Funeral Service Types With the advent of cremation, green burials, and alkaline hydrolysis (oddly referred to as “wet cremation”), funerals can be as unique as an individual. When a person pre-plans their funeral, they can plan as much or as little as they would like, but, at minimum, they choose a type of service (traditional […]
Questions regarding final disposition of human remains and the legal right to control such disposition sometimes become litigated issues during estate planning, long-term care planning, or probate. Estate planning and elder law attorneys should be aware of how a person purchases burial space, prepays for funeral services, or transfers/sells rights to burial space. Whether you […]
The Achieving a Better Life Experience Act (ABLE Act) was enacted on December 19, 2014. Minnesota enacted ABLE accounts into law in 2015. An ABLE account is established through a savings plan known as the Minnesota ABLE Plan in compliance with Minn. Stat. § 256Q.01. ABLE accounts are tax-exempt accounts (treated like 529 Plans) that […]
As anyone who has created an estate plan knows, in order to finalize the plan, you must sign documents. These documents may be wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives, deeds, or any other related form or document. In order to sign these documents, a person must have sufficient capacity, otherwise the documents may […]
This article discusses some of the legal documents that can assist in planning for the physical care of a minor child in the event of a parent’s death or incapacity. Minnesota law provides that a parent may appoint a guardian over a minor child by will, designation of standby guardian, or certain other signed writings […]
Recently we have been meeting with many of our clients to discuss operational results for the first half of the year. Generally speaking, business is up from last year for my clients. As a result, people are starting to think about the higher tax bill they are likely to encounter. With higher tax bills looming […]
Owners of family businesses often find themselves in a dilemma over how to treat their adult children fairly when one or more is interested and capable of taking over the business and the other adult children are not. Certainly, the owners are not about to turn over their life’s work to anyone (their closest kin […]
A popular saying goes “bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.” Estate planners cannot rely on such platitudes. It is our job to fix bad planning especially in emergency situations which often involve quickly revoking one or all prior estate planning documents. This article provides guidance on revoking the […]
Minnesota is a pretty amazing state. We have great parks, great educational and business opportunities, great health care, and — let’s face it, — we’re ridiculously good looking.[1] But for all its up-sides, those perks come with a cost. First, Minnesota can be an expensive place. Also, it gets cold. So it’s no surprise […]
In August 2014, I posted an article about Robin Williams’ estate plan. Now, 13 months after his death more details have been revealed regarding his estate plan and unfortunately, the court battles have begun. So the good news. Robin did have an estate plan; an updated estate plan to boot. He was married in 2011, […]
Epilawg is in the running for The Expert Institute’s Best Legal Blog Competition! The competition will run from August 27th until the close of voting at 12:00 AM on October 9th, at which point the votes will be tallied and the winners announced. We would love it if you took a moment to support Epilawg by voting for […]