Estate planning clients often seem to hold the misconception that once they have completed their estate plan, they are done. Nothing left to do but wait until they need to use it. Of course, for some, that “use it” date does not arrive for many, many years. In the interim, everything has changed, rendering their once state-of-the-art estate plan ineffective at best or harmful at worst. If you have a trust-based estate plan that was designed prior to a major change in estate tax law in 2012, ...
Own Things With Friends: Pros And Cons Of Various Ownership Ideas
Continuing on from my last post about community property laws in Idaho, today I’ll look at various types of property ownership and the pros and cons of each. I’m thinking here about how you hold bank accounts, title to real estate, or investment accounts with a co-owner. In Idaho, it is common to find property (especially real property) titled as “Bob and Sue Smith, husband and wife.” The effect of holding property in that “community property” form is that, upon the death of one spouse, ...
