If your parent has died and you are entitled to their house, how do you get the deed? Property is normally transferred by instruments called deeds from one person to the next. The deeds are all recorded in the County Clerk's office so that a title examiner can research and find the history of a [...]
Hi, here’s a common question we get: Can my ex spouse interfere with my estate? And the answer is, yes, they can. They can’t do it directly because an ex spouse is not someone who will inherit from you, and if there was ever a will that left them anything, the divorce nullifies [...]
Estate Tax Planning in a Biden Presidency (part 4) The Biden proposal to eliminate a step-up in basis is radical and dramatic. Being both radical and dramatic substantially decreases its chance of success in the legislative process, but what are the "step-up" basis rules? To read about other parts of his proposal, see our prior [...]
Estate Tax Planning in a Biden Presidency (part 3) As we have been discussing (see links to part 1 and part 2), those in the “donut hole” (an estate between $6 and $11 million per person or $12 to $22 million per couple), might consider estate tax planning. An obvious question is, can you take [...]
Estate Tax Planning in a Biden Presidency (part 2) In my memory, donut holes are delicious! But when you are in the “donut hole” it isn’t a good thing. Who knows why? You should be most concerned about the impact of a Biden Presidency on estate tax planning if you are in this “donut hole”: [...]
Estate Tax Planning in a Biden Presidency (part 1) To begin with, let’s NOT talk politics! But reality is, we are in the process of changing administrations, and possibly a change of control of the Senate. The November election has raised the very real possibility that a new tax act will be proposed by [...]
David Pyke with Pyke and Associates here, I have two things to say to you today. First, Happy New Year! And do we mean that now this year more than ever. We all wanted to see 2020 go in our rear-view mirror and I’m especially happy for that. The second thing I have [...]
I was talking to a friend recently who innocently confessed that he just didn't understand what I meant by "estate planning." I guess, like other attorneys, I take for granted that people understand what we mean by estate planning. Simply put, what I mean by estate planning is planning for the eventuality of death and [...]
If you've ever known a family that had to create a guardianship, you may have heard that the expense was extremely high. It definitely can be. Guardianship is a complex process requiring the court to involve multiple attorneys that are highly trained to find the best solutions for someone who is mentally incapacitated. So, guardianship [...]
If someone dies without a Will, does that guarantee years of probate expense? There is no doubt that if someone dies without a Will, the cost to transfer their property will be higher than if they had a Will. In most cases, an heirship proceeding is necessary which is about double the cost of probating [...]