Blog - Wilson Law Group, LLC

Untangling Tangled Titles: Homeownership, Property Deeds, and Estate Planning

If you are currently living in a property that you inherited but the deed has not been transferred into your name, you may be surprised to learn that, under the law, you are technically not the owner. This legal situation is known as “tangled title.” A tangled title negatively impacts a property’s current occupant in a number of ways. It can also harm generational wealth and even contribute to fraud. For many households, most of their wealth is tied up in their home. However, until a tangled title is resolved, you cannot take full advantage of your home’s value. Untangling a tangled title is often a complicated legal process that requires attorney assistance. There are costs, but the costs of not straightening out a title could be much higher in the long term.

Slayer Statutes: Preventing Killers from Profiting from Their Crimes

Most states have laws that prevent someone who has intentionally killed another individual from being able to inherit any property from their victim.[1] In general, these laws are referred to as “slayer statutes” and are designed to prevent the patently unjust outcome of a killer inheriting property as the result of such a heinous crime.

All Good Things Must Come to an End: Reasons a Trust Might Terminate

Nothing lasts forever. While trusts can stretch across generations and keep valuable money and property within a family, no trust has unlimited funds or an interminable time horizon. Every trust, at some point, will end. The reasons why a trust might terminate can vary, but in general, termination occurs because the trust has accomplished its purpose, is no longer economically feasible, has distributed all of its property, is revoked, or is dissolved by the court because of a dispute or an illegality.

What Happens to Your Social Media Accounts at Your Death?

According to Statista, more than 295 million people in the United States use social media.[1] If you are an avid social media user, have you considered what will happen to your accounts when you die? If you have spent time creating, uploading, and sharing content, it is important to take a look now at what will happen after you pass away so you can determine your content’s future.

Are Family Limited Partnerships Under Attack?

A popular estate planning tool that has long been used effectively may be facing new challenges under the current administration in Washington, DC. The family limited partnership (FLP) is an estate planning tool that allows families not only to transfer significant amounts of their wealth to succeeding generations while reducing estate, gift, and income tax liabilities but also to achieve several other important estate planning goals.

Life Insurance and Estate Planning: Protecting Your Beneficiaries’ Interests

A common misconception people have about life insurance is that they only need to designate their spouse, child, or loved one as the beneficiary of the policy to ensure that ...

Mental Health Considerations in Estate Planning

The odds are that you or somebody in your family is living with a mental health condition. Rather than ignoring what might be an uncomfortable topic, you should think proactively about the challenges of living with mental illness and set up an estate plan that addresses such challenges head-on. Estate planning is a sensitive subject and it can be even more sensitive when the issue of mental health is involved. If you need to set up an estate plan, or revise an existing estate plan, around mental health concerns, we are here to help. Please contact our office to set up an appointment with an estate planning attorney.

Should You Consider a Life Estate for Your Home?

A life estate, sometimes called a right of occupancy, is a property law concept that allows a property owner to split their interest in real estate and other types of property into different types of ownership that can exist simultaneously. For example, the owner of a cabin could legally split their ownership interest in the cabin, allowing them to possess and enjoy the cabin for the remainder of their life and then, at death, automatically pass full ownership of the cabin to a named individual.

Decanting: Redoing Your Loved One’s Estate Plan

Decanting is an important tool that emerged in some states in the last century.[1] This tool is increasingly being used to remedy situations where a now-irrevocable trust needs to be fixed because of changing circumstances that appear to work contrary to the trustmaker’s intent.

Why You Might Want to Go Through Probate

Avoiding probate is a common goal for individuals deciding how they want their money and property to be handled when they pass. It is a worthy one and is regularly promoted by estate planning attorneys across the nation. However, probate is not an inherently bad process and does not always need to be avoided. Probate can be simply defined as the court-supervised process of distributing a deceased person’s money and property—the key word being “court-supervised.” Court supervision has both pros and cons. In most cases, emphasis is rightly placed on the complexities associated with court involvement. Namely, court supervision makes the process of distributing money and property a public proceeding that is subject to timelines that are slow and often drawn out. The cost of court involvement also complicates matters.