This is the first of several posts about celebrities who died without wills, and as a result left a legacy of conflict, anger, and often lawsuits between their loved ones. My first entry: Martin Luther King, Jr. MLK Jr. left no will. Of course, his death came as a shock and surprise, but everyone dies at some point and many people happen to die at a young age. (Obviously few people are assassinated, but that’s not the point.) Dr. King’s estate included such items as his Nobel Peace ...
Trust Fund Doggie?
When considering what should happen with a person’s financial resources after his or her death, many people do put something aside for the care of their pets, including naming “guardians” and setting aside funds in a “pet trust” for the benefit of the pet. However, pet trusts are usually just enough to pay a pet’s basic expenses: food, vet visits, etc. In that context, pet trusts are a sensible way to ensure that a beloved family member does not end up in a shelter in the event of the ...
Idaho Has A Plan For Your Money
The next estate planning myth I want to address is the belief that, if you die without a will in place, the state will get your money. Idaho (as with all states) has a series of laws that control who gets what in the event you die without a will, called the laws of “intestate succession.”These laws govern what happens to your “estate,” the legal term for a part of what you owned when you died. Not everything that you owned becomes a part of your estate. Typically, life insurance proceeds ...
Estate Planning: Not Just For Elders And The Rich
I’ve been thinking about common myths about the estate planning process (creation of wills, powers of attorney, living wills, trusts, and the like), and I’ll be blogging about those myths for the next few entries. The first myth I want to tackle is that estate planning is only for the wealthy or the elderly. It is true that estate planning for rich people is somewhat different than estate planning for folks of more modest means. However, estate planning is mostly about making sure you, ...
I Don’t Need An Estate Plan, Right? I Don’t Really Own Anything… Wrong!
When I talk to people about “estate planning,” the most common response is, “I don’t need an estate plan because I don’t have an estate.” The problem is that the word “estate” conjures visions of Hearst Castle or the Biltmore estate. People wrongly assume that they don’t need an estate plan unless they are uber-rich. But the reality is that, in the law, the word “estate” just means “all the stuff someone owns at the time of their death.” So, anyone who owns something (a favorite pair of ...
Do I Really Need A Will?
Following up on my last post, I get a lot of questions about whether people really need wills. The short answer is, of course, it depends! The purpose of a will is simply to announce (in a legally-binding way) your intentions for what should happen to your property and who should care for your minor children after your death. So if you have no kids, no spouse, and no property, then you probably don’t need a will. But once you are married, or have kids, or start to own property (like ...
