In the past few months our firm has been preparing an abundance of Revocable Living Trusts for Louisiana residents seeking to avoid probate or succession as it is called in Louisiana. One of the essential parts of a Louisiana Revocable Living trusts is what's known as a pour-over will. Often clients are confused by this term, because their thinking is; "If I have a revocable living trust, I shouldn't need a will". Well, I'm here to explain exactly what the pour-over will is used for. When you have a revocable living trust, your Louisiana pour-over will is a essentially the [...]

Most Louisiana residents think that their last will and testament is the most necessary of all the estate planning legal documents that a person can have in place; however, the terms of your will are essentially without effect until after you are already dead and gone. Your Louisiana Will is primarily geared toward distributing your assets and caring for your heirs as opposed to protecting those assets and caring for yourself. Protecting your assets and looking after your own well-being should be your primary considerations while you are still alive. For the above reasons, your Louisiana Powers of Attorney are [...]

Many times people leave specific items or cash amounts to their heirs when drawing up their will or trust. In Louisiana, our law calls for these inheritances or bequests (as they are technically termed) to be dispensed with before any other bequests. These other bequests could include collections of things or percentages of the entire estate. This law could in some cases lead to undesired results, especially in cases where a person’s estate is not large enough to cover all of their bequests.For example, Grandma’s will leave a diamond ring to granddaughter Susie and $10,000 to grandson Jay, with the [...]

In about 20% of all estate plans that I prepare, there is also some business planning that needs to take place. This business planning typically takes the form of Louisiana LLC formation. LLC’s, or limited liability companies, are most often formed by clients who hold investment properties or rentals as a way to protect their other assets.The idea of the LLC is to shield yourself and you personal asset from any lawsuit arising from property owned by you. Let's say you own a rental house and your tenant slips and falls on the property and decides to sue you. Without [...]

During a recent seminar, someone asked me how lawyers determine the fees they charge their clients for a succession. This is a great question and one that does not have one right answer. There are a number of ways in which Louisiana succession fees are structured, and a number of factors go into determining the amount your family will be charged. The 3 basic fee structures are the hourly rate based system, the fixed fee system, or the percentage fee system. With hourly rates an attorney will charge you by the hour for work performed to complete the succession. Larger [...]

I talk a lot about avoiding Louisiana probate (or succession as we call it) with a Revocable Living Trust. Typically the primary reasons stated for avoiding succession are avoiding high costs and time delays, but there is one major reason to avoid a Louisiana succession that seems to be lost amongst the others. That reason is PRIVACY.Louisiana Successions are court proceedings, and like all other court proceedings they are a matter of public record. This means that the information contained in a succession proceeding is available to anyone who seeks it. With the internet age, public records are available worldwide [...]

In the past few months our firm has been preparing an abundance of Revocable Living Trusts for Louisiana residents seeking to avoid probate or succession as it is called in Louisiana. One of the essential parts of a Louisiana Revocable Living trusts is what’s known as a pour-over will. Often clients are confused by this term, because their thinking is; “If I have a revocable living trust, I shouldn’t need a will”.Well, I’m here to explain exactly what the pour-over will is used for. When you have a revocable living trust, your Louisiana pour-over will is a essentially the back-up [...]

With the advent of the internet age many people are attempting to create their Wills, Trusts, and Powers of Attorney on their own. It seems so easy. Go on the internet, get a fill in the blank form and before you know it you and your family have an estate plan. This strategy sounds simple enough, but one size fits all wills and other documents don’t take into account your unique family circumstances, and insufficient knowledge of the law may leave your family vulnerable to taxes and other headaches upon your death, especially here in Louisiana where laws are often [...]

Even if you already have a Will or other important Estate Planning documents like Powers of Attorney, it may be time for an update. The estate laws in Louisiana are constantly changing and it is essential that you keep abreast of these changes so you can ensure that your estate planning documents grant your family the full rights allowable under Louisiana law. Our firm has encountered many families who sat back with Wills and Powers of attorney drawn up 20 years ago, and their powers of attorney were rejected because they were too old or their Louisiana successions were riddled [...]

In most states, you commonly hear the term legal guardian to describe the person that cares for and is responsible for a minor child. The legal guardians could be parents, other relatives, or court appointed caregivers. In Louisiana (because we like to be different), this legal guardianship is known as tutorship. Tutorship occurs most often when a child’s parents get divorced or one or both of the child’s parents dies. Tutorship almost always involves court confirmation, and there are certain rights and duties held by the tutor.There are four types of tutorship in Louisiana. First, there is what is known [...]