, meaning his wife, Allison Holker, has the task of petitioning the California court system to release Boss’ share of their assets to her. While California has tools to simplify this process for some couples, Holker will still need to wait months before she can formally take possession of the property Boss owned with her, as well as property held in his name alone, including his share of his production company, royalties, and his personal investment account.

    Unnecessary Court Involvement In a Time of Grief

    In order to have access to her late husband’s assets, Holker had to make a public filing in the Los Angeles County Probate Court by filing a California Spousal Property Petition, which asks the court to transfer ownership of a deceased spouse’s property to the surviving spouse. Holker must also prove she was legally married to Boss at the time of his death. 

    While California’s Spousal Property Petition helps speed up an otherwise lengthy probate court process, the court’s involvement nonetheless delays Holker’s ability to access her late husband’s assets – a hurdle no one wants to deal with in the wake of a devastating loss. In addition, the court probate process is entirely public, meaning that the specific assets Holker is trying to access are made part of the public record and available for anyone to read. 

    During such a difficult time, all a person wants is the space to mourn and manage their loved one’s affairs in privacy and peace. With court involvement, the timeline of steps that need to be taken is dictated by the court, and the process of proving your right to manage your loved one’s assets can feel like an unfair burden when there are so many other things to take care of during the death of a loved one.

    This isn’t just a problem for the wealthy. Even if you own a modest estate at your death, your family will need to go through the probate court process to transfer ownership of your assets if you don’t have an estate plan in place.

    How to Prevent This From Happening to Your Loved Ones

    When someone dies without an estate plan in place, the probate court’s involvement can be a lengthy and public affair. At a minimum, you can expect the probate process to last at least 6 months and oftentimes as long as 18 months or more. Court involvement in Boss’ passing could have been completely avoided if Boss and Holker had created a revocable living trust to hold their family’s assets. If they had, Holker would have had immediate access to all of the couple’s assets upon Boss’ death, eliminating the need to petition a court or wait for its approval before accessing the funds that rightly belong to her. 

    A trust would have also kept the family’s finances private. With a trust, only the person in charge of managing the trust assets (the trustee) and the trust’s direct beneficiaries need to know how the assets in a trust are used. There is also no court-imposed timeline on the trustee for taking care of your final matters (with the exception of some tax elections), so your family can move at the pace that’s right for them when the time comes to put your final affairs in order.

    The privacy that a trust provides also helps to eliminate potential family conflict because only the parties directly involved in the trust will know what the trust says. If issues between family members arise over the contents of the trust, the trust will lay out all of your wishes in detail, so that all family members are on the same page and understand your wishes for the ones you’ve left behind.

    Guidance for You and the Ones You Love

    Most importantly, creating a revocable living trust through usensures your loved ones have someone to turn to for guidance and support during times of uncertainty. No one expects the sudden loss of a loved one, but when it happens, your world is shaken. Even the simplest tasks can feel overwhelming, let alone the work involved to manage a loved one’s affairs.

    That’s why we welcome you to meet with us for a Family Wealth Planning Session to discuss your wishes for when you die or if you become incapacitated. During the session, we’ll walk you through all of your options for estate planning and how your choices will impact your loved ones after you’re gone. We even encourage you to bring your family with you to your planning session so they have a chance to meet us. 

    If you’re ready to start the estate planning process, contact us at (650) 600-1735, or click the link in the paragraph below to schedule 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.

  • Top 5 Questions to Consider Before Hiring a Lawyer for Your Estate Planning Needs

    Top 5 Questions to Consider Before Hiring a Lawyer for Your Estate Planning Needs

    I know discussing topics like death, incapacity, and other potentially frightening life events, with someone like me, an estate planning lawyer, may feel intimidating or even morbid. Take a deep breath and relax… it doesn’t have to and shouldn’t be that way.

    Hiring a lawyer to help you make wise decisions for life and death can be the most empowering choice you ever make for yourself and your loved ones. The way I explain it to my friends and family is, “estate planning isn’t about planning for your death, it’s about planning for your life.” So, with that frame in mind, let’s talk about how to choose an estate planning attorney, because we aren’t all cut from the same cloth.

    The right lawyer will be there for your family when you can’t be, so you want to understand who the lawyer is as a person, not just an attorney. Of course, you’ll also want to discover the services your lawyer offers and how they run their business.

    Here are five questions to ensure you don’t end up paying for legal services you don’t need, expect, or want. Once you know exactly what you should be looking for when choosing an estate planning lawyer, you’ll be much better positioned to hire an attorney that will provide the kind of love, attention, care, and trust your family deserves.

    01 | How Do They Bill For Their Services?

    Your first question to a lawyer may be, “how much does it cost?” But that’s typically only because you aren’t clear on what else to ask. So we’re going to give you an upgrade here.

    The first question to ask isn’t “how much does it cost,” but rather, “how do you bill for your services and how do you determine what to bill for your services?”

    The right lawyer for you will have a clear answer that helps you understand how they determine how much to charge you and how you’ll be charged. They’ll set clear boundaries and expectations around fees – so there are no surprises.

    When working with an estate planning lawyer, find a lawyer who bills for all their services on a flat-fee, no surprises, basis —and never hourly—unless a court requires it for limited “court-related” services.

    Your lawyer should determine the fees they charge you only after guiding you through a process of discovery in which they learn about your family dynamics and your assets and educate you about what would happen for your family and assets if and when something happens to you. Through that process, they will help you choose the right plan that meets your budget and desired outcomes.

    At my firm, all of our fees are a flat-fee, agreed to in advance, and you choose your fee through our Family Wealth Planning Session process, during which we educate you about the law, and you educate us about your family dynamics and assets. Then, you choose the right plan, at the right price, for the people you love.

    02 | How Will Your Lawyer Respond To Your Needs On An Ongoing Basis?

    One of people’s biggest complaints about working with lawyers is a lack of responsiveness. We’ve even heard of situations in which clients went weeks without getting a call back from their lawyer. It’s unfortunate, and yet it makes sense when a lawyer doesn’t have systems in place to ensure they can serve their existing clients and respond to the needs of past clients.

    So, to ensure your lawyer can be responsive to your needs, ask them how quickly calls are typically returned in their office and if someone will be on-hand to answer quick questions when and as needed.

    Ideally, all calls to your lawyer should be pre-scheduled with a clear agenda, so you both can be ready to focus on your specific needs.

    03 | How Will Your Lawyer Proactively Communicate With You On An Ongoing Basis?

    Sadly, most lawyers fail to communicate regularly with their clients. As a result, if you’ve created an estate plan in the past, you may have had a “checked off the list and done” kind of experience and not even realized that estate planning means a lifetime of wise legal and financial decisions, not a one-and-done kind of thing.

    Unfortunately, most lawyers don’t have their business systems set up for ongoing, proactive communication. They don’t have the time to get to know you or your family and then keep your plan up to date throughout your life.

    Work with a lawyer who has systems to keep your plan updated to ensure your assets are protected (throughout your life) and who will communicate with you regularly.

    Additionally, ask them how they will proactively support you in keeping your plan up to date on an ongoing basis and be there for your loved one’s when you can’t be.

    Think of it this way: Your estate plan includes a set of documents, but your plan is far more than those documents. Your plan is an inventory of your assets, which changes throughout your life. It’s a structure and container for who and what your family will turn to when something happens to you.

    You want to work with a lawyer with systems to keep your documents up to date and ensure your assets are owned correctly throughout your lifetime. Ideally, the lawyer should get to know you and your family over time so that when something happens, your lawyer can be there for the people you love. There will already be an underlying relationship and trust.

    04 | Can You Call About Any Legal Problem Or Just About Matters Within Their Specialty?

    Given the complexity of today’s legal world, lawyers must have specialized training in one or more specific practice areas, such as divorce, bankruptcy, wills and trusts, personal injury, business, criminal matters, or employment law. You do NOT want to work with a “door law” attorney – a lawyer who professes to be an expert in whatever random legal issue walks through the door.

    That said, you do want your personal lawyer to have broad enough expertise to consult with him or her about all sorts of legal and financial issues that may come up in your life—and trust he or she will be able to offer you sound guidance about whether you have a legal issue, or not. And while your lawyer won’t be able to advise you on all legal matters, he or she should be able to refer you to other trusted professionals who can help you.

    Trust me, you wouldn’t want the lawyer who designed your estate plan also to handle your personal injury claim, settle a dispute with your landlord, and advise you on your divorce. But you do want him or her to be there to hear your story, refer you to a highly qualified lawyer who specializes in that area, and overall, serve as your go-to legal consultant.

    In this capacity, you can consult your personal lawyer before you sign any legal documents, any time you have a legal or financial issue arise, or whenever anything that might adversely affect your family or business comes up, and know that you’ll get excellent guidance.

    05 | What Happens When They Die Or Retire?

    We all die, including your lawyer. And they may retire before they die. So be sure to ask what the plan is for your plan and your family when they do.

    This is a critically important—and often overlooked—question to ask your lawyer and any service professional before beginning a relationship. Sure, it may be uncomfortable to ask. A client-centered professional will have a succession plan to ensure their clients are cared for no matter what happens to the lawyer managing your plan.

    Look for a lawyer with a detailed plan that will ensure that someone warm and caring will take over your planning without any interruption of service.

    Here at our law firm, we work with a community of lawyers just like us who serve clients as a Personal Family Lawyer with Life & Legacy Planning.  We have a network of successor attorneys who practice with the same morals and model as we do, so if anything happens to us, you will be treated with the same level of care and relationship that we provide.

    A Lasting Relationship

    Although hiring the right estate planning lawyer may not seem that important, it’s one of the most critical choices you can make for yourself and your family. After all, this is the individual you trust to serve on your behalf to protect and provide for your loved ones during one of life’s most emotionally challenging experiences.

    Should you choose the wrong person for the job, your family could face unnecessary conflicts, expenses, and legal entanglements when they’re most vulnerable. Ultimately, estate planning is far more than having a lawyer create a set of documents for you and then never seeing you again or only seeing you when something goes wrong.

    We develop a relationship with you and your family that lasts a lifetime. Our unique, family-centered legal services are specifically tailored to provide our clients with the kind of love, attention, and trust we’d want for our loved ones. To learn more about our one-of-a-kind systems and services, schedule a 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.

  • 5 Reasons Why Shopping for the Cheapest Estate Plan Could Leave Your Family with an Unintended Mess

    5 Reasons Why Shopping for the Cheapest Estate Plan Could Leave Your Family with an Unintended Mess

    In most cases, from the most sophisticated business people with the highest net worth to those just starting in the workforce and on their path to adulthood, you very likely don’t know how to evaluate estimates when shopping for an estate plan.

    Shopping for an estate plan based on getting the lowest cost plan possible is often the fastest path to leaving your family with an empty set of documents (maybe in a beautiful binder, but not worth the paper they’re written on) that won’t work for your family when they need it.

    Unfortunately, we see the negative effects of cheap estate planning when family members come to us during a time of grief with that fancy binder that sat on the shelf for years sending out signals of false security, full of out-of-date estate planning documents, and find themselves stuck in what could have been an avoidable court process, or even conflict when that’s exactly what their loved one thought they had paid someone to handle for them.

    Here Are 5 Reasons Why Shopping For The Cheapest Estate Plan Is Likely To Leave You With A Plan That Won’t Work For Your Family… And Could Leave Them With A Big Mess Instead.

    01 | The least expensive plan isn’t worth the paper it’s written on once you’ve left the attorney’s office — your life changes, the law changes, and your assets change over time; your plan needs to keep up with those changes.

    And the truth is a lawyer can’t afford to provide anything more than documents that won’t get updated when you only pay a few hundred dollars for a plan. The business model doesn’t work for the lawyer and won’t work for you.

    An attorney who has built a practice specifically to serve your family in their best interests cannot make a living selling $399 (or even $1,500 or $2,000) Wills, Trusts, or estate plans. Only insurance and financial professionals getting paid commissions to sell your family’s annuities and life insurance products can make a living selling cheap documents. Buyer beware!

    02 | “Estate planning” is often sold by financial professionals who want to get their hands on your “assets under management,” not necessarily prioritizing doing right by your family or keeping the people you love out of court or conflict. They may not even know how to keep your family out of court or conflict.

    When your estate plan has been sold to you by an investment advisor as part of your financial advisory and retirement support services, their focus isn’t on understanding the relational and legal dynamics of families, which can flare up after the death of a loved one. As “relational lawyers,” we’ve got specific expertise and training in pre-emptively identifying potential for family conflict and heading it off before it becomes an expensive problem. We’ve seen it all when it comes to families getting stuck in court and we can help you design a plan that prevents your family from court and conflict.

    03 | Forms and documents won’t be there for your family when you can’t be — you want to leave your loved one’s relationship with a trusted advisor with whom you have built a relationship during your lifetime and who has met them and they already trust.

    Working with a lawyer who focuses on “the best documents” at the “lowest price” or doesn’t charge enough for their services cannot provide more than form documents. These days, especially with the rise of AI, template form documents are free for anyone to use, which makes it difficult to know how those documents are handled when it comes to protecting the people you love.

    Shopping around for the least expensive plan may get you the cheapest documents, but those documents won’t be there to guide the people you love when they need someone to turn to in a crisis or grief. We will be.

    04 | You get what you pay for. It’s your family that will pay the price. Traditional law firms usually use generic forms and documents. These are called “trust mills” and are a firm that drafts plans but doesn’t ensure assets are owned correctly or stay up to date over time. You might think that’s malpractice, but it’s not. It’s common practice, leaving your family at risk if and when something happens to you!

    05 | An estate plan isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing. It needs to stay updated with changes in your life, the law, and your assets.

    There’s currently more than $58 billion in unclaimed property held in departments of unclaimed property across the United States. Yep, that is billion with a B. Assets often land there when someone dies or becomes incapacitated, and their family loses track of it because it wasn’t tracked well during life. And that’s just one way your family loses out if you’ve shopped around for the cheapest estate plan rather than having a plan that works for the people you love.

    Is Something Better Than Nothing?

    Sometimes, having something in place is better than nothing, but this isn’t one of those cases. In this case, having a “something” plan leaves your family holding the expensive, or even empty bag, when it’s too late for them and you to do anything about it. It’s risky business to leave your loved one’s with a set of documents you aren’t sure are going to work, and our guess is that you love your people too much for that.

    Bottom line: don’t waste your time shopping around town for the cheapest plan possible. You don’t want the cheap plan. You want the plan that will work for the people you love when they need it.

    If you already have an estate plan in place that you may have bought based on price, and are concerned you may have gotten a set of documents that won’t serve your family when they need it most, call us and ask about our 50-point assessment. We can help you save some money by giving it to do yourself, or you can pay us for a plan review to make sure your loved one’s won’t get stuck with an expensive and painful and unnecessary court process or loss of assets, when it’s too late.

    Contact us to get on our calendar. We begin our planning process with a Family Wealth Planning Planning Session, during which you’ll not only become more financially organized than ever before, you’ll finally be able to make informed, educated choices about the right plan for your family based on your unique family dynamics and your assets, instead of just shopping around for an estate plan based on price.

    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.

  • Will Your Estate Plan Work When Your Family Needs It?

    Will Your Estate Plan Work When Your Family Needs It?

    Like most people, you likely think estate planning is just one more task to check off your life’s endless “to-do” list.

    You can shop around and find a lawyer to create planning documents for you or create your own DIY plan using online documents. Then, you’ll put those documents into a drawer, mentally check estate planning off your to-do list, and forget about them.

    The problem is, estate planning is more than just a one-and-done type of deal.

    It’ll be worthless if your plan isn’t regularly updated when your assets, family situation, and laws change. Failing to update your plan can create problems that can leave your family worse off than if you’ve never created a plan.

    The following story illustrates the consequences of not updating your plan, which happened to the founder and CEO of New Law Business Model, Ali Katz. Indeed, this experience was one of the leading catalysts for her to create the new, family-centered model of estate planning we use with all of our clients.

    A Game Changing Realization

    When Ali was in law school, her father-in-law died. He’d done his estate planning—or at least thought he had. He paid a Florida law firm roughly $3,000 to prepare an estate plan for him, so his family wouldn’t be stuck with the hassles and expense of probate court or drawn into needless conflict with his ex-wife.

    And yet, after his death, that’s exactly what did happen. His family was forced to go to court to claim assets that were supposed to pass directly to them. And on top of that, they had to deal with his ex-wife and her attorneys.

    Ali couldn’t understand it. If her father-in-law paid $3,000 for an estate plan, why were his loved ones dealing with the court and his ex-wife? His planning documents were not updated, and his assets were not even correctly titled.

    Ali’s father-in-law created a Trust so that his assets would pass directly to his family when he died, and they wouldn’t have to endure probate. But some of his assets had never been transferred into the name of his Trust from the beginning. And since there was no updated inventory of his assets, there was no way for his family to even confirm everything he had when he died. To this day, one of his accounts is still stuck in the Florida Department of Unclaimed Property.

    Ali thought for sure this must be malpractice. But after working for one of the best law firms in the country and interviewing other top estate-planning lawyers across the country, she confirmed what happened to her father-in-law wasn’t malpractice at all. It was common practice.

    This inspired Ali to take action. When she started her own law firm, she did so with the intention and commitment that she would ensure her clients’ plans would work when their families needed it and create a service model built around that mission.

    Will Your Plan Work When Your Family Needs It?

    We hear similar stories from our clients all the time. In fact, outside of not creating any plan, one of the most common planning mistakes we encounter is when we get called by the loved ones of someone who has become incapacitated or died with a plan that no longer works. Yet by that point, it’s too late, and the loved ones left behind are forced to deal with the aftermath.

    We recommend you review your plan annually to ensure it’s up to date and immediately amend it following events like divorce, deaths, births, and inheritances. This is so important we’ve created proprietary systems designed to ensure these updates are made for all of our clients. You don’t need to worry about whether you’ve overlooked anything as your family, the law, and your assets change over time.

    Furthermore, because your plan is designed to protect and provide for your loved ones in the event of your death or incapacity, we aren’t just here to serve you—we’re here to serve your entire family. We take the time to get to know your family members and include them in the planning process so everyone affected by your plan is well aware of your latest planning strategies and why you made the choices you did.

    Unfortunately, many estate planning firms only engage with a part of the family when creating estate plans, leaving the spouse and other loved ones primarily out of the loop. The planning process works best when your loved ones are educated and engaged. We can even facilitate regular family meetings to keep everyone up-to-date.

    Built-In Systems To Keep Your Plan Current

    Our legal services are designed to make estate planning as streamlined and worry-free as possible for you and your family. Unlike the lawyers who worked with Ali’s father-in-law, we don’t just create legal documents and put the onus on you to ensure they stay updated and function as intended—we take care of that on our end.

    For example, our built-in systems and processes would’ve prevented two of the biggest mistakes made by the lawyers who created her father-in-law’s plan. These mistakes include: 1) not keeping his assets properly inventoried and 2) not correctly titling assets held by his Trust.

    Maintaining a regularly updated inventory of all your assets is one of the most vital parts of keeping your plan current. We’ll not only help you create a comprehensive asset inventory, we’ll make sure the list stays consistently updated throughout your lifetime.

    Start creating an inventory of everything you own to ensure your loved ones know what you have, where it is, and how to access it if something happens to you. From there, meet with us to incorporate your inventory into a comprehensive set of planning strategies that we’ll keep updated throughout your lifetime.

    To properly title assets held by a Trust, it’s not enough to list the assets you want to cover when you create a Trust. You have to transfer the legal title of certain assets—real estate, bank accounts, securities, brokerage accounts—to the Trust, known as “funding” the Trust, for them to be appropriately disbursed.

    While most lawyers will create a Trust for you, only some will ensure your assets are properly funded. We’ll not only make sure your assets are properly titled when you initially create your Trust, we’ll also ensure that any new assets you acquire throughout your life are inventoried and properly funded to your Trust. This will keep your assets from being lost and prevent your family from being inadvertently forced into court because your plan was never fully completed.

    For The Love Of Your Family

    Our planning services go far beyond simply creating documents and then never seeing you again. We’ll develop a relationship with your family that lasts not only for your lifetime but for the lifetime of your children and their children if that’s your wish.

    We’ll support you in not only creating a plan that keeps your family out of court and out of conflict in the event of your death or incapacity, but we’ll also ensure your plan is regularly updated to make sure that it works and is there for your family when you cannot be. Contact us today to get started.

    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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