Whenever I set up Living Trusts for clients seeking to avoid probate they always want to know whether their burial plot should be in the trust. The simple answer is no. Burial plots are not like traditional real estate which always passes through a court supervised probate after death. When you purchase a burial plot, you do not actually own the land, the cemetery still holds title to the land. As a result, your burial plot is not technically a part of your estate.To find out about the disposition of your burial plot upon death, you should always check with [...]

Two times in the past month, I have dealt with clients who waited until the last minute to get their affairs in order, and now both situations are more complicated and costly than they needed to be. In one instance, a wife from Mandeville came to me to assist her in setting up a trust for her and her husband to avoid probate. Her husband was already in declining health, and it was a scenario where he could pass any day. Despite our best efforts to get the trust complete prior to the husband’s passing, he died the day before [...]

Yesterday, I met with a couple from Harvey who had worked for 35 years to build up a successful family business. One of their major Estate goals is to allow their daughter, who is currently involved in the day-to-day operations of the business, to continue running the business after both spouses pass. They want their daughter to have full discretion regarding the direction of the business, and they want her to be free from dealing with outside influences. They don’t want lawyers, judges, or their other children preventing the daughter from carrying on the family business.To accomplish this goal we [...]

This week I met with a woman from Metairie who already had a living trust in place. She created A Louisiana Revocable Living Trust with another attorney two years ago after completing a court supervised succession for her deceased husband. She established the Trust with the intention of avoiding a second succession for her kids after she passed away.However, she wasn’t sure the trust was done right, so she came to me for a second opinion. And I am glad she did. Upon reviewing the trust, we determined that the beneficiaries were not listed the way she wanted, and we [...]

Yesterday I met with a client from Mandeville who is upgrading from a basic will to a revocable living trust so that her kids can avoid the expense, delay, and stress that comes with going through a court supervised Louisiana Succession. In our discussion, she expressed to me that she was worried that one of her daughters would one day get divorced from her husband, citing recurring marital problems. The client wanted to make sure that any inheritance her daughter receives in the future would not become involved in a future divorce. To address this concern, we decided to set [...]

Last week I met with a lady from Houma with no spouse or children. We discussed updating her Louisiana Last Will and Testament. 3 years ago she handwrote a will, which said whoever takes care of her burial will be her sole heir. Her intent is that a family friend be the one to bury her and inherit from, but he is not mentioned anywhere in her will. The ambiguity of her last will and testament would essentially make her estate a free-for-all amongst her various cousins and family members and her ultimate intentions may not be honored. Chances are [...]

Yesterday, I talked with a man from Metairie whose mother died over the weekend. When Mom died, she had plenty of money, but now her kids have no access to her funds because she did not structure her affairs properly. The kids are currently attempting to make funeral arrangements; however, it has become apparent that they will need to find a way to pay for the funeral without the use of Mom’s funds. They will either be forced to use credit cards or their own personal savings to take care of the funeral costs, and will need to wait to [...]

Yesterday, I met with a couple in Metairie who wanted to avoid court supervised probates after each spouse died because they knew multiple probate procedures would create a lot of unwanted stress for the family. We are setting up a Louisiana Revocable Living Trust to accomplish this goal. By creating a Trust that will remain in place even after each spouse dies, we are allowing for the family to access and transact all of the family’s property immediately without the need for court involvement. Without a trust, many of the family’s assets would be essentially frozen after each spouse dies, [...]

Last week I met with a couple from Metairie who were setting up a Louisiana Revocable Living Trust To avoid Probate. In addition to their primary goal of avoiding probate, they wanted to provide for their daughter’s retirement and they wanted to make sure that what ever was left to their daughter did not end up in the hands of their son-in-law. To accomplish these secondary goals we created what is known as a Children’s Inheritance Trust. When you establish a Children’s Inheritance Trust as part of your estate plan you are creating a separate trust in addition to your [...]

Earlier this week I met the daughter of 92 year old woman from Metairie at one of our Free Living Trust events. The daughter was in attendance hoping to find out how to protect Mom’s house from the Nursing Home because Mom was getting to the point where the nursing home will become a reality very soon. The daughter hoped that we could donate mom’s house into her name or establish a trust to protect mom’s house from estate recovery. Estate recovery is when the nursing home forces the sale of your home after you die if you received aid [...]