Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Can You Omit A Child From Your Will Or Estate Documents?
There are certain times and certain situations, where, when you are making your estate plan, you may want to omit one of your biological children from that estate plan, or else, leave to them an inheritance that is significantly less than that of your other children. This can happen for a number of reasons…. Read More »
Trust Beneficiaries And Heirs Have Rights
If you are the beneficiary of a trust, in some ways, you may feel kind of hopeless, or at least, powerless. Your inheritance is based on instructions left in the trust to a trustee—or in other cases, what you get and when, may be totally dependent on the trustee’s discretion, if the trust gives… Read More »
Inheritance Theft: Don’t Be A Victim
We often don’t think of inheritances as something that could actually be stolen. After all, there’s a will, or a trust, and possibly, a judge looking over a probate action if there is one, and so if you are entitled to receive assets from an estate, you are reasonably certain you will get what… Read More »
ABLE Accounts Can Help Protect Vital Government Benefits
People with disabilities have a unique problem, when it comes to estate planning and planning for their future. On the one hand, like anybody else, they want to plan for their future—in fact, because of the potentially increased need for health care, assistance, or assisted living, they may have an even greater need to… Read More »
Gift Property Or Leave It In Your Estate Plan? There Could Be Tax Consequences
Let’s say that you are leaving a good amount of property to your beneficiaries. You are concerned about the tax implications of leaving so much property to your family or heirs. So, you decide, why don’t you just gift the property to them now, and avoid those pesky estate taxes? Problems in Gifting The… Read More »
Include Safety Deposit Boxes In Your Estate Plan
Although we do live in a digital age, and it seems like everything we own is online, there are still physical objects and possessions, and those objects are sometimes stored in safe deposit boxes in banks and other similar institutions. The items in these boxes may have significant value, or they may only have… Read More »
Your Child Is Becoming An Adult: Are You Prepared?
When you have a child, for you as a parent to take care of the child, and make decisions for the child, there is really nothing that you need to do, legally, to make that happen. You are the legal parent and guardian of your child, and if anything were to happen to your… Read More »
A Primer On Different Kinds Of Trusts
When reading about estate planning, you probably hear a lot about different kinds of trusts. The names of trusts fly fast and furious, but rarely does anybody stop and just give you a basic primer on what these kinds of trusts do, and what they actually mean. Here’s a short list with short explanations… Read More »
The Heggstad Petition Sounds Strange, But Helps A Lot Of People
There are a number of benefits to transferring homes and other real property into a California trust. But unlike many other items that can just be named in the trust, in order for real estate to be transferred into the trust, the official title, deed, recording, and other official documents must be executed and… Read More »
Partition In Probate: What Is It And Will It Affect You?
Let’s imagine that you have a home, and that in your estate documents, you are going to leave that home to your adult kids. Of course, you don’t want to favor one child over another, so you leave the home to all the kids, jointly. When you pass, all the kids are equal co-owners… Read More »