The Best Blawgs Out There

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In my personal life, I am a huge fan of taking time to relax with family and friends, especially if that includes a good conversation and some tender cut of smoked meat to ingest. I’d like to think I’d feel the same way even if I wasn’t raised in Texas.

And, as I have come to expect when I spend time with family/friends, I am invariably asked what strange/funny/just-plain-crazy legal stories I have heard or been involved in lately. I have come to suspect that some of the people close to me want to hear about someone doing something so ridiculous or unhinged just so that they don’t feel so ridiculous or unhinged about the things going on in their lives. I don’t blame them.  It’s all relative.

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Marital Trusts, Estate Tax Issues, and Blended Families

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We’ve discussed why an estate might need to file an estate tax return even if the estate doesn’t owe any tax in a previous post. And that recommendation still holds. But let’s look at another way an estate plan would need to utilize the IRS rules for the benefit of a person’s beneficiaries.

A standard tool for planning for families as the Marital or AB Trust. Essentially, a married couple creates each of their wills with provisions for 2 trusts to be created at the death of one of the spouses, the A Trust and the B Trust. The A and B Trusts have differing rules and guidelines, as well as different methods of funding and different goals, in an effort to maximize the use of the estate tax exemption for a married couple.

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Medical Power of Attorney – An Estate Planning Necessity

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In a previous post, I wrote about Powers of Attorney, their uses regarding your finances, and my recommendations to client regarding those docs. Now I’m going to address Medical Powers, the flip side of the same coin, which allows someone to make medical decisions for you.

A Medical Power of Attorney (MPoA) lets you pick someone whom you trust completely to make medical decision for you if you are in a position where you can’t. Continue reading →

Power of Attorney – Your Best Friend (and Worst Enemy) Part 1

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Sorry for the absence, but I figure it just makes your heart grow fonder.

One of the most essential estate planning tools available is the Power of Attorney. In fact, in my practice, I recommend 2 different PoAs for my estate clients: 1) a Durable Power of Attorney and 2) a Medical Power of Attorney. These are two separate documents, with two very different goals.

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