The Law Offices of Daniel Timins Blog

“No Contest” Clauses in Wills

Posted on August 6, 2016

No family is perfect. Sometimes a child is mean or indifferent to parents’ needs as they age, while the others go out of their way to help. Though parents / aunts & uncles / grandparents may say they love all of their potential beneficiaries equally, the truth may be different. And (of course) there may be an obvious disincentive to leave the troubled beneficiary equal (if any) proceeds upon passing away. These clients tend to leave a lesser sum of money to the beneficiary in their Will, not realizing that the beneficiary may attack the Will, and line the pockets of a few attorneys and diminish the estate in the process. There has been a good deal of discussion recently surrounding

Simple Dos and Don’ts of Gifting for College Education

Posted on August 1, 2016

Higher education is usuriously expensive. The fact that a child’s education may cost as much as you paid for your first house should highlight the importance of gifting these funds in the correct way. You can pay an unlimited amount of money for a child’s education expenses, provided you pay the money directly to the educational institution. Qualified education expenses are looked at as a benefit to public policy, and therefore do not require the donor to fill in a gift tax return. The funds are also not deducted from your lifetime gift tax exemption, meaning you can continue to gift additional funds without having to assess a tax. Paying a child back for their student loan payments

Keeping Your Trust Private

Posted on July 22, 2016

As followers of my blog know, I am a proponent of passing property using a Trust instead of a Will. While a Will is a contract between the deceased individual and the State in which it is Probated, Trusts are contacts between the Creator and Trustee of the trust. Wills submitted to the Surrogate’s Court are public knowledge (as are the decedent’s assets), while Trusts are private documents. It is this last point that we are discussing here. In order to make a Trust “effective” you have to fund the Trust. The owner on the Deed is now “The John Doe Revocable Trust” (not “John Doe”); the beneficiary of the life insurance policy is likewise the Trust. An unfunded Trust is more effective

When to Contact Your Estate Attorney

Posted on July 15, 2016

Many people figure that once their estate planning documents are executed the estate planning process has ended. From the client’s perspective, several consultations have been attended and a lot of hours have gone into ordering beneficiary designation forms, real estate documents, and the like (unless the client went to an estate chop shop, in which case almost no time has been spent and the significance of the affair has not been realized). From the old school estate attorney’s perspective, the only financially significant moments of the process are during the drafting/execution phase, and entering Probate upon the client’s death, so follow-up appointments are viewed as a waste of time. I find this viewpoint to be both unfortunate and potentially hazardous to client and

When Do I Tell My Children They Are My Financial & Health Agents?

Posted on June 28, 2016

Most people name their children as their agents (or else as successor agents if the client has a spouse). This includes naming a child as a Power of Attorney, Health Care Proxy, Executor or Successor Trustee. Of course, the child sometimes doesn’t know about this, and many attorneys do not discuss the topic in depth with the client. Most children don’t even know where their parent’s legal documents are. This can cause confusion, and can lead to their frantic scrambling at crucial times. Knowing when to tell your children they are agents is tricky, and often relies on a case-by-case analysis of the family and the children. Some 21 year olds may be ready to know their role before some 40 year

Do It the Easy Way: Marriage & Naturalization

Posted on June 9, 2016

Those of you who have known me for a while know of Judith Volkmann. Judy was and still is a mentor and a friend of mine since before I was licensed to practice law, and it was refreshing for me to see how another Attorney / CFP(R) approached estate planning. During her time practicing law as as an practitioner, Judy was very much about keeping things simple to avoid the controversies that arise due to complex estate planning issues, though I was surprised how she approaches two difficult estate planning circumstances: Non-marital couples and non-citizen couples. Unmarried couples lose out on certain estate tax exemptions, such as taking advantage of marital credit shelter trusts and QTIP trusts. Non-spouses also do

Avoiding Future Real Estate Blunders (Do the C.O. and Pay Liens Yourself)

Posted on June 2, 2016

I have written before about Probate pitfalls and horror stories (stock certificates and EE Bonds being the items I loathe the most). Let’s talk about another item of property that makes some Executors cringe and beneficiaries moan: When an estate (and estate attorney) neglects properly handling Real Estate. Many of us know the emotional roller coaster ride of buying and selling a house – offers, counter offers, mortgage heartburn, moving, last second surprises (continue any possible stressful occurence ad infinitum). Now imagine a third-party (an Executor / Administrator / Trustee) having to figure these out and paying for attorney’s assistance out of your estate’s assets or, worse, initially out of their own pocket. It is at this point our story begins: I