A slow market is a good time to tidy up your personal affairs.
In the past 6 months, five long time subscribers have died without any warning to speak of or long illness.
Some of their lucky widows had no difficulty settling their estates because they had taken the time to up the Real Property into Land Trusts and their Personal Property, including Land Trust shares, stocks, bonds, and valuables into Personal Property Trusts.
All Trusts funneled down through their Living Trusts to their designated heirs without the need for the delay and expense of Probate.
In contrast, a couple of people had held title to their property in their individual names and had done nothing to arrange for the passage of their estate.
In their mid-50s they reasoned that they had plenty of time to do their estate planning later.
As a consequence, their widows and families are destitute because they can't prove that they have any right to the property.
In some States, when a person dies "intestate" without a Will or Trust, the State decides who gets what by means of "devise and descent" laws.
In the meantime, a Receive is appointed to assemble and liquidate assets.
A Receiver has been described as someone who bayonets the dead, but usually it's the living who pay the tab as they see hard earned assets being consumed by court costs and expenses.
The moral of this story is for you to immediately get a Living Trust set up into which you deed, assign, or otherwise convey all of your assets.
If you hold property in Trust, LLCs, or Corporations, have the shares of these entities owned by the living Trust.
Next, you and your spouse should create a Durable Power of Attorney that gives each other the legal right to make decisions and deal with property.
You need to notify any agency holding Stocks and Bonds that they should name your Living Trust Trstee as the owner of these securities.
You should make sure that your Insurance Policies, 401Ks, Roth IRAs, IRAs, Simple Plans, and qualified corporate Pension Plans all name your spouse, or other heirs, as successor beneficiaries.
Sure, this is a lot of trouble, and if you really don't care what happens to your family and to your property, why bother to do it? You decide.
In the past 6 months, five long time subscribers have died without any warning to speak of or long illness.
Some of their lucky widows had no difficulty settling their estates because they had taken the time to up the Real Property into Land Trusts and their Personal Property, including Land Trust shares, stocks, bonds, and valuables into Personal Property Trusts.
All Trusts funneled down through their Living Trusts to their designated heirs without the need for the delay and expense of Probate.
In contrast, a couple of people had held title to their property in their individual names and had done nothing to arrange for the passage of their estate.
In their mid-50s they reasoned that they had plenty of time to do their estate planning later.
As a consequence, their widows and families are destitute because they can't prove that they have any right to the property.
In some States, when a person dies "intestate" without a Will or Trust, the State decides who gets what by means of "devise and descent" laws.
In the meantime, a Receive is appointed to assemble and liquidate assets.
A Receiver has been described as someone who bayonets the dead, but usually it's the living who pay the tab as they see hard earned assets being consumed by court costs and expenses.
The moral of this story is for you to immediately get a Living Trust set up into which you deed, assign, or otherwise convey all of your assets.
If you hold property in Trust, LLCs, or Corporations, have the shares of these entities owned by the living Trust.
Next, you and your spouse should create a Durable Power of Attorney that gives each other the legal right to make decisions and deal with property.
You need to notify any agency holding Stocks and Bonds that they should name your Living Trust Trstee as the owner of these securities.
You should make sure that your Insurance Policies, 401Ks, Roth IRAs, IRAs, Simple Plans, and qualified corporate Pension Plans all name your spouse, or other heirs, as successor beneficiaries.
Sure, this is a lot of trouble, and if you really don't care what happens to your family and to your property, why bother to do it? You decide.