Legal Fees on Your Docket? Pay Them Off with Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency, otherwise known as digital currency, is becoming more popular. To keep up with the times and the popularity of this new form of “money,” The Nebraska Lawyers’ Advisory Committee recently published an advisory opinion giving Nebraska lawyers the OK to accept digital currency as a form of payment. Read on to discover what the Nebraska Lawyers’ Advisory Committee is and how you can pay off your legal fees using cryptocurrency.

What is the Nebraska Lawyers’ Advisory Committee?

The Nebraska Lawyers’ Advisory Committee is an eight member committee appointed by the Nebraska Supreme Court. Every Supreme Court Judicial District in Nebraska has a representative member on the committee. The committee’s job is to answer ethical questions asked by Nebraska lawyers. In order to answer the lawyers’ questions, the committee examines and weighs each question against the state’s Rules of Professional Conduct. The committee then provides an advisory opinion in response to each question.

How to use cryptocurrency to pay off legal fees

In September, the committee was asked if lawyers could accept cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, as payment for legal fees. The committee’s advisory opinion said yes, so long as they followed several rules. Lawyers can accept cryptocurrency as payment but must immediately convert the payment to U.S. currency. Since the value of cryptocurrency fluctuates similar to the way stock prices fluctuate, converting the money right away prevents clients from overpaying for services. So, if you have legal fees due in Nebraska, you can now pay them off using digital currency.

Other ways to use digital currency in the Nebraska legal system

Two other questions regarding digital currency appeared before the committee in September. The first question asked whether an attorney could receive digital currency from third parties as payment for or to benefit a client’s account. The second question asked if an attorney could hold digital currency in trust or escrow for a client. The committee answered yes to both these questions with several rules put into place as well.

In response to the first question, the committee said third-party payments can be accepted as long as the party is identified. Additionally, the payment cannot affect the lawyer’s independent relationship with the client.

For the second question, the committee advised that an attorney can hold cryptocurrencies in escrow for a client. However, the cryptocurrency must be property rather than currency and must be kept separate from the lawyer’s property.  Records also have to be kept for a five-year period.

Why is the committee’s opinion important?

The Nebraska Lawyers’ Advisory Committee’s opinion is important because it marks the first time a state ethics body has answered questions regarding digital currency payments. To learn more about cryptocurrencies’ involvement in estate planning check out our blog on Bitcoin here.

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Carrie Fisher’s Burial: A Tribute To Her Life

Legendary Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher passed away of cardiac arrest on December 27, 2016. She was 60 years old. Her mother Debbie Reynolds, also a legendary figure in Hollywood, died the very next day. Together they left an indelible legacy. Read on to find out about Fisher’s fitting burial.

Family Ties

Reynolds left behind her son Todd Fisher, and Fisher left her daughter Billie Lourd and service dog Gary Fisher. Gary, a french bulldog, now lives with Fisher’s former assistant Corby McCoin. The actresses’ combined estates went to Lourd in their entirety. Much of the physical property, including Fisher’s personalized director’s chair from Return of the Jedi, went up for auction, with the proceeds benefiting mental health charities the Jed Foundation and the Thalians.

 

A Lifelong Struggle

Fisher made her mark with her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise. But she also wrote several novels and memoirs, along with plays and screen plays. She made no secret of her struggles with drug addiction and mental illness. Fisher won several awards for her advocacy, including the 2012 Kim Peek Award for Disability in Media for her openness on her struggle with bipolar disorder. She became an icon for dismantling the stigma surrounding addiction and mental illnesses.

A Burial Fit For A Princess

Accourding to Lourd, one of her mother’s most prized possessions was a giant ceramic Prozac pill from the 1950’s. So when the question arose of how to best honor Fisher’s incredible legacy, Lourd and her uncle Todd decided to inter Fisher’s ashes in the Prozac pill. Fisher was known for her candor, humor, and passion. A recently revealed story detailed her response to a Hollywood producer’s sexual harassment of her friend. When she heard of the incident, she approached the unnamed Oscar winner at Sony Studios and gave him a blue Tiffany box with a white ribbon. Inside, she put a cow tongue. She also included a note that said, “If you ever touch my darling Heather or any other woman again, the next delivery will be something of yours in a much smaller box.”

To her survivors, this burial was the perfect way to honor such a unique and spirited life in a way Fisher would have wanted.

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Bitcoin: A New Kind of Digital Inheritance

Real estate, family heirlooms, and savings accounts are some of the first things that come to mind when picturing an inheritance. Thanks to advances in technology, new types of inheritances are springing up in the form of digital assets. Digital assets are online accounts, such as Facebook profiles, email addresses, and iTunes accounts. Nebraska has a state law that makes it legal to transfer digital assets to a personal representative upon an individual’s death. This law is especially important since virtual currency, such as Bitcoin, is becoming more popular. Read on to discover what Bitcoin is, where to buy it, and how to pass it on to your heirs.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital payment network where Bitcoin currency is stored and transferred. The Bitcoin network is run by a system of computers around the world and is not owned by a single company or individual. Since there’s no specific company keeping track of Bitcoin transactions, the virtual currency has been linked to illegal activity in the past. However, many Bitcoin transactions occur because of the currency’s value. The computers that run the Bitcoin system track Bitcoin transactions. Tracking Bitcoin transactions is an important part of determining the value of Bitcoin currency.

How does Bitcoin currency work?

Bitcoin currency is called a Bitcoin. A Bitcoin is a type of digital token that you can send to someone electronically. However, Bitcoins do not come in set amounts like physical currency does. A Bitcoin can be divided into eight decimal places. So, the smallest amount you can send someone is 0.00000001 Bitcoins, according to the New York Times.  Additionally, the value of a Bitcoin changes similarly to the way the value of stocks change based on bidding. The value of one Bitcoin as of October 9, 2017 is $4,802.95 in U.S. currency.

How do you buy Bitcoins?

Several companies are set up to sell you Bitcoins in exchange for regular currency. Many people in the U.S. choose to use a company called Coinbase. Coinbase links to your bank account and has a multi-step verification process for safety. Once purchased, Bitcoins are stored in a virtual wallet. Virtual wallets are set up to send and receive Bitcoins with a public key, which is a random string of numbers and letters. However, you need a private key to access the Bitcoins in your wallet. Additionally, most virtual wallets are also password protected to ensure the safety of their contents.

How do your heirs inherit your Bitcoins?

The value of Bitcoins has been steadily rising. It makes sense to pass on your Bitcoins to your heirs the same way you would pass on your stocks. In order to pass your Bitcoins on as inheritance, your heirs need the password and private and public keys to your virtual wallet. The private key to your Bitcoins is especially important because without it, your heirs will only be able to see the value of your wallet but will be unable to access its contents. You can pass on your private key by writing it down, storing it in a flash drive, or entrusting a company to give the information to your family after your death.

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The Unique Burial of the Pringles Can Inventor

In 1966, Fredric Baur revolutionized potato chip storage. Baur invented the iconic Pringles can and the chip itself. When Baur brought up the idea of his burial including is invention, his family first thought he was joking, but they buried him in a Pringles can in 2008.

Once you pop, you can’t stop

Baur received the patent for his design in 1970, after applying for it in 1966.  The design changed the world of snack food forever. Baur was an organic chemist and food storage technician for Procter & Gamble. His other notable creations include frying oils and freeze-dried ice cream. Procter & Gamble introduced Pringles to the American market in 1967 and the British market in 1991.

Power to the Pringles can

When it first came out, not everyone liked the new Pringles can. The uniformity of the chips clashed with the individualism of the 1960’s. Baur said of his invention, “The Pringles can was a revolution within the realm of snack food.” Despite its rocky start, the can has now become ubiquitously tied to potato chips in the eyes of consumers, and it helped inspire other packaging revolutions. Baur retired from Procter & Gamble in the early 1980’s.

A burial fit for an icon

Fredric Baur died on May 4, 2008, in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the age of 89. To honor his wishes, his children got an original flavor can of Pringles from a nearby Walgreens. They placed a portion of his cremated remains in the can after emptying it and buried it alongside an urn with the remainder of his remains. Some of the remains, however, went to one of his grandsons in another urn. Although many jokes circulated the family about Baur’s wishes, no one questioned whether or not to carry out his wishes. Baur’s legacy lives on in the shape of the tall, cylindrical icon of potato chips.

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Legendary Alexander The Great’s Lost Last Will and Testament

Alexander the Great is said to have displayed heterochromia iridium, which would have made one of his eyes dark and the other light.

It can be hard to imagine the worst case scenario of dying without a will, but for most people, the consequences are far from 50 years of war. For the legendary Alexander the Great, that is exactly what happened. But now, 2000 years after his death, his last will and testament may have been discovered.

Heroes Get Remembered, but Legends Never Die

Despite his legendary status, Alexander III of Macedonia, commonly known as Alexander the Great, died in Babylon on 10 or 11 of June in 323 BCE, at the age of 32. His death was so sudden that when reports reached Greece, they were thought to be a hoax. The cause of his death is unknown, but theories include malaria, typhoid fever, and poison. Both malaria and typhoid fever were common in Babylon at the time.

By Blood A King

After Alexander’s death, his successor was unclear. His generals alleged that his last words were “to the strongest,” meaning that his empire would go to the general who could defeat the others in battle. His potential successors, known as the Diadochi, split up the military and waged a war that lasted 50 years.

Published in the Alexander Romance, a legendary account of Alexander the Great’s life, was a political pamphlet containing a last will and testament in ancient Armenian. The will was believed to be a work of fiction, but British historian David Grant believes it is based on the king’s actual will.

Man is By Nature a Political Animal

A 10-year research project by Grant has revealed the possibility that the fabled will was based on the genuine document. The pamphlet offers a heavily politicized version of what may be Alexander the Great’s true final wishes.  Grant believes the original will was buried by Alexander’s generals because it named his half-asian unborn son, Alexander IV as his heir.

The Macedonians saw the child as a “half-breed,” and to follow him would be “unthinkable” at the time. Thus, instead of being content with the allotments that the elder Alexander left for each of the generals to rule for his son, they battled for years to control the empire. Alexander IV was murdered by one of the generals at the age of 14 before he could fully ascend to the throne.

Grant details his findings in his recently released book In Search of the Lost Testament of Alexander the Great.

Although most modern people do not have to worry about wars and murder if they do not have an estate plan in place, Alexander the Great’s successors provide a horrifying example of what can go wrong when one leaves behind a great legacy with no instruction manual.

 

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Save the DIY projects for crafting, not for creating an estate plan

In the age of the internet and smart phones, people have a plethora of information available at their fingertips. All it takes is a quick Google search to look up how to do just about anything. While easy access to how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookies or fix a broken cabinet is good, some things are best left to the experts. Creating an estate plan is one of those things. Read on to discover why.

1. Estate planning creates an assets name game

At first glance, estate planning seems as simple as creating a connect-the-dots version of who gets what when you die. In reality, making sure your assets go to the right person is much more complicated.

For example, most DIY wills have a person place the name of their beneficiary into a provided blank. So, if you wanted to give your daughter Jane Doe what’s left in your bank account, you’d write her name into the blank along with the asset. However, if Jane isn’t named as a beneficiary on your account and your son John is, Jane is unable to access the money when you die even though your DIY will says it should go to her. This is because who the account has listed as a beneficiary takes precedence.

A skilled attorney knows the ins and outs of estate planning and can ensure assets go to the correct person, which is why you should hire an attorney rather than trust an online DIY fill-in-the-blank form.

2. Estate planning requires specific language

A person’s assets and beneficiaries change over time, such as with a portfolio increase or birth in the family.  For this reason, many people create more than one will during their lifetime. It’s necessary to include language within a will that makes any previous wills void when a new one is created. An attorney knows how to word a will in order to make changes legally binding, which is why estate planning is best left to the experts.

3. Estate planning documents are easily mixed up

A variety of documents are used to create an estate plan, and many of them sound similar. Unlike a free form found on the internet, an attorney will sit down with you and explain the differences between a living will and last will and testament and durable vs. healthcare powers of attorney. A trained individual will be able to take the guess work out of creating an estate plan. This, in turn, will help ensure you are making a plan that fits your individual needs.

Ditch the DIY forms and hire an attorney to help you create an individualized estate plan. Learn how Boyum Law can help you create an estate plan by clicking here.

 

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How To Begin Your Estate Plan In 5 Steps

Estate planning can be a daunting task to begin. They force you to face your own mortality and examine the relationships you have with those closest to you. Here are five simplified steps to take when you set out to make an estate plan.

1. Make a will

This is the be all end all of estate planning. Designate where and to whom you want your assets to go. Whether or not you are wealthy, you are going to need a will, especially if you have children who are still minors.

2. Make a durable power of attorney

If you become incapacitated, you will need someone to handle all of your assets. With durable power of attorney, you can designate someone capable and trustworthy who you will act in your best interests.

3. Make a living will and medical power of attorney

A medical power of attorney will allow someone you trust to make medical decisions in your stead should you ever be unable to do so yourself. A living will specifies your wishes for end-of-life care. You will need both of these if you want to have the final say in these matters.

4. Title your assets accurately

No matter what your will says, assets such as life insurance and trusts will go to those named beneficiaries. Take the time now that the beneficiaries named are the ones you want to receive those benefits when you pass.

5. Check with family

Do your parents have an estate plan? If the answer is no, ask how you can help them get their affairs in order. Will someone feel snubbed with your plan as it stands? If yes, what plan will make everyone feel they were thought of equitably.

 

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