This writing follows up on a column in the Mankato Free Press on Sunday August 26, 2018 by Susan Tompor of the Detroit Free Press. I was a fan of Aretha Franklin, as many of us were. I went to see her at Mystic Lake about 15 years ago. She was morbidly obese at the...
Year: 2018
Estate planning for farmers
Mankato is located in Southern Minnesota and Minnesota has a lot of agriculture. Farming is often a family business with farms sometimes staying in the same family for a hundred years (century farms). Here are some preliminary questions we ask in doing estate...
Will a Health Care Directive deprive an otherwise healthy person from receiving life sustaining medical care?
Recently, we had a client call about his Health Care Directive. He had had a heart attack in the past and suspected he would have another heart attack in the future. He wanted health care professionals to “save” him if this happened again, unless of course he...
Long Term Care and Gifting : Why are Some Things Better to Give to Children than Others
Our clients are understandably concerned about the costs of long-term care. They want to pass something on to their children after working all their life. More importantly, they want to provide for themselves and their spouse if they need to go to a nursing...
Signature Guarantees to Transfer Securities
Sometimes, in the administration of an estate, we need to liquidate stocks or bonds. Often, the transfer agent requires a signature guarantee. Signature guarantees come in basically three different forms. The first is a notary. Notary A notary public is a public...
How Long Does a Power of Attorney Last?
Sometimes we draft a Power of Attorney for a client and get a call years later with the announcement that so and so bank will not take the power of attorney because it is more than — years old. A Power of Attorney allows someone to act for you regarding financial...
How to Avoid Probate
Do you want to avoid probate? For several reasons, probate is a good thing to avoid. These are a few reasons to avoid probate: It’s expensive. A routine, uncontested probate will run $3,000 to $6,000. Of this, about $500 will be out-of-pocket expenses, like court...
Who Should Be Your Trustee?
Most people never have contact with a trust or a trustee. If that is your case, this Blog may be of little interest to you. However, a growing number of people run in to trusts. And with a trust, one of the most important issues is “who is the trustee?” The two main...