by Keith Hajovsky | Oct 30, 2024 | Estate Administration, General Estate Planning, Probate, Trusts, Wills
Can you avoid probate by having a living trust? (please also see Do I Need A Living Trust) Well yes and no. Yes, for all the assets that you actually place into the trust you can avoid probate for those particular assets. For example, you could deed your house to the...
by Keith Hajovsky | Oct 2, 2024 | Estate Administration, General Estate Planning, Power of Attorney, Wills
“Can my Power of Attorney take care of my assets when I die?” I get this question fairly often. And even more often than that, as I am talking to people about their estate plans I learn that many of them incorrectly assume that their Power of Attorney will still work...
by Keith Hajovsky | Sep 4, 2024 | Estate Administration, Non-probate Assets, Probate
This may sound obvious to most people, but do NOT sign important documents related to an inheritance without speaking to a probate attorney first. Unless some sort of fraudulent activity has occurred in order to get you to sign, once you’ve signed the documents you...
by Keith Hajovsky | Aug 14, 2024 | Estate Administration, General Estate Planning, Non-probate Assets, Probate, Wills
Will my life insurance proceeds pass through probate is a great question. Whether or not that happens depends on who you name as the beneficiary. If you name an individual such as your spouse or child or possibly even an entity like a nonprofit organization as the...
by Keith Hajovsky | Aug 7, 2024 | Estate Administration, General Estate Planning, Intestate - Dying Without A Will, Marital Assets, Non-probate Assets, Wills
When you are married you have community property and separate property in Texas. Each spouse has full testamentary power (the ability to say who gets which of those assets in their will) over their own separate property, but they have testamentary power only over one...
by Keith Hajovsky | Jul 24, 2024 | Estate Administration, Intestate - Dying Without A Will, Probate, Wills
Getting a will makes financial sense. As I mentioned in my article Why Do I Really Need A Will? one of the main reasons you should have a will in place is to help prevent your estate and heirs from spending a lot more money on legal fees and court costs. This is...
