Estate planning firm now out of business???

[70runner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

In 2001 my mom (now 85) established an estate planning portfolio with a company in Arizona (Johnson Estate Planning) that no longer appears to exist. The portfolio included a revocable living trust, pour over will, power of attorney, et al., and was validated by an attorney on behalf of the estate planning company. I can't locate the attorney either. My mom now lives with me in California. The portfolio needs to be updated. Suggestions? TIA.

 

[Dave1952]

What's the problem? Why can't you update any or all of this?

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Get another attorney to do it!!!

 

[LdiJ]

What's the problem? Why can't you update any or all of this?

I have the same questions...is your mother incompentent?...are you unable to hire an attorney for her to update her estate planning to match her current wishes?

 

[tranquility]

I agree, see an attorney. It is common to restate a trust when the principal moves. There is nothing hard here.

 

[curb1]

How many people are involved as beneficiaries? Do they get along? Is there any property involved? This might be very easy to do it yourself if it is a generic trust. How complicated is the trust? Does it even mention where she is living?

 

[70runner]

Two beneficiaries, myself and sister. Sister is the executor, however, her and my mom used to live in the same neighborhood so it made sense to have her as the exec. Then my sister moved out of state, so I moved mom in with us. Mom is reasonably competent, but very uncomfortable dealing with these matters. No property involved to speak of, thx to mom getting duped into a reverse mortgage. She does have a copy of the portfolio, I was just wondering where best to start since I am unable to contact the original planning firm/lawyer.

Another thot...at this point, there really isn't enough estate remaining to warrant an overhaul of the original trust. Would I need an estate lawyer to dissolve the original trust?

 

[TrustUser]

there really is no such thing as dissolving a trust.

a trust is merely an entity that can own assets.

if the trust does not own anything, then it is effectively "dissolved".

what makes sense to me is to figure out what assets your mom has, and then what might be the best way to own these assets.

then re-title them in the way that you choose.

since you have copies of all these documents, i dont think you will have much to do.

it may be that you wont need to do anything at all.

 

[curb1]

It is starting to sound like a trust will might not be what is needed. What is the nature of mother's assets? Bank accounts? Stocks? Anything like that? If her assets are very simple and have beneficiaries assigned to these assets, you might not need anything more than a very simple will.

It is great that you are taking care of this at this time. So much better now, than later. Is there anything at this time with the Trust in the title? Is the Trust empty?

 

[tranquility]

Two beneficiaries, myself and sister. Sister is the executor, however, her and my mom used to live in the same neighborhood so it made sense to have her as the exec. Then my sister moved out of state, so I moved mom in with us. Mom is reasonably competent, but very uncomfortable dealing with these matters. No property involved to speak of, thx to mom getting duped into a reverse mortgage. She does have a copy of the portfolio, I was just wondering where best to start since I am unable to contact the original planning firm/lawyer.

Another thot...at this point, there really isn't enough estate remaining to warrant an overhaul of the original trust. Would I need an estate lawyer to dissolve the original trust?

YOU would need many types of attorneys to revoke the trust. MOM would probably (assuming she is trustee) only need to follow the terms of the trust to do so. (She should be sure to revoke the pour-over will if she does get rid of the trust.)

 

[70runner]

Again, I appreciate everyone's inputs.

The orig trust was drawn up when my dad was alive and they jointly owned a home (paid off), a couple cars, and such. However, since the reverse mortgage pretty much erased her equity, her car isn't worth much, there is very little estate to worry about. Her checking acct does have some money and has the Trust and her as joint acct holders. We paid a visit to the bank today, created a new acct with her as primary acct holder (me as secondary). She plans to transfer the funds to this new acct. Once the orig <Trust> acct is empty, and her annuity/social security checks are showing up in the new acct, she plans to cancel the orig acct. That should take care of her monetary assets.

She does have a small life insurance policy in the trust, but that is a ripoff so we are cancelling it (she's paid nearly 6K into a plan that awards her 3.5K max). Door to door salesmen preying on the elderly.

Once the trust bank acct and life ins policy are eliminated, there is nothing left in the trust except her car and it probably isn't worth a retitle. So it sounds like the best approach is to just leave the Trust as is since there is very little it will own.

 

[curb1]

What is the situation with the house? Does Mom still have the house, or is it now owned by the bank? Is it out of the Trust?

 

[70runner]

We had a real estate agent do some comps on the house and the value of the house was approx equal to the balance on her reverse. So we decided it wasn't worth the trouble to sell and just moved my mom out. The house is in the trust but again no real value there. Probably end up with a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

 

[curb1]

That needs to be cleared up immediately. The house needs to be moved out of her possession. Since it is going to happen eventually, she needs to be proactive and do it as soon as possible. Then you can move on with this situation.

 

[70runner]

Copy that. We have notified the lender both in writing and verbally, awaiting their response.