One of the things that makes managing legal issues so challenging is that the laws are always changing. This blog is designed to help you stay current on many of the latest changes.
It is a story we see all too often with celebrity estates: children fighting for their inheritances with claims of undue influence. So is the case for the great late blues musician, B.B. King. While many might not know this, B.B. King had fifteen children from multiple women. Despite the number, King sought to make […]
read more...One of my favorite Forbes columnists, Kelly Phillips Erb, recently wrote about the IRS offering a mobile app that allows people to access their tax account information on their smartphones. Technology is amazing in the way it streamlines certain time-consuming processes, and I believe that is all to the good. However, I also am of […]
read more...There are several types of power of attorney. Generally speaking, a power of attorney (POA) grants a designated individual explicit and particular powers over specific aspects of another person’s life. And you should be sure to include one or more POA directives within your estate plan. In this blog, I’ll discuss durable financial power […]
read more...In what was deemed one of the most monumental decisions made by the Supreme Court of the United States, on June 26, 2015 the Court ruled that states cannot ban same sex marriages and must uphold the validity of any out-of-state same-sex marriages. The ruling effectively struck down every state ban on same-sex marriage in […]
read more...Usually, this blog concentrates on tangible assets such as money and real estate, and how estate planning laws govern their disposition after the person who owns them passes away. This blog will instead address one type of intangible assets, intellectual property (IP). I will also give a quick overview of how IP relates to estate […]
read more...There have been, and probably always will be, many wonderful stories and movies that center around, let’s call them, unusual bequests in a will. Spend the night in a haunted house. Wear a certain piece of jewelry. Recite a poetic ritual. Marry a certain person. In these films, there won’t be a happy ending (that […]
read more...No one likes to think of themselves becoming so ill, disabled, or incapacitated that they are incapable of managing their own financial affairs. What could be worse? How about this scenario: becoming incapacitated and having a California Probate Court appoint a stranger to manage your affairs. It’s called a Conservatorship, and it can–and does–happen. […]
read more...As we have often stated in this blog, the job of an estate planning attorney is to help you memorialize (put in writing) and legally establish your wishes for the disposition of your assets. We are also there to help put into legally executable form any desired celebration and/or tribute to your life, as well […]
read more...In this blog, we’ve tackled a lot of subjects relating to testamentary documents: what they are, why you need them, what goes into them, and why it is so important to get yours written in legally correct form. Now let’s tackle a few familiar human problems in relations to wills. People lose things, people forget […]
read more...It’s an online world. Increasingly, people communicate, bank, work, shop and play online. This blog is evidence of our digitally centered world. After all, you’re reading this on a screen, not from a piece of paper that came in the mail with our articles in it. And as an estate planning attorney, I am following […]
read more...