Ongoing Estate Planning

At the Moller Law Group we work hard to create a lasting relationship with clients.  In Estate Planning, this means establishing a continuing relationship to help our clients at all stages of planning.  Our goal is to avoid the typical Estate Planning situation where the law firm serves as a “document mill” and spits out documents that are bound in fancy folders and placed for years or decades on a shelf in a client’s home.

At What Point Should I Consider Bankruptcy?

Bankruptcy is often viewed as a last ditch effort to protect yourself financially and while everyone would like to believe that it will never affect them, the reality is that more than 1.5 million people in the United States will file for personal bankruptcy protection in 2012.  If your bank balances are negative at the end of each month, if creditors are threatening to sue you, or if you see your situation getting worse instead of better, call for a consultation so that you can make informed decisions as you move forward.

“Don’t say the word Probate anymore…I don’t like it!”

When it comes to our estate plan, many of us think we’ve got it all figured out.  We’ve got a simple will, our loved ones are on titles to all of our assets, and we’ve even added them to the bank account.  We think we’ve avoided both significant legal fees and exposure to probate costs and estate taxes.  However, although we think our plan is foolproof, in reality it is not.  Let me share one recent experience that illustrates this line of thinking.

What happens during mediation?

In most divorce or domestic relations cases, mediation is usually required before the case goes before a judge.  Mediation is defined as an intervention in dispute negotiations by a trained neutral third party, the mediator, with the purpose of assisting the parties to reach their own solution.  Many clients often ask questions about the mediation process such as, what is the role of the mediator, what is the role of my attorney, what happens if an agreement is not reached, and what happens if an agreement is reached. 

Families Who Have Children With Special Needs Can Benefit From A Special Needs Trust

The popular view of estate planning involves a “typical family” of a Mother, Father, and children.  In this “typical situation” a cookie-cutter approach to estate planning may be perfect.  The parents, as Settlors, may set up a Revocable Living Trust for their family naming themselves as Trustees and the children as Beneficiaries.  Eventually anything held in trust will be distributed to the Beneficiaries according to the instructions of the Settlor.  Probate will have been avoided, and the Beneficiaries will go about their “typical lives” having benefited greatly from the Trust.

What happens to all the marital assets during the divorce proceeding?

The breakdown of a marriage can be an emotionally trying time for everyone involved.  One of the main concerns people ask us about is what happens to their property, money and children during the divorce proceeding.  These concerns often arise out of fear–for example, a husband may spend all of the marital money to spite the wife or a wife will tell the husband that she is leaving the state with their child.  Fortunately, there is a process known as an automatic, temporary injunction to addresses these very concerns. 

How can you keep kids and grandkids from squandering what you’ve worked so hard to leave for them?

When thinking about your estate plan, do you become nervous about what your young children or grandchildren might do with their portion of their inheritance?  Perhaps it took you a lifetime to build up a legacy for your family, and you fear that your 18-year-old grandson might take much less than a lifetime to squander what you worked so hard to build.  One way to handle such fears in your estate plan is to create a Testamentary Trust.