Having the right person manage a trust is critical to its success, and there may come a time when removing a trustee is necessary. Though it can be intimidating, understanding how to properly and legally remove a trustee can help make the process go more smoothly.
I was reading an article in The Atlantic the other day, and it got me thinking about estate planning and why it’s so important – especially for non-traditional families.
Establishing an estate plan is a crucial step toward peace of mind. An estate plan typically includes the following documents: a Will, a Financial Power of Attorney, a Health Care Power of Attorney, and in many cases, a Revocable Living Trust. These documents help control your assets if you become disabled or pass away.
The Health Care Power of Attorney and the Advance Medical Directive are critically important estate planning documents. The Advance Medical Directive (often called a “Living Will”) allows you to make your wishes known about whether to withhold life support in certain contexts. The Health Care Power of Attorney allows you to name someone (usually called an “agent” or an “attorney-in-fact”) to make healthcare decisions for you, in the event you are incapable of doing so yourself.
“Larry, my Mom had a stroke a few days ago. She’s in a care facility now and isn’t able to make decisions. The doctors and administrators are asking me to sign papers and make decisions for her. What do I do?”
For those of you with children that have attained their 18th birthday and, especially, for those with children that may be heading off to college in the future, it is important that they have a health care power of attorney (HCPOA) in place. Young adults are highly susceptible to injuries, illnesses and accidents for which important medical decisions need to be made. This can be even more challenging when those children are residing far away.
There are a lot of websites out there that allow you to make your own estate planning documents at a bargain rate. Wills, Powers of Attorney . . . even Trusts.
A Will is valid only if you – as the maker of the Will – sign it in the physical presence of two witnesses. Whether you’re in DC, Maryland, or Virginia – this law is basically the same. The purpose of this rule is to verify that you actually signed the Will, and to prove you weren’t under duress when you signed it.
If you’re like me, you’ve seen every episode of the documentary Tiger King on Netflix. As an animal lover and estate planning attorney, the show covered a lot of issues that interest me.
Does this sound like you these days? Fresh out of bed, your day begins with a rush of COVID-19 news. Your email box pings with alerts. Memes crowd your social media feeds. And your smartphone vibrates with texts from worrying friends and family. On top of that, you have more time to think about it all a little too obsessively because you’re working at home instead of going to the office and you’re taking social distancing seriously. You ponder the uncertainties and wonder if there’s anything at all you can do about it.