Elder Law Issues

Say you’re moving out of Arizona. We’re a community property state, of course. Maybe you’re moving to a “common law” state — one that doesn’t recognize community property. Maybe Montana. Or another state.

What changes will the move automatically create in your estate plan, if any? What changes should you consider upon making the move?

Once you’ve established a trust, what do you do to transfer your real estate into the trust’s name? We discuss title insurance, types of deeds and the mechanics of making the transfer in this week’s podcast.

What capacity level is required for someone to sign a health care power of attorney? Under Arizona law, the bar is set pretty low. People with diminished capacity, who might not be able to do a lot of other things can probably sign a valid health care power of attorney.

What’s the difference between owning property as “community property with right of survivorship”, “joint tenancy with right of survivorship” and just plain old “community property”? Let us explain.

Our clients sometimes want to leave their house (or other residence) to be used by a child, spouse or other person. But maybe they don’t want to leave the property outright to the beneficiary. It should be easy to leave the property to be used by the intended beneficiary but to revert to other beneficiaries. Right?

Not so fast. Let’s talk more about this idea.

We’ve talked and written about powers of attorney — where to keep them, whom to share them with, what ought to be included. But in this podcast episode, we want to talk about the practicalities of actually using your financial power of attorney in the real world.

After you’ve signed your will, trust (if any), and powers of attorney — just stop tinkering, would you? Don’t keep modifying your beneficiary designations, or writing on the documents, or putting property in joint names. Want to discuss changes, and how to make them? Come back and see us. But don’t tinker.

Episode #200! Who knew we had four years’ worth of weekly podcasts in us?

We did. That’s who. And things are still changing at Fleming & Curti, PLC.

Can the guardianship/conservatorship process be sped up when there is an emergency? And what is an emergency, anyway?