We all know the cliches about elderly drivers. As we age many of us experience diminished function. It may be vision, hearing, response time or even cognitive ability. The aging driver can be a concern for family members and the community. -

Sometimes the authority to make health care decisions for another person does not work out. It can especially founder on a common limitation: it might not include mental health powers. Without authority over mental health decisions, the agent,

We have written and talked before about pets and the elderly client in our office. But most of that discussion has focused on how to make plans for your pets after your inevitable demise. What about taking care of pets -- and having them help take care...

It will come as no surprise that there is an election in November, 2020. Depending on the outcome, there might be significant changes in estate, gift and generation-skipping taxes as soon as next year. Are there things that you need to consider in your...

Time for your next podcast class: Trust Funding 201. - You signed your living trust (and related documents). Good. You're halfway done. The rest of the job: transferring assets to the trust. - In last week's podcast we focused on some of the basic fu...

It can be challenging to figure out how to title assets after you have created a revocable living trust. We're calling this initial review Trust Funding 101. We discuss some of the common titling issues. -

The "community property" rules sometimes confuse or alarm lawyers from states that apply the "common-law" property rules. Arizona community property is not really that complicated, but it can be foreign to estate planning practitioners from other state...

We often consult with blended families about their estate planning. Those families -- sometimes with "yours, mine and our" kids, or disparate young-adult backgrounds -- can pose special concerns for us to work through. - How common are concerns?

There is a lot of social and familial pressure for most people to leave the bulk of their estate to their children. Sometimes, though, we deal with planning with childless clients. How are they different? -

Last week we discussed record keeping for conservatorship matters. The rules are similar, but somewhat different, for trust and probate record keeping. - Generally, accounting requirements for trusts and probate proceedings are somewhat easier to hand...