Socially, the emotional bond between pets and their owners can feel like family. It should come as no surprise that more owners in Arizona feel the need to set up trusts to care for their fur babies. This is especially true for individuals who own multiple pets. How...
Estate Planning
Are personal belongings part of your estate?
When you’re planning your estate in Arizona, it’s important to include any belongings that you want to pass along to your friends or relatives. Naming all your assets in your will might be time-consuming, but it pays off in the long run. Your assets will be...
Passing a home to kids while housing a surviving romantic partner
Adult children in Arizona sometimes learn that their parent wants to keep a home in the family while also giving their romantic partner a place to live. After hearing your mother or father express this wish, you may have mixed feelings. You naturally worry that an...
Understanding how wills work
Arizona property owners who do not already have an estate plan may want to start thinking about how to pass their property on after they pass away. If a person holds a joint tenancy with a right of survivorship and only one owner dies, the other owner will take full...
Drafting several powers of attorney for simplicity
People in Arizona can write powers of attorney to give others the power to act for them if they become incapacitated and are unable to make important decisions for themselves. In some cases, it might make sense to draft several powers of attorney to grant the...
Introduction to Estate Planning
So what exactly IS estate planning? When I tell people that I am an Estate Planning attorney, the usual response is "oh that's nice." The after a pause, they ask, "So what is it that you actually do? What exactly IS estate planning?" The short answer that I usually...
Estate Planning 103: Taxes
As the saying goes, there is nothing certain in life except death and taxes. Although you cannot fend off death, you can make arrangements on how to reduce the amount of estate taxes you will pay upon your death. Which leads me to the final part of the Wikipedia...
Estate Planning 102: Probate
The second part of the Wikipedia definition explains that Estate Planning "attempts to eliminate uncertainties over the administration of a probate . . ."Probate? This sounds complicated. Will it hurt?? Well, only a little bit. (Just kidding . . . sort of). Seriously...