Showing posts with label Digital Estate Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Digital Estate Planning. Show all posts

Friday, December 29, 2017

Digital Estate Planning: Now More Important Than Ever

Summary: Across the last few years, legal experts have been increasingly extolling the need for people to engage in estate planning with regard to their digital/electronic/online assets. What may have started several years ago as a discussion about gaining access to a deceased loved one’s email in the face of an obstinate email service provider’s refusal to release password information has turned into something much larger. Today, as people of all ages live a greater and greater part of their lives online, the need for a careful and complete digital estate plan is higher than it’s ever been.

In the past, online technologies were things that only technophiles and other young people used. In the mid 1990s, email was just something that nerds and college kids used. Then there was early social media like MySpace, which again was predominantly populated by the young and tech-inclined. Today, people of all ages use email and social media. There’s Facebook and Pinterest. There’s also Instagram and Twitter. There are your photos on Flickr. Also, financial affairs are increasingly handled online, with most financial institutions offering easy-to-use apps and online platforms.

What’s more, for some people, digital assets involve more than just content with sentimental value (like pictures or messages) or debt obligations (like utilities or credit cards) but money-making things, as well. These might involve things like YouTube channels with millions of subscribers or a blog with a massive number of followers, either of which can be revenue-generating assets.

Whatever type of digital assets you have, it is exceptionally important to make sure that you have a plan in the event something happens to you. Just like creating an estate plan for your “traditional” assets involves careful preparation, so does digital asset planning. First, just like how you want to ensure that your estate plan accounts for all of your assets, you will want to make sure that your digital estate plan accounts for all of your online items, as well. To accomplish this, start by making a list of all of your digital assets. This means everything from your hardware (like, say, your laptop computer, desktop computer or external hard drive) to your email accounts to your social media accounts to any bills (from banking to utilities to credit cards and so forth) that you manage online.

Your list shouldn’t stop with your online financial accounts, your email and your social media accounts. It may include things that you might not necessarily immediately associate with estate planning at all. This list needs to include anything that your loved ones will NEED after you pass away or that you WANT them to have after you’re gone. For example, remember that family tree complete with digital pictures, family stories and research notes you have stored on that genealogy website? If you want to pass it on, you need to include it in this list.

The list needs to include the complete set of instructions for accessing each account, complete with login user IDs and passwords. Your digital estate plan should also spell out exactly how you want each asset handled, which can be particularly important with your revenue-generating digital assets. Because this list includes a step-by-step set of instructions on how to access some of your most valuable personal information, it is essential that you protect your digital estate plan list extremely carefully. The key is that the list must be stored somewhere that is very secure but also readily accessible to the person you’ve designated to deal with your digital assets after your death.


This article is published by the Legacy Assurance Plan and is intended for general informational purposes only. Some information may not apply to your situation. It does not, nor is it intended, to constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney regarding any specific questions about probate, living probate or other estate planning matters. Legacy Assurance Plan is an estate planning services-company and is not a lawyer or law firm and is not engaged in the practice of law. For more information about this and other estate planning matters visit our website at www.legacyassuranceplan.com. 


This article written and published by:
8039 Cooper Creek Blvd
University Park, Florida 34201
844.306.5272 (Phone)
@assuranceplan
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Thursday, May 18, 2017

Think You Don't Need an Estate Plan? Think Again

Summary: Virtually everybody needs an estate plan. Whether you are young or old, rich or broke, or you're somewhere in between, an estate plan can offer you substantial benefits. Even if you have no wealth, your plan can still be valuable to you, as it can help out when you cannot make decisions for yourself. Through the use of powers of attorney and living wills, you plan can make sure that your wishes are honored and your family avoids the arduous process of legal guardianship.    

Authoritative journals and news media reports are full of stories that say just about "everyone needs an estate plan." Perhaps you have even read one or more of these pieces. Despite these intelligent and persuasive arguments, maybe you remain skeptical. Possibly you've said to yourself, "I'm single and I'm broke. I have no assets to leave and nobody to leave them to, anyway." Maybe you're young and healthy and have concluded that you have no need for an estate plan and that you will consider pursuing one once you're much older, or at least, once you've established a career, gotten married or had kids.

This type of thinking can be a major mistake. Even if your assets are minimal and you are unmarried with no kids, there are still very important reasons why you should get an estate plan drafted and executed. One of the biggest reasons is that your estate plan does more than just distribute your assets. Your estate plan, if it is a complete one can, in fact, help you out even before you die.

Anyone, whether young or old, can possibly suffer a traumatic injury that leaves them unable to make their own decisions. Sharon Kowalski, whose guardianship case went to the Minnesota Court of Appeals in 1991 and was one of the first cases addressing guardianships and LGBT people, was only 27 when an accident involving a drunk driver left her paralyzed. Nancy Cruzan, whose court case was an early major one in right-to-die litigation, was only 25 when a single-car crash left her in a permanent vegetative state. Terri Schiavo, whose court case dominated news headlines in the mid 2000s, was 26 when a cardiac arrest deprived her brain of oxygen and left her in a permanent vegetative state.

If you suffer an injury due to illness or accident, and that injury leaves you unable to make decisions for yourself, there are only two ways to authorize another person to make decisions for you. One is for a person to go to court, file a legal action, obtain a hearing and persuade a judge that the law should establish a guardianship over you and that the judge should appoint a guardian to make your decisions for you. While the judge will make his/her decision based upon your best interests, if you have no estate plan, he/she will make that decision with no input from you.

The other way is a method where you have the control over who makes your decisions for you when you cannot make your own. This method entails creating an estate plan with powers of attorney. With your financial power of attorney, all of the management of all of your assets is handling by the person you have hand-picked to carry out (and, presumably, who has willingly accepted) the task of handling all of those decisions. Your healthcare power of attorney and your living will give you the opportunity to communicate with your doctors and other medical providers regarding what types of medical care and life-extending services you want... and don't want. Your documents also allow you to name the person you want (and who is willing to handle) making your medical decisions, including end-of-life ones.

This article is published by the Legacy Assurance Plan and is intended for general informational purposes only. Some information may not apply to your situation. It does not, nor is it intended, to constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney regarding any specific questions about probate, living probate or other estate planning matters. Legacy Assurance Plan is an estate planning services-company and is not a lawyer or law firm and is not engaged in the practice of law. For more information about this and other estate planning matters visit our website at www.legacyassuranceplan.com. 

This article written and published by:
8039 Cooper Creek Blvd
University Park, Florida 34201
844.306.5272 (Phone)
@assuranceplan
#legacyassuranceplan



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Monday, March 6, 2017

Digital Estate Planning | Planning to Ensure the Proper Management of Your Digital Assets

Summary: Often times, society moves faster than the law. Legislatures are only now catching up to the fact that many people live much of their lives online and the individuals they name as their fiduciaries need to have a way to access that person's online accounts if the principal becomes incapacitated or dies. The enactment of these new laws creates a valuable new opportunity to modify one's will, trust and powers of attorney to ensure that the fiduciaries you designate have meaningful access. Even with these new laws and new opportunities to express your wishes in your estate planning documents, you may want to consider setting up a separate digital estate plan to ensure that you and your online assets are fully protected. 


The Uniform Law Commission is an unincorporated association of lawyers and legal scholars who work together to draft and publish "uniform acts," which are proposed laws intend to bring clarity to important areas of the law. The commission doesn't make laws; the uniform laws they put together may be thought of somewhat like templates, which state legislatures can, if they act on a uniform act at all, adopt entirely or adopt with their own changes.

One area the commission tackled recently was the thorny problem of access to digital assets. Estate planning professionals had, for years, sounded the alarm of this problem where a person died or became incapacitated and, even though that person had named a person (or people) to manage their affairs, that designated agent was unable to obtain access to electronic accounts ranging from online banking to email to social media. 

In 2015, the commission created the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (Revised UFADAA). Since the commission set up the Revised UFADAA, several states have debated putting its provisions into their statutory codes. 20 have passed fiduciary access to digital asset laws, and a dozen more have introduced bills on this issue. For people residing within the states that have passed these laws, you may want to take this opportunity to consider updating your plan. Several different types of people can potentially qualify as a "fiduciary" under the Revised UFADAA. These people can include the trustee of your revocable living trust, your agent named in your power of attorney or the personal representative of your probate estate.

In order to ensure that the people you want to have access do have the access they need, you may possibly need to modify some of your estate planning documents. For example, without clear instruction in your estate planning documents, your trustee, personal representative or agent under a power of attorney, your designated fiduciary may have some access under the new law, but it may not be enough to be truly helpful. Take, as an example, North Carolina's version of the Revsied UFADAA. The law gives your fiduciary the authority to access your email but, if you've not expressed any powers explicitly in your estate planning documents, your fiduciary can only view the to/from and subject lines of the emails in your account. That's probably not very helpful, is it? However, with the proper express language in your power of attorney, trust agreement or will, your fiduciary can look at, not only the to/from and subject lines, but the entire content of your email account.

Even with advances such as the passage of fiduciary access to digital asset laws, you may still want to consider creating your own separate digital estate plan. For example, even with the new laws, Yahoo! will not give your fiduciaries access to your Yahoo! mail. If your fiduciary notifies Yahoo! that you've died, Yahoo! will simply close your email account and permanently delete everything in it. To protect yourself and your digital assets, you can create your own plan where you record all your digital accounts, from online brokerage and/or banking to email to social media. You can also record your user names and passwords. Obviously, in this age of identity theft, this is a very powerful document and should be carefully encrypted (if it is a digital file) or closely safeguarded (if it is a hardcopy document). You should take care to ensure that only the person (or people) you want to access your accounts in the event of your death or incapacity have the ability to access this information.    

This article is published by the Legacy Assurance Plan and is intended for general informational purposes only. Some information may not apply to your situation. It does not, nor is it intended, to constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney regarding any specific questions about probate, living probate or other estate planning matters. Legacy Assurance Plan is an estate planning services-company and is not a lawyer or law firm and is not engaged in the practice of law. For more information about this and other estate planning matters visit our website at www.legacyassuranceplan.com. 

This article written and published by:
8039 Cooper Creek Blvd
University Park, Florida 34201
844.306.5272 (Phone)
@assuranceplan
#legacyassuranceplan



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Friday, January 20, 2017

Estate Planning Mistakes | Planning to Ensure That Your Wishes Are Carried Out



Summary: In all areas of life, mistakes happen. A recent estate planning dispute in Michigan exemplifies this, as an overlooked property deed triggered a dispute that required a trial court and an appeals court to resolve. While your plan hopefully involves less complication and less litigation, the case is a useful reminder of the importance of engaging in comprehensive planning, which will contain safeguards to protect you even if you make mistakes in the estate planning process.

As part of their 1998 estate plan, Michigan couple Larry and Joy Hutchinson created a revocable living trust. Like many living trusts, the couple were the original trustees, and the trust's assets were to be for the benefit of the couple during their lives, then the survivor of the two after the first death. After both had died, the husband's three daughters (from another relationship) received what remained. 

Several years later, the husband's daughters discovered the trust's existence and launched a lawsuit accusing their stepmother of mismanaging the trust's assets. The two sides settled the case and, as part of that settlement, the wife was required to sell the family farm and another property, and the three children were to receive certain proceeds from those sales. The wife complied, selling both properties. 

What the children discovered after their stepmother's death, however, was that not all of the property rights had been sold. With regard to the farm, the legal rights to the surface had been sold, but no sale had ever been transacted regarding the farm's oil, gas and mineral rights, which were held under a separate deed. Upon making this discovery, the children asked a judge to distribute the mineral rights to them. The wife's executor opposed this request, arguing that the mineral rights should be considered a part of her probate estate.   

The dispute ultimately made its way through the court system, with both the trial court and the appeals court concluding that, because the settlement agreement made no explicit mention of the farm's mineral rights, then the agreement had impact on those mineral rights. That meant that the mineral rights remained the property of the trust and, according to the trusts's terms, should be distributed to the children under the provisions stated in the trust. 

While you may not own any real estate that also involves mineral rights, and hopefully your estate plan will not involve any instances of mismanagement of trust assets, there is still a lesson for many people in this case. Namely, the complicated process involved in resolving this couple's estate plan is a reminder of the high importance of a complete estate plan and regular estate plan reviews. This prolonged litigation erupted because the family farm's mineral rights were simply overlooked until after the wife's death.  Even if it is not mineral rights, there is always the possibility that, despite your best efforts, you may overlook or forget an asset (or assets) when you set out to fund the living trust in your estate plan. 

A complete estate plan will help you be prepared in any scenario. If you have a living trust, your complete estate plan will also have a "pour-over" will, which will protect you against forgotten assets. Your pour-over will will take assets left out of your trust and transfer them into your trust, where they, like the rest of your wealth, can be distributed according to the terms in your trust. Also, this is a reminder of the benefit of estate plan "check-up". A check-up can be an excellent time to review everything involved with the carrying out of your estate planning goals. Anyone can potentially forget to fund an asset. A check-up is just one more opportunity to look at your plan and potentially identify and correct such an oversight.

This article is published by the Legacy Assurance Plan and is intended for general informational purposes only. Some information may not apply to your situation. It does not, nor is it intended, to constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney regarding any specific questions about probate, living probate or other estate planning matters. Legacy Assurance Plan is an estate planning services-company and is not a lawyer or law firm and is not engaged in the practice of law. For more information about this and other estate planning matters visit our website at www.legacyassuranceplan.com. 

This article written and published by:
8039 Cooper Creek Blvd
University Park, Florida 34201
844.306.5272 (Phone)
@assuranceplan
#legacyassuranceplan


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Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Get The Most Out of Your Estate Plan | Engage in Lots of Communication

Summary: Your estate plan will reflect some of the most intensely personal decisions you will ever make. However, the "final product" that goes does on paper in your documents is often one born of an in-depth interactive process, possibly involving many people, including you, your estate planning attorney and your loved ones (especially those designated to make decisions on your behalf.) As with any process like this, one of the main keys to achieving optimal success is communication, in order to ensure everyone is "on the same page" and that your true wishes will be carried out when the time comes.   

When you decide to begin the process of planning your estate, there are lots of decisions you'll have to make. For many people, among the first to leap to mind are decisions about the distribution of their wealth. While these decisions are extremely important, there are many more choices that have to be made in establishing a complete estate plan. Sometimes, some of the most difficult choices to make involve planning for your incapacity and end-of-life care.

Whether you are making financial decisions or personal ones, it is extremely important to communicate freely and fully with your estate planning attorney. Your attorney will, in the course of the estate planning process, be seeking to combine his/her knowledge of the law with the factual information you provide in order to put them together and make recommendations about what kind of plan works best for you. The only way your attorney can provide you with the best service is if you are candid and forthcoming. Holding information back will only impair your attorney's ability to give you a plan that best reflects your goals. Say, for example, that you have a deep and profound aversion to the idea of living while in a permanent vegetative state. It is important that you share information like this with your attorney, even if you know that your loved ones might disapprove.
Speaking of those loved ones, it is vital that you communicate your personal medical and healthcare decision making perspectives with them, too. If you are selecting one (or more) of your loved ones to serve as your agent (also sometimes called a "proxy"), then you should be sure to communicate carefully with those loved ones. If order for them to do the best possible job as your agent, and being a voice for what you want done, it is essential that they know exactly what you want and why you made the choices you did. By completely understanding your goals and the reasons for them, your loved ones can more effectively carry out your objectives. You should also communicate with those loved ones who will not be serving as your agent in any decision making capacity. Sometimes, one of the biggest enemies of a successful estate plan is surprise on the part of a relative or other loved one. Surprises can often trigger emotional responses that can lead to long-term family strife or even litigation challenging your wishes. Short-circuit that possibility by making sure none of your loved ones are surprised about your goals.   

For many families, this communication can be difficult. While it is often challenging to face one's own mortality, it can often be even more painful to face the mortality of a loved one, so this conversation maybe more challenging for your loved ones than for you. Nevertheless, it is a necessary one to have. (Your attorney probably won't mind if you use him/her as an excuse if you need to tell your loved ones, "I don't enjoy this either, but my lawyer says I need to talk to you about this without procrastinating.") However you go about it, do whatever it takes to have this discussion. 

Finally, but perhaps most importantly, you need to communicate with yourself. This is something you'll do before communicating with anyone else. Decide which things matter to you... and which don't. At what threshold would you want to discontinue medical treatment designed to extend your life... when you stop recognizing your loved ones? When you can no longer get around independently? When you're in severe pain all the time? For each person, the answers to these questions are different. It is important to get a clear handle on your own preferences first and then move forward with planning.  

This article is published by the Legacy Assurance Plan and is intended for general informational purposes only. Some information may not apply to your situation. It does not, nor is it intended, to constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney regarding any specific questions about probate, living probate or other estate planning matters. Legacy Assurance Plan is an estate planning services-company and is not a lawyer or law firm and is not engaged in the practice of law. For more information about this and other estate planning matters visit our website at www.legacyassuranceplan.com. 

This article written and published by:
8039 Cooper Creek Blvd
University Park, Florida 34201
844.306.5272 (Phone)
@assuranceplan
#legacyassuranceplan


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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Estate Planning For Smaller Estates | Why You Don't Need To Be a Millionaire To Need An Estate Plan


Summary: A lot of people think that estate planning is something that is only necessary if you have large amounts of wealth. This thought is wrong in almost all cases and, for some people, clinging to this thought can be a damaging mistake. Sometimes, people with extremely modest estates have circumstances in their lives that cause them to have a great need for extensive estate planning. 

A popular cable TV home channel broadcasts several shows dedicated to finding inexpensive properties on the beach or a lakefront. The shows’ openings proclaim, “…and it’s only for the rich… or so you thought!” For some, estate planning can like that. Too many people live under the mistaken thought that estate planning is only for the rich. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

A case that went through the Michigan courts recently provides a clear example. Emil Awad, a man from Bay County, Michigan, had what could be described as an incomplete estate plan. He had no will or other estate documents, but he had structured several assets to pass outside probate through the use of transfer-on-death designations. When he died in 2009, he had a probate estate that, all totaled, consisted of only about $50,000 cash and the contents of his home. He left behind no surviving spouse but he had three daughters that survived him. As his intestate estate worked through the probate court process, Awad’s creditors began making claims and, eventually, his debts were $18,000 more than his probate assets.

The daughters fought bitterly with each other over the distribution of the estate. The case went back and forth between the trial court and appellate court. In fact, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled on matters related to this modestly insolvent intestate estate three times! The last decision, made this past winter, related to the personal representative’s efforts to pull certain non-probate assets into the estate in order to cover the estate’s unpaid debts. In the end, it is possible the personal representative and the daughters spent more in attorneys’ fees than the entire value of the estate.

All of this could possibly have been avoided through implementing a careful and complete estate plan. With an estate of only $50,000, Awad may not have needed a plan that included a trust. (Some families, however, might have a need for a trust, even if their assets are as small as Awad’s, if they have special circumstances, such as a child with special needs at home.) Regardless, Awad, like almost everyone, probably could have benefited from a plan that included a will, which would have given him the ability to clearly direct how he wanted his cash, his furniture and his other personal belongings divided up between the daughters and others. 

A complete plan could also have included powers of attorney and an advance directive, which can provide you with the ability to decide who makes decisions on your behalf when you cannot make them for yourself. These parts of a complete plan can benefit you significantly, regardless of how small or large your “bottom line” is. Just because you don’t have tens of millions of dollars to your name, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you don’t need a plan.



This article written and published by:
8039 Cooper Creek Blvd
University Park, Florida 34201
844.306.5272 (Phone)
@assuranceplan
#legacyassuranceplan


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Friday, November 11, 2016

Estate Planning For Farmers | The Importance For Both Farm and Family

Summary: Family farmers, like other small business people, have some of the greatest needs for careful and complete estate planning. A proper plan can help you provide for your family and for the seamless transition and continued operation of the farm. This way, you can have the peace of mind knowing that you’ve provided for both the loved ones and the land that you’ve dedicated your life to.  

Family farmers represent the backbone of the American agricultural economy. They are hardworking and family-oriented. They may also, however, come from humble backgrounds and may not realize that the success of their family farming business gives them a great need for detailed estate planning, even though it definitely does.

Estate planning for a farm family can achieve many benefits. One of the chief benefits is to ensure the continued and uninterrupted operation of the farming business. To accomplish this goal, it is important to identify who you want to take over the farm after you die, and also make sure that the person you’ve identified is interested in taking on that responsibility. That’s why, with farm families, as with so many families, detailed and honest communications between you and your loved ones is a necessary precursor to estate planning. With proper communication, you can make sure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to handing down control of the farm’s operations.

Once you’ve decided on the “who” part of your plan, you and your estate planning attorney can get to work on the “how” part. Working with a knowledgeable attorney is important, because there are lots of varieties of estate plans that can be dangerous for farming families. For example, let’s assume that, as one of your goals, you want to save your loved ones the time, stress and expense of probate. One strategy that can avoid probate, which some people use, is to deed over the farm to the person who will to take over, while retaining a life estate for yourself. This probably will succeed in avoiding probate but, if your farming business has been successful enough that avoiding death taxes is another necessary goal, this plan may come up short. Using this plan will place the full value of your farm in your gross estate for Federal Estate Tax purposes and, depending on your circumstances, may leave your loved ones with a huge tax bill. 

You may be thinking, “The Federal Estate Tax exemption is so high, surely I don’t need to worry about that.” This can be a mistake, especially if you own a large farm. Depending on your acreage and the quality of your soil, your farm, if it is large, could by itself realistically have a value that clears the current exemption levels. What’s more, if your neighbors succeed in selling their farmland for high amounts, that may raise the “fair market value” of your land and make the FMV of your farm jump by millions of dollars very abruptly. In other words, it is important to create a plan that takes the potential risk of death taxes into consideration and, once you’ve put that plan together, to review and update it regularly to factor in any changes in death tax laws.

Another plan that some farmers might use to avoid probate is to “add” to the farm’s property deed the name of the child whom they want to take over upon their death. Again, this can avoid probate but potentially opens up many other risks. That child is now a full and current co-owner, which means that, if he becomes liable for a court judgment (such as an auto accident or a divorce,) the farm could be taken away from the family in order to satisfy this legal judgment. A proper plan can give you benefits of probate avoidance while also ensuring that you do not open yourself up to other pitfalls.  

This article is published by the Legacy Assurance Plan and is intended for general informational purposes only. Some information may not apply to your situation. It does not, nor is it intended, to constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney regarding any specific questions about probate, living probate or other estate planning matters. Legacy Assurance Plan is an estate planning services-company and is not a lawyer or law firm and is not engaged in the practice of law. For more information about this and other estate planning matters visit our website at www.legacyassuranceplan.com. 

This article written and published by:
8039 Cooper Creek Blvd
University Park, Florida 34201
844.306.5272 (Phone)
@assuranceplan
#legacyassuranceplan


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Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Estate Planning For Blended Families | Why Careful Planning Is So Important

Summary: Almost everyone has a high need for an estate plan. For some groups of people, this need is especially high. One of these groups is people who have blended families. If you have remarried but have children from a previous marriage or relationship, a well-crafted and executed estate plan can allow you to take control and leave the legacy you want for each of the loved ones in your life, as opposed to leaving the determination of these distributions to the prefabricated solutions of your state's statutes. 

Today, many older individuals have blended families. Whether you are a widow/widower or a divorcee, it is not uncommon to find a new partner and decide to marry that person. If you are a part of one of these ever-more-common families, your estate plan can offer you very substantial benefits. Without a plan, your legacy may be determined by your state's statutory laws, such as the intestacy laws and the spousal share laws. With a properly constructed plan, you can be in control. 

A case decided by the Kansas courts earlier this year offer a clear example. Charles Cross married his first wife and had three children with her. In 1983, he married his second wife, Marilyn. In 1992, the husband created an estate plan. His will stated that, upon his death, Marilyn got the couple's home, along with their furniture, jewelry, houshold items and personal effects. The will also gave Marilyn any autos the couple possessed. Everything else went to the man's three sons.

Cross didn't stop there, though. He named the wife as his death beneficiary on his life insurance and his IRA. He also created a revocable trust. The trust's income went to Charles during his lifetime, then (after his death) to Marilyn during her lifetime and the remaining accrued income to Marilyn's estate upon her death. The husband's estate plan went one step further. The husband secured Marilyn's signature on a document that officially announced that she declined her legal right to take her statutory spousal share of his assets, instead electing to receive the distribution laid out in the husband's plan. (In Kansas, as with all states, a surviving spouse generally has the legal right to choose to receive the distribution established in the deceased spouse's estate plan or else to take a specific portion of the deceased spouse's wealth that is defined in the statutes; however, a spouse can create a written document that waives the right of receiving the spousal statutory share, as Marilyn did in this case.)

After the husband died, the wife tried to challenge his plan. She argued that, because Kansas changed it spousal statutory share laws after she signed her document waiving her spousal share rights, she should not be bound by that document. The courts ruled against her. When she signed the wiaver document, she knew that her husband's plan left her with the income from the trust, the life insurance benefits, the retirement account benefits and the property listed in the will. She also knew that, by signing, she was accepting the distribution Charles created in his plan, and declining any distribution created by Kansas's spousal share laws. Because she signed the document voluntarily and knowingly, she had no basis to ask the court not to enforce the agreement. The wife's challenge failed and the husband's plan was carried out as written.    

In many situations, court cases involving estate planning tend to track a circumstance where the deceased person didn't plan, or didn't plan properly, and things went very wrong as a result. In this man's case, the opposite was true: he engaged in very extensive, detailed planning and, when the court case was over, his plan functioned as intended. Cross's plan is a prime example of how engaging in planning, especially detailed planning that goes beyond simply creating a cookie-cutter will, can give you and your family immense benefits.

This article is published by the Legacy Assurance Plan and is intended for general informational purposes only. Some information may not apply to your situation. It does not, nor is it intended, to constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney regarding any specific questions about probate, living probate or other estate planning matters. Legacy Assurance Plan is an estate planning services-company and is not a lawyer or law firm and is not engaged in the practice of law. For more information about this and other estate planning matters visit our website at www.legacyassuranceplan.com. 

This article written and published by:
8039 Cooper Creek Blvd
University Park, Florida 34201
844.306.5272 (Phone)
@assuranceplan
#legacyassuranceplan


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