From the 'Estate Planning' Category:

Funding Your Trust

One of the fundamental concepts of a trust is control; control over how the trust assets are used and for what purpose. But no control can be exercised unless assets are transferred to the […]

Integrating Life Insurance Benefits into Your Estate Plan

Life insurance is a wonderful tool to provide income security for the insured’s dependents and to provide liquidity essential for payment of estate taxes or equalization of distributions to heirs of the estate. But […]

What are Ancillary Probate Cases?

In prior posts we covered some of the differences between trusts and wills and why trusts are generally preferred. One important reason that deserves special attention is owning property in multiple states. You now […]

Probate vs. Non-Probate Assets: Estate Planning Without Wills and Trusts

In a previous post we covered a method available to transfer real property without probate called the Arizona Beneficiary Deed. The purpose of the beneficiary deed is to allow the owner to retain control […]

Small Estate Affidavits in Arizona – An Alternative to Probate

When a person’s estate is not very large, a few thousand dollars of attorney’s fees and court costs for probate proceedings can significantly reduce the proceeds to be distributed to heirs. But not every […]

An Estate Planning Lesson from James Gandolfinin (aka Tony Soprano)

Many of you might remember the actor James Gandolfini for his role as Tony Soprano on the HBO show The Sopranos. You might also remember that he passed away in Rome, Italy in June […]

Revocable Trusts Provide NO Asset Protection by Design

The revocable trust is a strange bird: in preparing an asset protection plan we often speak of this type of trust as the foundation of the plan but the trust itself has no asset […]

Will Your End-of-Life Decisions be Respected?

Congress passed the Patient Self-Determination Act in 1990 which made it clear that an individual’s express wishes regarding medical decisions were to be respected by health care providers. This included the right to record […]

In Terrorem – No Contest Clauses

One of the strengths of a well-crafted estate plan is that it promotes harmony among the beneficiaries. This means that the creator of the plan has set forth either incentives for agreement or disincentives […]

The State Might Revoke Your Will When You Divorce

Common and written laws that control division of a decedent’s estate go back thousands of years. More recently in our nation’s history, legislatures across the country have tried to establish a default pattern of […]