San Diego Estate Planning Blog: Creating Legacies

From the Desk of San Diego Trust and Estate Lawyer, Kristina R. Haymes 

Picture this scenario…

You’ve worked hard, saved and managed to accumulate some wealth.

You’re not a robber baron by any means but you’re comfortable.  Your siblings haven’t fared as well and you want to make sure that their children have the benefit of a solid higher education.  With no children of your own, it seems the right thing to do. 

 So you set up 529 college education savings plans for your nieces and nephews, make them the beneficiaries, and mention everything in your will. 

And life goes on…

You don’t give it another thought beyond making regular contributions. You move to another state.  You divorce. 

All things that happen in the normal course of living. 

You know you need to change the beneficiary of your estate and name another executor (both are still your former spouse) but you never really get around to it.

And then the unthinkable happens. You die unexpectedly, with no time to make those changes you sincerely intended to make. More… »

Is your child protected if you were not here?

No parent on the planet wants to think about it, and it’s part of my job to talk about it, plan for it, and make sure that we San Diego parents are prepared…

Are your children protected and provided for if something were to happen to you?

I just received a phone call this week from a family member whose sister had passed away and her niece was now living with her.

Unfortunately, she did not have any formal legal documentation naming her as the guardian.

You don’t want this to happen to you.

You want to have a plan in place, and know that your precious child or children will be cared for by whom you want in the way you want, if anything ever happened.

Fortunately, in San Diego the courts have a lot of resources to help people found in this situation but you still have to go through the court process.

It is ok as long as no family member is going to contest the guardianship.  When you file a petition for guardianship you are required to serve all family members with notice of the petition and the proceedings.

There are many stories in the news about families that have begun long, protracted, expensive court battles to win guardianship over children.

And, what about the assets?  If the assets have to go through probate court then you are looking at 1-2 years minimum, estimated 5% of the value of the probate estate (which includes the fair market value of any real property, life insurance payable to a minor, and all other assets), plus the public disclosure of all filings and documents.

Not a happy thing.

But, the good news is that with a little planning and care you can make sure that your legal house is in order, and you have your child’s guardianship and kids protection plan in place along with a living trust and other key planning documents in place so that if something were to happen, your child and your loved ones would have an easy time of maneuvering a difficult situation.

That’s why we plan, for our love and care and responsibility for those we love — because it is so much easier for us to take care of planning now, then it will be for others to take care of it after we are gone.

If you are in need of guardianship for your child, a trust, will or other estate planning documents and you are in San Diego County, I would be happy to assist.

Give Sarah, my client services director, a call at 858-794-1426.

We hope to care for your family soon.

Create a legacy that lasts,

Kristina Haymes

Personal Family Lawyer in beautiful San Diego, CA

Ericka Sexton with her two boys at Old Town last year...

Yesterday, I had the privilege and pleasure of chatting with some local moms and their precious babies/toddlers about kids protection planning.  The Carmel Valley Moms group is a local chapter of MOMS  (moms offering moms support) and an article about the group and its founder, Ericka Sexton, can be found here.

If you are a member of the Carmel Valley MOMS group and missed the talk, here are some points we covered:

The Straight Scoop on Legal Planning for Busy Moms… and how to:

      • Be sure your children never spend even one moment in the care of strangers (or anyone you wouldn’t want) if anything happens to you.

      • Avoid the expenses and delays of a long, drawn-out court process that would make life difficult for your loved ones if you were in an accident.

      • Protect your children’s inheritance from creditors, lawsuits and failed marriages.

      • Make sure your hard-earned money is immediately and privately available to your chosen guardians.

      • Leave behind more than just your money.

It was a quick talk and we did not go into great detail because our little people need lots of attention, but as one participant said, “it’s a good reminder of what I know we need to do but have been putting off.”

Legal planning is not something you want to put off because no one is promised tomorrow… and while we hope and pray that we all live long lives, part of being responsible parents is making sure our precious babies and children are provided for and protected if we cannot be here.

To help Carmel Valley moms (and dads) put-off procrastination and get things taken care of, every participant was given a Gift Certificate for a Family Wealth Planning Session (normally $750) where they can spend up to two hours with me and we will go over their particular situation and talk about what would happen under their current plan (even no plan is a default plan) and how they would like things to be.

If you missed the meeting and want to take advantage of this special offer, just call the office or send me a note.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Warmly,

Kristina

p.s. if you have a different moms group and you would like to book me to come speak to your group (we keep it to 20 minutes or less), just go to our contacts page and send us a note and we can get you on calendar.  It’s free to your group and a great educational event for moms.