Common Questions

(1) Completing a Living Trust & Pricing

(2) Titling Assets in Your Trust

(3) Changes In Marital Status

(4) Amendments, Reviews, & Changes

(5) Why & When To Review & Update A Trust

(6) Why You May No Longer Need or Want An AB or ABC Trust

(7) Important Issues When Someone Dies or is Dying

(8) Real Estate Issues

(9) Medical Directives

(10) Granting / Obtaining Signature Power

(11) Trust Copies & Originals

(12) Incapacity Issues

(13) Confidentiality Issues & Policies

Changes In Marital Status

1. Critical to Update & Restate Your Estate Plan Immediately Upon Marriage or Remarriage: As a rule, the act of marrying will automatically revoke (invalidate) all previous estate plans whether it is a Will or a Trust. This is called revocation by operation of law and to avoid it you must legally demonstrate that you are not “just forgetting” by either updating your existing estate plan / living trust or executing a new estate plan / living trust. Click on this link to read more about this issue.
2. A Divorce or Separation Is Planned or In Process: Important Warnings, Precautions, Guidelines: (Note: This discussion assumes as a husband and wife you established a joint married living trust.) There is usually a long period of time, often years, between the beginning (contemplation) of the separation / divorce process and the time you are legally divorced (signing by the judge of final marital dissolution decree). Until such time, whether you like it or not, you are still considered legally married to each other in the eyes of the law. Worse yet, this means if one of you passes away during this time, the spouse that you are divorcing is still in a potentially strong legal position to inherit your estate – that is absent concrete steps on your part. The objective is to implement legal safeguards designed to help insure each spouse’s estate is distributed according to present intent in case either spouse dies during the divorce process (usually to the children instead of the spouse). Contained in this link are important legal warnings, precautions, and possible strategies to follow in this regards.