We have written many times in this space that you need to update your Will whenever there is a significant change in your circumstances. There is another reason that you should update your Will from time to time. You should also update you Will when the life circumstances of your Executor change significantly.

In the early years of the United States, if one of the goals of your estate was to free slaves, then Thomas Jefferson would have been an excellent choice to designate as the Executor in your Will. Out of all of the founding fathers, Jefferson was the most outspoken in condemning slavery. The only reason he did not free his own slaves was that as property under the law, the slaves were subject to the claims of Jefferson’s many creditors. In 1798, a wealthy man named Tadeusz Kosciuszko nominated Jefferson to be the Executor of his Will, which left money that was to be used to purchase and free slaves. However, by the time that Kosciuszko passed away in 1817, Jefferson was in poor health and had to decline to serve as Executor. Eventually, litigation over the estate ensued and the money was never used to free slaves.

Make sure that you update your Will and name a new Executor when the person designated is no longer able to serve in that capacity.

Davidov Law Group is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

It is not normal for a Court to revisit an estate decades after someone dies. However, that is exactly what is happening right here in New York with the case of The Will Of Elmer H. Bobst who passed away over 30 years ago.

Originally, Bobst’s estate was divided according to Letters Testamentary that he left behind. However, his heirs have recently discovered that after writing the Letters, he made a Will. This Will has just been discovered. Now, the Courts have had to reopen the estate to determine which document should be used in distributing the assets of the estate. The Court has recently decided to hold a trial on the matter. Obviously, this will be very expensive and witnesses may be difficult to track down, assuming that they are still alive.

Mae sure that if you create a new estate plan, that you destroy the documents of your old one. You should also make sure that your estate plan can be easily found. You do not want to have your estate reopened thirty years after the fact.

Davidov Law Group is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

It’s hard to think of almost anything good that has come out of the scandal at Penn State. When children are abused, it’s never good. Now that Jerry Sandusky has been convicted by a jury of his peers, however, it’s time to ask what we can learn from the scandal. There are certainly a lot of lessons that should be learned by university administrators and athletic departments, but this is an estate planning blog. As it turns out, there is an estate lesson in the scandal too.

If you know anything about the scandal, you have heard the allegations that head football coach knew about Sandusky’s abuse of children and helped to cover it up. Of course, that may not be the case and we might never know what happened as Paterno passed away shortly after the scandal broke. He did not tell his side of the story. However, his family might not have gotten the lesson about keeping things from public consumption as they requested that Paterno’s Will be sealed by the Court. After a media outcry, the family backtracked in a couple of days and released the Will to the public.

As it turns out, there was nothing controversial in the Will and it was originally sealed for privacy reasons. However, the lesson to be learned is that when you hide things from a public that wants to know, you create more speculation than the situation often calls for.

Davidov Law Group is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

People who create their own estate plans often make the mistake of thinking that they only need to use one legal instrument and that it will take care of everything. This is usually a Revocable Living Trust. While a Living Trust is a great estate planning tool, it is probably not the only thing you need. Estate planning is more like putting a puzzle together to find the right fit between various legal instruments to effectuate your goals.

A Revocable Living Trust is only effective for the property that you transfer to the Trust. If you forget to transfer something or are unable to transfer something for some reason, than the Trust has no legal authority over that property. If you pass away before you can transfer everything into the Trust, the Trust will also not be effective. The normal solution for this problem is to execute a Pour Over Will. This is a very simple Will that directs that any property in your estate should be transfered to the Trust. That allows the property you didn’t transfer to be distributed according to the terms of the Trust.

There might be other estate planning instruments that you want to use with your Revocable Living Trust. Each person’s estate planning puzzle is different. An attorney can help you solve your puzzle.

Davidov Law Group is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

People are often similar and predictable. It is no different when it comes to their estate plans. Most people want the same thing. Almost universally, when a husband and wife in a first marriage devise an estate plan they want the same thing: when the first spouse passes away, everything goes to the surviving spouse. When the second spouse passes away, everything goes to the children. Executing this plan with joint Wills is not always the best option.

Most people do not want to think about it, but there is always a possibility that a surviving spouse will get remarried. It happens all the time. The new spouse is entitled to a share of the surviving spouse’s estate by law. This may or may not leave enough of the property available for the original couple’s children to receive the originally contemplated inheritance.

The initial goal of most couples is laudable. It is an excellent idea to leave your assets to your surviving spouse with the plan that everything will eventually pass on to your children. It is not the idea that is wrong. It is often the execution. Circumstances change and what we expect to happen often doesn’t. Talk to an estate planning attorney about ways that you and your spouse can accomplish the same goals in ways that take changing circumstances into consideration.

Davidov Law Group is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Are you one of the approximately 70% of Americans who do not have a Will? Have you considered the consequences of not having one? If you do not plan for what will happen to your property after you pass away, then someone else will get to decide what happens to it. If you have young children and you do not have plans for what might happen to them should you be in a life-ending accident, then someone else gets to make those decisions.

If you do not have an estate plan that at a minimum includes just a basic Will, then who gets your property after you pass away is determined by state law. In most cases, your property will go to your closest living relatives. For some people that might seem like an OK solution. But, what if you want to leave something to a niece or nephew? No matter how small the inheritance you want to leave them, you will need an estate plan to leave them anything if you have closer living relatives. In a Will, you can also appoint a guardian for your children. If you do not do so, then the Probate Court has to name someone. You cannot count on the Court naming the same person you would name.

There is no reason not to have a Will. Talk to an estate planning attorney about becoming one of the responsible 30% of Americans who have one.

Davidov Law Group is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Sometimes, you might be expecting to receive an inheritance and you know what to do with it before it comes. However, if you receive an unexpected inheritance, you might not know what all of your options are and what to do with the inheritance. An estate planning attorney can assist you in making sure that you do everything you need to do with the inheritance.

In some cases, you might not want the inheritance. For example, if you have to pay taxes on inherited real estate, owning the property might not be a good option in some financial circumstances. In this case, you can disclaim the inheritance. However, you have a limited time to do so and you must make your disclaimer properly. An attorney can help you disclaim an inheritance properly.

In other cases, you might need to pay taxes on an inheritance. Experienced estate planning attorneys are used to explaining what taxes need to be paid and when. The attorney can make sure that you do not get in trouble with the taxing authorities.

An estate planning attorney can help you with an unexpected inheritance in other ways. In most cases, your conversation with the attorney will be relatively short. The important thing is to have the conversation and make sure that you do everything right.

Davidov Law Group is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

If you have a blended family, it’s important that you have an estate planning attorney craft your estate plan rather than using a simple form Will to divide your assets based on percentages. Blended families are those that have children from multiple marriages and they have unique dynamics for which you should account in your estate plan. This will help avoid conflicts after you pass away.

When you leave a simple Will that bestows an inheritance on your natural children based on percentages, you leave open the possibility that the children will fight about who gets what specific assets. That’s bad enough. When you add step-children into the mix, it can get even worse. This could especially be a problem if your natural children and step-children did not grow up together. You may want to provide for your entire blended family and it is your right to do so. However, you should be careful to provide for them in a way that minimizes conflict.

The best way you can provide for your family, whether it’s blended or not, is to speak to an estate planning attorney. Every family is different and needs different things. An estate planning attorney can help you in making sure that you do what is right for your family.

Davidov Law Group is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

If you have young children, it is important that you name someone to be the guardian of the children in the event that you pass away. To do this, you need to make a Will. An estate planning attorney can help you make a Will. However, you need to choose an appropriate guardian. Here are a few tips.

The most important thing is to pick someone who is responsible and willing to serve as guardian. You want someone you know who will raise your children appropriately. That might be a family member or it might be someone else. You should also speak to that person ahead of time and make sure that he or she is willing to raise your children if anything should happen to you.

In most cases, the court will appoint the person you designate to be the guardian. However, sometimes the court might have a good reason not to. Because of something you do not know about, the person you chose might not be an appropriate person to raise your children. For this reason, you might want to also consider appointing a backup guardian. That is someone the court can appoint if the first person cannot be the guardian.

An estate planning attorney can create a Will that designates your choice for a guardian of your minor children and your backup choice.

Davidov Law Group is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

In most cases, it is a good idea to store your important estate plan documents in a secure safety deposit box at the bank. This protects your documents from loss or theft. However, if you leave your will in a safety deposit box, you need to make special arrangements with the bank.

Even after you pass away, the bank will not let anyone else into your safety deposit box without a court order of some type. Normally, this means that the executor of your estate presents the bank with letters testamentary and the bank allows the executor access to the safety deposit box. This can present a problem, however, as to become an executor and receive letters testamentary from the court, the original will must be presented to the court first. If the court knows about the safety deposit box and has reason to believe that your will is in it, this problem can be overcome by a court order.

If you do leave your original will in a safety deposit box, you should make arrangements with your bank to allow someone else access to the box in the event of your death. This will eliminate the need for a court order. You might also want to consider storing your will elsewhere. Most estate planning attorneys will store their clients’ wills to prevent this problem completely.

Davidov Law Group is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.