About fifty percent of the trusts that come across my desk are unfunded. Funding a trust simply means placing assets in a trust. Either by creating accounts to hold assets or by making the trust the owner of assets through titling Funding Trusts is essential to having a trust. Actually, I believe it’s the most important part of having since a trust. Since, an unfunded trust is not a trust at all, but rather a stack of papers. Here’s a…
Under the appropriate circumstances, a revocable living trust is the perfect estate planning document. Sometimes, however they can be overkill or underused. Whether a trust is the right document for you depends much upon your assets and family circumstances. Also much depends on whether you as the maker and trustee are willing and able to do so. Here’s some things to consider before using one in your estate plan. A Living Trust Is Not A Will Replacement If you have…
All work and no estate plan makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no estate plan makes Jack a dull boy. I know estate planning ranks right up there with having a root canal. But, I do my best to make going through the haunted hotel of estate planning as painless as possible. The most difficult part for many is starting. And getting started is as simple as scheduling an initial consultation. During our consultation, I’ll ask you what…
In Colorado, you can not disinherit a spouse. A surviving spouse omitted or disinherited from a will still has property rights in the estate. Sometimes omitting a spouse is intentional, sometimes negligent. Colorado law entitles a spouse to receive an elective share of the estate or to take against the will. Depending on the length of the marriage, the surviving spouse’s share is between 5% and 50% of the augmented estate. A spouse is defined as someone who is a…
In Colorado, a home or real property can transfer from one owner to another by the use of a beneficiary deed. Upon the death of the grantor, the transfer of property passes outside of probate. As with creating a trust or joint tenancy, the use of a beneficiary deed is considered another probate avoidance strategy. Below of some things you should know about beneficiary deeds when considering one in your estate plan: It must be recorded before the death of…