Author Archives: Jay Butchko
How to Revoke an Irrevocable Trust
When you start reading online about trusts, they sound like the best of all possible worlds. A trust can make your property invisible to the probate court and to creditors. It is like creating a doppelganger of yourself that gets to spend your money but doesn’t have to pay taxes. Mortality has no effect… Read More »
Decanting a Trust
People who can afford to retire are the lucky few, but there are clear signs if you are one of them. For example, if you have ever decanted anything, and known that this was what you were doing, you have probably accumulated enough wealth to have access to the finer things in life. Decanting… Read More »
Minors Inheriting Property
According to a popular stereotype, grandparents love to spoil their grandchildren, even if, a generation earlier, they were strict or aloof toward their own children. Regardless of the nature of your interactions with your grandchildren, they probably take center stage in your estate plan. You want to set aside money for your own long-term… Read More »
Personal Representative Drama and How to Deal With It
Imagine a bride with two sisters, each of whom wants to be the maid of honor at her wedding. As soon as her fiancé put the engagement ring on her finger, scenarios begin to play in her head about how to break the news to one or the other sister that she did not… Read More »
Your Long-Term Care Plans Can Protect Your Children From Financial Hardship
We have all heard about disastrous scenarios where family conflict escalated into permanent rifts because of decisions about medical care for an elderly and infirm relative. The family member who provided the most direct care for the invalid might take the blame for the invalid’s decline in health and eventual death, while the rest… Read More »
A Delayed Retirement Is a Healthy Retirement?
Deciding when to retire sounds like a simple calculation, but there are many unseen factors. For example, you might count backwards from the average life expectancy to your anticipated age at retirement and think you have arrived at the number of years you could enjoy. By this logic, the sooner you retire, the more… Read More »
Leaving an Inheritance to Your Nieces and Nephews: Generous Gesture or Family Obligation?
Maintaining close connections with extended family members these days takes work. Think about how much more often you saw your cousins when your grandparents were alive than you do now. Your parents visited their parents, and the siblings of your parents also visited their own parents, so the cousin relationship happened naturally. When adult… Read More »
Is Assisted Living a Bait and Switch?
If you are over the age of 55 and you own a house, a retirement account, or both, then at some point, you have probably heard a retirement planner breathlessly extol the virtues of assisted living facilities. To hear them tell it, assisted living facilities are the best place for retirees to live if… Read More »
Draft Your Trust Instrument Wisely to Prevent Trustee Drama
“Irrevocable” is a scary word. Many seniors establish revocable trusts to keep their property out of probate, even though a revocable trust does not carry the tax benefits that an irrevocable trust carries while the grantor is alive. As the grantor of a trust, you write the trust instrument, and then the trust functions… Read More »
How to Stop Your Spouse From Inheriting From You
Disinheriting your relatives is easy, in theory. When a deceased person’s estate goes through probate, the decedent’s will is the most authoritative document in determining who inherits what. If a family member believes that the testator disinherited him or her unfairly, or that the decedent wanted the family member to receive an inheritance, contrary… Read More »