Other estate planning professionals besides attorneys

[tchr614]

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

My husband was the successor trustee / beneficiary of his parents' revocable living trust. He needs to transfer the house into his name, I believe, then we want to create our own living trust and have the house put into that. We have heard there is a 2-year time limit of some kind, and we are getting close to the 2 years since his mother passed away.

This is a second marriage for both of us (with stepchildren), so whatever new trust is created will have special provisions to take that into consideration.

My question is - besides having an attorney help us, what are some "official" titles of professionals that also do estate planning? I don't think I want to go with a "do-it-yourself" trust under these circumstances, but also don't know that we want to go with the time and expense of an attorney. There are so many options on the internet... would just like to know the differences between the different people who do this sort of thing.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[candg918]

Based on some very bad service by estate attorneys on two different occasions, I suggest that you become very informed before engaging an attorney. (I am the textbook case of how to pick really bad estate attorneys. One of our well qualified ones told us that our first will was a textbook case of what should not be done. I hope I've gotten better!) Begin here with the ABA website:

abanet.org/rppt/public/home.html

There are a lot of other online resources once you understand the jargon to point out things you two should consider and discuss before going to the professionals. Understand and explain what you want to accomplish and let the professionals tell you the best way to do it.

Many different types of people can assist with the financial planning involved with your estates. The best we have ever had is a consultant though spouse's retirement plan; they already have the money so they tell us how best to manage it rather than try to sell us some off the wall scheme.

There are many people selling documents; it is interesting to read them for the background information, but an attorney (rather than an on-line legal site or non-attorney advisor) is essential to create the legal documents you need since there are children from former marriages involved. I have found it worthwhile to purchase a canned document (or a legal document generating program) to see what I should expect to see even though I have no intention of using a generic document (although I believe a good generic is better than a bad custom generated one).

If you are served by any financial consultant that you trust, ask them for a referral to a qualified individual. If you cannot find a referral or want to check their reputation, check the M a r t i n d a l e website for "Trusts ..." . (I cannot figure out why it keeps *** out the name when it is typed properly.) Read on how best to use the rating information.

It is expensive (I threw out $6,000 worth of garbage documents from our last incompetent attorney.), but it is a necessary expense to make certain you and your spouse are protected and your wishes are followed especially with the step parent/child relationships. Good luck.

 

[TrustUser]

there may be more than one situation in which there is a time limit. but i was helping a friend with a piece of real estate that he had inherited from his mom.

in california, if you are a close enough relative, you can inherit a property, and keep the same property tax basis. as you are probably aware, normally when you acquire a new property, your property tax basis is the price that you purchased it at. it is a big deal out here, cuz they can only raise you a certain percent each year (i think it is 2%). so once that basis is established, it will tend to be a lot lower than what a current purchase would be.

of course that was before we had a 50% plummet in valuation - LOL.

at the time, i was thinking that they gave him 3 years. but that could have changed since then, and it might have only been 2 years.

a basic rule of thumb is to try to talk to someone about something that he does on a day-in, day-out basis. they are forced to be up to date, as it is part of their business.

an accountant is a good person to talk to, regarding taxes. they do tax returns for trusts on an ongoing basis.

being that it is a second marriage, have you considered having 2 separate individual trusts ?

as was already suggested, try to be somewhat informed on whatever topic you want to hire someone to do for you.

in that way, you can better ascertain the person's competence level, and ask better questions.

when you know zilch about something, someone who knows a little can seem like a genius - LOL.