Recent Blog Posts
Is Collecting Sports Memorabilia a Substitute for Estate Planning?
In the world of estate planning, conventional wisdom says that your family members do not want to inherit an uncategorized pile of your personal property. In fact, the legal term “personal property,” which refers to all physical objects you own that are not real estate, might as well just be a euphemism for clutter. … Read More »
Accounting for Historically Significant Property in Your Estate Plan
Unless you belong to one of the earliest vintages of Baby boomers, your children probably cannot remember the time before women held prominent positions in the executive branch of the United States government. Before Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton, there was Janet Reno, who… Read More »
Probate Gets Complicated When Long-Lost Siblings Enter the Picture
DNA science has changed the world for the better. It has demonstrated the innocence of people wrongfully accused of violent crimes and even exonerated some who had been wrongfully convicted. It has definitively refuted racist arguments about the biological superiority of one race over others. It has enabled people who were adopted as infants… Read More »
Four Retirement Questions to Ask Yourself in Your 50s
If you make a first visit to an estate planning lawyer when you are in your 50s, the lawyer might tell you that it is impossible to make a satisfactory estate plan without first thinking about how you plan to manage for finances during retirement. This is what estate planning lawyers mean when we… Read More »
What Happens to Your Life Insurance Policy If You Do Not List a Beneficiary?
Most people who own life insurance policies never think about them, and that is the point. You sign on the dotted line, pay a few pennies per month, and stay alive; nothing could be simpler. You take out a life insurance policy because you plan to live a long time but you want your… Read More »
Earth to Baby Boomer Parents: Just Say “No” to Freeloading Adultolescents
It’s no secret that your children’s generation faces financial struggles that were much easier to avoid when you were young than they are today. Well-paying jobs that didn’t require a university degree were easier to find, and college education was much less expensive. Meanwhile, even necessities like housing and groceries have gone up in… Read More »
Life Estate: When You Can Stay in Your Deceased Spouse’s House for the Rest of Your Life, but You Do Not Inherit the House
The law treats your homestead, that is, the house which is your primary and permanent residence, differently from how it treats other possessions, and even from how it treats other real estate properties. For example, in bankruptcy cases, it is often possible to claim a homestead exemption where you get to keep your house… Read More »
Home Mortgages and Florida Estate Law
They say that estate planning is about planning for life, not planning for death. Therefore, when you are in the daydreaming phase of the estate planning process, discussion of home mortgages usually goes something like this: Let’s use the annual gift tax exclusion to give [your child’s name] $15,000 so he can use it… Read More »
Probate Disputes Over Personal Property
Personal property, such as furniture, jewelry, and other items commonly referred to as a person’s “stuff,” is usually the last thing you think about when you write your will or craft your estate plan. Most people are more concerned about the truly big-ticket items, such as real estate properties and bank accounts. In fact,… Read More »
The Statute of Limitations for Filing Claims Against the Estate of a Deceased Person
If you know that a relative has left you X percent of their estate in their will, you might start seeing dollar signs, but don’t get too excited yet. X percent of the wealth the person owns while they are alive does not equal X percent of what will be left by the time… Read More »