Make-a-Will Month: How to Talk to Someone You Love about Estate Planning
You have your plan in place, and you know the quiet relief that comes with it. But chances are, someone close to you does not. Make-a-Will Month is the perfect reason to change that, and you may be the one person they will actually listen to.
Choosing the Right Trustee for Your Family
Imagine the people you love most gathered after you are gone, and one of your children now holds the checkbook for the others. That single choice, who you name as trustee, can either hold your family together or quietly pull it apart. Many parents simply pick their oldest child because it feels natural, and we understand the instinct. Still, it is one of the most important decisions in your entire plan, and it is worth slowing down to get it right. Let’s go through what you need to consider.
When an Heir Dies Before You Do: What a Portland, Oregon Estate Planning Attorney Wants You to Know
Estate plans are built around assumptions. The assumption that your spouse will be there. That your sibling will outlive you. That the person you named as your primary beneficiary fifteen years ago will still be alive to receive what you left them.
What "Aging in Place" Actually Requires From a Legal Standpoint: Advice From a Portland, Oregon Elder Law Attorney
For most older adults, the goal is clear: Stay home. Stay independent. Stay in the place that holds the memories, the routines, and the life they've built. Aging in place is not just a preference; For many people, it is the plan.
The Storage Unit Nobody Knows What to Do With: Advice from a Portland, Oregon Estate Administration Attorney
Most families have one. Sometimes it's a storage unit across town. Sometimes it's a garage, a spare bedroom, or a basement packed floor to ceiling with decades of accumulated belongings. Things that were too meaningful to donate, too plentiful to sort through, and too overwhelming to deal with at the time.
The Sandwich Generation’s Legal Survival Guide
If you are raising children while also helping to care for an aging parent, you belong to a group called the Sandwich Generation. You are caught directly between the needs of two different generations, giving your time, energy, and love in both directions at once.
Planning for an Estranged Child in Your Estate Plan: What Portland, Oregon Estate Planning Attorneys Want You to Consider
Family estrangement is more common than most people talk about openly, and it creates one of the more delicate planning situations we encounter as Portland, Oregon estate planning attorneys. The parent who is no longer in contact with a child, but does not want to cut them out entirely, is navigating a situation that requires more legal care than most people realize.
The Long Goodbye: Why You Can’t Wait to Plan for Dementia
We often talk about estate planning as “death planning,” deciding who gets your assets when you’re gone. But the far more critical part of our job is “life planning,” determining who takes care of you while you’re still here.
What Happens to Your Stock Market Investments When You Transfer Them Into a Living Trust?
If you have a brokerage account or investment portfolio and you are thinking about creating a living trust, this is one of the most practical questions you can ask. And as a Portland, Oregon trust lawyer, it is one we are glad to answer, because the answer is genuinely reassuring for most people.
The #1 Mistake New Personal Representatives (a.k.a. Executors) Make at the Bank (and How to Avoid It)
If you've recently been named the personal representative (a.k.a. executor) of a loved one's estate, you are probably running on autopilot. Between making arrangements and notifying family, the last thing on your mind is navigating a bank's bureaucracy.
Q + A: My father was recently diagnosed with early-stage dementia
My father was recently diagnosed with early-stage dementia. He has good days and bad days. Is it too late for him to sign a Power of Attorney or create a Trust?
I'm Already a Trustee for My Parents. Can I Have My Own Living Trust at the Same Time?
This is a question that comes up more than you might expect, and it is a genuinely good one. The short answer is yes, absolutely. But the longer answer is worth understanding, because the two roles are more separate than most people realize.