Estate Planning, Probate & Elder Law Attorneys

» BNA Software - 706 Preparer/709 Preparer

The BNA 706 Preparer and 709 Preparer systems provide a valuable resource to practices involved in estate planning and who need a more specialized program for handling complex gifting and generational ...

» Should I Get The Auto Warranty?
This is a great time of year to buy a car. Salespeople are desperate for Christmas money, dealers want to close out the year with a bang, and the lot managers need to make room for new models. I’m going shopping later for a car with a friend and I’d like to get [...]

»  Trade In Your Social Security Check
Here's a ploy that lets seniors raise their long-term standards of living by paying the Social Security Administration tens of thousands of dollars.

» Premarital Agreements and Other Areas of Law

Premarital agreements are hard to draft because they can deal with various areas of law. Estate planning and family law are the two biggies, but many different areas of property law can be affected. For instance, I recently was working on a premarital agreement, and the other attorney suggested that, if my client made contribution to his own retirement plan during his marriage, he had to make an equal contribution to his wife's retirement plan. Luckily I realized that the contribution limits for my client's retirement plan (a 401k) and his wife's plan (IRA) were not the same, so we were able to change the language in time. This is one of the reasons why I like working with a non-estate planner on a prenup, and if possible working collaboratively -- we can review the agreement from many different perspectives to make sure it "works."

» The Reverse Mortgage Probate Problem, and Liquidity

Reverse mortgages have become more popular in recent years. The concept, in a nutshell, is this:

-you (62 years old or older) borrow against the equity in your home
-instead of paying down the mortgage over time, your mortgage grows. But it doesn't have to be paid back until the house is sold or until you die

I've encountered this situation in the probate context a few times recently: mom dies, reverse mortgage is now due, and guess what? The house can't be sold because of the bad real estate market.

The bigger problem, of course, is one of estate liquidity. When a person dies, there are bills that have to be paid. Some of those bills are small, and some of them can be avoided. But certain bills can't be avoided, and are going to cause a real headache for your survivors if you've left them with no liquid assets. There are lots of older people, even those who aren't particularly sophisticated, who take action to prevent their heirs from being stuck with hard-to-pay bills. That's why there's funeral insurance. But you also have to think about the extent to which your assets are in illiquid forms like real estate.