Aaron Charles Gregg

When a Spouse Dies, Does Survivor Get Their Social Security Benefits?

“When you’re gone, your spouse’s income will take a major hit–one that can be worsened significantly, if you make the wrong decision about when to claim.”

Most people don’t understand how Social Security works for themselves or their loved ones. Here’s one major misconception: you can’t file early for Social Security and then get an increased level of benefits once you’ve reached Full Retirement Age, or FRA. This is one of many common errors, according to a recent article “When You Claim Social Security Can Have Huge Implications for Your Spouse” from Kiplinger. Once you’ve started taking benefits before your FRA, your lower level is set for life.

Another common error happens when married couples don’t understand how their benefits impact each other. If your spouse depends on your Social Security benefits to pay the bills, you both need to gain an accurate understanding of how surviving spouse benefits work.

Let’s that say a couple retires and both decide to take their Social Security benefits right away. One is 66 and the other is 62. The older, Pat, receives $3,000 monthly. The younger spouse, Penny, will receive $1,900. Their total household benefit from Social Security is $4,900. If Pat dies first, Penny will lose her own benefit and receive only Pat’s $3,000 monthly benefit. If this is the only income, Penny may face some serious financial challenges.

If Pat started taking benefits earlier than his FRA, at 64 instead of 66, his monthly benefit would be $2,625. If he were to start taking benefits at 62, his Social Security benefit will be even smaller. The reductions are permanent, and they also impact a surviving spouse’s monthly benefit.

What can you do to maximize your spouse’s survivor benefit? Wait for as long as you can to claim your Social Security benefits. For every year you wait, you earn an extra 8% in delayed benefits. These increases grow until age 70, at which point your Social Security benefit reaches the maximum.

Not everyone can afford to delay their benefits. However, when possible, it makes a big difference to the surviving spouse, who is statistically likely to be the female spouse. For couples who can afford to delay benefits, couples with significant age differences and couples where one of the two has exceptionally good health or comes from a family with longevity, this is a worthwhile approach.

Delaying benefits means the loss of benefits during the years until age 70. Forgoing several thousand dollars a month may not be possible for everyone.

If your surviving spouse won’t be able to make ends meet without both Social Security benefits, there needs to be a plan to somehow bridge the gap. How this is done depends upon the individuals and their families. Every situation is different. It is not an easy situation to address. However, one thing is certain: ignoring it will not make the problem go away.

Reference: Kiplinger (April 20, 2022) “When You Claim Social Security Can Have Huge Implications for Your Spouse”

What are the Most Common Estate Planning Mistakes?

“With apologies to poet Robert Burns, the best-laid estate plans of women and men sometimes go awry.”

There are so many estate planning horror mistakes, it’s hard to know which is the worst. One is the woman who had an estate plan created, but only named one guardian for her teenage daughter. When the guardian declined to serve, the girl was moved into foster care. Many estate planning attorneys recommend not one, but two alternate guardians, according to the article “Don’t get tripped up by these common estate planning pitfalls” from MarketWatch.

Joint ownership of bank accounts leads to a tangled mess. Seniors often add one of their adult children to ownership of their bank accounts, so the child can manage their affairs or keep an eye open for financial elder abuse. However, when the parent dies, the account is the sole property of the child, and siblings have no say over what the new owner does with the money. Even if the children agree to split the money evenly, the federal gift tax exemption is limited to an annual gift, gift tax returns have to be filed and a simple idea becomes expensive and time consuming.

If joint ownership of an account is necessary, it may be better to add all of the children or have in a separate writing the intention that this is an asset you want divided equally among the children. Easier still: create a new account dedicated to paying bills and maintain a small balance. Even better, if the institution allows you to arrange for the account to “pay on death,” then designate all of your children as beneficiaries. This approach will avoid probate, while treating all children equally and not exposing your account to any potential divorces, lawsuits, or bankruptcies during your lifetime.

Giving money to grandchildren directly. Putting a minor as a beneficiary of a percentage of an estate requires the involvement of a judge approving the bequest and the appointment of a custodian over the account until the minor becomes an adult. An estate planning attorney would likely recommend the use of a trust for the benefit of the minor. Alternatively, limit bequests to adult children and adult grandchildren.

An adult child or surviving spouse living in the house. A man created a property trust to allow his second wife to remain in the house he owned before their marriage. The couple had jointly paid off the mortgage. The man named his daughter from a prior marriage as the successor trustee. The daughter began making unreasonable demands on the surviving spouse to make expensive improvements. Years of bad blood between the two erupted into years of litigation. The parties finally agreed to revise the trust terms and name a professional trustee, but not after an expensive and stressful battle.

When one of the children is living in the house and the will says the home is to be divided among the siblings equally, what happens? Does the child who lives in the house get first right of refusal to buy out their sibling’s shares? Are they paying rent to siblings? What if the child living in the house decides to sell, after they personally have invested a lot of money improving the house?

Estate planning attorneys bring up these kinds of situations with clients not because they want to scare people, but because they have seen firsthand what happens when an estate plan fails to anticipate a variety of situations. The estate planning attorney needs to know about the family’s dynamics in detail, in order to create the best plan to achieve the desired outcome and prevent as many twists and turns as possible.

Reference: MarketWatch (Jan. 6, 2022) “Don’t get tripped up by these common estate planning pitfalls”

What Happens to IRAs and 401(k) when Spouse Dies?

“The rise in the stock market over the past several years, teamed with the passage of the SECURE Act two years ago and the scheduled 50% reduction in the size of the federal estate tax exemption four years from now, has resulted in a renewed interest in estate planning for IRA and 401k accounts owned by married couples.”

For married couples who own large IRA and 401(k) accounts, the question is often whether the couple should consider paying all or a portion of their accounts to a bypass trust to benefit the surviving spouse. This takes the designated portion of the IRA or 401(k) proceeds out of the surviving spouse’s taxable estate and helps with asset distribution, according to the article “Estate Planning for Married Couples’ IRAs And 401(k)s” from Financial Advisor.

In 2013, the portability election became law. Portability allows the surviving spouse to use the unused federal estate tax exemption of the deceased spouse, thereby capturing not one but two estate tax exemptions. Why would a couple need a bypass trust?

The portability election does not remove appreciation in the value of the assets moved from the surviving spouse’s taxable estate. A bypass trust removes all appreciation. An estate planning attorney will review your entire situation to determine the optimal path.

There are also situations when the portability election does not apply. One is if the surviving spouse remarries and then the new spouse predeceases them. With a bypass trust, remarriage does not matter (although estate planning documents do need to be updated).

The portability election also does not apply for federal generation-skipping transfer tax purposes. In other words, the amount that could have passed to an estate and generation-skipping transfer tax-exempt bypass trust, including appreciated value, could now be subject to federal transfer tax in the heir’s estate.

If you use the portability election, those assets are subject to potential lawsuits against the surviving spouse and, if remarriage occurs, to any potential claims of a new spouse. A bypass trust provides better protection from lawsuits and claims.

Using the portability election may result in the first spouse to die losing the option to control where those assets go upon the death of the surviving spouse. A bypass trust provides more control for asset distribution.

The calculations for each situation must be considered, but the bypass trust can help reduce the taxable estate for children, after the surviving spouse has passed. It may also make sense for a portion of the IRA or 401(k) plan proceeds to go to the bypass trust and another portion to the surviving spouse outright. The use of the beneficiary designation may allow for a full or partial disclaimer by the surviving spouse. However, the bypass trust could provide more flexibility than keeping assets in the original accounts.

Reference: Financial Advisor (Jan. 7, 2022) “Estate Planning for Married Couples’ IRAs And 401(k)s”

When Should a Trust Be Reviewed?

“Many people are under the impression that since they have a trust, they don’t need to do anything else. That’s not true. The trust you created years ago may not be appropriate for you now.”

Life changes, and laws change too. The great trust created two decades ago may not be a good idea today and may no longer be suitable for you or your beneficiaries. As a general rule, you should review your estate plan and trust every other year, according to the article “Revisit trust on a regular basis” from the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Start with the Table of Contents, if there is one. There should be language concerning “Successor Trustees.” Are the trustees you named still alive? Are they still part of your life, and do you still trust them? How are their money skills? If they don’t get along with the rest of the family, or if they have been embroiled in a series of petty disputes, they may not be appropriate to manage your trust. Don’t be afraid to make changes. Your estate planning attorney will know how to do this smoothly and properly.

Next, find the paragraph that discusses “Disposition on Death” or “Disposition on Death of Surviving Spouse.” Does it still make sense for your loved ones? Have any children or family members who are listed as receiving benefits died? Are any heirs disabled and receiving government benefits? Have any of your children developed addictions, problems handling money, married people you don’t trust, or are preparing to divorce their spouses? Changes can be made to protect your children from themselves and from others in their lives.

Look for a “Schedule of Trust Assets.” When was the last time this was updated? If you’ve moved and the trust still lists your last residence, you need to change it. Is your new home in the trust? Are retirement accounts correctly listed? Do you have new assets you’ve never placed in the trust? This is a common, and costly, oversight.

If married, how does the trust address what occurs between the death of the first spouse and the surviving spouse? Do you have an A/B trust to divide everything between a Survivor’s Trust and a Bypass Trust or Exemption Trust? Maybe you don’t need or want an A/B trust anymore. Talk with your estate planning attorney to be sure this is structured properly for your life right now.

How is your health? If you or a spouse are in a nursing home or if one of you is ill and likely to needs nursing home care, it may be time to start planning for a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust.

While you’re reviewing your trusts, trustees and beneficiaries, don’t forget to review the people named as beneficiaries for your retirement accounts and life insurance policies. These should be reviewed regularly as well.

Reviewing your trust and estate plan on a regular basis is just as necessary as an annual physical. Leaving your accumulated assets unprotected is easily fixed, while you are alive and well.

Reference: Santa Cruz Sentinel (Nov. 20, 2021) “Revisit trust on a regular basis”

Can You Make Heirs Behave from the Grave?

“There are many stories of strange conditions in wills and trusts over time. For example, the German poet Heinrich ‘Henry’ Heine died in 1856 and left his estate to his wife, Matilda, on the condition that she remarry, so that ‘there will be at least one man to regret my death’.”

Imposing strange or amusing conditions upon heirs may make for good novels. However, in the real world, terms and conditions are limited by the law. A last will or trust contains language specifying how you want assets to be distributed after your death. There are some conditions and terms included, but others should be left for fiction authors, according to a recent article titled “What Can You Force Your Heirs to Do To Get Your Wealth” from Forbes.

If something is illegal or against public policy, it is not acceptable in a last will. Defining public policy is not as easy as whether something is illegal, but it can be described effectively enough, or clarified by your estate planning lawyer. For example, making a gift of land to the town on the condition that an offensive statue be placed in the middle of the land would be against public policy. Requiring an individual to not marry a specific person or type of person before they can inherit is considered illegal in a last will. Beneficiaries are not to be prevented to live their lives freely through the force of a last will.

Whether a condition is valid also depends upon whether it is a precedent that existed at the date of your death or a condition that occurs after your death. For instance, a requirement for a beneficiary to live in a specific location at the time of your death might be considered valid by a court. However, a condition requiring a spouse to never remarry would not be valid.

Blatantly illegal terms of an inheritance are easy terminated. Leaving money to a known terrorist organization or requiring an heir to commit a crime is an easy no-go. However, sometimes things get murky. Restraints on getting married or selling or transferring property are two of the biggest problems, and often the stories behind the last wills are sad ones.

A condition of not marrying, divorcing, or remarrying is not legal. However, a condition that the beneficiary does not marry outside of the faith has been enforced as a valid last will condition. A complete prohibition of a second marriage by a surviving spouse has been deemed void. It should be noted that certain requests have been permitted, like having a surviving spouse lose payments from a trust when they remarry. As antiquated as it may sound, courts have affirmed the concept of the specific limitation to provide financial support only until the surviving spouse remarries and is, therefore, not void.

A probate court will not void a condition on a bequest automatically, even if it is clearly illegal. The beneficiary, or another interested party, must file with the probate court to have the condition voided. If you fail to do so, when the last will or trust is allowed, it is possible to lose your right to void the condition.

A better way to go: don’t try to control your heir’s behavior from the grave. It creates terrible ill will and may cloud a lifetime of happy memories. If you don’t want to give something to someone, your estate planning attorney will help you create an estate plan, and possibly a trust, to control how your assets are distributed.

Reference: Forbes July 21, 2021 “What Can You Force Your Heirs to Do To Get Your Wealth”

Does a Beneficiary on a Bank Account Override a Will?

“Beneficiaries, in general, are people or entities that the holder of an account designates to receive the assets in the account, typically, in the event of the account holder’s death.”

You’ve named beneficiaries to accounts many times already, when you opened an IRA, bought an insurance annuity, a life insurance policy, started an investment account, signed up for a pension or bought shares in a mutual fund. These are the accounts that come to mind when people think about beneficiary designations. However, according to a recent article in Forbes titled “Do You Need a Beneficiary for Your Bank Account?,” they are not the only financial instruments with beneficiary designations.

When you open a bank account, most retail banks don’t ask you to name a beneficiary, but it’s not because you can’t. If the bank allows beneficiaries on their accounts, it’s usually a pretty simple process. In most cases, you’ll be asked to fill out a form or go through the bank’s process online.

Banks don’t push for beneficiary accounts because they are not required to do so. However, this is a smart move and can be a helpful part of your estate plan. The biggest benefit: funds in the account will be distributed directly to the beneficiary upon your death. They won’t have to go through probate and won’t be part of your estate. Otherwise, whatever assets you keep in your bank accounts will be counted as part of your estate and subject to probate.

Probate is a court process to validate the will and the named executor, supervising the distribution of assets from your estate. In some cases, it can be complicated, take months to complete and depending on the size of your estate, be expensive. If the money in your bank accounts does not go to a beneficiary, it can be used to pay off estate debts instead of going straight to a beneficiary.

For married people, bank account funds are treated differently. Half of the balance goes to your spouse upon death, the rest goes through probate.

Naming a beneficiary is a better alternative. The beneficiary may collect the money immediately. They’ll need to go to the bank with an original or certified copy of a death certificate, required identification (usually a driver’s license) and the money is transferred to them.

If you are married and don’t live in a community property estate, a surviving spouse may be able to dispute the terms of a beneficiary arrangement, but that will take time.

Another means of transferring assets in a bank account is to change your accounts to POD, or Payable On Death accounts. There are other names: In Trust For (ITF), Totten Trust or Transfer on Death (TOD). The named beneficiary is referred to as the POD beneficiary.

There is considerable flexibility when naming a POD beneficiary. It may be a living person, or it can be an organization, including a nonprofit charity or other trusts. You are not allowed to name a non-living legal entity, like a corporation, limited liability company (LLC) or partnership.

Beneficiary designations override wills, so if you forget to change them, the person named will still receive the money, even if that was not your intent. You should review beneficiaries for all of your accounts every year or so. Divorce, death, marriages, births and any other lifetime events are also reasons to check on beneficiary designations.

Reference: Forbes (July 9, 2021) “Do You Need a Beneficiary for Your Bank Account?”

Why Is It Important to have a Will?

“Less than half of Americans have a will. Here's why it's critical to be among those who have taken the time to draft this important document.”

A Gallup poll released in June showed that slightly less than half of all Americans have a will to tell loved ones what they want to happen with their estate after they die. What’s surprising is that the results of this survey have been almost the same since 1990, explains the article “6 Reasons You Need to Make a Will Now” from Real Simple. The survey also showed that upper-income Americans are more likely than lower-income Americans to have a will, and the younger people are, the less likely they are to have a will.

One of the lessons from the pandemic, is how fragile our lives are. It’s never too early to start planning and properly document your wishes. If you need more reasons to begin estate planning, here are six:

No will often leads to unwanted consequences. A major misconception is the idea that you don’t need a will because everything you own will go to your family. Not necessarily. Each state has its own laws about what happens if you have no will, and those laws are usually based on bloodlines or kinship. Most states leave two-thirds of your assets to your children and one-third to your spouse. Will your spouse be able to maintain the same standard of living, or even remain in the family home if this is how assets are distributed? A no-will situation is a no-win situation and can fracture even the best families.

Wills are used to name guardians for minor children. No parent, especially young parents, thinks that anything will happen to them, or even more unlikely, to both parents. However, it does. Creating a will offers the opportunity to name guardians to care for your children after death. If you don’t designate a guardian, a judge will. The judge will have never met your children, nor understand your family’s dynamics, and might even determine that the children should be raised by strangers.

Wills and pet trusts can protect pets after your demise. If you have beloved animal companions, it’s important to understand what can happen to them after you die. The law considers pets to be property, so you can’t leave money to your pet. However, you can create a pet trust and name a person to be the caregiver for your pet, if it survives you. The trust is enforceable, and the pet’s care can be detailed. Otherwise, there is no guarantee your pet will avoid being euthanized.

Taxes are part of death. Creating an estate plan with an experienced estate planning attorney who is knowledgeable about estate taxes, could save your heirs from losing a significant part of their inheritance. There are many tools and strategies to minimize taxes, including making charitable gifts. Plans for large estates can be structured in a way to avoid as much as 40% of tax exposure. It’s even more important to protect a smaller estate from being lost to taxes.

Peace of mind. Remember, wills and estate plans are not just for the benefit of the person who creates them. They are for the family, the surviving spouse, children, and grandchildren. If you did not take the time and make the effort to create an estate plan, they are the ones who will live with the consequences. In many cases, it could change their lives—and not for the better.

Putting it off never ends well. When you’re young and healthy, it seems like nothing can ever go wrong. However, live long enough, and you learn life has ups and downs and unexpected events—like death and serious illness—happen to everyone. Creating an estate plan won’t make you die sooner but having one can provide you and your loved ones with security, so you can focus on living.

Reference: Real Simple (June 25, 2021) “6 Reasons You Need to Make a Will Now”

How Does Home Ownership Transfer after a Parent Dies?

“My father passed away recently. How do we remove his name from the title to the home? Can we record a death certificate or have mom sign a new deed?”

The first thing you’ll need to know about selling a home after the death of a parent, is how your parents held title, or owned, the home, begins the recent article “Home ownership after the death of a spouse” from nwi.com. In most cases, the home is owned by a couple as “joint tenants with rights of survivorship” or as “tenants by the entirety.” The latter is less common.

Tenancy by the entirety is a form of ownership available only to married people in a limited number of states and offers several advantages to the owners. It creates an ownership interest where the spouses own property jointly and not as individuals. It also creates the rights of survivorship, so that the surviving spouse owns the property by law when the first spouse dies.

Joint tenancy with rights of survivorship is similar to tenants by the entirety, in that they both convey rights of survivorship. However, joint tenancy does not treat the owners as a single unit. If you own entireties property with a spouse, you may not transfer your interest without your spouse’s permission because you own it as a unit.

In joint tenants, if one of the tenants want to transfer their interest in the property, he or she may do so at any time—and do not need the permission of the other tenant. This has led to some sticky situations, which is why tenants by the entirety is preferred in many situations.

If your parents own their home as tenants by the entireties or as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, the surviving spouse owns the home as a matter of law, and legally, ownership begins at the moment that first spouse dies.

Different states record this change of ownership differently, so you’ll need to speak with an estate planning attorney in your community (or the state where your parents lived, if it was different than where you live).

To notify the recorder’s office of the death, some state laws require the submission of a surviving spouse affidavit, which puts the recorder and the community on notice that one of the owners has died and the survivor now owns the home individually. Here again, an estate planning attorney will know the laws that apply in your situation.

There was a time when people recorded a death certificate, but this does not occur often. The affidavit makes a number of recitals that are important, and the recorded document proves the change of title.

In most cases, there is no need for a new deed, since the surviving spouse owns the property at the time of death, and the affidavit itself demonstrates proof of the transfer of title in lieu of a deed.

Reference: nwi.com (March 14, 2021) “Home ownership after the death of a spouse”

What Is a SLAT in Estate Planning?

“If you have been thinking about making large gifts to take advantage of the current $11,700,000 lifetime federal estate tax exemption, you have probably been contemplating a spousal lifetime access trust, commonly known as a SLAT.”

A SLAT is a type of irrevocable trust that can only be used by married couples for the benefit of a spouse, children, or other beneficiaries. Is a SLAT right for your family? The recent article titled “Should a SLAT Be Part Of Your Estate Planning?” from Forbes examines when a SLAT works, and when it doesn’t.

A SLAT works well while your spouse is alive. They have access to it and the assets it contains, since they are the beneficiary. As of this writing, up to $11,700,000 of assets can be removed from a taxable estate using your federal estate tax exemption, while your spouse continues to have access to the assets.

Sounds like a win-win, doesn’t it? However, there are drawbacks. If your spouse dies, you lose access to the assets. They will pass to the remainder beneficiaries in the trust, typically children, but they can be other beneficiaries of your choice.

If you and your spouse divorce, the spouse is still a beneficiary of the SLAT. Ask your estate planning attorney if this is something they can build into the SLAT but be mindful that if the attorney is representing both spouses for estate planning, there will be ethical considerations that could get tricky.

What about a SLAT for each spouse? If you and your spouse both establish SLATs to benefit each other, you run the risk of the “reciprocal trust doctrine.” The IRS could take the position that the trusts cancel each other out, and rule that the only reason for the SLAT was to remove taxable assets from your estate.

The SLATs need to be different from each other in more than a few ways. Your estate planning attorney will need to develop this with you. A few ways to structure two SLATs:

• Create them at different times. The more time between their creation, the better.
• Consider establishing the trusts in different states.
• Have different trustees.
• Vary the distribution rules for the surviving spouse and the distribution rules upon the death of the second spouse. For instance, one spouse’s trust could hold the assets in lifetime trusts for the children, while the other spouse’s trust could terminate, and assets be distributed to the children when they reach age 40.

The SLAT is an especially useful way to address tax liability. If you have not maxed out lifetime gifts in 2020, now is the time to start this process. December 2025, when the federal estate tax exemption reverts back to $5 million, will be here faster than you think. If the country needs to find revenue quickly, that change may come even sooner. Tax reform that occurs in 2021 is not likely to be retroactive to January 1, 2021, but there are no guarantees.

Reference: Forbes (Feb. 16, 2021) “Should a SLAT Be Part Of Your Estate Planning?”

No Will? Your Family Should Start Worrying Now

“Aretha Franklin’s death on Aug. 16 and the passing of Prince in April 2016 turned up one thing the entertainers shared in common. Both died without a will. According to experts, dying without a will creates mystery.”

That’s not a mystery you want your family and loved ones to experience. What happens when someone dies without a will, is that your children, partner and relatives end up spending a lot of time in court, trying to convince a court-appointed probate administrator of what you may have wanted done with your property and other assets. That’s probably not how you want to be remembered, says The North Bay Business Journal in the article “Don’t have a will? Lack of estate-planning could cost your successors dearly.”

The most common way to avoid confusion, expense and stress is to have an estate plan, including a will, in place. Another tool used in estate planning is called a “pour-over” will. A pour-over will states that assets that have not been placed in the living trust, should go there when you die. By creating a trust that contains all of your assets, you are avoiding the cost and time it takes to go through the probate process.

A living trust is a legal document that places your assets inside a trust for your benefit, while you are still living. When you die, the assets are distributed by your chosen representative, which in this case is a successor trustee, to the beneficiaries you have named.

All states have their own laws about how trusts are treated. However, if you live in California, the court can initiate a probate case when there is no will and there are assets requiring the opening of a probate, particularly concerning real estate owned in the decedent’s name. The court typically appoints a close relative—a spouse, adult child or grandchild, in that order—as an administrator.

That person is responsible for settling your debts, including final state and federal income taxes. Debts are deducted from the assets of the estate, then the administrator distributes the remaining assets to the deceased person’s heirs.

If you are survived by children but have no spouse, then the children inherit everything in equal shares. If you are survived by a spouse only, then assets are handled differently, depending upon whether the assets are community or separate property. Community property is property acquired during the marriage, including income earned during the marriage.

Separate property is property that a spouse owned before marriage or after a separation. It also includes property that a spouse inherits or receives as a gift before, during and after marriage. Assets can change status, if they are commingled, if the spouses have a written agreement, or the spouses improve separate property with community income.

After a decedent passes, the spouse gets all of the community property. When the decedent is survived by a spouse and there are no children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, nieces or nephews, then the spouse also inherits all the separate property.

The probate process starts with the filing of a probate petition in the county in which the decedent lives. The petitioner must also pay a court reporter fee and a fee for publishing the notice of probate with a local newspaper. The court then appoints a probate referee to appraise the estate assets. There is at least one fee for the appraisal, but there can be more fees. The probate process closes with the filing of a petition for the final distribution of the estate assets. This action also has a fee.

The probate court will also charge fees for filing other petitions, the probate notice, compensating the probate referee and if needed, for providing certified copies of court documents. When there is no will, the court requires the administrator to get a probate bond. That protects the beneficiaries and creditors, in case the administrator does not do his or her job correctly.

It sounds like a lot of trouble for a grieving family member, doesn’t it?

It will be far better for your family, if you have a will and an estate plan in place. Make an appointment with an experienced estate planning attorney to review your situation, any existing legal documents and make sure that your estate plan is properly prepared. You’ll need a will, you may need a trust and you’ll want a power of attorney and a medical power of attorney.

Reference: The North Bay Business Journal (September 24, 2018) “Don’t have a will? Lack of estate-planning could cost your successors dearly”