Writing Your Tulsa Estate Planning Blog

When a person passes away owing debts, it is important that creditors follow the proper procedures to make their claims against the estate.

Most types of debt do not die with the debtor. If there are any assets in the estate, then the estate is responsible to pay those debts.

The executor of the estate is required to notify any known creditors that the debtor has passed away and then to pay the debt, if possible.

However, no creditor should ever rely on an executor doing so. The debt might not be known or the executor might not know what his responsibilities are.

Creditors who learn that a debtor has passed away, should take affirmative steps to file a claim against the estate, which must be done following proper procedures. Things can get even more complicated, if the deceased put all of his or her assets in a trust, leaving nothing in an estate.

Under such circumstances the creditor needs to file against the trust, as the NWI Times points out in “Filing claims against a trust.”

Filing a claim against a trust, can be even more complicated than filing against an estate, or maybe not.

It depends on the state. Every state has its own laws and procedures that need to be followed for a creditor to properly file a claim to receive the debt of a debtor who has passed away.

For this reason, it is extremely important for creditors to contact a local estate attorney to help them with the process. This is something that must be done without delay, since the statutes of limitations for these claims are often very short, again depending on the state.

Reference: NWI Times (July 2, 2017) “Filing claims against a trust.”

No matter who you are, how much money you have, or any other factor, estate planning is something you should do.

Everyone who has ever worked in an estate planning attorney’s office, has experienced the following scenario at least once. It is likely they have experienced it dozens and even hundreds of times.

The phone rings and the person who works in the estate planning attorney’s office picks it up. The person on the other end of the line immediately launches into a very long story about their life situation. They talk about their family, their job, their bank accounts and perhaps what their retirement plans are.

All of this information the employee dutifully tries to jot down on a notepad. However, the reality is that the employee does not need to do that, because the employee knows the question that is eventually coming and the answer to that question.

The question is “Do I need to have an estate plan?”

The answer, as the Casper Star Tribune recently pointed out in “Estate planning is for everyone,” is “Yes.”

Indeed, the answer to that question is always “Yes.” It’s not just “Yes” because the estate planning attorney’s office is a business that needs people to get estate plans to stay open.

Everyone really does need an estate plan.

It does not matter how much money a person has. It does not matter whether a person has any other family members. It does not matter if the only thing the caller has is the proverbial dime to put in a pay phone to make the call. The answer is “Yes”, because everyone deserves to have a say in how anything they do have, will be distributed to others after they pass away.

The way to do that is by getting an estate plan
.
Reference: Casper Star Tribune (June 30, 2017) “Estate planning is for everyone.”

You now have the option to have your pet cremated and keep the ashes in an urn at home.

A recent trend is for people to treat their pets just like any other member of their family. It is no longer just a dog or a cat. Your pet is a beloved member of your family, due the same consideration as any other member of your family.

While not everyone sees their pets in this way, more and more people do.

That has implications not just for how pets are treated in life, but also how they are treated in death.

For example, there is now a growing trend for funeral homes to offer cremation for pets as PA reports in “Pet Cremation Industry Gains Popularity.”

For the relative small price of a few hundred dollars, people can have their pets cremated. The price normally includes an urn to hold the ashes, which people can take home with them.

Perhaps more important than what will be done with your pet when it passes away, is what will be done with your pet when you pass away.

Your pet cannot get a job to support itself. You might treat it like any other human family member, but it is not that human.

Therefore, if you want to make sure that your pet is taken care of, you need to make plans. There are several different ways that you can do so in an estate plan.

You can designate someone to take care of your pet and set money aside for that purpose. You can even create a pet trust with your pet as the beneficiary.

If you want to make sure your beloved pet is taken care of after you pass away, then talk to an estate planning attorney about how to do that.

Reference: PA (June 23, 2017) “Pet Cremation Industry Gains Popularity.”

If you want your wealth to last and be available for future generations of your family, then you need to make sure that your heirs are ready to handle the responsibility of maintaining your wealth.

The ability to manage and preserve a large amount of wealth is not something most people are born with. If it were, then there would be few stories about big lottery winners ending up with less money after a few years, than they had before they won millions.

There are many stories like that.

There are also numerous stories about families that once had a lot of wealth that was lost over the generations.

These stories are actually so common that the few families who successfully preserve wealth for generations, are considered the exceptions to the rule.

Recently, the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog discussed ways to make sure your family might be one of the exceptions in “Preparing Heirs for Successful Wealth Stewardship.”

The key to such success actually seems relatively simple. In practice, however, it can be difficult.

Heirs need to be trained to handle the wealth.

They need to know how to make good investments and how to avoid bad ones. They also need to learn what good uses for the money are and what type of spending would be wasteful.

Perhaps, most importantly, heirs need to know who to turn to for advice.

A good estate plan is also vital to preserving family wealth.

The wealth cannot be maintained without the proper legal instruments, but estate planning is not enough by itself.

Reference: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (June 29, 2017) “Preparing Heirs for Successful Wealth Stewardship.”

One of the biggest questions in estate planning today, is whether a trust is the best option for your family.

If you were to conduct a representative poll of middle class Americans about the best way to plan for your estate, it is almost certain that the majority of respondents would suggest getting a living trust.

It is the first piece of advice you will find almost anywhere you look for estate planning information. The reason for that is complex.

One reason is that many internet companies who sell trust creation documents have been very active in pushing the benefits of trusts to get more customers. Trusts are also often the best estate planning option for people.

Nevertheless, the key is to determine what the best estate planning option is for you personally, not for society generally, as Madison.com points out in “Is a Living Trust Right for You and Your Family?.”

Trusts do have many benefits over wills.

Trusts do not have to go through probate and, therefore, are not subject to the commonly cited costs and delays associated with probate.

Trust provisions do not have to be made public, as most wills do. Trusts are also a great way to control what your heirs might do with their inheritances, but “testamentary trusts” under wills do so as well.

If you really want to know whether you should get a trust, the best thing to do is to ask an estate planning attorney. Tell the attorney what your needs are and let the attorney suggest the best ways to meet those needs.

Reference: Madison.com (June 27, 2017) “Is a Living Trust Right for You and Your Family?.”

When it comes to estate planning, Americans procrastinate. However, it can only be put off for so long.

Even people who like to make detailed plans about everything else, are often tempted to put off estate planning for as long as possible. It is just human nature to prefer not to think too much about what will happen to our worldly possessions, after we pass away.

It can be difficult to imagine our things and our loved ones having a life after us. This leads to estate planning procrastination.

Truthfully, that is never a good idea. You do not know when you will pass away. It can happen suddenly and sooner than you want.

However, if you do procrastinate when it comes to your estate planning, you should know that the procrastination needs to end at some point.

This point was made by the Twin Cities Pioneer Press in “3 moves you should make in the first 3 years of retirement.”

If you have managed to put off estate planning until after you have retired from work, then now is the time to stop putting it off.

With any luck, you will still live many more years. On the other hand, estate planning is about more than just deciding what happens to your possessions and assets after you pass away.

It is also about securing your own final years and making sure you have powers of attorney and advanced health care directives in place, should you ever need them.

In the end, estate planning gives you peace of mind in knowing that your family will be okay after you pass away and that you will also be okay, should you ever need help.

If you have retired and still have no estate plan, then talk to an estate planning attorney as soon as you can.

Reference: Twin Cities Pioneer Press (June 17, 2017) “3 moves you should make in the first 3 years of retirement.”

People have a lot of false ideas about estate planning and how wills and trusts work. They should seek out people who do know what is correct.

We do not all like to admit it, but the truth is that we are all often wrong. Many of the things we thought were right, we later learn were incorrect.

Logically, that means many of the things we are “sure” about now, we will only learn to be less so later on.

There is no shame in this.

We cannot be experts in everything.

A physicist cannot be judged too harshly for getting the details of macroeconomics wrong, for example.

One area that many people are often very wrong about is estate planning, as pointed out in TCPalm in “Misconceptions about wills and trusts.”

The article mentions several things people are often wrong about when it comes to estate planning. What is specifically mentioned in the article, however, is not as important as understanding that you are probably wrong about estate planning.

You might not be wrong about everything that has to do with estate planning, but you are almost certainly wrong about more things than you think you are.

This suggests that you should not do your own estate planning.

You are wrong about some aspects of estate planning and you do not even know which aspects you are wrong about.

Consequently, you should seek out people who are experts in estate planning and those people are estate planning attorneys. Let them help you with your estate plan.

That would be the wisest thing to do, just as it would be wise for estate planning attorneys to seek out your advice in your line of expertise.

Reference: TCPalm (June 16, 2017) “Misconceptions about wills and trusts.”

The estate of a former Playboy model is suing a chiropractor for wrongful death.

One of the many tasks that the executor of an estate has, is to assess whether anyone owes the estate any money or could be determined to owe the estate money, if sued. If the answer to either question is yes, then the executor has a duty to act accordingly and try to collect on behalf of the estate for the benefit of the heirs.

A recent example of this comes from the estate of Katie May, a former Playboy model. May apparently suffered injuries during a photo shoot and went to a chiropractor for treatment.
The chiropractor worked on her neck. She later died.

The coroner determined the treatment injured her artery and cut off blood flow to her brain, as TMZ reported in “Playboy Model Katie May Estate Sues Chiropractor…Your Treatment Killed Her.”

May’s executor and the father of her child is suing the chiropractor for wrongful death on behalf of the estate. Even if he did not personally believe the coroner’s report that the chiropractor was responsible for May’s death, he would likely have an obligation to sue.

While this is an unusual case in that it features a Playboy model and an apparent death at the hands of a chiropractor, it illustrates something important. Executors have duties to the estate and some of those duties can be challenging.

It is for this reason that executors are advised to get the assistance of estate attorneys to help carry out their duties.

Reference: TMZ (June 14, 2017) “Playboy Model Katie May Estate Sues Chiropractor…Your Treatment Killed Her.”

There are two schools of thought for parents to wrestle with, when deciding how large of an inheritance they should leave for their children.

In a typical American family, the expectation has always been that when the parents pass away, everything they have left will be inherited by their children. Those children will, in turn, do the same thing for their children.

This is just the way things are almost always done and always have been done.

However, there is another approach to inheritances that a few people have always taken.

The second approach suggests that parents should not leave their children everything, because it will spoil the kids.

A recent article in Forbes is an example of this second school of thought.

The article is titled “Why Not To Leave Too Much To Your Grown Up Kids.”

The second approach comes from a belief that if children know they will receive large inheritances from wealthy parents, then they will have little incentive to make their own money. They will become entitled and lazy.

The thinking also goes that even if the children do not know ahead of time, they will become entitled once they do receive a large inheritance.

It is true that some people do become entitled when they know they will receive considerable wealth later.

Others do not.

The best solution for parents may be to take stock of the character of their own children and make a decision regarding what is best, given those characters.

An estate planning attorney can then help to create a plan that works, regardless what the children are likely to do or not do with their inheritance money.

Reference: Forbes (June 7, 2017) “Why Not To Leave Too Much To Your Grown Up Kids.”

Baby Boomer parents with millennial children should talk to their children about their inheritances. The millennials might be counting on larger inheritances than they will actually receive.

Sometimes differences between generations are greatly overblown. Small differences in the percentage of people in one generation that believe something different than a previous generation, get magnified and sweeping statements are made about the generations.

Sometimes there are big differences between generations that are of great importance.

For example, 61% of millennials expect to receive an inheritance from their parents that will help them in their own retirement.

That is roughly twice the percentage of Baby Boomers who think they will get an inheritance according to Financial Advisor in “Millennials Want Family Help in Retirement.”

Many millennials also expect to receive retirement help from their own children. Their other retirement expectations are often similarly unrealistic.

On average, they expect to retire earlier than they probably will and they expect to live fewer years as retirees than is likely.
These misconceptions combine into a big problem for the millennial generation.

By relying on family members and having unrealistic retirement expectations, they risk not saving enough money now. By the time they realize their mistakes, it might be too late to do anything to correct them.

It is important that parents of millennial children talk to them about setting realistic retirement and inheritance goals.

Do not let your children rely on an inheritance, if you know that they are counting on receiving more than they will. If you want to help your children in another way and leave them a larger inheritance, then visit an estate planning attorney to determine what options you might have.

Reference: Financial Advisor (June 6, 2017) “Millennials Want Family Help in Retirement.”