Nicole Newman, Attorney at Law joins “Big Al” Clopine to discuss the most common mistakes she sees as an estate planning attorney. These include dying with or without a will, leaving assets to beneficiaries outright and not choosing the right estate plan for you.
Important Points
0:33 “One of the big gruesome mistakes that come through my office is when someone has died and they HAD a will. It’s not only a problem when someone dies without a will; it’s also a problem when someone dies with just a will. It’s a problem because they are not avoiding probate.”
1:14 “They interchange the terms will and trust all the time, and they think that once they have their will, they’re set – but their beneficiaries are still going to go through that long probate process.”
1:31 “Here in California, what will usually trigger the need for a trust is when we have real estate and/or children. That’s when I’ll usually highly recommend exploring a trust”
1:52 “The other gruesome mistake that I see is when people leave their beneficiaries’ assets outright. Outright distributions mean the beneficiaries get the money and can do whatever they want with it.”
3:53 “With a trust, we are able to structure the distributions to where the beneficiary would not be in charge of managing his funds…the trustee will be in charge of all his funds”
5:01 “Unfortunately, if they leave their daughter her inheritance outright, she receives her inheritance and passes away first, guess who’s getting that inheritance? (Son-in-law) Not your grandchildren.”
