Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Estate Plan B
Estate planning is not like planning for a one-time special event. The probate of your estate is not the main event of estate planning in the same way that a wedding ceremony or wedding reception is the main event of wedding planning. Instead, estate planning is more like a flowchart. You are not trying… Read More »
Cats Don’t Want To Inherit Money, But They Do Want Someone To Clean Their Litter Box After You Are Gone
The old adage goes that a sloppy estate plan is better than none at all. Despite this, if you write your will without consulting a lawyer, the probate court will follow the instructions in your will to the letter, even if doing this has unintended consequences. For example, if you wrote your will before… Read More »
Learning From The Estate Planning Mistakes Of Celebrities
Even though it seems like celebrities face a completely different set of problems from the rest of us, we can’t stop being curious about them; this idea has endured through supermarket tabloid magazines, reality television, and the era of Internet celebrities. Death is the great equalizer, though. The same estate laws apply whether you… Read More »
Estate Planning When Life Is An Endless Series Of Crises
Matthew Erskine of the Wealth Management website writes that most professional estate planners’ approaches fall into one of two categories, which he calls the hedgehog style and the fox style. Hedgehogs excel in making careful predictions, considering all possible outcomes and determining which one is the most likely to occur, and then taking actions… Read More »
Without Witness Signatures, Your Will Is Nothing But A Bucket List Afterparty Setlist
The hardest part of estate planning is getting started. Once you type your will into a Word document and print it out, you feel a great sense of relief. Now, you have put your wishes in writing, so your family will not have to guess or argue about them. Of course, your printout isn’t… Read More »
Family Caregivers And Medicaid Eligibility
The idea of aging in place, surrounded by your closest family members in the house where you have lived for decades is a comforting thought, but aging in place is not as glamorous as it sounds. Some people stay in their family home as their ability to live independently declines because, from a financial… Read More »
Your Intangible Estate Plan
What do the French baguette, the Kalela dance of Zambia, and the khanjar, a dagger worn on the belt by Omani men during ceremonious occasions, have in common? They are all recognized by the United Nations as part of the intangible cultural heritage of the parts of the world where they originate. Intangible heritage… Read More »
The First Wives Of Florida Need An Estate Plan Now More Than Ever
Divorce is a bummer. Estate planning is also a bummer in the beginning, because it requires you to confront the fact that you have a limited amount of time left on Earth and a limited amount of money left to support you throughout it. Divorce lawyer websites make divorce look glamorous; they make it… Read More »
Skilled Nursing Facilities
Many clients walk into their initial consultation with an estate planning lawyer equipped with the name of an enemy and the lengths to which they are willing to go to keep this enemy at bay. For some clients, the enemy is the IRS, and the client has grandiose plans of transferring every item of… Read More »
Can You Afford To Retire In Florida?
More people moved to Florida in 2022 than to any other state. The recent arrivals represent all age groups. Florida has long been a popular retirement destination; the youngsters are a fairly recent addition. Conventional wisdom used to hold that, as long as you are not in Miami-Dade, Broward, or Palm Beach County, where… Read More »