Calls are coming in almost daily from people who are administering their parent’s, or other loved one’s, trust after death.  The calls are sounding similar… “my dad died and his stocks were not in the trust” or “my mom died, she had re-fi’d her house but never put it back in the trust.”  I get […]

The other day I was talking to a new client and he told me that he recorded his financial power of attorney with the county because he “had to since he has real estate.”  I can only imagine where he got this advice but it’s just simply wrong. It’s wrong for so many reasons. I […]

“I am not quite ready to sign my estate plan becuase… [insert excuse here].” I hear this almost every day. The problem is there is NEVER a perfect time to do your estate plan nor is there ever a perfect estate plan. There are good times and bad times but there is NO perfect time! Likewise […]

As my law practice has developed over the years it has gotten to the point where it is 50% estate planning and 50% probate and trust administration. This means 50% of my work is planning for death and 50% is cleaning up after the fact. Let’s back up real quick. I went to three years […]

Ok, this could be the longest blog in the history of the world I went into all the details about Bypass trust funding.  These trusts are also called “B trusts” or “credit shelter trusts” and their use generally comes up when the first spouse dies. Many spouses set up these trusts years ago when their […]

Ok, I apologize but I couldn’t resist the title for this post.  Our society is crazy with litigation. Yes, you can blame the lawyers but individuals have to hire the lawyers and sign the lawsuits that are filed! However, it’s no doubt litigation is out of control, people sue for everything big and small, and […]

An ILIT is the standard acronym in the industry for Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust.  An ILIT is one of the most dynamic estate planning tools available and that’s why I mention them from time to time. The key on this blog post is the idea that an ILIT need not have anything to do with […]

Did you know life insurance is a taxable asset in your estate?  It’s true. A lot of people think life insurance is “tax free” and that’s simply not the case. It does, generally, build in value without income tax.  However, at death it is an asset of the deceased’s estate and subject to estate tax […]

I primarily represent the fiduciary in my trust and probate cases. That is I represent the trustee, executor, administrator or personal representative. That is, the person who has been in-trusted to gather assets, determine liabilities, deal with taxes and eventually distribute the assets. However, there are some cases when I represent a beneficiary. In most […]

I was walking down the streets of Waikiki last week and it got me thinking about timeshares.  You really can’t help it when in a place where I worry that everything is a come-on for a timeshare tour.  We actually were staying over on the west side of Oahu at the Marriott Ko Olina timeshare.  What […]