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Ronald Hudkins Profile and Articles
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1). Estate Planning - No Contest Clause in your Will
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
There is value in the story of an older client who had seen a very interesting clause employed in a will. There was a great deal of money at stake and the many family members had little reason to love each other, because they had never met and never knew of each other’s existence. It was expected that the will would be heavily contested on several different fronts in every conceivable way.
2). Estate Planning – Considering a Second Marriage Late in Life
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
As the life expectancy of people in the United States increases, the reality of second and third marriages becomes more likely even for those who tend to marry for a long time if not until the death of their first spouse. Widows and widowers are increasingly likely to meet and decide that a second marriage is an excellent way to avoid spending their autumn years alone and that love is not the exclusive province of the young.
3). Offshore Trust - Effective Estate Planning, You Decide
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
The creation of offshore trusts and other financial plans is a way of shielding your assets from the laws of the nation in which you reside. It can sometimes be used to remove one of the two certainties of life; taxes. Americans are far less likely than the citizens of other countries to put assets abroad because, although when you receive the benefits of being free of your country’s laws regarding assets (namely taxation) you also lose the aspect of those laws that are designed to protect your assets.
4). Legality of Offshore Investments
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
Having an offshore banking account, corporation or trust are common themes in legal thrillers, spy novels and eastern European politics. There is a reason to be concerned about the legality of such accounts, for although many people would like to include them in their estate planning, a legal misstep regarding the use.
5). Estate Planning - Protecting Your Assets from the State
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
It isn’t just the US Government waiting out there to grab a chunk of your hard earned estate when you become incapacitated or die. Strangely enough, state coffers are frequently enlarged through the mechanism of Medicaid. When someone requires long-term care in a nursing home, unless he or she has a private long-term care insurance policy, their whole estate may belong to the state when they pass on.
6). Estate Planning - Undue Influence Considerations
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
Often during the final years of a dear friend’s or relative’s life some person or persons will take over the task of caring for their sick and elderly friend or relative to a greater degree than the other people in their lives. This is sometimes due to sheer geography where the aged or sick person lives nearer to one set of relatives than to another.
7). Estate Planning -Intent to Disinherit or Oversight?
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
Sometimes family and estate planning begins before the family is complete, particularly in an age where people (generally) are waiting until later to have children. In that case there could be grandchildren named in a will and others not, who are all in the same family. The reason may simply be that the children who were left out were not born when the will was made and it is too late to remake it.
8). Estate Planning – Protecting your Will’s Integrity
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
In the not overly distant past, the writings of the testator were the only evidence of his or her intentions and mental capacity. Undue influence was harder to defend against when the only evidence was the testator’s writings and the recollection of those around them. Imagine the scene, the packed court room (perhaps I.
9). Estate Planning - Real Property Disbursement Problems
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
Many parents want to give an equal share of the family home or some other sentimental form of real property (actual land usually) to their surviving children in equal shares. As an estate-planning attorney, one often sees the strange problems created by such plans. In particular if there are an even number of children, this may create hardships as voting blocks of family members eventually have to resolve votes that are evenly split in court or at least face the hardship of that choice among their siblings.
10). Estate Planning - The Life Estate
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
The life estate is something every first year law student learns about when they study the arcane and often bizarre history of property law that harkens back to the days of English knights, lords and serfs, and the transfer of property through the ceremonial throwing of dirt clods with oaths of duty to accompany. The life estate is about as old as they come as instruments of wealth transfer go and students love it, because it is relatively easy to understand.
11). Estate Planning - Capacity Challenges
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
Wills and trusts have an interesting history in a culture as heavily influenced by British common law as our own. The bequests of wills have been the pole star around which a great deal of mystery fiction has been written where furtive and anxious relatives wait around a long imposing table to hear what is to become of the family fortune and thus; what is to become of them.
12). Estate Planning - Gender Issues Meet Social Security
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
If Social Security benefits play a significant role in your retirement plan, it may be time to rethink your strategy. The big news on the Social Security front over the past few years has been the fact that, due to an overabundance of encroachments on the system, it will soon be paying out more than it takes in. Opponents.
13). Planning for the Intangibles
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
Every state has statutes and mechanisms in place that deal with disposal of tangible assets whether the deceased had a will or not. Families might fight over who gets the house, the cars, the stocks and the cash, but there is generally no question about where such property is located.
On the other hand, many of the questions surrounding intangible digital assets are just beginning to be asked, much less answered.
14). Retirement and the Roth IRA
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
An IRA is an IRA is an IRA, unless it’s a Roth IRA. Roth IRAs, which burst upon the investment scene not so long ago, offers some attractive departures from traditional IRAs, especially if it’s being used as a retirement planning tool.
The Roth is the same as a traditional IRA in that it is not an investment in and of itself, but a vehicle to investing in other instruments such as stocks, bonds, bank certificates of deposit, mutual funds, and even real estate.
15). Estate Planning - Protecting Your Furred Friend
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
The whole concept of estate planning has a couple of primary aims: 1) making sure that your assets are distributed where and how you want them to be, and 2) ensuring that your loved ones are cared for and able to comfortably live out their lives after you are gone. If you consider your pets as part of your property, to whom do you leave them – and the obvious answer is to someone who won’t immediately haul them to the nearest shelter and drop them off.
16). Estate Planning - Rules and Trustees
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
If you are wisely attempting to put some assets into a trust (inter vivos) in your lifetime, then you have been paying attention to the important differences between wills and trusts. A trust created during your life will be far more secure with respect to its ability to withstand challenges to how your assets are to be distributed during estate planning than a will.
17). Estate Planning - What About Life Insurance?
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
Not too many years ago life insurance was considered to be the indispensable platform upon which all other estate planning efforts should be based. In fact, for those in the median and lower income ranges, it was often the only recognized method for protecting one’s heirs, particularly in the event of untimely death. However, over the past twenty or so years, the concept of financial planning has changed considerably.
18). Estate Planning - Real Property Disbursement Problems.
Copyright 2006 Ronald Hudkins
The problem created by evenly splitting an interest in real property between your heirs.
Many parents want to give an equal share of the family home or some other sentimental form of real property (actual land usually) to their surviving children in equal shares. As an estate-planning attorney, one often sees the strange problems created by such plans.
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