Estate Planning

Houston Estates Can Include Plans For Everything – Plants Included!

Published on: June 4, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

"This plant will definitely outlive me," said Ms. Scoratow, a landlady who is 63 years old and in good health. "After I pass, I don't want her to go unloved."

Your estate plan should include everything that is dear to you. Once you are gone you'll want to make sure your wishes are carried out accordingly. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal illustrated one way of making sure everything is taken care of after you are gone. The article is titled “A Woman's Will Provides Funds for Trusty Houseplant Upon Her Death.”

The article chronicles the curious case of Ronna Scoratow, her will, and her trusty 42-year-old philodendron. Ms. Scoratow, having no children or horticulturally-minded next-of-kin, simply had no automatic option for the future care of her prized plant. Beside, this is not your average houseplant that is easy to move around.

Does Your Better Half Know The Plan For Your Houston Estate?

Published on: June 3, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Estate planning isn't exactly my idea of fun, but it's absolutely necessary. Just like you're planning for retirement, you need to plan for the inevitable.

If you have taken the vow of “until death do us part,” have you considered what will happen if you are no longer here? Does your spouse know and understand your estate plan? Will your spouse be able to manage what you leave behind?

Estate planning for married persons begins with thinking about the future security of your spouse in a world without you. In many ways, you likely assume that your spouse is prepared to take over. However, this is a potentially dangerous assumption and one that should not be taken for granted. In fact, many things can go awry, both practically and legally, unless you and your spouse have specifically talked them over.

Giving To A Houston Graduate

Published on: May 30, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

When her son recently turned 18, Lisa Kirchenbauer and her husband had him sign papers to take control of an account for minors they had long ago set up as a college fund – which had grown to about $60,000. "What if I ran out and bought a car with it?" he asked.

It is graduation season, which means it is graduation gift-giving season. If you hope to mark your loved one’s accomplishment with a sizeable gift, then how do you ensure that such gift is not squandered?

To mark a milestone with a financial gift can be something of a carrot-and-stick opportunity. If that is the case, then the trick is to ensure that the gift encourages positive possibilities instead of some shiny mess with a new car smell. Reuters recently provided some advice on this timely topic in an article titled “Four ways to influence how new grads handle money.”

Married? Consider These Eight Estate Planning Goals for Houston Couples

Published on: May 29, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Knowing these objectives help both the couple and their estate planner determine what might be the best way to structure their estate plan. Below are eight of the most common estate planning objectives that influence a couple’s estate plan.

Planning for just you and your hopes takes a lot of work. While you may be of one mind (literally), there is much to think about, values to weigh, and options to select. But what about married couples? However close, married couples are not just of “one” mind and, accordingly, as a couple will have that much more to think through and plan. As a married couple planning for your estates, what should your objectives be?

How, where and why do married couples come together in their planning and what values or strategies should they work to support? There is no one answer because this has everything to do with the couple, their assets, their loves ones, and their many hopes besides. Nevertheless, even unique couples can find themselves pursuing common objectives by one tool or another. Forbes offered a helpful little list of eight common objectives for married couples planning their estates in a recent article titled “Eight Common Estate Planning Objectives Of Married Couples.”

Passing On A Prized Collection To Your Houston Heirs

Published on: May 26, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

It may take some expert help to work out how to pass the pieces to your heirs. Parents' collectibles can hold emotional meaning for adult children, and some collections carry financial value as well.

Estate planning is all about deciding how to dispose of your assets, but when it comes to assets, collections can be fairly problematic. After all, the reason it’s a “collection” is because the whole is worth something greater than the sum of its parts. You simply don’t have an unrelated list of items that you can just casually split up (or do you?). Kiplinger recently explored this challenge in an article titled “Leaving a Collection to Your Heirs.”

The fundamental question is this: what is your hope for your collection? Does the collection live on, and if so, under who’s watch? You might want the collection to stay together or to stay in the family for generations. This commonly is the case when the items are family relics or antiques. In addition, collectible assets can raise other vexing issues like possible taxation or even legal difficulties (an exotic gun collection, for example).

Ask Yourself These 3 Questions About Estate Planning in Houston

Published on: May 15, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

…There are a few important questions many of us don’t think about. They’re the often overlooked issues of estate planning that could make all the difference for your relatives and heirs after you pass.

Estate planning encompasses so many areas of your life. For starters, you'll likely consider your values and your family. Then there is the nitty-gritty you might be overlooking: the financial, the legal, and the shared understandings. Make time for some real thinking, but also take some time to begin thinking about what you might be overlooking before planning in earnest.

The bits and pieces that are easiest to overlook are the kinds of things best uncovered by some friendly self-interrogation. To help get that conversation started, consider reading a recent article in US News & World Report titled “3 Important Estate Planning Questions.”

Estate Planning Rules To Follow

Published on: May 12, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Remember that any mistakes in your estate plan will live long after you. Follow these rules and you’ll end up with an estate plan that works well for you and your heirs.

Planning for the estate is really an ongoing activity. Accordingly, estate planning is not a “one-and-done” event, but rather it is a process to continue as things inevitably change. In this sense, you might say that proper planning, as an activity, is not guided by a checklist but by rules to follow. InvestingDaily offered some useful perspective on the rule-driven process of planning in a recent article titled “10 Basic Rules of Every Estate Plan.”

Here are the ten:

Eight Go-To Estate Planning Documents for Houston Residents

Published on: May 6, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Many of us want to get going but don't know where to start. So, here are eight documents that can help you get your affairs in order. If that sounds like a lot of paperwork, don't worry: You probably won't need every one of them.

A properly planned and executed estate plan will have a few key elements and a number of important documents. So how many pieces is your plan all together? It depends upon your own estate. Regardless of your unique estate, it’s helpful to start with a basic list of documents.

There are a great number of little estate planning lists out there, and a dozen ways to list the documents you might need. That noted, MSN Money provided a helpful guide not too long ago with a helpful list of eight titled “Estate-Planning Documents You Need Right Now.”

Estate Planning No-No’s for Houston Families

Published on: May 1, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

If you wish to ensure that your estate does not fall prey to predators, creditors or taxes, keep reading to be sure you're not committing the five cardinal sins of estate planning.

Just as it's important to know what to do, it's vital to know what NOT to do. Take estate planning for example. It takes a great deal of training to know what to do to best plan and structure an estate plan. That’s why you consult competent and experienced legal counsel. And knowing what NOT to do is part of that planning.

Maybe you’ve yet to start and maybe you’ve been working with an estate planning attorney for some time and piecing together some foolhardy designs. Either way there are some basic types of blunders that can befall anyone not wary enough to look for them.

Wealth Transfer Goal: Keeping the Houston Family Together

Published on: April 21, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

“I had this fear that wealth could dissolve the family and the business would disintegrate,” Mr. Wiener, 68, said. So he hired coaches and consultants, had family meetings and set up a family foundation — all with the goal of keeping his family together after he died. “It’s not perfect; it’s an evolving process.”

Whether rich or poor, homey or worldly, it’s about keeping the loved ones together and passing on the family wealth most efficiently.

Whatever your station, you might learn a thing or two from the problems faced and solved by others. As the New York Times notes in a recent article titled “Looking for Ways to Keep Money From Dividing a Family,” you can especially learn from those who happen to be part of an exclusive club like Tiger 21.