Archive for the ‘Estate Planning’ Category
Oklahoma estate planning tools: the Living Will
This morning’s “Tools” post is about the Oklahoma Living Will (part of an Advance Directive for Healthcare).
This document allows you make decisions about how your end-of-life are is handled and appoint a person you trust to help the doctors carry out your decisions. Most other states have the same type of living will provisions.
If the living will is done properly, the doctors, hospital and family are required to follow it:
A physician or other health care provider who is furnished the original or a photocopy of the advance directive shall make it a part of the declarant’s medical record and, if unwilling to comply with the advance directive, promptly so advise the declarant.
If you have questions about an Oklahoma living will or any other estate planning issues, please feel free to contact me and to find out more about estate planning listen to my podcast “Estate Planning Demystified“.
Oklahoma estate planning tools: the Durable Power of Attorney
Today’s “Tools” post is the “Durable Power of Attorney.”
A durable power of attorney is a simple power of attorney which gives the attorney-in-fact (the person to whom power is given) the power to act for you. It is “durable” in that it is written in conformity with statutes which allow it to continue beyond the time you become incompetent or have a mental incapacity (if a power of attorney does NOT contain appropriate language to make it durable, it terminates at the time you become incompetent).
The benefit of having a Oklahoma durable power of attorney is that in the event of an incompetency, a guardianship should not have to be opened with the probate court to administer your property. A power of attorney, when properly drawn, also serves the purposes of allowing the attorney-in-fact (1) to act during periods when you are on extended travel and (2) to transfer non-trust assets to your primary trust during disability or prior to your death, when you are not otherwise capable of making the transfer yourself.
If done correctly, the durable power of attorney should prevent you family from having to go to court to have a guardian appointed for you. This means you save on the expense and potential battle between people who each think they should be the guardian.
If you have questions about a living will or any other estate planning issues, please feel free to contact me and to find out more about estate planning listen to my podcast “Estate Planning Demystified“.
Oklahoma Estate Planning Tools: the Last Will and Testament
Todays “Tools” post is about the Oklahoma Last Will and Testament. Simply summed up, the Last Will and Testament is . . .
your written decisions on who to give your property to, who will manage the process of giving away your property, in writing and signed and witnessed according to Oklahoma law so that it is legal and binding.
The Will is created while you are alive to control what happens to your things once you have passed away. If you do not have a Will in Oklahoma, the State of Oklahoma decides how your things will be distributed. The distribution might not always turn out like you would expect it to. You can read more about that here.
If a trust is used, you still need a Will. Your Will is a simple document, which would have any probate property transferred to your trust. This Will is often described as a “pour-over will” because any property that is not already in the trust at the time of death pours-over to the trust. Probate property is your property which for some reason is not held in either of your trusts or which does not transfer outside of probate (such as by joint tenancy).
Check back for the next post on Oklahoma estate planning titled “The Last Will and Testament” and to find out more about estate planning listen to my podcast “Estate Planning Demystified“.
Oklahoma Estate Planning Tools: the Living Trust
This is the first installment in a series of titled “What are the tools used in Oklahoma Estate Planning?”
Today, we start with the Living Trust.
The living trust is also know as a “revocable trust” a “revocable living trust”, an “inter vivos trust”. What is a trust? Simply put,
A trust is an arrangement under which one person, called a trustee, holds legal title to property for another person, called a beneficiary. With the revocable living trust, you can be the trustee of your own trust, you keep complete control over all property held in trust but get the benefits of the law treating the trust as a separate legal entity.
The advantage of having all of your assets held by a revocable trust at the time of your death, or at the time of your disability or incapacity are:
- Elimination of the probate process. This means that there would not be any court oversight of your estate. Since there would be no Court filings, there would be no public access to, and/or knowledge of, your assets and their value. Additionally, eliminating Court oversight would avoid the expense and delay associated with having assets administered by the probate process.
- Immediate and continuous access to assets and to cash flow. Without a revocable trust (or other appropriate estate planning device), assets would have to flow through the probate process. If assets flow through the probate process, access to assets and to cash flow is usually delayed due to the need to obtain Court permission.
- Protecting your assets and providing a continuous cash flow in the event you become mentally or physically disabled or incapacitated prior to your death (where the disability or incapacity prevents you from administering your own assets).
- Reduces the burden on the children and other family to search and gather assets after death.
- Provides the opportunity to gather and index all your financial documents together; that way your family will know what accounts you have and where.
- Reduces the chance of contest to your estate plan because it eliminates the chance for a will contest since the trust is the primary vehicle for managing and transferring property.
Check back for the next post on Oklahoma estate planning titled “The Last Will and Testament” and to find out more about estate planning listen to my podcast “Estate Planning Demystified“.
Why an Oklahoma living will is a necessity for your family
If you recall from the early part of this century, there was a huge legal battle in Florida over whether a poor woman named Terri Schaivo would be kept alive through artificial means (feeding tube) or allowed to pass away. Her husband, who was estranged from her family wanted her to pass away, her family wanted her to remain alive through artificial means. The result was 10 years of litigation, $100,000.00 of dollars in legal fees and unmeasurable pain for the family. A court ultimately decided Ms. Schaivo should be allowed to pass away.
There is a way to prevent this type of battle. In Oklahoma, it is done through an Advance Directive (living will). This document allows you make decisions about how your end-of-life are is handled and appoint a person you trust to help the doctors carry out your decisions. Most other states have the same type of living will provisions.
If the living will is done properly, the doctors, hospital and family are required to follow it:
A physician or other health care provider who is furnished the original or a photocopy of the advance directive shall make it a part of the declarant’s medical record and, if unwilling to comply with the advance directive, promptly so advise the declarant.
If you have questions about an Oklahoma living will or any other estate planning issues, please feel free to contact me and to find out more about estate planning listen to my podcast “Estate Planning Demystified“.
Key questions to ask when doing your Oklahoma estate planning
Below are some of the key questions to ask when thinking about doing your Oklahoma estate planning:
• Who are you planning for? (self, spouse, children, grandchildren, parents, business associates, friends, charities)
• What do you have to plan with? (assets & liabilities)
• What plans have you already made? (existing contracts, will, other documents)
• How does the system work? (probate, federal and state transfer taxes)
• Who are you planning with? (The estate planning team of accountant, financial planner, attorney, life insurance advisor, trust officer)
You can find out more about Oklahoma estate planning by listening to my podcast series “Estate Planning Demystified here.
You have an Oklahoma estate plan, whether you created it or not . . .
The State of Oklahoma has you taken care of. Whether you have created a will, trust, or even thought about creating one, there are plans for about what happens to your property when you die. An estate plan is the way to set out the who, what, when, where, and how:
• Your property will be transferred upon your death;
• The recipients of your property and in what amounts;
• The administrator of your estate and the division of your personal property;
• The person or persons who will be the guardians of your minor children, and what type of resources the guardians will have;
• Your caretaker if you become incapacitated and a power of attorney granting the authority to handle your affairs.
From where does this sophisticated Oklahoma estate plan come? The statutes of the State of Oklahoma (or the state in which you live if not Oklahoma) provide it. Within the thousands of words contained in the Oklahoma Statutes (whatever state in which you reside), all the decisions are made about what you have, what happens to it, and who takes care of you and your children upon your death. These laws set a rigid formula and make no exceptions for unusual or special needs. Without a will or trust in place, your estate will be administered by the court, according to these statutes. If this happens, the cost to your estate could be greater than if you have an estate plan.
Does this sound good? If not, there is an alternative: plan your own estate, determine who takes care of your family and who takes care of you, yourself. Talk to an attorney to find out how to plan your own estate (whether it is small, medium, or large), and to draft documents that fit you and you and your family’s unique needs – not the convenient one size fits all solution provided by the statutes. In the process, you are taking care of your family the way you know is best.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or if would like to discuss planning your estate.
Check out my Google Offer for Online Oklahoma Estate Planning
I have followed daily deal sites such as Groupon and Living Social for a few years. I like the concept and have wanted to try but it doesn’t seem to fit my law practice. Google Offers might be different. Rather than being a daily deal, Offers allows the users to set the time limit. You redeem the Google Offer by either printing out and sending me the Offer or showing it to me on your smartphone (or you can email me the redemption code).
This a 10-day offer is a discount on the normal Living Trust package. The normal package includes: 
- A Living Trust;
- Pour over wills for both spouses;
- Durable Powers of Attorney for both spouses; and
- Living Wills for both spouses;
- All the transfer documents to transfer property to your Trust; and
- Instructions and documentation on how to maintain the Trust and related documents.
I usually charge a flat fee of approximately $1,500.00 or higher for this work. In my Google Offer, I am lowering the price by 25% to $1,125.00 (plus any out of pocket costs for things such as recording deeds). There is a lower cost if the planning is for a single person. Redemption in this case means paying the fee and starting the process.
The “online” part of this process is that with the exception of coming to my office to sign the final documents, we do everything else digitally. That means no travel or interruption to your schedules, you review the documents on your schedule and we correspond by email or telephone.
If you are considering Oklahoma estate planning or know someone who is, here is the Offer. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me: sjr@shawnjroberts.com.
To learn more about Oklahoma estate planning, you can listen to my podcast series “Estate Planning Demystified” right here.
A few times when it is critcal to update your Will or Trust – Oklahoma Estate Planning
It is huge accomplishment to have your Last Will and Testament done. You can rest easier knowing you have provided for your family and created an orderly plan to transfer what you have to who you want it to go to. Once you have this done, there are several times in your life when you may need to consider updating the Will or Trust to match current your circumstances. Let me mention a few:
1. You have another child.
2. Someone named in your Will to act as your personal representative (executor) either is no longer around or no longer wants to serve.
3. Someone in your Will who you left a large part of your estate to has passed away.
4. Children named in your Will or Trust have grown up and are ready to receive their inheritence with fewer strings attached to it or no strings at all.
5. You have divorced, suffered the death of a spouse or remarried. (It is particularly important in a second marriage that involves children from previous relationships to carefully plan your estate).
6. You have simply changed your mind about what you want to give, who want to help administer your estate or who to whom you want to give your property.
You update your Will or Trust becauase you want it to reflect your current thoughts and circumstances. If circumstances have changed, feel free to contact me to discuss updating your Will or Trust at sjr@shawnjroberts.com.
5 considerations in naming your children’s guardian
Yesterday, I reviewed the process of naming a guardian for your minor children. This week I cover the important considerations in determining the guardians:
1. The stage in life of the proposed guardian(s). Are the people at a place in their life or will they be in place where they want to have children? People who are finishing raising their children and moving on to another stage in life may not want to take on children.
2. The resources of the proposed guardians(s). Raising and supporting children can be expensive. When thinking about guardians consider whether the people who would be guardians generally have the resources to care for additional children. This is an area where life insurance (on the lives of the parents) can be helpful.
3. The religious beliefs of the proposed guardian(s). The guardians could end raising your children having a profound impact on their development both physical and spiritual. If it is important to you to have your children raised in the faith which you believe, this is something to consider.
4. Special needs. Do any of your children have special needs? If so, are the proposed guardians prepared to meet those needs and care for the children in the way that is necessary?
5. Legal qualification. These requirements are usually minimal (e.g., not a convicted felon, non-US citizen etc. . .) but something to consider as a threshold requirement.
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