Category: Estate Planning

How To Create a Living Will in Missouri

Imagine that you are dying and being forced to suffer painful and unnecessary medical procedures because you are unable to communicate and stop them from happening. While no one want to contemplate becoming incapacitated or dying, doing proper planning now, while you are of sound mind and able to make good decisions, can prevent major problems should something serious happen to you in the future.

One of the most important ways to prevent such problems is by making a living will, or advance health care directive, which ensures your wishes are honored in the event of serious illness or incapacity. In Missouri, creating a living will involves stating your medical treatment preferen [...]

Tips and Advice on Estate Planning for Blended Families

When couples get together and blend their families, that often includes children from previous marriages or relationships.  This can bring great joy, but it also can bring conflicts and complications due to the various relationships, obligations, and financial considerations involved. As long as everyone is well and gets along, things may go smoothly; but how do you make sure every member of the family is treated fairly and taken care of if one spouse dies and issues arise?

The answer is to make sure you do proper estate planning now, while your mind is clear and you are able to do so. Estate planning can be complicated even for simple families, but when remarriages and new rel [...]

What is a Discretionary Trust?

Sometimes giving money or assets outright to a beneficiary – such as a child, a grandchild, or a special need loved one – is not ideal for distributing your wealth in an estate plan.

When setting up a trust, using a discretionary trust provides peace of mind because of the protections this type of trust provides to your loved ones who may not have the skills required to safeguard the assets you give to them.

So, what is a discretionary trust? A discretionary trust, also referred to as a discretionary support trust, is a type of trust set up for the benefit of one or more beneficiaries where the trustee has discretion over how to distribute the trust assets among th [...]

Avoiding Probate in Missouri

Going through probate can be time consuming and expensive, so it’s a good idea to do everything you can to avoid probate or to streamline the probate process. With a little planning, avoiding probate in Missouri is possible, and our skilled probate attorney can show you how.

The most obvious things to do to avoid probate include:

  • Work with a professional to create a living trust
  • Make your financial accounts “payable on death”
  • Make your securities “transferable on death”
  • Establish joint ownership of real estate and other property
  • Create transfer-on-death deeds for real estate
  • Create transfe [...]

When Should I Update My Estate Plan?

Creating an estate plan is one of the most important things you can do to protect and provide for your family in the future.  With a little bit of time and a skilled estate planning attorney, you can create a customized trust or will and estate plan that anticipates your unique needs and leverages the most advantageous use of your assets.

Whether it’s by providing for heirs, avoiding onerous taxes, overseeing property and real estate or creating charitable giving opportunities, an estate plan can lay out all of your current and future wishes in a neat and comprehensive document. To ensure the bes [...]

Can a Beneficiary Sue a Trustee in Missouri?

Yes, a beneficiary can sue a trustee. But a beneficiary must prove that a trustee has breached their fiduciary duty. A beneficiary cannot mount a successful challenge simply because he/she has a personal grudge against the trustee or because he/she simply feels the trust is unfair as it was created by the trust owner.

To mount a legal challenge, a beneficiary must show that there was malfeasance, conflict of interest or incompetence on the part of the trustee.

There’s a lot to know about trusts and estate disputes, and challenging a trustee is rarely something you want to do on your own. With the help of

Do You Have to Do Probate When Someone Dies?

Losing a loved one or family member is a terrible time, filled with grief and loss. Not only are you hurting inside, but you also have to deal with funeral details and other legal matters. This is especially true if the person died without a valid will and their estate must go through probate.

If you’re wondering whether you have to do probate when someone dies, the answer is “sometimes.” In Missouri, if a person’s estate is very small, then the law will allow you to skip probate in favor of a simplified process. Otherwise, you’ll go through probate, though this is significantly easier and quicker when the deceased person has a valid will or estate plan with clear d [...]

What Happens if You Die without a Will in Missouri?

Creating an estate plan is often one of those things we put off, thinking we’ll get to it tomorrow, or next week, or before the end of the year.  But what happens if you die without a will in Missouri?  None of us wants to think about that, but we should.

Creating an estate plan now means that we are caring for our loved ones by preventing a lot of headaches for them in the future.  An estate plan offers peace of mind.  All too often, people put off writing a will and creating an estate plan until “later,” but later never comes.  Our experienced estate planning attorneys at Birk Law Firm will guide you through each step in the estate planning process.  We’ll help y [...]

Who’s On Your Estate Planning Team?

Estate planning is not just about what happens to your stuff when you die. It is about coordinating all aspects of your life so (i) you can be taken care of during times when you are unable to care for yourself, and (ii) your money and property are distributed to the individuals you have selected upon your death, in the way you want.

While you may visit an estate planning attorney to have your legal documents (i.e., will, revocable living trust, powers of attorney, and living will) prepared, this is only one component of making sure that your ultimate estate and financial goals are carried out. In order to accomplish this large and important task, you need a team made up of the [...]

Myths We Tell Ourselves About Estate Planning

Estate planning can be a very difficult process. While it’s not brain surgery, making the decision to move forward with the planning requires us to face the fact that we will not live forever. This thought can stop many people right in their tracks. Others talk themselves out of seeing a qualified attorney to put together an estate plan based on some of the following common myths:

Myth #1: Only the Rich Need Estate Planning

When we hear about estate planning on the news or read about it on the internet, it is usually in regards to a wealthy businessman or celebrity who made some error, did no planning, or has family members who are angry about the pl [...]