Estate Planning, Probate & Elder Law Attorneys

» Are your beneficiary designations updated?

Regardless of their level of personal wealth, there is one estate planning concern that is shared by people from all walks of life -- the decision of who gets what when you are gone. via San Diego Source

» Auld out at Berthel Fisher

»  Easing Your AMT Pain
An increasing number of middle-income taxpayers are finding themselves paying AMT. Here are some tips for reducing the tax.

» Wills with Testamentary Trusts

I usually talk about estate planning in terms of two different approaches:

Simple: having a simple Will, where you give away all of your property outright

vs.

More involved: having what's known as a pourover Will and a separate living trust. You give your property away in your living trust -- you leave it to a trustee, who holds it for one or more beneficiaries

But there's also a middle way, which involves having only a Will, but incorporating trusts into that Will. This is known as having a Will with a testamentary trust. What's the drawback to this approach, and why isn't it more popular?

Well, when I talk about the advantages of a living trust, I address 5 of them in particular:

1. Probate avoidance
2. Control
3. Creditor protection for beneficiaries
4. Privacy
5. Estate tax minimization

If you create trusts under your Will rather in a separate document, those trusts can't be funded during your life (since your Will has no effect until death). As a result, you will need a probate. Your beneficiaries also don't get privacy, since the trust information is all located in your Will, which is a public document. But the other three advantages still exist.

» Research In Motion's Bold Shot at Apple
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a BlackBerry.