You might be surprised to know, (or not), that pets CAN be a huge part of Trust and Estate Planning. For example, Oprah Winfrey has established a pet trust for her doggies leaving them a cool $30 million for their well-being! One that everyone likely remembers is Leona Hemsley leaving her entire wealth to her...Read More

If you haven’t already thought about it, now’s the time to take a look into the importance of creating an estate plan that suits your needs. Estate planning can be an uncomfortable topic to think about, however it can save your loved ones from added stress during what is likely an already difficult time of...Read More

On our Estate Planning and Probate Section of the Arizona State Bar there have been discussions with younger lawyers looking for ways to state in their clients’ estate plans that two people consider themselves “life partners” and that this is something more than being single. They are asking is there a middle way between Married...Read More

Yes, but only if you are both U.S. citizens In the U.S., we have a very favorable tax rule in comparison to many other countries, whereby spouses can inherit from each other with no federal inheritance tax consequences. Currently there is also no inheritance tax in CA or AZ, but other states do impose inheritance...Read More

Emergency Estate Planning Documents This past year, it is with a heavy heart that I have witnessed different families we know suffer from not having completed estate planning documents.  Half completed estate plan documents do not exist.  They are either completed or they aren’t. There are formalities that such important documents must meet in order...Read More

The presumption is that anyone working for you is an employee and if you are hiring someone to work in your home or for your business and you want them to be treated as an independent contractor, you should have an agreement in place that is signed by both of you. The agreement, in and...Read More

Basic Terminology to Know when Setting up a Company I notice that many people mix up different corporate and tax terminology and are often confused by it.  As I have encountered that a few times recently, I thought the newsletter was a good place to try to dispel some of the confusion. Starting with the...Read More

There is no one size fits all for businesses as they struggle to stay open or reopen, as each business has different risk factors.  How do you keep your staff and clients safe with an uncontrollable disease?  We have more guidance now than we did this spring. Hopefully the resources provided below, and our example...Read More

These legalistic terms have important consequences on who inherits from you and how much, whether under a will or a trust or even if intestate (no will or trust). There are many important decisions to make under a will or a trust, but one of them is who will inherit from you and there are...Read More

How the Coronavirus may trigger clauses in your contracts It is early days in the global pandemic known as the Coronavirus. That quarantining society is wreaking havoc on businesses throughout the US and the world is an understatement.  What it will mean for each business and its contracts will likely be sorted out in the...Read More