Estate Law News

As the recent death of Anne Heche shows us, not having a will can place a significant burden on your children and cause undesirable complications.

When people pass away, their assets go through probate. The parties to an estate are the people involved in the probate process.

You may have heard of the terms “springing” and “non-springing” power of attorney and wonder what they mean.

In many cases, you would tell your beneficiaries that you have made a trust for them. However, this is not always desirable – and this is where a “quiet” trust may be helpful.

There are some documents that you will want to hang on to forever and some that you should keep for a few years.

You may no longer be legally married, but divorce does not automatically remove your prior spouse from your will, trust, or beneficiary designations.

Planning your own funeral arrangements can assist your loved ones in an emotionally challenging time, while also protecting them from incurring extraneous costs.

Psychiatric Advance Directives (PADs), like advance directives for health care, let a person with a mental illness lay out in advance the mental health care they want during a crisis that may require hospitalization.

Saying goodbye to a loved one is heartbreaking. Making final arrangements can be overwhelming, and knowing what you are allowed to do to fulfill your loved one’s wishes is important — but it can also be confusing.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued new guidance that may you allow you to file an estate tax return to transfer your late spouse’s unused estate tax exclusion to yourself if your spouse passed away less than five years ago.