Writing Your Tulsa Estate Planning Blog

One way to make people hesitate before challenging a will or trust, is to include a no-contest clause, which disinherits them, if they file a legal challenge.

People often get very upset when they think they have not received their fair share of a deceased family member’s estate. They can often be so upset that they decide to issue a legal challenge to the estate plan, especially if there is a substantial money involved.

These challenges can take a lot money out of the estate, since lawyers have to be hired to defend the estate from the challenge.

A way around this problem is to include a no-contest clause in wills and trusts, as Press Enterprise discusses in “The Pros and cons of the no-contest clause.”

A no-contest clause helps prevent these challenges. It simply states that anyone who challenges the will or trust will receive nothing from it.

As a result, the document will be effectively rewritten to disinherit the challenger.
This is an easy way to stop many people from challenging an estate plan.

They might not be happy with what they received, but they do not want to risk getting nothing.
Some criticize these clauses as deterring people from challenging an estate plan when they have good reason to, such as when there has been undue influence used by someone else to get more of the estate than he or she should.

However, most states will not enforce a no-contest clause, if the person challenging the will or trust has probable cause to do so.

If you want to make sure a no-contest clause is included in your will or trust, then visit an estate planning attorney and make sure the clause is included.

Reference: Press Enterprise (Aug. 5, 2017) “The Pros and cons of the no-contest clause.”

A woman in New York left a large sum of money for her cats in her will.

It is becoming fashionable for wealthy people to leave large inheritances for the care of their pets, after the owner passes away. Every few months, another story makes the rounds in the media.

The latest incident comes out of New York, where a widow named Ellen Frey-Wouters left $300,000 for her cats. She instructed that the money be used so the two cats, Troy and Tiger, would never be caged and would always receive good care.

Fox News reported on the story in “New York widow leaves $300G to her cats.”

While there is an obvious tabloid appeal to stories of wealthy people leaving lavish gifts for their pets, there is a very serious side to these stories as well.

More and more people are viewing their pets as something more than mere animals they possess. Pets offer companionship and many people view them with as much love as they do human family members.

This leads to the desire to make sure that pets are taken care of, after the owner passes away.

You do not have to be wealthy to leave something behind for the care of your pets.

Estate planning attorneys can draw up plans for just about anyone to leave some money and instructions for how their pets should be treated.

It can be done through wills or through specially designed pet trusts.

See an estate planning attorney to ask about what you can do for your pets.

Reference: Fox News (Aug. 22, 2017) “New York widow leaves $300G to her cats.”

Today you can not only purchase a will online and download a form to fill out, you can even find websites that will let you create a free will and sign it digitally. You should not use these services.

There is stiff competition for cheap online wills.

There are all sorts of websites that offer wills at various prices and even for free. There might be hundreds of these sites, if not more.

They regularly pop up and try to beat each other in search engine rankings.

One new trend is for sites to have wills that are completely digital. You can answer some questions to have the will made.

You then sign the will digitally and think you have a will, as Jewish Link of New Jersey discusses in “Why You Really Don’t Want an Online Will.”

The problem?

If you use one these sites, you really do not have a will.

You have nothing at all but lost time.

In order to be valid in court, wills must be executed in specific ways.

That means you need to sign the will in front of witnesses, who also need to sign the will.

In some states, a notary public must also be present to certify that you and the witnesses signed the will.

If these steps are not taken, then the will cannot be entered into probate court.
Online wills are not worth your time.

Even if they do not make the basic error above, you cannot trust them to not make other mistakes.

Wills need to be carefully crafted legal documents. You should see an estate planning attorney to get one.

Reference: Jewish Link of New Jersey (August 24, 2017) “Why You Really Don’t Want an Online Will.”

If you are expecting your first child, there are a few things that you need to do before the due date to make sure that you are financially prepared.
Having your first child is an exciting time in anyone’s life.

People make all kinds of plans about the child. Names are picked out. Nurseries are built. Detailed plans about how to get to the hospital on the big day are decided. Plans to have grandparents come out to help take care of the new baby are often made.

All of those things are important.

In the frenzy of making those plans, people often forget that they need to make some financial arrangements before the baby is born, as Business Insider points out in “The first 3 things to do with your money before you have a baby are easy to overlook.”

Things that you should do include:

•Make sure that you understand health insurance and how to get your new child on your plan as soon as you possibly can. If your employer provides your insurance, then speak to your HR representative about what you will need to do.

•Make sure that you have plenty of access to cash. Children often require parents to spend cash in emergencies. You will need to have liquid assets, so you can do that. A financial advisor should be able to assist you in getting those liquid assets.

•Think about who you would want to be the guardian of your child, if anything should happen to you. You should then go to an estate planning attorney and get a will, so the person you want to be guardian will be appointed by the court.

Reference: Business Insider (August 22, 2017) “The first 3 things to do with your money before you have a baby are easy to overlook.”

If you have a trust, you might find by looking carefully at the estate planning documents that you do not really need to put assets into the trust while you are alive. Don’t let that fool you.

When you get a living trust, the estate planning attorney who drafted the trust will tell you that you need to fund the trust. That simply means that you need to transfer your assets to the trust.

This can be difficult at times, because you have to figure out what goes into the trust and what should stay out of it for various reasons.

The estate planning attorney can help you in making those determinations. Unfortunately, instead of asking for that help, many people end up not funding their trusts.

They see that they were also given a pour-over will at the same time as they got the trust.

That is a will that says any assets in an estate should be transferred to the trust, after the owner of the assets passes away.

Since the assets will be transferred later by the pour-over will, people think there is no reason to do it now.

That is a mistake, as the Times Herald-Record discusses in “Importance of funding a trust.”

The biggest problem is that one of the main reasons to get a living trust is to avoid having your estate go through probate court after you pass away.

However, if you rely on the pour-over will to fund your trust, then the place your trust gets funded is in probate court.

It is the probate court that will have to direct assets to a trust. By not funding the trust on your own, you defeat one of the primary reasons that you got the trust in the first place.

If you have difficulty funding your trust, then talk to your estate planning attorney about what you need to do.

Reference: Times Herald-Record (August 17, 2017) “Importance of funding a trust.”

If you are looking to save money on your estate plan, then you might think that you should get a will since they are cheaper to get than a trust. However, trusts are actually cheaper overall.

Estate planning can be expensive for some people. Estate planning attorneys do not always come cheap and not everyone thinks they can afford to hire one.

In most cases, a will is less expensive to get than a trust. This is because trusts normally require more of the attorney’s time to draft. This leads many people to get wills to save time and money.

The problem with is that a will is more expensive overall than a trust, as the Times Herald-Record explained in “Trusts will cost you less at settlement time.”

When someone passes away, someone must then administer either the will or the trust to make sure that property is distributed as the deceased directed.

Using a will requires going to probate court and having an executor, who can charge for the service, go through the process of administering the estate.

On the other hand, using a trust means that a trustee, who can also charge for the service, is required to distribute everything.

The trustee normally does not have to go to court, which makes it a much faster process. The speed means that the trustee may charge much less overall.

In the end, the trustee may be a lot cheaper than any money that might have been saved by getting a will instead of a trust.

When getting an estate plan created, it is important to use the instruments that work best for your situation. Do not be afraid to get a trust because of the initial expense.
It just may be cheaper in the long run.

Reference: Times Herald-Record (August 2, 2017) “Trusts will cost you less at settlement time.”

You can create a will by purchasing a form online and filing it out. However, it makes no sense to do so.

One of the biggest questions people have about estate planning today, is whether they should use one of the several online legal document services.

These services allow people to purchase forms they can download and fill out for themselves that purport to be legal documents. Many people have made their own wills this way.

The problem is that there is no actual advantage to creating a will this way, as MoneySense pointed out in “Danger of DIY Wills.”

The one advantage people think these online wills have is that they are cheaper than going to an estate planning attorney. However, that is not really the case.

It is true that you might be able to save a few hundred dollars now by doing things yourself. If there are any problems with the documents you purchased after you pass away, then your estate is going to pay a lot more money to attorneys to sort out the problems than you might save now.

There are almost always problems with form wills.

The source of the problems is always the same.

You are not an expert.

You might think you know what the best legal options are for your estate, but you are almost certainly wrong.

Do not be offended by that.

Unless you happen to be a surgeon, you do not know how to take out your own appendix either.

Estate planning requires expertise every bit as much as surgery.

Reference: MoneySense (July 14, 2017) “Danger of DIY Wills.”

It isn’t just money and clothes on the list, when leaving home for that freshman year in college.

Parents want what is best for their children. There are a few things that should be done before a child goes off to college, according to the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog in “Five Essentials for College Freshman.”

Things that you can do include:

•Get your child a health care power of attorney. If your child has a medical emergency, you will want to make sure you or someone else has the legal authority to make important health care decisions.

•Get your child a general durable power of attorney. This will make it so you or someone else can handle your child’s finances in an emergency.

•Get your child a will. While hopefully not necessary, should the worst happen, it would be good for your child to have a will. If nothing else, getting a will should help your child understand why having a will is important.

•Make sure that your child knows about cyber security and how to protect their identity. The internet is still a dangerous place in many ways. Future employers also know all about social media.

•Have your child get a credit card. It is possible your child might abuse it, but establishing credit early is important enough to take that risk.

Reference: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (July 12, 2017) “Five Essentials for College Freshman.”

The Florida legislature recently passed a bill that would allow for electronic wills in the state. It has been vetoed by the governor.

Creating legal documents online is increasingly common. Many people today, for example, work under contracts that are created online and digitally signed.

Taxes can now be done online, that require nothing more than a digital signature. There are some people who would like for this trend of creating legal documents online to reach one of the legal documents that has the most formal requirements of them all: wills.

For wills to be valid, they must be executed and witnessed in a specific way.

The Florida legislature recently passed a bill that would allow wills to be created electronically.

The law would even allow the wills to be signed and witnessed electronically.

The governor, however, decided to veto the bill, as the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog reports in “Florida Governor Scott Vetoes Landmark Electronic Will Legislation.”

The governor had several concerns about the proposal and the ability to ensure security.

However, one of the biggest concerns is that the bill would have allowed electronic wills that were not created in Florida to be probated in Florida. The governor was concerned that would allow people to use the law, when there was no actual connection with the state.

Although this particular proposal did not become law, it is likely that in the not too distant future, electronic wills will become legal in some states.

Reference: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (June 28, 2017) “Florida Governor Scott Vetoes Landmark Electronic Will Legislation.”

One of the biggest questions in estate planning today, is whether a trust is the best option for your family.

If you were to conduct a representative poll of middle class Americans about the best way to plan for your estate, it is almost certain that the majority of respondents would suggest getting a living trust.

It is the first piece of advice you will find almost anywhere you look for estate planning information. The reason for that is complex.

One reason is that many internet companies who sell trust creation documents have been very active in pushing the benefits of trusts to get more customers. Trusts are also often the best estate planning option for people.

Nevertheless, the key is to determine what the best estate planning option is for you personally, not for society generally, as Madison.com points out in “Is a Living Trust Right for You and Your Family?.”

Trusts do have many benefits over wills.

Trusts do not have to go through probate and, therefore, are not subject to the commonly cited costs and delays associated with probate.

Trust provisions do not have to be made public, as most wills do. Trusts are also a great way to control what your heirs might do with their inheritances, but “testamentary trusts” under wills do so as well.

If you really want to know whether you should get a trust, the best thing to do is to ask an estate planning attorney. Tell the attorney what your needs are and let the attorney suggest the best ways to meet those needs.

Reference: Madison.com (June 27, 2017) “Is a Living Trust Right for You and Your Family?.”