The Plain English Attorney Blog
Far too many attorneys overcomplicate things, making topics convoluted and difficult to understand to the average person. This blog is committed to explaining legal planning topics in an easy to understand format, in plain English. Enjoy the blogs, and please let us know if there is a topic you would like covered.
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When my grandfather passed on, I was just a few weeks away from heading out to law school. My grandmother helped raise me after my mother passed on, so when she started calling me in law school with legal questions, I did my best to explain things to her in plain English because whenever she...
Not every inheritance is welcome or wanted, strange as it seems. There are tax issues, potential lawsuits looming, or even just a desire to see the inheritance go somewhere else. However, there are different ways people believe they can waive off an inheritance, and not all of them are...
The internet can be a tremendous help with research. However, there are a lot of myths, misconceptions, and outright falsehoods out there, especially when it comes to estate planning. We don’t have time to list them all, but here are the top five we have curated to help you get started.
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You’re an adult, you have a lot going on, and you’re not going to die tomorrow. As far as you know. Putting together estate planning documents may be the last thing on your mind, but it shouldn’t be if you care even a little bit about where your assets go when you pass on....
One of the biggest frustrations I see in my line of work is when people who are already going through a crisis because of the death or a long-term illness of a family member end up in probate. This time-consuming, frustrating, and paperwork intensive process only compounds the grief and agony...
When it comes to estate planning, what you do with your estate is wide open. However, there are only two heavyweights when it comes to how you pass along your estate. You are either using a Last Will and Testament, or a revocable living trust as the base of your plan. But which one is best?...
My law firm and other businesses are committed to providing planning education in the areas of estate, financial, and care assistance planning, and we are adding open livestreams through The Plain English Attorney® YouTube channel. Our 2024 kickoff event is Estate Planning 101 where we will...
A Last Will and Testament is supposed to be a way to communicate your wishes after you’re gone… but there are a lot of “extra” things DIY people (and even some attorneys) put into Wills that really don’t belong there and could cause problems down the road.
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Probate will cost. A lot. When given the statistics, my clients are usually appalled that their estates going through the probate court system would cost so much. On average, the probate court system will eat up about 4-10% of an estate. Many states allow a standard 5% fee for an executor or...
