BMS wrote:
- quote -

HW "Skip" Weldon wrote:
- quote -

The good ones aren't looking to spend their time on free consultations
(except maybe in personal injury matters). It can take almost as much
time (i.e., cost more money) for the meeting to decide what your Will
is going to say than to draft it.

How much control should the surviving spouse have? Who should control
the children's money? At what age should the children get control?
Do you have any life insurance? You may not think of life insurance
as an asset, but it's the same as cash upon your death. Should the
insurance be owned by a trust, to keep it out of your estate? Do you
expect to receive an inheritance? Should it be left to you in trust
rather than outright to keep it out of your estate, and to protect it
against potential creditors, including spouses, or Medicaid if you go
into a nursing home?

If you were considering a medical procedure and consulted with a
physician who examined you and ran some tests, you (ignoring health
insurance) would expect to pay, even if you decided not to have the
procedure (or even if the physician recommended against the
procedure). And if you went to a restaurant and had a couple of
drinks and an appetizer, you would expect to pay for it even if you
decided not to have a main course. Why should your lawyer give you
$500 or so of free time (about what the time for the first meeting
might be) for the chance that you'll then give him/her a $300 matter
(Skip's estimate of the cost, not mine)?

I've heard it said that you shouldn't look for the lowest price when
buying parachutes or toilet paper. I would add professional services.
Disasters don't only happen at Staples.

Bruce Steiner, attorney
NYC and Hackensack, NJ
also admitted in FL

Ed Zollars, CPA wrote:
- quote -


Florida will also accept it, HAND WRIITEN only,
not TYPED or Printed....
Cal Lester CLU


--
If you don't care where you are, then you ain't lost

This signature file is generated by Pick-a-Tag !
Written by jeroen[at]vanbaarsel.net

When I discuss this with my clients I tell them - get a copy of any popular
software program that does wills; run your first draft through the program
and ANSWER EVERY QUESTION; then take your draft to your attorney and ask his
advice. Running through a software program will educate you about many of
the items that need to be addressed and it will give you an opportunity to
talk things over with your spouse so you don't waste time with the attorney
trying to remember who gets the good silver when you die or duking it out in
the law office over who gets guardianship of your children if you are both
killed before your child reaches the age of majority.

Make no mistake - software is no substitute for a good professional. It
will help you better prepare for your time with the professional so that you
can get the most out of your planning dollar.

Good luck,
Gene E. Utterback



"Mayo" <mario_segal[at]hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:663cb69c.0307161829.5d98743d[at]posting.google.com...
- quote -

Tad Borek wrote:

- quote -

Actually, I think Arizona would recognize the paper bag will--and, like
you noted, that wouldn't necessarily be true if you ran it through the
printer <grin> .

--
Ed Zollars, CPA
Phoenix, Arizona

Mayo wrote
- quote -

Mayo - you should check out the web site and books from Nolo Press:
www.nolo.com
They're a "self-help" legal publisher, and they have several excellent
titles on estate planning and will drafting. Even if you don't use
them to draft the documents, they'll at least give you a good
description of the major issues to consider.

Though as others have posted this is an area of law where the trick is
knowing if you've covered all contingencies, and knowing if one of the
exceptions applies to you. If so then it's well worth the money spent
on an attorney. But in the simplest case, you could write out a valid
will on the back of a paper bag.*

-Tad

* not that you should do that, but at least in some states, it'd be
valid (as long as you hadn't run the bag through your printer!)

You bring a very good point about the association. Thanks for that.

I am confused about what you say about estate tax considerations. Can
you answer one more questions:

All other things being equal, is it better to hold life insurance in a
life insurance trust or not?

Thanks for all help,

Mario

"cal-lester" <cal-lester[at]comcast.net> wrote in message news:<NmdSa.97929$Ph3.11669[at]sccrnsc04> ...
- quote -

- quote -

Generation Skipping Trust.....
Can not answer without more info ! ! ! ! !


- quote -

You are subjecting yourself (and family) to two very
important problems:
1) ANY term life insurance purchased through ANY
Association is subject to fluctuation, and possible
cancellation by The Association. YOU do NOT OWN
the Insurance, you simply RENT it from the Assoc.
If either of you are LUCKY enough to DIE while that
CONTRACT (not a policy) is In-Force, all well and
good. Should you "out-live" that assoc. or it get's DROPPED,
YOU are out of luck.

2) Since you mentioned Federal Estate considerations,
I can ASSURE you, that unless you VERY early in
life, that the contract will NOT be In-Force. If you are
truly concerned about Federal Estate taxation, then
you will NEED some form of PERMANENT Lie Ins.



- quote -

As I mentioned above, it is NOT a good strategy
to rely on Association Term Life Ins. to cover any
potential Federal Estate taxation.................

Cal Lester CLU
--
Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

This signature file is generated by Pick-a-Tag !
Written by jeroen[at]vanbaarsel.net

Thanks for all the good advice, we will definitely consult a lawyer
but between the pointers here and some research I did I now believe I
know what I need.

I have 2 more questions:

1. Someone mentioned GST what is that and why is that important?

2. I currently have life insurance on myself with my wife as
beneficiary (I am owner). The insurance together with my assets is
above the $1M exemption for estates. I am considering buying life
insurance on my wife as well, and as I shopped around I discovered the
one I got (supplemental through my work) is quite expensive.

We can buy pretty decent term life insurance (from a main issuer and
at excellent prices) through the professional association she belongs
to, it will cover her as memebr and me as spouse. She will be the
owner of the policy. In this case should I die, will the policy
covering me will be outside of my estate and therefore tax free?

Is this a good strategy or should we set up a life insurance trust
instead to own both policies so it will be outside of either estate?

Thanks

Mario

Elizabeth Richardson wrote:

- quote -

Actually, the issue was that the state *would* respect one without
witnesses in the testator's handwriting. But if, instead, that document
was typed, you needed the witnesses.

The hitch there is that a "do it yourselfer" who "learns" about the
first issue (the handwritten will is valid without witnesses) may go
beyond that and end up blowing it (decides that since his handwriting is
hard to read, he'll type it up). The issue actually came up when a
person, asking about writing his/her own will, then made the statement
in passing after the rules were explained that he/she could just type it
up (what she "heard" from the discussion). In the explanation, the
attorney made the statement that the person would take pen and ink and
write out the document--but the layperson didn't realize that was not
merely an *example* of how to write your own will that didn't need
witnesses, but was a *requirement* of having that happen.

In tax matters I often see people get themselves in trouble by reading
IRS publications and then "extending" the information in there in a way
it cannot be extended--but which the lay person never realizes is going
beyond the explanation.

Documents written for a lay audience have a tough problem to deal
with--if they detail all the possible complications that could arise in
a situation (but which will not apply in 99% of the cases), the books
simply won't be read and won't sell. Also, it's likely the lay person
will consider the book a waste of time and that it didn't do a good job
of explaining.

If, however, the publication is written to be clear and simple to
understand, all too often that is accomplished by ignoring issues.

--
Ed Zollars, CPA
Phoenix, Arizona

"Ed Zollars, CPA" <ezollar[at]mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:bf8tbi0evt[at]enews4.newsguy.com...
- quote -

Even if the Testator's signature was witnessed by two individuals? Because
if that were true, then wills drawn up by a lawyer would be apt to be thrown
out. It seems to me it doesn't take much to draw up a will and have the
signature witnessed, but then I don't have much and it's all going to my
husband anyway. But I _have_ included the phrase, "should he predecease me
... . . "

Elizabeth Richardson

BMS wrote:

- quote -

What quite often gets overlooked is the fact that one of the things you
buy when you bring in an attorney (or any other expert vs. a
do-it-yourself approach) is that you lose the ability of the expert to
quickly isolate the important from the unimportant issues. That is, an
expert, without even really consciously thinking about it, essentially
runs through a checklist of issues when presented with a situation.

In many cases the individual issue is one a nonexpert could learn to
deal with--but the problem is figuring out just which issues you
do/don't need to worry about.

For instance, it's 99.99% likely that our poster doesn't need to worry
about GST issues (U.S. acronym, not the Canadian one <grin> ). However,
if the poster *does* need to worry about it and doesn't, that could be
one extraordinarily expensive issue for his/her heirs.

And there can be issues that will baffle the do-it-yourselfer that an
expert would spot. For instance, I remember being informed that in
Arizona a self-prepared will that is handwritten may be viewed very
differently by a court as to validity than the exact same document that
was prepared by the same individual using a word processor--and, in what
might be counterintuitive to technology types initially, it's the
*latter* document that is more apt to be thrown out (or at least has
more hoops to be jumped through to be deemed controlling).

--
Ed Zollars, CPA
Phoenix, Arizona

On 18 Jul 2003 11:50:00 GMT, "BMS" <mcfared[at]comcast.net> wrote:


- quote -

I don't mind do-it-yourself with a simple situation - such as simple
all-to-the-other deals. But if children were involved, I would want
to have lawyer craft the guardian (or trust) language.

Anyone with strong desires on cost control should not be having
children anyway. Once you have children, your financial goose is
cooked for years. <grin
-HW "Skip" Weldon
Columbia, SC

In article <663cb69c.0307161829.5d98743d[at]posting.google.com> ,
mario_segal[at]hotmail.com (Mayo) wrote:

You will probably need to rewrite your will each ten years. Laws change
sufficiently that old wills become dated.

Dick


- quote -

On 17 Jul 2003 12:25:01 GMT, "BMS" <mcfared[at]comcast.net> wrote:

- quote -

In the interests of discussion, I'd prefer something a little more
basic in this situation - simple wills with either guardianship or
trust wording for children. Agree on the powers.

Many lawyers have this stuff in their word processors, so spending big
bucks on a specialist might not be the best use of money. Especially
for a youngish couple just starting out. Around here this type will
would run about $100-150 each. Throw in the above powers and you are
around $300ish for the couple.


-HW "Skip" Weldon
Columbia, SC

My wife and I are expecting our first child and want to create wills
for ourselves. We know we need an attorney but we want to get some
info on what will we need to cover for either dying or for both dying
at same time.
We appreciate any help