What Document Preparers Won’t or Can’t Tell You

Document Preparers do not understand the legal meaning of the words they put in the documents they type out or print off for others. What would be the response if a patient asked his or her physician just what was being prescribed and why and the physician responded, “That’s for you to find out.”   Such is the case where a document preparer having a minimum educational qualification of a GED high school diploma and two years of “document preparation experience” Read More

Update Your Estate Planning Documents Now

    By: Walter L Henderson Practical Pointer from firsthand experience:    Perhaps 28 years to revisit your estate planning documents is just too long (especially if you have reached your 94th birthday). Case Scenario: “Jane” who due to  natural, physical and/or mental deterioration could not modify, change or amend any of her current estate planning documents because she lacked the requisite legal capacity to do so. Sometimes “putting off till tomorrow” is not the best idea especially when you might Read More

This ‘free lunch’ will scare you, cost you.

  By Phoebe L. Harris Over the past two weeks, we have had over a dozen phone calls from clients who received something in the mail from an outfit in the Phoenix area who is to be hosting a “free” lunch seminar in Green Valley in the very near future. The clients who called were scared, panicked and upset to read that their “Will cannot effectively transfer title of their property upon their deaths without being probated” [paraphrasing the actual Read More

ASK A LAWYER: Out with the old and in with the new.

You learned last time that Phoebe L. Harris and I will be discussing various legal matters along with fellow attorney Andy Heideman and, through him, you have this year learned more about the new federal estate and gift tax regulations. A new year. A fresh start, but oh how we wish we could sort through those boxes and files of old papers and records that have been calling for attention for so long.

ASK A LAWYER: Are those documents legal?

To paraphrase Victor Borge, “The last time I was here … well it’s not the last time, this is. But I hope it isn’t . . .,” you will recall we urged you to begin the New Year by sorting out original estate planning documents to ensure they are current, appropriate and legally effective. Legally effective documents are those that are drafted and prepared by licensed and insured professionals in good standing with complete background information and knowledge relating to Read More