At Kehr Law, Attorneys Dan W. Kehr and Matthew W. Deen can counsel you of the best ways to plan for the inevitable. As part of the planning process our attorneys review your needs, your wishes, your families needs, and your long-term goals. Wills and Trusts preparation may also include a look into business succession planning , asset protection, or even tax planning. Regardless of your age, if you are single, married, have a car, have a home, have a business, or hold treasured possessions, you need a trust. Our attorneys take the time to become familiar with your needs and customize an estate plan for every individual in need of a trust.

Contact our  experienced and professional San Diego attorneys to discuss wills, trusts, estate planning, business succession planning, and asset protection.

After your contact your office, read through a few of our latest articles to become familiar with the estate planning process. During your initial meeting with our attorneys you may highlight these points to determine if they apply to you.

1. How To Prevent Your Children from Fighting Over Your Estate After You Die

2.Can You Trust Your Trust?

3. How Should You Hold Title to your San Diego Real Estate

4. Wills, Trusts, and Estate Planning for Second Marriages

5. The Best Time to Plan for your Business and Life is Now

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

See other Kehr Law practice areas including: Business Law, Estate Planning, Real Estate, Wills, Trusts, Corporations, Contracts, and Asset Protection.

http://www.kehrlaw.com

San Diego Business Lawyers and Contracts Attorneys providing a first class “one stop shop” for all your business, contract, wills, trusts, tax, estate planning, and intellectual property legal needs. Contact Kehr Law today: (619) 400-4942.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

Your Items

You probably own some items of real or sentimental value (jewelry, antiques, art, heirlooms, furniture, clothing, etc.) that you want a certain child, grandchild, special friend, relative, or organization to have after you die.

Or perhaps you simply want to provide an orderly way for your belongings to be divided among your heirs after you’re gone. We’ve all heard stories about fighting over Grandma’s piano or china. The damage is often so deep that sisters don’t speak to each other for the rest of their lives!

Helping Your Family Today

Here are some suggestions that can help you prevent this from happening in your family:

Make A Special Gifts List: If you have a living trust, you can make a list of these special gifts and whom you want to have them. Date the list, have it notarized (or witnessed – your attorney can tell you which is appropriate in your state) and keep it with your trust document. If you change your mind, just make a new list and have it notarized. To prevent disagreements about your intentions, be very specific. If your list is long, make a separate list for each person. If your estate is sizeable or if a gift is of substantial value, have your attorney review your list to resolve potential tax issues.

If you have a will, your special bequests will be listed on a codicil prepared by your attorney. If you want to make a change, your attorney will need to prepare a new codicil. (There’s one often overlooked advantage of having a living trust.)

Ask What They Want: Ask your children and others if there is something of yours they would like to have. There may be an item that has special meaning to someone that you aren’t even aware of. Wouldn’t it be nice to know that?

Make Gifts Now: Do this especially if it is something that you no longer need, or if you are concerned there might be a problem later on.

Hold a Family “Sale”: Do this while you can provide information and act as referee. Gather your kids some weekend or holiday and have them take turns selecting items they want. If one item proves popular, let them bid against each other or make trades. Then write up a list for each person. What doesn’t “sell” to family members can be sold in an estate sale after you die and the proceeds divvied up. (If your family is reluctant to do this, tell them you’ll leave instructions for everything to be sold after you die.)

Write a Description: This is especially useful if it has sentimental value or is a family heirloom. How else will they know this turkey platter belonged to your favorite Aunt Jessie and that one was picked up at a garage sale?! If the item is large enough, label it.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

See other Kehr Law practice areas including: Business Law, Estate Planning, Real Estate, Wills, Trusts, Corporations, Contracts, and Asset Protection.

This Article is used with permission and copyrighted  by WealthCounsel, LLC and written by WealthCounsel via EstatePlanning.com.

http://www.kehrlaw.com

San Diego Business Lawyers and Contracts Attorneys providing a first class “one stop shop” for all your business, contract, wills, trusts, tax, estate planning, and intellectual property legal needs. Contact Kehr Law today: (619) 400-4942.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

Why an Online Will or Trust Could Be the Dumbest Mistake You Ever Make

Online legal document services offer an enticing bargain. Most people realize that they need an estate plan to manage their affairs if something happens to them. And, let’s face it, estate planning attorneys are expensive.

That’s why many consumers are now questioning whether it’s possible to skip the attorney fees and use a low-cost website to prepare estate planning documents. The short answer is that, yes, it is possible. But, it’s not recommended. You could save a few bucks now, but end up creating an expensive and frustrating mess for your family.

Unfortunately, most people don’t realize what they are getting themselves into with an online document service. That’s because the online services have spent millions trying to create the impression that their services are similar to those of an attorney. They put lawyers in their commercials, hire celebrities to promote them, and even tout stories of people who have successfully used their documents.

But, all the marketing in the world can’t erase the simple truth. The online services aren’t law firms. They aren’t lawyers. They can’t give legal advice. Instead, they are “document assistants” – a term that states use to define service providers who type your information into generic form documents.

In other words, a document assistant is like a mindless typing zombie who enters your information into a form, whether or not it makes sense and whether or not it is a good idea. If you are stuck, they can’t help you. If you make a huge mistake, they can’t warn you.

It would be a crime for them to warn you. It doesn’t matter if the guy working on your documents is an estate planning genius. He’s simply not allowed to give legal advice. Think of it this way. A person needs a law license in order to give legal advice, just the same way that a doctor needs a license to write a prescription. Giving legal advice without a license is very much like selling drugs without a prescription. It’s a crime.

So, these companies design their generic forms so that, even without legal advice, it’s hard to make mistakes. That may seem like a good thing. But, it turns out that the best way to make sure that your documents don’t do anything wrong is to make sure they don’t do anything at all. They’re just do-nothing, one-size-fits-all generic documents.

The Problems with Online Services

That leads to the next problem with the online services. They can’t even promise you that the documents will work. Again, they can’t. They aren’t attorneys, which means they can’t promise a particular legal result.

Many clients are excited to learn that they can leave assets to a special needs child without jeopardizing government benefits; or, that they can protect a child’s inheritance from frivolous lawsuits, divorce or bankruptcy. A well-designed estate plan makes sure that your resources get where you want them and that they are used in the way you instruct. It’s about creating legally-enforceable provisions that do what you want done.

And, the online document services can’t promise any of that. They can’t promise you’ll achieve your goals. They can’t point out opportunities, and they can’t warn you about hidden hazards. Really, all they can do is save you a few bucks.

But, they play a clever price game, too. Most of the online services compare their prices to what an attorney would charge for similar documents. But, their comparisons are misleading in two ways. First, they compare the price they charge for a single document to the price that an attorney charges for an entire estate plan, which includes numerous documents.

More importantly, though, there is no way to compare the prices, because they aren’t even offering the same thing that you would get from an attorney. If a fast food restaurant told you that you could order their $1.79 “salad in a box” instead of paying twenty dollars for a fancy restaurant salad bar, you’d instantly recognize the faulty comparison. A wilted clump of lettuce in a plastic clamshell isn’t anything like an all-you-can-eat salad bar with every conceivable ingredient, made fresh and eaten in a nice environment with an attentive wait staff.

But, that’s because most people have experience with restaurants – both good and bad. They know how to judge quality, and they understand the “you get what you pay for” concept. But, when it comes to legal planning, most people don’t have the experience to know better. You only get to use an estate plan once. And, if you screw it up, you’ll never know. But, your family will know. If your estate plan doesn’t work properly, your family could end up paying the price and cleaning up the mess after you’re gone.

Your estate plan is the box that carries your entire life savings. It’s just not worth the risk of damaging your life’s work just to save a few bucks.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

See other Kehr Law practice areas including: Business Law, Estate Planning, Real Estate, Wills, Trusts, Corporations, Contracts, and Asset Protection.

This Article is used with permission and copyrighted  by WealthCounsel, LLC and written by WealthCounsel via EstatePlanning.com.

http://www.kehrlaw.com

San Diego Business Lawyers and Contracts Attorneys providing a first class “one stop shop” for all your business, contract, wills, trusts, tax, estate planning, and intellectual property legal needs. Contact Kehr Law today: (619) 400-4942.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

Your home is probably the most valuable asset you own. Yet most people don’t think about how to hold title until the title company poses the question when you buy or refinance. But this deserves careful consideration, because how you hold title to real estate has far-reaching effects. Let’s look at some common ways to hold title.

Individual Name: You can hold title in just your name even if you are married. However, there are some drawbacks you should know about.

First, what would happen if you become mentally or physically incapacitated due to illness or injury and the property needs to be refinanced, or a line of credit needs to be opened or increased? If you are unable to conduct business, the court will need to appoint someone to act for you.

“But, I have a will,” you say. A will can’t help; it only goes into effect after you die, not if you are incapacitated.

“But, I have a power of attorney,” you say. Most powers of attorney end at incapacity. A durable power of attorney is valid at incapacity. However, many financial institutions will not accept one unless it is on their form. And if accepted, it may work too well, giving the person the ability to do whatever he or she wants with your assets. You could recover to find the property mismanaged or even sold and the proceeds gone.

The court’s job is to provide supervision to protect your assets. But once the court gets involved, it will stay involved until you recover or die. The court, not your family or friends, will control how your assets are used to care for you. It is a public process that can be expensive, embarrassing, time consuming and difficult to end if you recover.

Next, what happens when you die? If yours is the only name on the title, the property will almost certainly have to go through the probate court system before it can be distributed to your heirs, even if you have a will. Think about it: if your name is the only one on the title, and you have died, you can’t sign your name to transfer title. While there can be exceptions, in most cases the only way to remove your name and put the new owner’s name on is through the probate court.

Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship: This is how most married couples hold title, because it seems fair, it’s easy and it’s free. Parents and their adult children also often hold title this way, as do unmarried couples.

Indeed, when one owner dies, full ownership does transfer automatically to the surviving owner without probate. But usually this just postpones probate. If the surviving owner dies without adding another owner (which often happens), or if both owners die at the same time, the property will almost certainly have to go through probate before it can go to the heirs.

There are other problems, too. When you add a co-owner, you lose control. With real estate, all owners must sign to sell or refinance. If your co-owner disagrees with you, you could end up in court. If your co-owner is incapacitated, the court will probably get involved to protect your co-owner’s interest…even if the ill owner is your spouse.

You expose the property to your co-owner’s debts and obligations; you could even lose your home to your co-owner’s creditors if he or she is successfully sued. There could also be gift and/or income tax problems if your co-owner is not your spouse.

Finally, because a will does not control jointly owned assets, you could disinherit your family when your co-owner inherits your share. Sadly, and all too often, children from a previous marriage are disinherited when a new spouse is the surviving owner.

Tenants-In-Common: With this kind of ownership, each owner’s share will be distributed as directed in his or her will. If there is no will, the property will go to the owner’s heirs.

Community Property: Nine states (Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin) have a form of joint ownership between spouses commonly called community property. When you die, your share of community property automatically goes to your surviving spouse, unless your will says otherwise.

The problem with both tenants-in-common and community property is that you could find yourself with several new co-owners when your co-owner dies and the heirs inherit the property. Imagine how difficult it could be to get several owners to reach an agreement, especially if you are trying to sell the property.

You can also run into the other problems (incapacity, lawsuits, etc.) as explained under joint tenants with right of survivorship, but with several owners involved, your risks and problems are multiplied.

Tenants-by-the-Entirety: This form of joint ownership, available between spouses in some states, is similar to joint tenants with right of survivorship in that when one spouse dies, his/her share automatically goes to the surviving spouse, even if the will says otherwise. So you have many of the same risks, including unintentional disinheriting and court interference if one spouse becomes incapacitated.

However, as tenants-by-the-entirety, neither spouse can transfer his/her half to someone else without the other’s approval – something joint tenants with right of survivorship and tenants-in-common can both do.

Revocable Living Trust: When you have a living trust, the title of your real estate can be held in the name of the trustee of your trust. Usually you will be your own trustee, so you keep full control of the property. You can buy, sell and refinance real estate just as you can when the property is not in your trust.

If you become incapacitated, the successor trustee you named when you set up your trust will be able to step in and act for you. Because the title is no longer in your individual name (or joint names if married), there will be no need for court interference. If you are married, you and your spouse can be co-trustees, in which case your successor trustee would step in only after you have both become incapacitated or have died.

Your successor is legally obligated to follow the instructions you put in your trust. If you recover, your successor simply steps aside and lets you resume control. When you die, the property will be distributed without probate according to the instructions in your trust, so you don’t have to worry about unintentionally disinheriting someone.

SUMMARY: How you hold title to real estate should be given careful consideration. Check your titles and make any changes now while you can.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

See other Kehr Law practice areas including: Business Law, Estate Planning, Real Estate, Wills, Trusts, Corporations, Contracts, and Asset Protection.

This Article is used with permission and copyrighted  by WealthCounsel, LLC and written by WealthCounsel via EstatePlanning.com.

http://www.kehrlaw.com

San Diego Business Lawyers and Contracts Attorneys providing a first class “one stop shop” for all your business, contract, wills, trusts, tax, estate planning, and intellectual property legal needs. Contact Kehr Law today: (619) 400-4942.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

In first marriages, the couple generally has the same goals when it comes to their (wills, trusts) estate planning: take care of the surviving spouse for as long as he or she lives, then whatever is left will go to the children. They may own many of their assets jointly and, at the death of the first spouse, more than likely everything will go to the surviving spouse just as they had planned.

But second marriages (after divorce or death of the first spouse) are different. There may be his children, her children and sometimes our children. Each of you probably has assets that you brought into this marriage, and you want those to go to your own children after you die. At the same time, you probably want to make sure your surviving spouse will have enough to live on should you die first.

More than likely, the estate planning methods you relied upon in your first marriage will not work now. For example, let’s say you add your new wife’s name on the title of your home and you own it as joint tenants with right of survivorship. If you die first, your share immediately transfers to your wife, who now has complete ownership of your home. She can do whatever she wants with it now, regardless of what your will or trust says. She can leave it to her own children and completely disinherit yours.

There are similar problems with beneficiary designations. Many people name their spouse as beneficiary of their life insurance, IRAs and other tax-deferred plans to provide for their spouse should they die first. But this can be a problem with second marriages because your spouse-beneficiary can name anyone he/she wants as new beneficiaries to inherit the proceeds, bypassing your children. Promises may be made now to include them, but promises can be broken after you are gone.

Other Considerations:

1. If each of you has considerable assets, you may want to keep your assets and your estate planning separate. If there will be a pre- or post-nuptial agreement, be sure to have it reviewed by your estate planning attorney (before signing).

2. If your spouse has considerably fewer assets than you do, you can provide for him/her until death or remarriage, then have the remaining assets distributed to your children. This is often accomplished through a life estate or what is referred to as a QTIP trust.

3. If your new spouse is much younger than you are, your children may be concerned that he/she is only after your money. These feelings may subside as the marriage lengthens. But if your spouse is closer in age to your children than to you, they may be wondering if they will ever receive their inheritance from you. Consider giving them some of their inheritance upon your death (e.g., though life insurance), then the rest at your spouse’s death or remarriage.

4. Naming a trust as beneficiary for your life insurance policies and tax-deferred plans is often a good choice for second marriages. This will allow you to keep control over how and to whom the proceeds are distributed. You can provide your spouse with lifetime income, yet keep control over the rest of the proceeds. Keeping the proceeds in a trust will also protect them from irresponsible spending, creditors, predators, divorce, remarriage and even estate taxes, if done properly.

5. Be sure to include planning for disability and long-term care. If one spouse becomes ill and Medicaid assistance is needed, the combined assets of the couple will be considered “available assets” to pay for the care of the ill spouse. Long-term care insurance may be needed to protect the assets of one or both spouses.

6.Discuss your individual estate planning goals together. If they are similar, then your task may be somewhat easy. But if they are considerably different, consider having separate attorneys.

You want to do the right thing for everyone involved: yourself, your spouse, your children, your spouse’s children. Take the time to consider this from everyone’s point of view. An experienced estate planning attorney will be able to advise you and work with both of you to create a plan that will do exactly what you want it to do.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

See other Kehr Law practice areas including: Business Law, Estate Planning, Real Estate, Wills, Trusts, Corporations, Contracts, and Asset Protection.

This Article is used with permission and copyrighted  by WealthCounsel, LLC and written by WealthCounsel via EstatePlanning.com.

http://www.kehrlaw.com

San Diego Business Lawyers and Contracts Attorneys providing a first class “one stop shop” for all your business, contract, will, tax, estate planning, and intellectual property legal needs. Contact Kehr Law today: (619) 400-4942.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

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Find information about San Diego Lawyers Dan W. Kehr, Matthew W. Deen, Pearce B. Tucker, Jr. and staff members Lisa Ballard, Ruth Ryan-Cruz, and April Luttrell.

Kehr Law focuses on the formation and representation of businesses, corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships and joint business ventures; property and investment transactions; trademark and copyright law; business and individual tax planning; domestic and international contracts; corporate finance transactions and corporate mergers, acquisitions and reorganizations. We also provide real estate litigation legal services involving both residential, commercial and land disputes, broker liability, landlord-tenant matters, unlawful-detainers, premises liability, toxic tort defense and related insurance coverage analysis. Moreover, we provide probate and trust administration legal services. In addition to personal domestic and international asset protection, we also focus on estate and tax planning to provide our clients with a single, complete and comprehensive legal resource.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

See other Kehr Law practice areas including: Business Law, Estate Planning, Real Estate, Wills, Trusts, Corporations, Contracts, and Asset Protection.

http://www.kehrlaw.com

http://www.yoursandiegobusinessattorney.com

San Diego Business Lawyers and Contracts Attorneys providing a first class “one stop shop” for all your business, contract, will, tax, estate planning, and intellectual property legal needs. Contact Kehr Law today: (619) 400-4942.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

Successfully managing a termination requires a pragmatic view of the law. In today’s litigious environment, most disputed terminations are ultimately tested in the courts which is why this information may serve as general information that applies to a substantial amount of employers.

Whether the theory is contract or tort, discrimination or negligence, defamation or invasion of privacy, the final arbiter is usually a jury. Juries generally decide cases not by the judge’s instructions on the law, but by common notions of fairness and “justice.” Accordingly, you should evaluate a termination procedure and its application in terms of how the events will be viewed by a panel of average people–not by legal scholars or appellate judges. In essence, every employer, notwithstanding his “legal rights,” is effectively restricted to terminating employees in a fair manner and for good cause. For persuasive counsel can re-characterize an inequitable termination in the minds of jurors as unlawful discrimination, defamation, or a pretext for some violation of public policy.

The following are key areas when an employer considers termination:

Performance Evaluations

Performance evaluations are the key to providing fair notice. Such evaluations must scrupulously apply the employer’s performance standards to the employee. Regularity and honesty are essential ingredients. The evaluations should note and document specific problems and incidents when standards have not been met. Giving the employee a copy of the evaluation and having the employee sign the evaluation are also important since this will establish the employee’s notice of his or her deficiencies. Most important, termination decisions should be made on the basis of performance deficiencies that have been pointed out to the employee yet have not been corrected. If the issue is misconduct rather than poor performance, the incident should be described in writing in sufficient detail to enable the reader to conclude both that the incident occurred and that it was viewed by the employer as serious enough to warrant immediate termination.

Written Procedures

Terminating a worker requires adequate documentation. Adequate does not mean exhaustive. What is required is a complete record of the facts that prompted and justify the termination decision. Written performance standards and job descriptions ensure that employees know and understand what is expected of them, and that failure to satisfy those set standards can result in their dismissal. By the same token, written policies and rules of the workplace inform employees of the type of conduct that will result in disciplinary action, including discharge. Putting performance standards and disciplinary rules in writing minimizes surprise, as long as the disciplinary policies and performance standards are applied fairly and consistently. A juror reading an employee’s file should be able to determine both the standards by which an employee was judged and that the employee clearly failed to meet those standards.

Meaningful Personnel Files

Written standards and policies are the basis of an employer’s offense against employment-related litigation. When litigation ensues, however, the first line of defense is the personnel file. Personnel files are a primary source of evidence in discharge cases and in many states must be available for review by the employee. If the employee’s conduct or omission was not important enough to be in the appropriate file, how could it be important enough to be the basis for a termination? The employee’s disciplinary history, performance evaluations, and counseling notes are essential elements of the file. The more detailed the documentary record is, and the longer the period of time during which problems have been recorded, the stronger the company’s defense to a wrongful discharge claim.

Exit Interviews

When an employee has been discharged, an exit interview serves several purposes. Often, the exit interview will indicate whether litigation is likely. The interview may also highlight errors in the company’s investigation or decision before it is too late to correct them. Finally, it is a convenient forum to obtain statements from the employee, including admissions of inadequate performance or misconduct, that may be useful to the company. In any exit interview, the employer should be sensitive to anything that indicates the employee feels he is being dismissed for an unfair or unlawful reason. In that case, the employer should give serious thought to holding up the discharge until further inquiry is made.
Exit interviews are especially helpful when the termination decision was made without review. The exit interview then can be a check against mistakes and inconsistencies, and gives employees the minimal process previously discussed. Carelessly conducted, however, the exit interview itself may expose an employer to liability.

Employee’s Understanding

The purpose of the exit interview is to listen to the employee. Generally, management has already stated the reason for its action. The exit interview is an opportunity to verify the employee’s understanding. The exit interview should not undermine or discredit  management actions. An employer who informs an employee of the reasons for his termination may be later estopped from relying on other reasons for discharge in defending against the employee’s claim of wrongful discharge. Additionally, false or inconsistent reasons given to an employee.

This is a preview of a publication soon to be released online at KehrLaw.com’s Area’s of Practice page. Check back soon to read the full publication.

To speak with an attorney about the above-referenced subject matter, contact us today. To speak to an attorney concerning your wills, trusts, business, and business succession planning, contact our office. The attorneys at Kehr Law are experienced local attorneys who have worked with partnerships and companies of all sizes in varying industries and can point out your needs as part of your unique estate planning and business succession planning needs.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

See other Kehr Law practice areas including: Business Law, Estate Planning, Real Estate, Wills, Trusts, Corporations, Contracts, and Asset Protection.

http://www.kehrlaw.com

San Diego Business Lawyers and Contracts Attorneys providing a first class “one stop shop” for all your business, contract, will, tax, estate planning, and intellectual property legal needs. Contact Kehr Law today: (619) 400-4942.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

It is not uncommon for a business owner to think of their personal lives and their work lives as completely separate and isolated from one another. The truth is, however, that the two are much closer than one thinks and  it becomes clearer than ever when a person begins the process of estate planning or business succession planning. For a business owner, the two (estate planning and business succession planning) are usually worked out together at once.

Estate planning for business owners involves planning for their posterity and ensuring their family members are cared for after their passing. It may also include Business Succession Planning to prepare their business for continuity in the event of their death or change in ownership upon the death, incapacity, retirement, or insolvency of the owner. If you are a business owner, contact a professional to discuss what documents you need as part of your estate planning needs and business succession planning. If you have already started your estate plan for your family, its a good policy to begin your business succession planning immediately as well.

Documents such as  Power of Attorney, Health Care HIPPA Authorizations, Wills, Revocable or Irrevocable Trusts, and others may be required for estate plans. Consult with your our lawyers to review the estate plan previously drafted for you. Since laws change constantly its a good idea to consult with a professional and have your plans reviewed and amendment to reflect those changes and your family’s changes.

Business succession planning documents can include those same wills or trusts as discussed above as well as other documents such as operating agreements, bylaws, agreements, buy-sell agreements, gift-giving agreements, insurance policies, and other documents that will be dependent upon your business entity selected. Every business owner will have different needs based on different variables such as: partners or co-owners, business entity selection, the type of business, the location of the business, the tax requirements of a business, the formation documents of the business. Therefore, no two business owners can use the same business planning documents.

To speak to an attorney concerning your wills, trusts, business, and business succession planning, contact our office. The attorneys at Kehr Law are experienced local attorneys who have worked with partnerships and companies of all sizes in varying industries and can point out your needs as part of your unique estate planning and business succession planning needs.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

See other Kehr Law practice areas including: Business Law, Estate Planning, Real Estate, Wills, Trusts, Corporations, Contracts, and Asset Protection.

This Article is used with permission and copyrighted  by WealthCounsel, LLC and written by WealthCounsel member Mary Merrell Bailey.

http://www.kehrlaw.com

San Diego Business Lawyers and Contracts Attorneys providing a first class “one stop shop” for all your business, contract, will, tax, estate planning, and intellectual property legal needs. Contact Kehr Law today: (619) 400-4942.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

If your family has created a will or a trust you are familiar with the amount of documents that may be involved as part of your estate planning documents . But, do you really know what the content actually states? Often there is an issue in which the preparer of the trust refers to acronyms and other specialized language that is difficult for the average reader to understand.

Estate planning is a specialized field with its own vocabulary. Often, the same idea is known by multiple names, which can be particularly confusing to our clients and non-attorney colleagues. Use this glossary as a brief cheat-sheet of some familiar concepts and their frequent pseudonyms.

Administrative Trustee or Directed Trustee. A fiduciary responsible for the compliance aspects of a trust, but not responsible for investing the assets.

Buildup Equity Retirement Trust or BERT or Spousal Limited Access Trust or SLAT or Family Bank Trust or Lifetime QTIP trust. Some take advantage of the IRC Section 2503(b) annual gift exclusion ($13,000 in 2012) and others the IRC Section 2010(c)(3)(A) basic exclusion amount ($5,120,000 in 2012), but all of these trusts are designed for the grantor to make irrevocable gifts during life to spouse or other family members to keep wealth in the family.

Bypass Trust or Family Trust or Credit Shelter Trust or “B” Trust or Decedent’s Trust. The trust that accepts an amount of assets up to the basic exclusion amount at grantor’s death.

Contribution trust or Tragedy trust or Memorial account. A venue through which disparate strangers may gift money for the benefit of someone who has suffered a (usually public) misfortune.

DSUE or Inherited Exemption Amount or Deceased Spousal Unused Exemption Amount. The amount of exclusion left over by a deceased spouse that a surviving spouse may use to increase his/her exclusion at surviving spouse’s death using the concept of “portability.”

Dynasty Trust or Generation Skipping Trust. A trust that is designed to last for multiple generations of beneficiaries.

Executor/Executrix or Personal Representative. Fiduciary appointed by the court to be responsible for probate activities of an estate.
Grantor or Trustor or Settlor or Trustmaker. Person who creates a trust.

GST or GSTT or Generation Skipping Transfer Tax or Generation Skipping Tax. A federal excise tax on the privilege of transferring wealth to someone who is related to the donor as a “grand” or someone unrelated who is 37 ½ years or more younger than the donor.

ILIT or Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust. A trust used to keep the proceeds of life insurance from being counted as part of the owner’s estate.

Inter vivos or Lifetime or Living. Occurs  during person’s life; often used in combination with the word trust; i.e. an “inter vivos trust” is a trust set up while grantor was alive.

Lady Bird Deed or Enhanced Life Estate Deed or Transfer on Death Deed. A document used to transfer, outside of probate or trust, title to an asset via operation of law after the owner’s death, yet allowing the donor to continue to use and control the asset for life.

NFA Firearms Trust or Gun Trust. A form of trust designed to own Class 3 weapons /Title II firearms.

QTIP Trust or Marital Trust or “A” Trust. A trust for the benefit of surviving spouse; corpus remaining in the trust at surviving spouse’s death is counted as part of surviving spouse’s estate.

Residence or Dwelling. Where someone maintains a home, but not necessarily where someone is domiciled. For example, someone may have residences in Florida, New York, and London, but be domiciled in Florida.

Revocable IRA Trust or IRA Beneficiary Trust or IRA Protection Trust or IRA Beneficiary Protection Trust. A trust designed to be named as the designated beneficiary of a decedent’s IRA, that allows the corpus to continue to be invested on a tax-deferred basis, yet the required minimum distributions qualify to be calculated based on the life expectancy of the human beneficiary (stretch-out).

RLT or Revocable Living Trust or Loving Trust or Living Trust or Probate Avoidance Trust. A trust created during the grantor’s lifetime that is the vehicle through which the grantor’s assets will be handled during grantor’s life and after grantor’s death.

Shark-Fin Charitable Lead Annuity Trust or Shark-Fin CLAT or Balloon CLAT. A non-grantor charitable lead annuity trust in which the charity receives small payments until the last year, when the charity is paid a large amount.

Situs or Legal Home. Where a trust’s property is deemed to be located.

Trust Advisor or Trust Protector. An authority position in a trust that entails many of the powers to amend the trust that otherwise are reserved to grantor or by court approval. The holder of this position may or may not be considered a fiduciary.

Use the language above to become familiar with common terms used by estate planners. If you would like to have your family’s estate plan thoroughly reviewed by a professional for content, changes in the law, and changes in your family, contact the attorneys at Kehr Law.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

See other Kehr Law practice areas including: Business Law, Estate Planning, Real Estate, Wills, Trusts, Corporations, Contracts, and Asset Protection.

This Article is used with permission and copyrighted  by WealthCounsel, LLC and written by WealthCounsel member Mary Merrell Bailey.

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San Diego Business Lawyers and Contracts Attorneys providing a first class “one stop shop” for all your business, contract, will, tax, estate planning, and intellectual property legal needs. Contact Kehr Law today: (619) 400-4942.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

Funding an inter vivos trust with copyright interests could lead to unexpected problems generations later. Copyright interests are different from other categories of intangible personal property (such as contract rights) because they are governed by a unique federal statutory system that allows an author’s heirs to “terminate” a copyright’s transfer under certain circumstances. (“Termination” being a term of art meaning, in the copyright context, rescission of the transfer by an heir of the transferor.)

Whoa, you say! How can this be? Isn’t an author free to sell or give the rights to his works to a third party (such as
a Trustee), for consideration or for no consideration? And isn’t a deal a deal, once you shake on it, sign the  documents, and pay the money (if any)?  Well, no. Congress, in its seemingly infinite wisdom, has for more than a century enacted various schemes to protect authors from themselves – or, to be fair, to protect them from being taken advantage of early in their careers by predators who would pay them a pittance for their work. The 1909  Copyright Act provided an initial 28-year term of copyright protection, followed by a second 28-year “renewal” term whose rights vested either in the author, if still living, or if deceased, in statutorily-designated successors
who recaptured any U.S. rights from any prior grantee of the author.

But this right was eroded over the years by various court decisions and industry practices. So, when enacting the
1976 Copyright Act, Congress created a new termination right that, unlike the 1909 renewal-term right, was inalienable by the author during his lifetime. (The 1976 Act termination right also applies to works that pre-existed its effective date.)
Under the 1976 Copyright Act, the following statutory successors, if they jump through the right deadline and filing hoops properly, and in the proper order, may be able to terminate and reclaim an author’s lifetime grant of literary rights, including an inter vivos grant to a Trustee:

• The widow (or widower), who takes the entire termination interest unless there are children or grandchildren, in which case she takes half.
• The author’s children and grandchildren, per stirpes, subject to the widow’s share just mentioned. The children of a dead child must act by majority decision.
• If there is no living widow, child, or grandchild, then the author’s executor, administrator, or trustee will own the entire termination interest.

See 17 U.S.C. secs. 203(a)(2) and 304(c)(1). (There are other rules, such as the condition that a group of successors
may exercise termination rights only if the group represents collectively more than half the rights that exist.)
To both complicate and simplify matters, though, some categories of copyright grants are immune from termination. Grants of copyrights in works made for hire are not terminable. Grants of non-U.S. copyright interests are not terminable under the Copyright Act (although they might be under applicable foreign statutes). And, most significantly for estate planners, a copyright grant made in a Will is not terminable, unlike an inter vivos grant to the Trustee of a revocable living trust. 17 U.S.C. secs. 203(a) (2), 304(c). See, e.g., Larry Spier Inc. v. Bourne Co., 750 F. Supp. 648, 650, (S.D.N.Y. 1990), http://is.gd/j60912, rev’d on other grounds 953 F.2d 774 (2d Cir 1992).

As a practical matter, then, estate planners should keep this unique provision of law in mind when designing and funding living trusts for authors and artists. Funding a living trust with literary rights via inter vivos transfer can open up a door for termination litigation instituted after the author’s death by unruly widows, or heirs who are omitted as beneficiaries or given only limited interests in trust assets, or groups of heirs who band together to defeat spendthrift limitations. Or, in a worst-case scenario, creditors or divorcing spouses of heirs might discover termination rights of which the heirs themselves were not aware.

Attorneys who advise executors, trustees, and heirs (whether the heirs are disgruntled or happy), or act as executors or administrators themselves, also need to be aware of how termination rights work. They should be prepared to assert them, or defend against their unwarranted assertion, as may be appropriate.
The safest course of action for trust-based estate planners will usually be (i) to specifically exclude literary rights from general inter vivos assignments of personal property to Trustees, and (ii) to specifically include them in either a stand-alone or residuary clause of a pour-over Will. This will assure that they are transferred to the Trust under the provision of the Copyright Act referred to above that makes transfers by Will non-terminable.

Contact Kehr Law today
Phone: (619)400-4942
Text Message: (619)823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com

See other Kehr Law practice areas including: Business Law, Estate Planning, Real Estate, Wills, Trusts, Corporations, Contracts, and Asset Protection.

This Article is used with permission and copyrighted  by WealthCounsel, LLC and written by WealthCounsel member Doug Welty.

http://www.kehrlaw.com