Posts Categorized: Personal Representative

Dutiful Child or Manipulator of the Elderly?

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law May 13, 2022 Estate Planning, Incapacity, Personal Representative, Trusts, Wills

As parents age and their physical and mental capacities diminish, it is natural for their adult children recognizing the parents’ decreasing ability to care for themselves, to step in and help them. Often, a specific child will take over the responsibilities, such as taking the parent to doctor’s appointments or the attorney’s office. As the parent begins to depend on the child more and more, it may make sense to appoint the child as a trusted decision-maker and even give them a larger inheritance to compensate them for their time. At the same time, other family members must take extreme care to ensure that a manipulative caretaker is not exploiting the elderly parent.

With more people living into their eighties and nineties, elder abuse is a serious and increasingly common problem in our society. Elder abuse can take several forms, including physical, sexual, emotional, and verbal abuse or caretaker neglect or exploitation. Up to one-half of all elder abuse in the United States is financial exploitation, which is the aspect this article focuses on. Financial exploitation includes outright theft of money or property, illegal transfers of property, identity theft, and misusing a position of trust, such as through a power of attorney. READ MORE

Using Beneficiary/Transfer-on-Death Deeds

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law March 4, 2022 Estate Planning, Incapacity, Personal Representative, Power of Attorney, Trusts, Wills

A TOD deed (also known as a beneficiary deed) does what it sounds like it does – it transfers your real property to your selected beneficiaries upon your death, similar to a payable-on-death designation for a bank account or a transfer-on-death registration for an investment account. You continue to own and control the real property during your lifetime, so you can sell it, lease it, refinance it, give it away, or do anything else with it you choose.

You also continue to pay the mortgage and taxes and maintain the property. If you still own the property at your death, the TOD deed works to automatically transfer the property to your named beneficiaries without having to go through probate. And if you change your mind during your lifetime about whom you have named as beneficiaries in the TOD deed, you can amend or revoke it at any time. READ MORE

5 Ways DIY Estate Plans Can Fail & Leave Your Family At Risk – Part 2

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law January 25, 2022 Estate Planning, Guardians for Minor Children, Incapacity, Personal Representative, Power of Attorney, Trust Administration & Probate, Trustee, Trusts, Wills

State laws are also particular about who can serve in specific roles like executor, trustee, or financial power of attorney. In some states, for instance, the executor of your will must either be a family member or an in-law and if not, the person must live in your state. If your chosen executor doesn’t meet those requirements, they cannot serve.

Furthermore, some states require the person you name as your executor to get a bond, like an insurance policy, before they can serve. Such bonds can be challenging to get for someone who has a less-than-stellar credit score. If your executor cannot get a bond, it would be up to the court to appoint your executor, which could end up being someone you would never want managing your assets or a third-party professional who could drain your estate with costly fees. READ MORE

5 Ways DIY Estate Plans Can Fail & Leave Your Family At Risk – Part 1

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law January 18, 2022 Estate Planning, Guardians for Minor Children, Incapacity, Personal Representative, Power of Attorney, Trust Administration & Probate, Trustee, Trusts, Wills

Creating your estate plan using online document services can give you a false sense of security – you think you’ve got estate planning covered when you most likely do not. DIY plans may even lead you to believe that you no longer need to worry about estate planning, causing you to put it off creating a proper plan off until it’s too late.

In this way, relying on DIY estate planning documents is one of the most dangerous choices you can make. In the end, such generic forms could end up costing your family even more money and heartache than if you’d never gotten around to doing any planning at all. READ MORE

The Difference Between a Prenuptial Agreement and a Will or Trust

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law July 27, 2021 Estate Planning, Personal Representative, Trusts, Wills

Having a will or a trust is something responsible people do, but despite the more common use of these tools today, a certain percentage of the general population still misunderstands the difference between the reasons for creating a will or a trust and the reasons for entering into a prenuptial agreement. What do these different legal documents do? And when should you use them? READ MORE

Just Married? 6 Estate Planning Essentials for Newlyweds – Part 2

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law June 29, 2021 Estate Planning, Guardians for Minor Children, Healthcare, Incapacity, Personal Representative, Power of Attorney

Indeed, once your marriage is official, your relationship becomes entirely different from both a legal and financial perspective. With this in mind, last week in part one, we discussed the first three of six essential items you need to address in your plan, and here we cover the final three. READ MORE

Simultaneous Deaths: What If My Spouse and I Die at the Same Time?

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law May 7, 2021 Asset Protection, Estate Planning, Personal Representative, Power of Attorney, Probate, Tax, Wills

The chances of a married couple dying in a common accident or within a very short time of one another are probably quite slim. However, it does happen. And it happens frequently enough that most states have laws to address the issue and the problems that can arise from simultaneous deaths. What are these laws, why do we need them, and can we work around them if we need to? READ MORE

What If No One Wants My Property?

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law April 1, 2021 Estate Planning, Personal Representative, Trusts, Wills

A critical question to ask yourself when creating an estate plan is who will get your stuff when you pass on? While most people think about who they would like to receive the major items, such as homes, retirement accounts, savings; however, personal property, such as jewelry, clothing, sports equipment, vehicles, and other possessions are often overlooked. READ MORE

Does Your Estate Plan Protect Your Intellectual Property?

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law March 19, 2021 Asset Protection, Estate Planning, Personal Representative

Even if you’ve worked with a lawyer to set up your business entity or a CPA to file your taxes, those advisors may not be thinking about or helping you plan for what happens to your intangible business assets upon your death. Similarly, most lawyers who focus on estate planning don’t really understand the value of intellectual property and how to protect it. READ MORE

Reviewing Your Estate Plan after the Death of a Loved One

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law March 11, 2021 Asset Protection, Estate Planning, Guardians for Minor Children, Healthcare, Incapacity, Personal Representative, Power of Attorney, Trust Administration & Probate, Trusts

Although your estate plan primarily focuses on what will happen if you become incapacitated (unable to make or communicate your wishes) or die, the death of a loved one can have a major impact on your planning. If you have an estate plan, one of the first items you need to do when a loved one dies is to review the documents with the following questions in mind: READ MORE

The Recipe for a Satisfying Estate Plan

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law December 28, 2020 Estate Planning, Guardians for Minor Children, Healthcare, Personal Representative, Power of Attorney, Trustee, Trusts, Wills

Misconceptions about who needs an estate plan abound. Most people believe that estate planning is only for extremely wealthy business moguls or celebrities. But that could not be further from the truth. Estate planning is the process of making decisions about what happens to you, your money, and your property when you pass away or can no longer make decisions for yourself. Thus, estate planning should be standard practice for every adult age eighteen or older.

To learn more about Cheever Law, APC and estate planning, please register for our FREE educational Life & Legacy Planning Webinar. We look forward to serving you! READ MORE

3 Unique Ways to Handle the Guilt Inherent to Being a Parent

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law May 26, 2020 Estate Planning, Guardians for Minor Children, Personal Representative

If you are like most parents, you were probably struggling with guilt even before the virus. You simply can’t make it to every award ceremony or recital, and you might not have as much time to play with your kids or help them with their homework as you’d like. Those feelings of guilt may now be compounded by all the additional responsibilities you’ve had to take on in a short space of time. READ MORE

Three Keys to Protecting Yourself from a Rogue Executor/Trustee

by Tara Cheever ~ Attorney at Law February 9, 2019 Estate Planning, Personal Representative, Trustee, Trusts

Unfortunately, sometimes a death in the family can bring out the worst in people. Indeed, family resentments sometimes simmer during a time of grieving – particularly when money and assets from the deceased’s estate are involved. If you are a beneficiary under a loved one’s estate plan, you may be under the assumption that those READ MORE