Estate Planning
Q. What can an estate plan do for me?
A. Estate planning can be an uncomfortable topic, and yet it’s one every family needs to address. You may be wondering: How do I make sure my kids are taken care of the way I want? What will happen to my home when I am gone? How do I minimize the tax hit my family will endure? Expert advice is worth paying for. A good estate planner can customize an estate plan to the unique needs of your situation.
Every family situation is different, and each family deserves personalized attention. Blended families, children with special needs, family-owned businesses, and unique assets all present their own estate planning challenges. The Schofield Law Group provides estate plans that suit the needs of most families — living trusts, wills, special needs trusts and more specialized planning tools.
Q. What is a durable power of attorney?
A. A durable power of attorney gives someone else the power to make financial decisions for you when you are not able to make those decisions yourself. A well-written durable power of attorney provides detailed instructions for the “attorney in fact” to follow, and lets others know the limits of that person’s power. This situation usually arises when a person becomes mentally incapacitated from dementia, illness or an accident.
Q. What is an advanced health care directive?
A. An advanced health care directive gives someone else the power to make decisions about your health care. A well-written advanced health care directive provides instruction for end of life decisions, but also a range of other decisions for the type of care you want to receive while you are alive but unable to communicate.
Q. What is a trust?
A. A trust is basically a contract that sets up a separate entity, not unlike a business, to control your assets. The person who runs the trust is called a “trustee”.
Q. How can I tell if I should have a trust?
A. A trust has many benefits. When set up correctly, the person who sets it up can avoid probate upon his death. A trust can be a critical component for tax planning. It is useful for disbursing assets to heirs. Most Californians who own a house should consider getting a trust. If a person dies with over $100,000 in probate-able assets, the cost of a probate is significantly more than what it costs to set up a trust.
Q. What is a special needs trust?
A. A special needs trust is used to plan for a person who receives public benefits, especially those with disabilities. Without one, a family’s best intentions can often go awry. For example, if a person on public benefits receives an unexpected inheritance, that inheritance can have the unintended consequence of disqualifying that person for the benefits on which they rely. A special needs trust can set aside assets and use them to enhance the beneficiary’s life without disqualifying him for his benefits.
Q. Why do I need to pay a lawyer to draft a trust when I can get one cheap elsewhere?
A. Buyer beware. “You get what you pay for” just as true in the legal services arena as anywhere else. A one-size fits all trust prepared by someone who does not know your situation may cause very expensive problems down the line — taxes that should not have been paid, court appearances that should not have been required. Since the explosion of trust mills in the past few decades, the courts are filled with actions by families trying to clean up the mess left behind by badly written trusts. The company who wrote the trust is long gone, but the mess remains. Much of that can be avoided when the trust is drafted by a qualified attorney.