By Bryan R. Bishop, Living Trust Attorney Ltd.
- A power of attorney is useful after its maker dies.
- A “living will” (medical directive) that addresses terminal illness covers coma too.
- The creditors of an adult child whose name has been added to his/her surviving parents’ bank account cannot garnish that bank account to satisfy debts owed by the adult child.
- A will is an estate plan.
- When the surviving spouse in a remarriage dies without a will, the probate estate is divided equally among all the children on both sides of the remarriage.
- One probate accomplishes the administration of all real estate.
- Only one person at a time can serve as fiduciary (executor, trustee, etc.).
- Debt – just like wealth – descends by law to heirs.
- Living trusts outperform wills only when there is estate-tax exposure.
- For life insurance policies owned by married persons with typical circumstances, the best death-beneficiary-endorsement strategy is spouse as sole primary death beneficiary and then children as equal contingent beneficiaries.