Category: Attorney - page 11

In your lifetime, you will accumulate various assets such as real estate, cash, insurance, investments, and other possessions that comprise your net worth. It’s important for your loved ones to inherit all of them when the time comes. With a proper estate plan, you can ensure that all your wealth and properties will be protected and passed down to your intended beneficiaries.

With the help of a reputable estate planning attorney, you can decide how you wish your wealth and properties to be managed and distributed after death. Without a legal plan, all your assets will be subjected to exorbitant estate taxes or dispersed by an appointed individual who doesn’t know of your plans.

There are many estate planning tools for your consideration. But, the most common forms are writing a will or setting up trust accounts. Learn the difference between these two vital elements of estate planning below.

Wills

A will is a legal document stating how you want your assets to be handled and distributed after passing on. It lists down all your assets and debts along with their intended beneficiaries. More importantly, it designates an executor who will oversee the implementation of the instructions written in the will.

The will has to undergo the probate process to determine its authenticity. A probate court will decide if the legal document is true. After validating the document’s legitimacy, the court will give the executor the legal power to act on behalf of the owner of the will.

Advantages of Wills

• For smaller estates, creating wills is cheaper and easier to set up than other estate planning tools. 
• You can assign a guardian who will take care of and provide for your minor children.
• You can choose a trustworthy individual to be your executor and not just someone the court will appoint.
• In case of an untimely passing, having a will avoids intestacy, which allows the state to oversee the passage of your assets in accordance with the law.

Disadvantages of Wills

• For larger estates, the probate process can be costly and time-consuming. It can take one to two years before being completed, which comes with expensive fees.

• Since it undergoes a court process, your will becomes a public document that anyone can have access to.
• It can be challenged by creditors that may take away your asset if the court deemed their claim valid.

Trusts

A trust is another estate planning tool used to transfer estate from one person to another. It is a legal arrangement where you give another individual or institution—the trustee—temporary authority to handle and manage your assets indicated in the trust. After death, the trustee will pass on all your assets to their intended beneficiaries.

There are many different types of trusts, but they can be categorized into two: living and testamentary trusts. A living trust is created during an individual’s lifetime. It is a revocable agreement which means you can modify or even revoke the contents within your lifetime. On the other hand, …

To a Muskogee divorce attorney, a court has a number of resources at their disposal when it comes to deciding what is oftentimes very thorny and divisive family law issues. This article deals specifically with issues pertaining to child custody. It lays out a dozen factors for a court to work through, one by one, making sure that each is fully addressed and answered before rendering a decision. Although some may seem fairly simple and common place, many times the answers to these questions are complex and involve a lot more than simple intuition. Today’s article will deal solely with one of those factors, factor number ten: The willingness and ability of each party to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing relationship between the child and the other party.

We have to remember that after a family is split apart, things can be acrimonious. This may not always be the case, but it is certainly a prevalent theme that a divorce attorney faces. The husband and wife most likely have grudges, vendettas, and other bad blood between them. While no one likes to see something like a marriage turn into its opposite-a divisive and bitter argument where no love is lost-it is even more unfortunate when there are children involved.

That said, Oklahoma residency requirements for divorce tries to take into account the willingness of each parent to forget the bad feelings between themselves, and instead to focus on keeping the child close to the other parent regardless. This is an important aim of the family court system, and it should not be underestimated. Imagine two different scenarios, two different sets of parents. In one situation, the parents cannot stand one another, and they are open and passionate about this topic, and not just to their divorce attorney. Not only do they speak badly of the other while in the company of their children, but they represent as much to the courts as well. They think the other parent is a horrible person, and that they should have no control over the well-being of the child.

Now let’s say we have another situation, one in which the parents are not on the best of terms, yet have made a decision to put their ill-will aside and put the welfare of the children above all. They teach their children to respect the other parent, and they actively encourage the child to seek the company of the other parent.

In these two situations, it’s clear which one would be more beneficial for the child. And that is the simple reason why factor ten is an important consideration. Remember, this is only one of twelve factors. That said, assuming all other things are equal, factor ten can be a real difference to a divorce attorney in a custody proceeding.

This above is informational only, not legal advice. Will Beaumont. New Orleans.…