Check your life insurance policies to make sure you have the correct people designated as your beneficiaries.
In divorce cases, the decree typically requires that a spouse who has a child support obligation to carry a life insurance policy until the children reach majority age. But after that time, it is probably not a good idea to keep your former spouse as a beneficiary. People, however, can forget and leave a former spouse on the policy. It happens all the time.
Investment firms are good at reminding you to check your beneficiary designations on a yearly basis. The life insurance companies? Not so much. Especially on older ...
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If you own real estate in your own name, then “Hello probate.”
Maybe you want probate. Maybe you want the court procedures involving a judge. But know that it usually means at least a year until your heirs get their money. And also know that significant attorney's fees will be part of the process.
A high-profile Omaha personal injury attorney passed away recently. He owned over two million dollars worth of Douglas County real estate in his own name. His estate is headed for county court. Again, maybe that's what he wanted. But my view is that his heirs would have been better served with a revocable living trust. It's quicker and the attorney's fees to administer the estate are way less. ...
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A trap for the unwary: Adding children to a deed.
It is so easy to add a child as an owner of real estate. Just get a deed online and file it with the Register of Deeds. People think that this is a good thing, but all sorts of unintended bad things can happen. 1. If the pre-existing owner is admitted into a nursing home within five years of the transfer, the conveyance can be used to delay Medicaid eligibility. The gift is without consideration and DHHS doesn't look kindly on that. The really bad part of this is that a person's home is exempt when applying for Medicaid. 2. The child is now an owner and that asset is subject to the claims of the child's creditors. All sorts of bad things can ...
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