Idaho Law Blog

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

As a part of my Idaho estate planning practice over the last 20 years I meet with clients to discuss their questions and concerns about either creating an estate plan for them or how the estate plan that they have actually works. Often during these meetings my clients will ask me the question of what happens if one or all of their children die before they do.

This question is a good one because there are no guarantees in life. While it may seem unjust or unfair, parents sometimes do outlive a child or even all of their children. My job as an estate planning attorney is to look down the road of the future and see all the worst things that could possibly happen to my client. My goal is then to create a customized estate plan that will protect my client from these worst-case scenarios.

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

So you’ve worked hard your entire life and have put together a pretty good retirement plan for yourself. Your house is paid off, your cars are free and clear of any debts, and your investment and bank accounts are bulging. In your last will and testament you leave your vacation property to your children and a gun that has been in your family for a hundred years to your oldest grandson. You also leave all of your accounts to your children. You told your family all about your last will and testament and everyone knows what you are leaving them.

Originally you simply wanted your last years to be quiet and low key. But let’s say that you talked to some of your friends who are seeing the world. They tell you all about their latest adventures and eventually you change your mind and decide that you want to start traveling. You looked over the cruise ship brochures and you have several exotic destination cruises that you would like to do before you die. The only question is, how do you pay for it.

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

Many times in my nearly 20-year career as a Idaho estate planning attorney I’ve had clients come to me and talk with me about how they can create a valid last will and testament in Idaho. During many of these meetings clients often bring to me the documents that they created from online services or from software kits that they purchased from an office supply store. Sometimes these documents are signed and sometimes they are not. Most regularly, these documents are not properly witnessed or notarized. When this happens, I have to tell my clients that the document they presented to me is not a valid last will and testament in Idaho.

To help you understand what creates a valid will in Idaho this blog will review the Toms v. Davies case which was decided by the Idaho Court of Appeals in 1995. Even though this case is over 20 years old it still provides a good deal of insight as to what creates a valid written last will and testament in Idaho, and how witnesses are important.

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

When it comes to Idaho estate planning we all tend to get into that Norman Rockwell state of mind from time to time, where everything is perfect and we are able to leave a sizeable inheritance to our children. But then reality kicks in and we can see that this may not actually be the case for us after all. This could be based on a number of factors, such as not having saved much money for retirement in our later years. Or perhaps we were dealt an unlucky hand and had sizable medical bills or other financial problems that plagued us during our lives. Regardless of the reason not everybody is in a position to leave an inheritance for their children.

If you are considering leaving an inheritance for your children here are a few things that you should keep in mind.

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

In working as an estate planning attorney for nearly 20 years I have had numerous clients come to me who want to disinherit an individual from their estate. Idaho law allows an individual to disinherit others from their estate if they choose to do so. However, it a disinheritance never just works automatically. Rather, there are very specific things that have to be done in order for a disinheritance to actually work. If you are thinking about disinheriting somebody from your estate through your Idaho estate planning here are three things that you should know.

Who Can I Disinherit?

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

During my 20 years of experience in helping my clients complete their estate planning I often have unusual and interesting conversations with them. Several weeks ago I decided to ask my clients one simple question. The answers from the question that I asked is what creates the content for this blog today. The question that I asked my clients was: “What is the single best estate planning tip you ever received?” In order of popularity or frequency, here are the 4 best estate planning tips my clients say they ever received from other people.

PUT IT IN WRITING

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

We’ve all been there. It’s something that seems to happen to me quite often. That is I will meet someone new and they will ask me what I do for a living. After I explained that I have been an estate planning attorney for nearly 20 years I will usually get one of two reactions. The first reaction is that the person I have just met will ask me questions about estate planning and tell me that they really need to get it done. The second and usually the most common reaction is that I will have the individual say to me “I really don’t need to get my estate planning done because my family knows what I want and they will take care of it.”

When I was young I would try to explain to these individuals that no their family really didn’t know what they wanted. I’ve come to learn though that trying to convince somebody that they need to get their estate planning done is pretty much the same as the dentist telling them they need to floss more often. People hear it, I think they understand it, I think they may even agree with me about it, but they usually don’t do it.

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

After working as a estate planning attorney for nearly 20 years it has become clear to me that we can often learn great lessons from famous people. We are nearing the second anniversary of the death of the musician Prince who died in April 2016 at the age of 57 from an accidental overdose. After several reports it appears that Prince’s estate will top out somewhere between $250 million and $300 million dollars. It is difficult to tell the total value of his estate because sales of his music have spiked since his death. Even though it has been two years since his death, there are several lessons that we can still learn from Prince that can assist us with our own estate planning. Here are three of those specific lessons:

1. Have a Written Estate Plan

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

Many people I’ve talked to during my 20 years of working as an estate planning attorney seem to believe that going through probate is worse than dying. I can understand why many people would feel this way. Most people talk to family and friends and usually it’s only fun to talk about horror experiences rather than good experiences. As a result at your family party or when you’re talking with your friends over the phone or looking at Facebook stories generally all you hear about are the worst case scenarios when it comes to probate.

Nevertheless there may be some legitimate reasons to avoid probate. The biggest one that most people can think of is simply privacy. The second biggest reason is because of the expense associated with probate. Finally, some people want to avoid probate because they simply do not understand it and they believe that it’s worse than getting a root canal, being audited for taxes, and speaking in public, all rolled into one. If you are convinced that you want to avoid probate here are the three ways that you can do it: