Posted by: Administrator
in Estate Planning on Feb 16, 2010
Recently, we discovered an article by the Jensen Law Office in Seattle Washington, entitled "12 Tips For Choosing A Guardian For Your Children."
We believe this is an excellent article and one that every parent with minor children will want to read - simply because it does give you some real food for thought when it comes to naming guardians for your minor children.
We like this article so much we've written to the law firm for permission to make it a permanent part of our articles on last wills and testaments.
Today, I read an article from the New York Times that was written by Tim Grant. The article is entitled, "Upon death, what happens to your digital assets?"
This is a relatively new issue in estate planning, but one that will surely grow in importance as more people turn to the internet for business and pleasure. As the article points out, many of the digital assets that people are accumulating on the internet do not have much monetary value - they consist of emails, photos, and the like. But, even those assets may have significant sentimental value to the survivors.
And, it's likely, too, that more people dying over the coming years will have bank accounts and other financial instruments that exist only in digital form somewhere in cyber space. I'm reminded of my own PayPal account that I'm using more and more as a vehicle to make on-line purchases and sales from ebay and other websites. On any given day, that PayPal account might have a fair amount of money in it. Yet, if something happened to me, I doubt that anyone would ever know that it exists.
Gone are the days when you could just walk to the few banks in town and ask if so and so had any accounts there. You can't even locate a safe deposit box and check for stock certificates anymore - they're all in digital format these days.
I had a causal conversation with one of my clients the other day. We met by chance at the gas station of all places. After exchanging pleasantries for a few moments, I asked him how long it had been since I helped him with his estate planning. He didn't know exactly, but he thought it must have been three or four years.
Not one to miss an opportunity, I told him he ought to come in just to make sure everything was still up to date. His response was, "Michael, I don't think there's any reason to. My investments have gone South, my house is under water, and I don't think I'm going to have anything left to retire on, let alone worry about when I die."
I told him that I would get out his documents when I got back to the office and see if everything looked alright. With that, we said goodbye and headed off in different directions.
You may have read about the recent conviction of socialite Brooke Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, for misuse of the power of attorney given to him by his mother. It's a chilling example of how dangerous a power of attorney can be in the wrong hands.
If you have given someone a power of attorney or if you're contemplating doing so, you may want to take a look at an article entitled, "Protect Your Assets: Write A Safe Power Of Attorney," written by Ashlea Ebeling (Forbes.com), 10/15/09. In this article, the author points out that it's very important that you consider each power that's contained in your power of attorney document. For example, should your agent have the power to make gifts of your property to other people? If so, to whom? And, how much? Another consideration is whether your agent should have the power to change the beneficiaries of your life insurance policies, or your retirement plans. Of course, there are many other powers, too, that are often found in a power of attorney that could have disastrous consequences in the wrong hands.
As the Forbes article points out, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws published a new model financial power of attorney law in 2006. Several states have now adopted the new model, which includes a model form for use by lawyers and non-lawyers. It includes a check list of powers that you might -or might not - want your agent to have. While this new model will make you think about the various powers that can be given to your agent, there is really no substitute for discussing these powers with your legal advisor.
Many people have asked whether we would be posting a copy of Michael Jackson's will on our site. I'm happy to report that we've found it on the web and have now added it to our Famous Wills section. See it here.
One of the reasons we wanted to post a copy of his will is because it's a good example of a pour-over will. Pour-over wills are highly recommended whenever you have a living trust, since you probably won't have all of your assets in the trust at the time of your death. A pour-over will insures that any probate property you might have at the time of your death will end up in your trust to be managed and ultimately distributed along with all your other property.
With Michael Jackson's will, you can readily see the benefit of a living trust. His pour-over will (which is public) doesn't reveal any personal information; whereas, his living trust (which is totally private) contains all the personal information concerning who gets what and when.
Staying Current 
