Tag Archives: trusts and estates

How Large Of An Estate Do I Need Before I Should Start Estate Planning?

Posted on by

I have had a number of people over the years tell me “I don’t need to estate plan – I don’t have much of an estate to plan.” Of course, these same people often follow up this statement with the question: “How big of an estate do I need before I worry about estate planning?” The purpose of this article is to explain what Estate Planning is and why it is important for even those without a large estate.

The question shouldn’t be “How big of an estate do I need before I worry about estate planning” – the real question is “If I don’t do any Estate Planning, who will be affected by my lack of planning?” The point of Estate Planning is to, first, set in place legally enforceable processes to be followed if you become incompetent because of an accident, injury or disease, and second, to identify who will manage your assets and how that person will manage your assets upon your passing. The answer to the question “If I don’t do any Estate Planning, who will be affected by my lack of planning?” is your spouse, your parents, your children and your siblings are the ones that could be negatively affected if you don’t do your Estate Planning.

If you don’t create and sign the appropriate Estate Planning documents before you become incompetent, then your spouse, parents, siblings or adult children will likely be required to go to Court to have a judge decide whether or not you truly are incompetent and if so, then to decide who should manage your financial affairs, your medical care and make sure your day-to-day needs are met. This involves paying attorneys to draft Court documents, paying Court filing fees, have a random Judge decide whether or not you are incompetent and, if so, who will manage your life from that point forward and how that person will manage your life. You can avoid the time, expense and loss of control of this Court process by having a proper Estate Plan drafted. The Courts do not generally need to be involved at all if you have a proper Estate Plan, to include a Financial Power of Attorney, a Medical Power of Attorney and a Living Trust.

The answer to the question “How big of an estate do I need before I worry about estate planning” begins with the definition of ‘Estate Planning’. Some simply define Estate Planning as the process of preparing for the transfer of a person’s wealth and assets after his or her death. I think a better definition of Estate Planning is as follows: the process of preparing and signing documents that, first, identify who will manage a person’s assets and manager his or her affairs if he or she becomes incompetent. Second, identify who will manage the gathering, liquidating and distribution of that person’s assets upon their death, and third, how the person’s assets will be gathered, liquidated and distributed upon his or her death. This definition of Estate Planning is much broader and much more accurate as to the true purpose of Estate Planning.

There is no one-size-fits-all to Estate Planning, and the answers to the above questions will really depend on your situation. But overall, no matter how many or how few assets you think you have, everyone can benefit from Estate Planning. Contact Addison Larreau at Mountain View Law Group today to discuss your estate planning questions – (801) 393-5555.

Electronic Information and Estate Planning

Posted on by

An Important Component of Your Estate Plan Should Be a List of Logins and Passwords for Your Online Accounts.

Recently, I read an article that brought up an interesting, and I think, important estate planning issue: if you were to become incompetent and need to rely on another to assist you with you financial affairs, would that person have any idea how to access your online accounts?  This caused me to start making a mental inventory of all the online accounts that I use daily, weekly or monthly to manage my finances and communications.  The number of logins and passwords for all my online accounts added up quickly.  It became clear that it could be very difficult for someone to do something as apparently simple as paying my month bills without knowing how to access my online accounts.

For example, my wife, Nicole, and I don’t receive through the mail paper statements or bills from utilities or other providers – everything is delivered electronically to Nicole’s email, if at all.  We pay all of our monthly bills online, directing our bank to issue checks or make electronic payments when monthly bills become due.    For some types of bills, we have set up automatic payments that happen each month on a particular day.  When an automatic payment is made, the bank emails a confirmation to Nicole’s email address so we know the payment has been made and the amount of the payment.  For other types of bills, the process isn’t totally automatic.  When a bill will shortly become due, the bank sends a reminder to Nicole’s email account and then we log into our bank account online to manually authorize the payment through the website.  We then receive a confirmation through Nicole’s email when the payment is mailed to the provider.   In order to confirm that a payment was properly received and applied to a particular bill, we access our online account with each provider.

Does your spouse or significant other know your online accounts and how to access them? If you were to become incapacitated, would your family know how to access your financial account and information? By having this information with the rest of your estate plan documents, your family will know where to find it when needed. They can then help:

  • Locate any accounts you have online
  • Access those accounts or the information in those accounts
  • Distribute or transfer any assets to the appropriate parties
  • Avoid online identity theft

If you need assistance with your estate planning needs, contact the attorneys at Mountain View Law Group today for a free consultation. (801) 393-5555

Brian B.

Posted on by

Addison was extremely helpful in the living trust process and patient with us as we asked questions. It was a very easy process to follows. The office was flexible and willing to work around our schedule. Glad we got this done so we don’t have to worry about what happens with our assets when we pass on.