WILLS

Published on: October 30, 2008

Useful Information When Traveling Abroad

San Diego is home to many retirees and others who love to travel. The U.S. Dept. of State has useful information about traveling abroad. At their website you can access information about passports, registering your travel abroad, taking medicines on your trip, customs and import information, and immunizations required for various areas.

You can also check the website for what travel warning and alerts are in effect for a specific country. A Travel Warning is a warning against travel to certain countries where a condition may make the country dangerous or unstable. Currently, some of the countries listed with Travel Warnings are Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Colombia, Nepal, and Somalia.

Travel Alerts are issued for usually short term conditions such as a natural disaster, a coup, or acts of terrorism. Countries under a Travel Alert at this time are Mexico, China, Comoros, and the Arabian Peninsula.

Published on: October 20, 2008

Why Can’t You Draft Your Own Estate Planning Documents?

by Scott C. Soady

The simple answer is “you can” but why would you want to? You may have seen the commercial on TV where a man is on the phone with his doctor who is telling him how to operate on himself and the man says “shouldn’t you be doing this?”

There are many web sites today that offer inexpensive estate planning documents you can download. There is also software available to write your own will or trust. The problem with doing it yourself is that you don’t have the experience, training, and knowledge to know whether you have done a good job and the effect of not doing a good job can be devastating. Many “boilerplate” trusts and other documents contain language that is inappropriate for your situation. Estate planning is not “one size fits all.”

When you hire an experienced estate planning lawyer you are not only paying for the document itself but the training and experience that goes into a properly drafted document. The attorney knows what questions to ask to assist you with decisions such as whether you want clauses about distributions to minors and at what intervals, duty to provide accounts and reports, how to distribute assets if a beneficiary predeceases the trustor, and what clauses are necessary to protect the estate from estate taxes. Deeds need to be prepared to record your real property with the County Recorder and a Preliminary Change of Ownership form needs to be filled out correctly to avoid reappraisal.

Published on: October 14, 2008

Update on the Estate of Heath Ledger

by Scott C. Soady

Nine months after the death of Heath Ledger, his

Published on: September 23, 2008

Innovative Idea for Dividing Up Personal Property after Death

by Scott C. Soady

Are you the Executor or the Successor Trustee of a will or trust in San Diego? Are you faced with the dilemma of how to divide up personal effects of the deceased? How to divide personal property (furniture, collectibles, jewelry, cars) upon someone’s death can be a harder problem than distributing the rest of the estate. Many wills and trusts provide for distribution to heirs in equal amounts or equal shares, but how do you determine who gets what? What if more than one heir wants a particular item? How is the property valued, especially if its real worth is more sentimental than anything else?

There is an interesting alternative being offered by an auction company called eDivvyUp. This is an online auction site which can assist executors or beneficiaries deal with distribution of personal property. This company will inventory the items of personal property, photograph them, and then the beneficiaries are invited to participate in the auction with “points” they are assigned. At the end of the auction the property is distributed to the highest bidder.

At Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation we can assist you with the division of personal property and any other matter relating to probate or trust administration. You may call or e mail us to set up a complimentary consultation.

Published on: September 19, 2008

Interesting Statistics on Estate Planning

by Scott C. Soady

Do San Diegans fit the national statistics on Estate Planning?

Alhough there are no statistics specifically for San Diego County, a study done nationally in 2007 found that over half (55% ) of all adult Americans do not have a will or other estate plan. Of non-whites, the lack of a will is even more pronounced:

Only 32% of African American adults have wills Only 25% of Hispanic American adults have wills compared to 52% of white American adults.

Published on: August 21, 2008

Timeshares and Estate Planning

by Scott C. Soady

Many San Diegans have timeshare properties out of state in Hawaii, Colorado, and Florida as well as right here in San Diego in the beachfront communities of Coronado, La Jolla, Mission Beach, Carlsbad, and Oceanside. If you plan to leave your timeshare properties to your heirs you need to understand several things.

There are two types of timeshare properties – deeded and non deeded. With the non deeded form of ownership you usually are buying a license to use the property or a lease or membership interest that allows use of the property for a number of years. You may or may not be able to pass this on to your heirs. With a deeded timeshare you actually have an ownership interest in the property and have a deed showing that interest.

If you have a revocable living trust, a timeshare, like any other piece of property, has to be transferred into your trust. If it is a deeded timeshare, this will be done with a trust transfer deed. Many trust administrations or trust distributions are delayed because individuals forget to transfer their timeshare properties into their trust.

Published on: August 4, 2008

10 Things You Can’t Do Without a Will or Trust

by Scott C. Soady

If you die in San Diego without a will or a trust, you are deemed to have died “intestate”. To die “intestate” means to die without a “testament” (a will) or a trust and your estate will have to go through the probate process where the Probate Court will determine where your estate will go. This can result in unintended results for some people and not what they would have wanted.

As an example, most people believe that if they are married and they die without a will or a trust, all their property will go to their surviving spouse. That is not the case in California. If you are married with children, your community property(essentially property acquired during the marriage) will go to your spouse, but only one-half of the separate property (property acquired before marriage or inherited during the marriage) will go to your spouse if there is one child of the marriage. If you have 2 or more children, your spouse will only receive one-third of the separate property. This can be an unintended result if the estate is small and the surviving spouse needs all the assets in the estate to live on. Furthermore, California inheritance laws only recognize relatives of the intestate decedent, so the Probate Court can never distribute any of the estate to charities or non relatives.

Here are 10 example of things you cannot do if you die intestate:

Published on: July 30, 2008

North San Diego County – Will and Trust Litigation

by Scott C. Soady

Even when a person dies with a will or a trust, there can be disputes that result in a will contest or trust litigation. An individual may feel he or she should have been a beneficiary under a will or a trust. Sometimes a will has been changed and beneficiaries under the original will feel there has some impropriety surrounding the execution of the subsequent will. Sometimes beneficiaries may be dissatisfied with the accounting of the assets in the estate. When these types of issues occur, it may become necessary to seek the assistance of the court to resolve these issues. Common grounds for contesting a will are such things as claims of undue influence, lack of mental capacity, fraud, or an invalid codicil (amendment).

With a trust, individuals who are beneficiaries or think they should be a beneficiary may dispute the trust. Issues can arise such as the validity of the trust or amendments, the administration of the trust, or conduct of the trustee. Sometimes trustees have to be removed for misconduct or impropriety or it may be the case that beneficiaries have to initiate litigation to receive a fair distribution.

Handling a will or trust litigation matter requires special experience. If you have concerns about a will or a trust or believe you should have inherited from one, the experienced estate planning lawyers at Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation can assist you. Call or e mail us for a complimentary, confidential in-house consultation.

Published on: June 25, 2008

Who Gets Grandma’s Ring in Rancho Sante Fe?

by Scott C. Soady

Estates are comprised of many different assets including homes, bank accounts [Bank of America, Union Bank and others], life insurance [Farmers, State Farm and others], and personal property such as jewelry, artwork, cars, and boats. Sometimes what causes the most squabbles among family members after a death is not the real property or cash but such things as jewelry, collectibles, or other items of strictly sentimental value such as grandma’s ring or grandpa’s gun.

Unless you have left specific instructions as to your personal property in your will or trust, usually it will be divided equally among your beneficiaries. But what is equally? How do you value a family heirloom? As an example, Rosa Parks (who you may remember started the civil rights movement in 1955 when she refused to surrender her seat on a bus to a white rider) had in her estate china that was used when she dined with then President Clinton. How does one determine the value of that particular piece of Wedgwood china? What about Grandma’s ring? Something that may be priceless to a beneficiary because of its sentimental value may be worthless in terms of its appraised value. What if two or more beneficiaries want the same item and won’t budge?

If you have specific items of personal property that you want to give to particular people upon your death, you can make specific bequests in your will or trust. Usually however, people have too many items of personal property to list them all in their will or trust. Or they may acquire other personal property after they execute their will or trust or want to change their mind at some point about certain gifts.

Published on: June 18, 2008

Wills: Same Sex Spouses

by Scott C. Soady

In California, the law regarding limitations on marriage to members of the opposite sex changed and now spouses of both same sex and opposite sex can have wills which are recognized in exactly the same manner under the laws in San Diego and throughout Southern and Northern California. A will is normally part of an estate plan which may or may not include a revocable living trust. In San Diego, if the total value of the estate is over $100,000 [real and personal property included with no offset for debt] then a revocable living trust will save the beneficiaries money in not having to probate the estate. Probate fees and costs are 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the second $100,000 and 2% of each succeeding $100,000. In addition, probate is a court procedure which is open to the public and information is not private. There are two probate courts in San Diego: one in San Diego and one in Vista.

The California Supreme Court has made its intentions clear in the recent Marriage cases that there is to be no discrimination based upin sexual orientation or same gender spouses. Our law firm of Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, LLP would be pleased to offer same sex spouses the same estate planning services as opposite sex spouses under this new ruling. Please feel free to e mail or call our firm for a complimentary and confidential consultation.