Idaho Law Blog

SHOULD YOU DO A JOINT WILL WITH YOUR SPOUSE?

Published on: January 7, 2020 | by Racine Olson

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

Estate planning, and coming up with a written estate plan, doesn’t need to be difficult. When you have the right help, and you are doing it the right way, it can actually be a fairly simple process. However, many well-meaning individuals often seek to do their own estate plan or to have it done by individuals who are not experienced. When this happens, mistakes begin to occur that can have a big impact on how a person’s estate is distributed after they are gone.

One of the things that I’ve seen coming up more recently, is when a husband and wife do a joint last will and testament. In other words, rather than each of the spouses having their own separate last will and testament, they create a joint last will and testament that both of them sign, have witnessed, and then have notarized.

CAN A SUICIDE NOTE BE A VALID WILL?

Published on: January 5, 2020 | by Racine Olson

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

As an Idaho estate planning attorney, I often get phone calls from clients or potential clients who have questions. I do my best to answer these questions and try to help each individual out as best I can. However, answering questions is usually best done through our free 30-minute consultation, where we can actually spend time with a client face-to-face and can answer their questions about either estate planning, or probate. If you have questions of this sort, we encourage you to contact us for this free 30-minute consultation.

Recently, I’ve had a series of phone calls and questions come in randomly having to do with family members and other loved ones who have passed away by suicide. The circumstance leading to the question that I’ve been asked is that the person who took their own life left a suicide note behind. The question I’ve been asked is whether the suicide note can qualify as a valid last will and testament under Idaho law.

DO KIDS HAVE A RIGHT TO READ THEIR PARENT’S ESTATE PLANNING DOCUMENTS?

Published on: January 3, 2020 | by Racine Olson

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

I’ve been an estate planning attorney now for more than 20 years. During this time, I’ve seen a lot of situations arise between parents and children when it comes to estate planning. In particular, there have been many instances where I have helped a parent complete a written estate plan that they have chosen for any number of reasons not to share with their children. Sometime later, I may have the children contact me and ask me what their parent’s estate planning documents say.

This situation leads to the question that is the title of this article. That is, do kids have a right to read their parents estate planning documents? The short answer is both no and yes. Really, the answer depends on the circumstances that exist. I’ll provide some examples below to illustrate what I mean by this answer.

CASEY KASEM AND YOUR ESTATE PLANNING

Published on: January 3, 2020 | by Racine Olson

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

Several years ago, I posted an article about Casey Kasem’s death and how his children and other family members who were fighting over his estate. As I’ve said before, I often follow celebrities and other famous people when it comes to their estate planning or their estates after they’ve passed away because valuable lessons can be learned. In other words, regular people can learn from well-known mistakes made by celebrities when it comes to their own estate planning.

This article will follow up my original article about Casey Kasem’s family and the fight they had over his estate both before and after he passed away. The main reason for the fight was because Casey Kasem had been married several times and had children from each of his different marriages. Some of the children from a previous marriage filed a lawsuit over his estate and also against the wife he was married to when he passed away.

REPOSSESSION OF COLLATERAL

Published on: January 3, 2020 | by Racine Olson

By Stephen J. Muhonen, Creditor’s Rights / Collections Attorney, Racine Olson, PLLP

One of the most important priorities for a creditor or lender when entering into a contract with a borrower or debtor is ensuring they have a perfected security interest in the property that is being purchased. The purpose of the security interest is to provide notice to the world of the encumbrance and to allow for recovery of the collateral in the event of default. For real property (homes, land, etc.), this means recording with the county recorder’s office a mortgage or deed of trust. See generally Idaho Code §55-811. For motor vehicles this means providing notice of the creditor’s lien by having his/her/its name placed on the title. See Idaho Code §49-510. For the perfection of a security interest in goods, the creditor can file a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) finance statement per Idaho Code §28-12-501 et. cet.

When it comes to repossession of collateral, as a creditor it is important to keep in mind the terms in the contract. Following and abiding by the express terms of a contract, especially as they relate to notice, default and repossession rights, is critical to enforcement of the contract. Idaho courts are generally inclined to enforce the terms of a contract that is knowingly and voluntarily entered into, even if such enforcement does not seem fair.

LEAVE NOTHING TO YOUR CHILDREN

Published on: November 30, 2019 | by Racine Olson

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

As an estate planning attorney for more than 20 years I’ve seen just about every situation you can think of arise when it comes to dealing with family members and distributing estate assets. One of the questions that comes up regularly is whether a parent could actually leave nothing to their children. The short answer is yes. While this may seem harsh, there are a variety of reasons why this could be a good idea.

For example, suppose that one of your children suffers from an addiction to alcohol or drugs, or gambling or some other issue. Even though you love your child, it would probably not be a good idea to leave money, property, and other valuable assets to this child after you pass away. If you were to do this, it would likely only make the addiction your child suffers worse.

LEAVING NOTHING TO YOUR SPOUSE

Published on: November 23, 2019 | by Racine Olson

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

As an estate planning attorney in Idaho for the last 20 years I am always interested in things that are done by celebrities when it comes to their estate planning or, after their deaths what occurs within their estate. The reason for this is that I believe many good lessons can be learned from the things that are either done or not done by these famous people.

Recently, the singer Rick Ocasek, from the 1980s rock group The Cars passed away. He died at the age of 75 from a heart attack brought on by cardiovascular disease. Mr. Ocasek, and his wife Paulina Porizkova, who is a famous model, were separated and were in the process of getting a divorce. Because of this, Mr Ocasek wrote in his Will:

COLLECTING ON A FOREIGN JUDGMENT

Published on: November 21, 2019 | by Racine Olson

By Stephen J. Muhonen, Creditor’s Rights / Collections Attorney, Racine Olson, PLLP

As a judgment holder, it goes without saying that attempting to collect upon that judgment can be terribly frustrating, cumbersome, and unfruitful. Said otherwise, sometimes the process is just an emotional and physical drain. You invested so much time, effort and energy to get your judgment, just to find out that the judgment debtor won’t voluntarily pay as owed. Then, to add insult to injury, you find out his/her/its assets are located in another state. So now what?

Fortunately, Idaho has in place a statutory mechanism that allows foreign judgments to be domesticated, enforced and collected upon in Idaho. For purposes of this discussion, “foreign judgment” is “any judgment, decree or order of a court of the United States or of any other court or an order of an administrative body of any state regarding the support of a child, spouse, or former spouse or the establishment of paternity which is entitled to full faith and credit in this state.” See Idaho Code §10-1301. Idaho also has the Uniform Foreign Country Money Judgments Recognition Act and the Uniform Foreign-Money Claims Act, neither of which are discussed herein.

PRE-PLAN YOUR FUNERAL

Published on: November 21, 2019 | by Racine Olson

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

When Christmas or birthdays roll around every year, we spend time thinking about the very best gifts that we can give to our family and loved ones. Sometimes we even think about the gifts that we are going to receive. We do this because these things are important to us. The purpose of this article is to talk about one of the very best gifts that you can actually give to your family and loved ones. This gift would be pre-planning and prepaying for your own funeral.

Why would pre planning and prepaying your own funeral be such a gift to your family? There are many reasons. Here are just a few.

HOW TO START YOUR ESTATE PLANNING: FILL OUT THE QUESTIONNAIRE

Published on: November 18, 2019 | by Racine Olson

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

Maybe you’ve thought about estate planning. Perhaps you even got to the point where you’ve decided that you want to get your estate planning done. So, what do you do now?

When I talk to estate planning clients, I find that this is often where they are. They simply don’t know where to start to get their estate planning done even though they know they want to do it.