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Pros and Cons of Payable on Death Accounts
Beyond wills and trusts, other methods can be used to craft the best estate plan for your needs. Payable-on-death accounts (PODs) are one such method. They can be an easy and cost-efficient way to avoid probate, but they are not without risks. Essentially, with a POD you designate one or more beneficiaries to inherit your account upon your death. An experienced Fort Worth, TX estate planning attorney can help you decide whether a payable-on-death account is right for your estate planning needs.
What Is a Payable on Death Account?
A payable-on-death account is an estate planning instrument. When you open a POD, you name one or more beneficiaries to take over the account when you pass away. You control the assets in the account during your life and can change the beneficiaries or remove them altogether at any point.
How to Choose a Legal Guardian for Your Minor Child
Many aspects of estate planning fall in the "what if" category. That is, they are legal plans of action we put in place in the event the worst-case scenario happens. One such hypothetical situation is: what if something happens to the parents of a minor child? Who takes over as guardian? This is not a scenario anyone wants to think about, but planning for it can be a way to ensure that your children are in good hands and that your wishes for their upbringing are honored. Choosing a guardian for your minor child in this scenario can also provide you with the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your child is protected in the unlikely event something should happen to you. It is a good idea to think about the important considerations that go into choosing a guardian for a minor child. An experienced Fort Worth, TX estate planning attorney can help you choose a legal guardian for your minor child.
How Do You Decide on the Best Structure for Your Business?
If you have decided to open up your own business and be your own boss, you are surely busy juggling many different tasks on your to-do list, such as conducting market research, finding commercial space, and interviewing prospective employees.
Before you open your business, you will also have to choose the best corporate structure for your company. The corporate structure that you choose can impact many things, from your taxes to your personal liability if anything goes wrong. Speaking to an experienced Fort Worth, TX business formation attorney about the right business structure for your venture is a great first step to ensuring your company’s success.
What Are the Available Business Structures?
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Sole proprietorship: The simplest business structure for businesses owned by one person.
Estate Planning For Your Pet
The bond between humans and pets is strong. So strong is this bond, in fact, that our pets often feel like members of the family. We want to protect them even after our passing, as we do during life. While the law treats animals as property, which means that they do not have the right to inherit assets or own property, there are ways to put in place protections in an estate plan to ensure that our four-legged friends are looked after even after our passing. An experienced Fort Worth, TX estate planning attorney can help you formulate strategies to protect your pets in your estate plan.
How Can You Protect Your Pet After Death?
Last Will and Testament
It is possible to name a beneficiary in your will to inherit your pet. You may also leave a beneficiary funds to take care of that pet. Although bequeathing your pet and the money for the beneficiary to take care of the pet is preferable to doing nothing, using a will to protect your pet has some downsides. High on the list of downsides is the inability to ensure that the funds actually go towards care of the pet, and the fact that the will has to go through a lengthy and sometimes expensive legal process called probate.
Key Benefits of Structuring Your Business as an LLC
A company’s corporate structure can have a significant influence on the business, including litigation risk, exposure to personal liability, administrative costs, taxes, and day-to-day operations. Business owners should give their company’s corporate structure serious thought.
One popular way to structure businesses in Texas is as a limited liability corporation (LLC), a structure that provides key benefits, particularly when it comes to reducing personal liability. An experienced Fort Worth, TX business law attorney can provide advice on the ideal corporate structure for a business.
What is a Limited Liability Company?
An LLC is a corporate structure that protects business owners from personal liability for business debts and disputes. Among the most common business structures, the LLC combines aspects of a corporation with those of a partnership or sole proprietorship and is owned by LLC members. To register an LLC, business owners will submit certain forms to the Texas Secretary of State.
What Does a Trustee of a Trust Need to Do?
When a trust is created as part of an estate plan, the trustee will have a significant role in the management, investment, distribution, and administration of that trust. The trustee’s role is significant: they manage the trust on behalf of the trust beneficiaries, serve as legal owners of the trust, and essentially hold the keys and guard the gate of the trust.
Because of this significant role, a trustee has a number of legal responsibilities, called fiduciary duties, to act in the best interest of the grantor, the beneficiaries, and the trust. An experienced Texas estate planning attorney can advise you on the duties of the trustee, whether you have been appointed as trustee of a trust, are a grantor of a trust, or its beneficiary.
What Are the Duties of a Trustee?
Duty of Loyalty
Why Include a HIPAA Release in Your Estate Plan?
When you sit down to create your estate plan, one of the goals should be to plan for those unexpected situations that no one really wants to think about. Planning for worst-case scenarios is one of the big reasons people make an estate plan. It gives you a chance to protect yourself and your family if you are incapacitated and cannot handle your medical affairs.
There are a number of documents essential to planning for the possibility of medical incapacity in estate planning, such as the advance directive and a medical power of attorney. Yet no comprehensive estate plan is complete without including a HIPAA release form. An experienced Forth Worth, TX estate planning attorney can help ensure that you have a HIPAA release form and any other necessary ancillary documents as part of your estate plan.
Top Recommendations For Military Estate Plans
Military personnel face unique challenges as they put their lives on the line for the country. Servicemembers are often away from home for long periods of time. Some military families have to frequently relocate.
Given the unpredictability and uncertainty of military life, having an estate plan in place is especially important for servicemembers. Military personnel and veterans can also take advantage of unique estate planning resources available only to members of the military. An experienced Fort Worth, TX attorney can advise military personnel on making their estate plan.
Have a Will In Place
A will is a legal document that lays out how you wish your assets to be distributed following your death. By having a valid legal will in place, you can ensure that your family is financially secure following your passing while helping it avoid the uncertainty and disputes that can arise when a person dies without a will.
Avoiding Tax Issues When Gifting to Grandchildren
Tis the season for gift-giving, and what better way to celebrate than by gifting to grandchildren — one of life’s greatest joys. Indeed, as your family grows, you may wish to provide a substantial gift to one or more of your grandchildren, perhaps as a way to share your wealth and help them on their future path. However, you may be understandably concerned about the tax implications of larger financial gifts. A Texas estate planning attorney can offer legal strategies to avoid or minimize tax issues when gifting to grandchildren.
How Can You Minimize or Avoid Taxes on Gifts?
Give the Gift Outright
The Internal Revenue Service allows you to give a gift of up to $18,000 per individual or $36,000 per couple in 2024, per beneficiary. This means that if you have four adorable grandchildren, you could give each one $18,000 tax-free this year alone. You could spread out gift-giving over the years by sticking to the annual limit. Keep in mind that there is also a lifetime gift tax exclusion of $13.61 million per person in 2024, so your total lifetime gifts should not exceed this amount if you wish to avoid tax liability. As for Texas, the state does not have a gift tax, so there is no need to worry about incurring taxes here.
Estate Planning for Medicaid
Considering the high cost of long-term medical care, even if you have never used a government assistance program you may wish to qualify for Medicaid. If so, it is important to give a great deal of thought to crafting an estate plan that allows you to receive Medicaid while still protecting your assets and family. This is due to the unique qualification requirements for Medicaid. An experienced Fort Worth estate planning attorney can advise you on strategies to protect your estate and use Medicaid.
What is Medicaid?
Medicaid (not to be confused with Medicare) is a federal program administered by Texas that helps elderly and disabled low-income individuals obtain long-term medical care. Some of the benefits of Medicaid include:
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Hospital services
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Home health services
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Transportation to medical care
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