Essential Estate Planning Documents for College-Bound Students
Sending your child to college is an exciting time filled with new opportunities and challenges. While you're busy helping them pack and preparing for the transition, it's crucial to consider their well-being and future security. As a parent in California, ensuring your college-bound student has the proper estate planning documents in place is a responsible step that can provide both of you with peace of mind. Once your child turns eighteen in California, they become an adult, and your right to make medical and financial decisions as well as gain access to their information terminates. Here is what can be ... Read More
What We Can Learn From Britney Spears Conservatorship
A conservator is appointed by the court to care for and protect a person who is deemed unable to care for themselves. Among the conservator’s responsibilities are managing the conservatee’s health and wellbeing as well as preserving their assets. While most people's lifestyles and fortunes are decidedly different from Ms. Spear's, the problems she had are a cautionary tale for all of us who do not name a durable power of attorney for financial matters and an Advance Health Care Directive. In the absence of these legal documents reflecting your wishes should you become incapacitated, family members must petition a ... Read More
Power of Attorney (POA) – The Basics
A Power of Attorney (POA) document is crucial for every estate plan. All states recognize powers of attorney, but rules and requirements will differ from state to state. Still, some parts may be beneficial to all. What Does Power of Attorney Mean? Power of Attorney allows one or more individuals the legal authority to act as your agent or proxy on your behalf. Depending on which POA you choose, the agent's power may be limited to a particular activity, such as a real estate sale, or cover broader applications. A Power of Attorney may give permanent or temporary authority and ... Read More
How to Plan an Estate for a Surviving Spouse
It is difficult to think about anything beyond your grief after losing a spouse or long-time partner. However, it is crucial to understand there are important and timely decisions you need to make regarding your finances and personal estate plan. In truth, estate planning is perpetual as it accounts for changes in marriages, deaths, divorces, and births of children and grandchildren. Assuming that you have an up-to-date estate plan requiring no further action after the passing of a spouse can have disastrous consequences. Your first line of defense to avert problems is scheduling a meeting with your estate planning attorney. ... Read More
Reasons to Obtain a Comprehensive Durable Power of Attorney
The benefits of a highly detailed, comprehensive durable power of attorney for finances are numerous. Unfortunately, many powers of attorney are more general in nature and can actually cause more problems than they solve. This article highlights the benefits of a comprehensive, detailed power of attorney, including some of the provisions that should be included. A proper starting point is to emphasize that the proper use of a power of attorney as an estate planning document depends on the reliability and honesty of the appointed agent. The agent under a power of attorney has traditionally been called an "attorney-in-fact" or ... Read More
Ensure the True “Power” of Your Power of Attorney for Finances
It’s critical that you have a strongly written Durable Power of Attorney for Financial Purposes ("POA") in case you become unable to manage your finances as part of a Long-Term Care Compliant Estate Plan. Beware if you rely only on POAs that hospitals provide, or that you have pulled off the Internet, or was prepared by a non-attorney or that you have got from other attorneys who do not focus their practice specifically on elder law and long-term care estate planning. When an emergency arises, the bank or health-care provider may refuse to allow your agent to act – and ... Read More
How Turning 18 Means It is Time for an Estate Plan
In most states, when your child turns 18, it might be hard to imagine that little child who once needed you for everything has now become – overnight – an adult. Now your child is free to vote, marry, apply for a credit card, make medical and financial decisions, sign contracts, and live independently. No wonder the law calls this coming of age “emancipation.” But if your adult child is hurt in an accident and needs somebody to make critical medical decisions, you cannot be the one to do that without your child having named you as an agent under ... Read More
Youth Must be Served
Our children tend to think they’re invincible, and that they’ve got it all figured out – particularly once they hit 18, right? While that milestone is exciting, it also exposes our adult children to a new set of dangers. Consider the case of my nephew – while attending college in Pasadena, he was hit by a car while riding his bike and ended up in the hospital. Since he was 19 at the time, the hospital, citing HIPAA regulations, refused to release information about him to his parents. The well-intentioned but seemingly Draconian implications of this privacy law provide for ... Read More
