Did you know that you can use a Trust for more than just your estate plan or to provide for children’s college education? Trusts can be used for a lot of different things. Attorneys and clients are constantly coming up with different ways to use Trusts. The attorney with the experience to create Trusts for estate plans can also help you to create one for many other reasons.

If you’ve been elected to political office, for example, a Trust might be a great way for you to invest your assets blindly without the possibility of a conflict of interest. You transfer your assets to the Trust and let a responsible, professional Trustee handle investing those assets. This lets you invest your assets in companies that you might have to make political decisions about. There are even stranger uses for Trusts. If a Court ordered you to pay alimony to an ex-spouse, you can invest money in a Trust and use the interest from the investment income to pay to alimony. Of course, there is no guarantee that the income will be enough, but every little bit helps.

Any time that you want to invest money and keep an arm’s length away from it, a Trust might be a good option for you. Talk to an attorney about your needs and how to create a Trust for them.

John M. O’Drobinak, P.C.+ is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Our blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be advertising, solicitation or legal advice.

No one wants to think that their family will fight over the provisions in their estate plans after they pass away. Unfortunately, family feuds in Probate Court are all too common. You can not avoid all potential conflicts, but many can be planned for and with the help of an experienced estate planning attorney you can also minimize the risk that the Court will agree with the challenge to your estate plan.

A common challenge occurs to estate plans when the only instrument used in the plan is a Will and someone would have received more from the laws of Intestate Succession or a previous Will. If there is significant money involved, that person has a good incentive to challenge the Will. People who draft their own Wills without the assistance of an experienced estate planning attorney often fall into this mistake and leave their Wills open to challenge. You are asking for problems if you do this.

An attorney can anticipate challenges to your estate plan and prepare to head them off through the language in the documents. However, you need an attorney with the knowledge and the experience to know what the potential traps are and how to avoid them. Ask your estate planning attorney about anticipating challenges to your estate plan.

John M. O’Drobinak, P.C.+ is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Our blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be advertising, solicitation or legal advice.

The Executor of a Will has many important duties. In addition to marshalling the assets of the estate and distributing them to the appropriate heirs, the Executor needs to make sure that the deceased’s taxes are paid. This final tax return is similar to other tax returns, but their are important considerations that do make it different.

The most important difference is that the final tax return is not a return for the entire year. The return only needs to cover any income from the beginning of the year until the date of death. This means that any interest that accrued on accounts after the deceased passed away does not need to be reported on a final tax return. This can be complicated because account statements often include the entire year. The Executor should report the entire interest and deduct interest income that accrued after death.

Another important consideration for Executors is what deductions should be taken on the final tax return. Generally, any deduction that the deceased could have taken while alive is appropriate but you cannot deduct what accrued later. There is an exception for medical bills, however. You can deduct the deceased’s medical bills that were paid after the date of death.

If you have been appointed as the Executor of a Will, consider talking to an attorney about how to file the final tax return. Estate attorneys can help make sure that you file the return correctly.

John M. O’Drobinak, P.C.+ is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Our blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be advertising, solicitation or legal advice.

Medical technology keeps getting better and better. As a result of these continuous improvements, people are living longer and longer. While that is generally a good thing, it does have some negative consequences. The longer people live, the more likely they are to get dementia. Because of this, you should make sure that you have the appropriate Advanced Medical Directives in place just in case you live long enough to get dementia.

The World Health Organization estimates that the number of dementia patients worldwide will triple by 2050. That’s good news for longevity, but bad news for people who have not planned ahead. Caring for patients with dementia is costly and time-consuming. Because the nature of the disease makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the patient to participate in his or her healthcare, someone else has to make medical decisions for the patient. If you want to have a say in who will make healthcare decisions for you if you get dementia, you need to do so today.

With a Healthcare Power of Attorney, you can designate someone to make the important decisions for your health. If doctors have any questions about how to proceed, they will know who to ask. If you do not designate someone, then a Probate Court might have to do so. Instead of leaving the decision up to a Court, take the time to make it yourself now.

John M. O’Drobinak, P.C.+ is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Our blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be advertising, solicitation or legal advice.

Many people fear that if they leave assets to an irresponsible child in an estate plan, that the child will blow through it. This is a common fear for people who have children who spend whatever money they have as soon as they get it. If you have a child that you think will blow his or her inheritance, you can make that impossible in your estate plan and still leave the child just as large of inheritance.

Instead of giving a large lump sum to an irresponsible child in your estate plan, you can set up a Trust for the child. The terms of the Trust can dictate how money from the Trust should be given to the child and when. For example, you can state that a certain amount of money should be given to the child every month. This ensures that the child can not spend his or her entire inheritance right away. It is important to note that you should name someone other than the child as the Trustee responsible for managing and disbursing the Trust assets.

There are several other ways that you can prevent an irresponsible child from blowing an inheritance. The best methods depend on what type of assets you are leaving to a child. Talk to an estate planning attorney about your options.

John M. O’Drobinak, P.C.+ is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Our blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be advertising, solicitation or legal advice.

When you are planning for what will happen to your property after you pass away, you have a lot of things to consider. Most people have many different assets that they need to plan for. Because pets are our friends and companions, we often forget about them. We don’t think of our pets as property, so we don’t think they should be included in our estate plans.

The problem with that thinking is that it relies on the goodwill of others to care for our pets after we are gone and can no longer look after our animal companions. Someone will have to volunteer to feed and house our animals. If we are lucky, a trusted friend or family member will step forward and take care of our pets. Most people do not want to consider what might happen if they are unlucky.

Instead of relying on someone to volunteer, you can make provisions for your pets in your estate plan. You can designate someone to care for your pets and you can leave money specifically earmarked for your pets. For an experienced estate planning attorney, this is a simple matter. Talk to one today to make sure that your pets are provided for in your absence.

John M. O’Drobinak, P.C.+ is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Our blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be advertising, solicitation or legal advice.

If you have ever wondered what would happen to your digital assets after you pass away, you should speak to an estate planning attorney about the online accounts you have. Some might be worth preserving in posterity, and others you might want to have disposed of.

Throughout our lives most of us accrue various accounts with online companies. You might have social media accounts with Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. You might store documents online. You might even own websites. These accounts can be as important to you as your physical property. Currently, the law is unclear about who can access these accounts after you pass away. That means that your accounts are left up to the policies of the online service.

Instead of relying on an online service, you can make your intentions clear in your estate plan. If you want your Facebook account closed, make it clear what your wishes are. Otherwise, no one will know what to do. If you want someone to have access to your online photo storage account, make that clear so that your family can access the account and collect your pictures.

What you want is up to you. If you plan ahead of time, you can make sure that your wishes for your online accounts are carried out.

John M. O’Drobinak, P.C.+ is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Our blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be advertising, solicitation or legal advice.

When you are planning your estate, you have many different concerns. One thing that you should not be concerned about is being pressured into making a plan by someone else. It’s unfortunate, but true, that sometimes a loved one might try to take advantage of you and try to talk you into an estate plan that benefits them rather than does what you want it to do. This can be avoided by hiring an experienced estate planning attorney.

No matter who contacted the attorney first, an estate planning attorney represents you. This is true even if someone else is paying the attorney. If you are unsure about who the attorney is representing, ask. In fact, you should ask to speak to your lawyer in private away from anyone else, especially anyone who is hoping to inherit any of your property. This helps make sure that you make decisions based upon the best advice that your attorney can provide free of any undue influence from other people.

We all want to be able to trust our loved ones, and for the most part we should. However, when it comes to your legal affairs and what will happen to your assets after you pass away, you should take extra care to make sure that you are listening to an experienced estate planning attorney and not the wishes of an interested party.

John M. O’Drobinak, P.C.+ is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Our blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be advertising, solicitation or legal advice.

Sometimes it is better for people to help their struggling family members now rather than, or in addition to, leaving the family member an inheritance. If a family member needs help now to live, you can give it to them. However, you should talk to an estate planning attorney to make sure that you are helping the family member in a way that does not create an oversized tax burden on you or the family member you are trying to help. The attorney can assist you in structuring the help as part of your overall estate plan.

You might wonder why you would need to make any help you give a family member now part of a larger estate plan. Besides the possible tax consequences, you should also consider the potential for family conflicts after you pass away. For example, if you have helped one child a lot more than another, the child you did not need to help as much might be angry if both children receive an equal inheritance. Of course, every family is different so the conflicts that could arise are also different.

An experienced estate planning attorney can look at your family situation and help you determine ways to give assistance to struggling family members now. The attorney has many tools and methods beyond just giving cash to your family that you can use.

John M. O’Drobinak, P.C.+ is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Our blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be advertising, solicitation or legal advice.

When a family member passes away you have enough to deal with in the mourning process that you are probably not thinking about any legal obligations you might have. Even if you were not named as a Personal Representative to oversee the estate, if you inherit a significant amount of property, you might have a variety of obligations that you need to fulfill in a limited amount of time. An attorney experienced in estate administration can help you make sure that you fulfill all of your obligations.

You might need to pay death taxes on some of the property that you inherit. It depends on the type of property, what legal instrument was used to pass the property to you, the value of the property and the state in which the property is located. Do not rely on the estate Executor to correctly tell you what taxes you need to pay and when. Tax penalties and fines are too expensive for that. Ask your own estate attorney what you need to do so that you can be sure you have done everything right.

You might have other obligations than paying taxes depending on what you have inherited. You might decide that you do not want the inheritance at all. You might disagree with the way the Executor is handling the estate. An estate attorney can help you with all of these things so that you can focus on getting over your loss.

John M. O’Drobinak, P.C.+ is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Our blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be advertising, solicitation or legal advice.