Blog - Wilson Law Group, LLC

When You May Not Be Able to Use a Financial Power of Attorney

You may have signed a financial power of attorney (POA) that allows one or more people to act on your behalf if and when you become unable to act for yourself. However, a financial POA is not valid in certain situations. Knowing when your POA will not be recognized is an often-overlooked aspect of estate planning. To ensure that you have anticipated every contingency, you should discuss with your estate planning attorney the POA exceptions noted in this article.

Defining “Fair Market Value”: The Case of Wilburn v. Mangano

When reading through a will or trust agreement, you may see language that grants a right to an individual to purchase certain property from the estate or trust at “fair market value.” At first glance, this phrase may seem a perfectly reasonable method of setting a suitable purchase price for a property to be sold at a later date. But a recent court case out of Virginia teaches an important lesson to those who have a will or a trust that relies solely on the term “fair market value” to set a future price of property.

Types of Life Insurance and How They Can Be Used in Estate Planning

Many of us do not start thinking about life insurance until we get our first full-time job and the company’s human resources representative asks us if we want to enroll in the employer’s group life insurance policy. Most people think “Why not?” and sign up, naming a family member as the beneficiary of their policy, and then never give it another thought. Although this may be a good start, too few of us spend much more time thinking about life insurance.

Can a Disabled Individual Be an Executor or a Trustee?

An important element of creating an estate plan is choosing a responsible party to handle your legal, medical, and financial affairs if you become unable to manage them yourself (i.e., ...

Your Estate Plan and Your New Job

Starting a new job is an exciting new chapter in your life. Depending on your company’s onboarding process, there can be a lot of moving parts. You may feel overwhelmed by the introduction and review of the many different types of employee benefits. Not only are there forms to be filled out, they need to be filled out properly to ensure that your true financial and estate planning wishes are carried out.

Why Is My Trust So Long?

When you met with an attorney a few weeks ago, perhaps all you expected was a simple will. Maybe you thought that, with your situation, the work should be easy and the documents should be few. But now that you have finished working with the attorney, your parting gift is a heavy binder filled with hundreds of pages. You may be wondering, “Why is my trust so long?”

Do I Have to Leave Anything to My Children?

One storyline trope in Hollywood movies is the rich father disinheriting the family outcast. The story usually traces the child’s attempts to win the father over and be considered a part of the family again. But can fiction imitate reality? Can you actually disinherit a child? The answer, in most circumstances, is yes. You can disinherit a child under most states’ laws, but you must understand the limitations and additional factors if you are considering this option.

Simultaneous Deaths: What If My Spouse and I Die at the Same Time?

The chances of a married couple dying in a common accident or within a very short time of one another are probably quite slim. However, it does happen. And it happens frequently enough that most states have laws to address the issue and the problems that can arise from simultaneous deaths. What are these laws, why do we need them, and can we work around them if we need to?

The Estate Planning Toolkit for Unmarried Partners

Estate planning is essential for everyone, but it is especially important if you and your partner are in a long-term committed relationship and are not married. Unless you plan properly, ...

What Are the Rights of a Child Born Outside of Marriage?

Despite the prevailing view, children born to unmarried parents are commonplace. If you are a nonmarital child or have a nonmarital child, it is essential to understand how rights to inherit are formed and defined. Failure to adequately provide estate planning for a nonmarital child could be problematic for children and families attempting to assert their rights following the nonmarital father’s death.