My husband and I have been interviewing attorneys to update our documents to ensure we are compliant with the law.
We had 2 attorneys tell us that in AZ your estate will go through probate, regardless of how it is structured.
I stated this in an answer.
I have since found out that they were both wrong.
Please, everyone, learn from our experience and interview multiple attorneys until you find one that meets all your needs and knows their business. I am flabbergasted that they would not know that a trust doesn't go through probate. The 1st guy I thought, yea, whatever but when the very next appointment a different attorney said the same and when questioned, reiterated that I understood and every estate goes through probate, I assumed ( yea, I know) the law had changed and this was actually good information.
So, I have to apologize to you all for that incorrect information.
Hope everyone has a great weekend and a holiday season that meets your wishes and desires.
Another thing that we experienced and I think this was part of the sales pitch, EVERYTHING IS BASED ON SELLING FEAR! Ugh!
That makes me so mad, don't scare people into doing the right or needful thing, educate them on why it is a beneficial thing to do.
There is a very fine line between posting an opinion, and slander/libel. Many a person has been sued.
Also, I can’t recall if it was you or someone else on the forum who mentioned that in contested cases you really need a special type of elder lawyer. Not suggesting that is what is happening in your case but I wanted to highlight it because that was a “learned the hard way” item for me. Many estate lawyers are great at the planning/filling out the forms/documents part of work, but are not as good if there is conflict to be resolved. In those cases you really need a more motivated advocate. There are certain estate and elder lawyers who specialize in contested cases but you have to know that to find them in your community.
Jane
Bettysue, one thing we were told is to make sure your big ticket items are titled in the name of the trust, we have everything in our trusts name. The pour over will is for untitled assests and personal belongings that wouldn't go through probate.
Also, spouse to spouse there is no estate tax, going to charity no tax, anyone else- 40% estate tax but the minimum assets have to exceed 11 million before there is tax. If some new law isn't added this will drop to approximately 6 million in a few years. So unless you have loads of money you should be okay.
Probate gets costly when there is in fighting and no trust or will. Anyone can make a claim against any estate, getting a piece of the pie is a different story but it still costs money for the estate to battle.
ITSA crazy crazy world!
Why can't i just stipulate that everything mine is theirs !!!
Seems that lawyers/court are going to make sure they will get a piece of our ... in my case ... little pie !
Merry Christmas to you all!
Gad you got the right answer before investing money with one of the "uneducated".
For myself, when I looked around for a specialized attorney, I found my attorney here on the Aging Care website under the section of Elder Law Attorneys. I was quite pleased with my choice as she has an outstanding resume. Plus, if the attorney should leave the firm or one leave [it's quite a large firm], there are other Elder Law Attorneys to choose from within the firm.
That is the scary part.
We didn't just blindly pick attorneys, we got referrals from other "professional" people. We are firm believers that due diligence handles most situations before they start.
We always interview anyone we are hiring, we believe that they work for us and if they want to charge for the 1st mtg. Their name gets scratched.
What is the world coming to, can't really file a complaint because it is a he said she said situation and I am to busy to pursue air.
It truly is a buyer beware world.
I remember back when I saw a copy of my parent's Will, and was surprised to see how it was written. My parents had their real estate attorney write up the Will and he just wrote in what my parents requested. Oh dear.
So I quickly had my parents visit with my Elder Law Attorney, and the complex items my parents had in their old Will, the Attorney removed those items as it would have cause a very complex probate. The Attorney had my parents set up a Revocable Trust instead.