The best holiday gift

What is the best holiday gift for your loved ones? Save them from the stress and expense of cleaning up your estate! Trust me. Unless you have a deal with the devil, you will not die at a convenient time! In this day and age, I often run into families where the husband or wife have children of a prior marriage. In these cases, things get complicated and expensive! Without a will, the law will split an estate equally among a spouse and two children. Is that what you want?

I just opened an estate in Probate Court, and the family spent $10,000 in legal fees trying to work out who got what before we went to Court. My deceased client, who I will call Jill, had talked about updating her estate planning for more than a year before her death. By the time she engaged me to do her planning it was too late. Cancer had taken its toll and before we knew it, she was in Intensive Care and the drugs they employed to treat her robbed her of the capacity to sign the documents I prepared for her. The result? Her latest husband, of more than ten

The result? Her latest husband, of more than ten years faced an old will that was nothing like what she asked me to provide in her new revocable living trust, which she never signed. I worked with her childrens’ lawyer and negotiated a settlement, and family relations deteriorated.

My Advice: If you care about your loved ones, spare them from this pain. Keep your estate plan up to date. You can avoid wasting time and money in Probate by using a revocable living trust.