First installment of Do-it-Yourself estate planning disasters.  Client X has three children named High, Dry, and Helpful, and no surviving spouse. Helpful is so named because she is so very helpful in caring for mom. 

So helpful in fact, that Helpful moved in with mother a few years before mom’s death to take care of her, oh, and she (Click here for more…)

If you have read any of my previous posts, surely you know that there is no federal estate tax in the year 2010.  Unsurprisingly, this change in the law can have severe repercussions for your estate plan.

Some estate planners are sounding the alarm with regard to estate plans based on credit shelter family trusts and marital deduction trusts.  These trusts are set up in such a way that the credit shelter trust gets funded with assets up to the amount that will not be subject to estate tax due to the previously existing estate tax exemption, while the marital deduction trust gets everything else.  (This set up eliminates all federal estate tax when the first spouse passes away.)

The problem with this set up is that (Click here for more…)

South Carolina is one of about 38 states plus the District of Columbia that allow for trusts to be established for the benefit of animals and pets.  While such trusts had not been recognized under the state common law because there were no human beneficiaries to enforce their terms, the South Carolina Trust Code now makes such trusts valid. (Click here for more…)

You may have heard various reasons why somebody should have their assets in a Revocable Lifetime Trust. (”Revocable Trust”). Some reasons may be valid, others less so. Here is a discussion of some of these reasons, and the implications of each.

1. Asset Management

This is one of the major (Click here for more…)

You need a Last Will for many reasons.  Even if you do not have a Last Will, you have an estate plan. That plan is laid out by New York’s intestacy statute, which provides the order in which your relatives will inherit your estate if you die without a will.  If you are survived by your spouse only, your spouse will inherit your entire estate. If you are survived by your spouse and children, your spouse will inherit the first $50,000.00 of your estate, and the remainder will be split equally between your spouse and children.  This provides the first reason why you should have a Will. (Click here for more…)

A health care power of attorney designates an agent to make decisions regarding health care when a person cannot make those decisions due to incompetence or unconsciousness.

In South Carolina, only one person can serve as your health care agent at one time. You may designate another person to serve if the first agent can not, but they cannot be designated to act at the same time.

A living will is simply (Click here for more…)

If you interact with an estate attorney, you may hear the term “heirs.”  You may think you know what this term means, but it actually has a precise legal definition.   In South Carolina, the term heirs is defined in South Carolina Code of Laws 62-1-201(17). The statutory definition is “those persons, including the surviving spouse, who are entitled under the statute of intestate succession to the property of a decedent.”  The statute of intestate succession is found in South Carolina Code of Laws 62-2-102 and 62-2-103. Intestate succession is where you turn to determine the persons entitled to inherit from a Decedent when there is no Last Will and Testament.

The South Carolina intestacy statute sets forth the heirs as follows: (Click here for more…)