How to Avoid Estate Planning Mistakes

You’ve sat down with an attorney, thought through any important decisions and created estate planning documents. You think you’re set for life, but you’re not. While creating estate planning documents is a great first step to financial and legacy planning, your plan is only as secure as it’s written. Avoid common estate planning mistakes by checking all the boxes beyond simply creating documents.

1. Update your documents

Not updating documents is one common estate planning mistake. You should update your estate plan every few years, especially if you’ve experienced any big life changes, such as:

• Marriage or divorce
• Having a child
• Gaining or losing a significant amount of funds

 

Updating your documents accordingly enables you to accurately reflect your wishes and take care of what matters most to you.

2. Double check beneficiaries

Beneficiary designations trip people up often. A beneficiary is a person who you list to receive an asset when you die. You designate a beneficiary on many documents, including life insurance forms and retirement accounts. Using beneficiary designations is important, but make sure you don’t designate a beneficiary on an asset, then list the asset in your will as going to someone else. The person who you listed as a beneficiary will receive the asset. However, the person you listed in your will won’t because beneficiary designations always take priority. Double check your designations to correctly reflect your wishes.

3. Don’t assume the best of people

While you like to think the best of your family and friends, sometimes they fall short of expectations. That’s especially true if you’re asking a lot of someone. Relying on another person to carry out tasks when you are unable to do them yourself is a key estate planning component. Many documents, including your powers of attorney, require you to name someone to help you if needed. It’s important to talk to each candidate you have in mind for roles in your estate plan. That way, you can see if your people are willing to take on a specific role. If they say no, you then have time to find another willing individual.

It seems as though everyone should say yes at first glance. However, asking someone to potentially be a legal guardian to your minor children or to make financial decisions on your behalf is a big ask. You want to ensure your candidates are up to the challenge.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help with your estate planning, Medicaid planning and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law Firm, click here.

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Estate Planning 101: Document Definitions

Estate planning can be a confusing, harrowing process, but having access to the right resources makes it easier. Boyum Law Firm and our blog posts are here to help with quick facts and easy to understand information. In this blog post, we’ll catch you up on the basics by running through estate planning document definitions. Read on to learn more about last wills, living wills, and powers of attorney documents.

Last will and testament

Simply put, you use your last will and testament to state your final wishes, including:

• Naming a legal guardian for any minor children
• Distributing assets
• Naming a personal representative to shepherd your estate through the probate process

 

Everyone should create a last will and testament. Your estate planning attorney can help you decide if supplementing your last will with additional documents, such as a trust, is right for you. Even without extra protection provided by a trust, your last will ultimately helps you convey your last wishes after you die.

Living Will

Unlike your last will and testament, your living will comes into play while you’re alive. You use this document to state your wishes in terms of medical care before an emergency happens. Normally when you go to the doctor, you make health care decisions for yourself. If something happens and you’re no longer able to express your decisions or desires for care, your living will does so for you. Overall, creating a living will enables you to make health care decisions in advance. Hopefully you’ll never need to use your living will, but if you do someday, you can rest assured your wishes are honored.

Powers of Attorney

Similar to a living will, your powers of attorney documents are only used if you’re incapacitated or unable to make decisions for yourself. People create two powers of attorney documents:

1. A medical power of attorney to make medical decisions on your behalf
2. A durable power of attorney to make financial decisions on your behalf

 

You can name the same person to serve in both roles are a separate person for each role. The decision is entirely yours, though you want to ensure you have the right person for both jobs. Someone who you trust, is willing to take on the responsibility, and knows you well is a good candidate for your powers of attorney.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help with your estate planning, Medicaid planning and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law Firm, click here.

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Teeing Off – From Golf to Law

Like many people, my first encounter with probate law didn’t come in a law class but with the loss of a loved one. I was a senior in high school when my grandfather passed away — old enough to grasp the pain and confusion the ensuing legal process caused. I remember going to many meetings to sort out his last will and testament. It took a toll on my already mourning family.

Eventually, the experience factored into my founding of Boyum Law Firm. To this day,my favorite part of my job is helping families comprehend and navigate a highly complex and emotionally charged area of the law. Best of all, I help them avoid situations like the one my own family faced. I did not, however, follow a straight path from high school to becoming an attorney. In fact, it wasn’t the law but golf that brought me to Nebraska.

While I had lawyers in the family, including my father, I was taken with golf as a young man. It helped I was good at the sport. After playing throughout high school and college, I toured as a coaching professional. During my time on tour, I saw many great things around the country. At the Nike Tour, Jim Hackenberg, inventor of the Orange Whip, advised me to stop in Omaha.

I did, took a coaching job at a country club, and have been here ever since. I eventually followed my father’s footsteps and became an attorney. Yet, I like to think the years spent coaching helped prepare me for representing folks in a way law school couldn’t. Much like golf, estate planning and elder law issues take patience and a steady hand. Plenty of pitfalls abound, and it’s easy to go astray if you aren’t careful.

These days, I don’t have much time to golf. Between helping my clients and being a new father, I’m busy in and out of the office. I may not tee off as often anymore, but I get to raise a family while doing work I’m passionate about in a great town. That’s plenty to be grateful for.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help with your estate planning, Medicaid planning and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law Firm, click here.

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Why Everyone Can Benefit from Creating a Trust

Often times, people think trusts are only for the wealthy. In reality, creating a trust benefits anyone who plans to pass assets down to their heirs. Here’s what you need to know about creating a trust and how a trust can benefit you.

Why create a trust?

Creating a trust provides a variety of benefits. First, having a trust enables your assets to avoid probate. Probate is the process the courts use to settle an individual’s estate when they die. The courts tax assets passing through probate. Since assets placed in a trust don’t pass through probate, they aren’t taxed, meaning your heirs keep more. Additionally, assets passed through probate are kept private. If you don’t want anyone to know what you’re leaving your heirs, a trust is the best route for maintaining privacy.

Who should create a trust?

Anyone who wants to use a trust for the reasons listed above should create one. Additionally, if you plan to pass down assets with any contingencies, consider using a trust. Examples of contingencies include heirs only receiving access to a trust at a certain age or after paying for their education. Addressing concerns and laying out line items are made possible through a trust.

How to create a trust

Creating a trust is as simple as contacting an estate planning attorney, setting up a meeting and making decisions. The making decisions step is typically where things become complicated. Trusts come in many shapes and sizes. From an irrevocable trust where your assets sit until you die to a special needs trust where you can place assets for a special needs child, trust choices are abundant. Your estate planning attorney can advise you on what type of trust is best for you. Where the real decision making comes in is who you’d like to leave what. This step, is of course, entirely up to you. You also have to choose a trustee when creating a trust. A trustee protects and distributes the assets in a trust when the the time comes.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help with your estate planning, Medicaid planning and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law Firm, click here.

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The Inter-Generational History of Our Conference Table

At Boyum Law Firm, we strive to help our clients smoothly transition their assets, big and small, to their heirs. After all, we know how valuable family momentous and heirlooms can be.

Take the conference table in our office, for example. The seemingly unimportant table has a long, storied history dating back from generation to generation of Boyum relatives.

The table first belonged to Lowell E. Boyum, my great-uncle. Lowell was born in Harvey, North Dakota on February 28, 1921. He was the second son of Peter A. Boyum and Manda Martinson Boyum. My grandfather, Arne S. Boyum, was the oldest son.

Lowell practiced medicine in Harvey first with his father and then with a medical group in the Harvey Clinic, which began in the 1950s.

The conference table that now resides in our office originally sat in the clinic’s library and conference room. The table remained in Harvey until Lowell delivered it to his nephew, Arne F. Boyum Jr., who is my father.

My father went on to use the conference table in his law office in Rolla, North Dakota. In October of 2018, he and my mother, Janie Theel Boyum, delivered the table to me for use in my law office.

Now, the clients I work with every day take a seat at my family’s table. They sign estate planning documents enabling them to transfer assets and momentous of their own to their heirs.

Seeing a little piece of my family’s history in my office every day reminds me of the importance of creating tailor-made estate planning documents for my clients. It reminds me of the “why” in my work and to make every day count so my clients and their heirs can build a legacy of their own.

Someday, I hope to pass the conference table down to my children so they, too, can take a seat at my family’s table and remember their grandparents and all who have come before.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help with your estate planning, Medicaid planning and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law Firm, click here.

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The Power of Having Powers of Attorney

You’re a responsible adult who pays the bills and makes decisions about your health care as needed. You run your own life, but what if someday, something happens and you’re unable to make important decisions? Who will step in and make them on your behalf? That’s where your powers of attorney come in.

What is a power of attorney?

A power of attorney is someone who steps in and makes decisions for you in the event you’re unable to make them on your own. People have two types of powers of attorney: a medical power of attorney and a durable power of attorney. A medical power of attorney handles your medical decisions and health care. Your durable power of attorney handles your finances and assets. You designate your powers of attorney by completing estate planning documents.

Who are your powers of attorney?

Your powers of attorney are whomever you want them to be. People often choose their spouse or a family member as their powers of attorney. It’s best to choose someone familiar with your wishes and who you trust with your finances. You can name the same person as both your durable and healthcare powers of attorney, select different people for each position or even name more than one person for each role. Since your estate plan is customizable, it’s up to you to decide what’s best. Your attorney can and should give you advice during the decision making process.

What are the benefits of naming powers of attorney?

Naming powers of attorney in your estate plan has several benefits. One, having designated powers of attorney means you have the opportunity to choose who makes decisions for you. If you don’t name powers of attorney and something happens, the courts will step in and name powers of attorney for you. They typically choose a close relative. However, the person they choose may not have been your top choice. Second, having pre selected powers of attorney prevents your family members from having to deal with more stress on top of your current situation. It’s easier for everyone involved and best for you if you do some planning and name powers of attorney just in case something happens.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help you with your estate planning, Medicaid planning and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law, click here.

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How to Prepare for an Estate Planning Meeting

Setting up an appointment with an estate planner is a great first step to take when creating an estate plan, but what comes next? The legal industry can be confusing, and it’s hard to know how to prepare for your appointment. While your attorney should be available to answer any questions you have, it never hurts to prepare on your own. Utilize the following tips to ensure your first estate planning meeting goes smoothly.

Locate important documents

Bringing important documents to your first appointment helps your estate planner structure the financial and personal aspects of your estate plan. Documents and information you should bring with you include:

• Financial documents, including retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and a list of assets
• The legal names and addresses of all heirs or institutions you plan to name in your documents
• A list of items, such as family heirlooms, you plan to leave to specific individuals

 

Make some decisions in advance

Making decisions before you meet with your estate planner can speed up the process of creating your documents. A large component of estate planning involves naming individuals to fill different roles in your estate plan. Deciding who you’d like those people to be in advance means you’ll be ready to go when your attorney asks who you have in mind for certain tasks, such as:

• A legal guardian for any children who are minors
• A personal representative to shepherd your estate through the probate process when you die
• Medical and durable powers of attorney to make medical and financial decisions on your behalf in the event of a medical emergency or incapacitatation

 

Talk to loved ones and those listed in your estate plan

Talking to the individuals listed in your documents is an important pre-meeting task to complete for several reasons. One, sharing that you’re working on your estate plan gives you the chance to explain the reasoning behind the decisions you’ve made. This can prevent family conflicts from occurring. Two, talking to the individuals you plan to have fill roles in your plan prevents those individuals from being blindsided when you need them. Being a legal guardian or personal representative requires taking on a lot of responsibility. It’s important to make sure the person you plan to name is up to the task.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help you with your estate planning, Medicaid planning and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law, click here.

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