Crestview Probate and Estate Planning Law Blog
Understand the closing process for a new home
The final step toward owning a home is the closing process. During this time, you will sign all the documents to finalize the deal, and you’ll make the payments necessary for the process to finish. From the time that your offer on the house is accepted until you have...
Why do I need a health care directive?
It’s your hope that you’re always able to make medical decisions for yourself. However, there could come a point when you’re unable to do so, such as the result of a serious accident or terminal illness. Just because you create a health care directive doesn’t mean it...
If you have multiple children, consider trusts for their inheritances
As the parent of three children, it is your goal to make your passing as easy as possible on them. You know that their different ages and experiences could affect them when you pass on, which is why you want to make sure you control the situation and give them...
Estate planning is something most people have never done
If you’re passing your home on to your children after you pass away, how do you want to do it? Should you leave it in equal parts to all of them? Are you going to give it to just one child? If so, do you want to leave other assets to your other children to make up for...
How selling a home can complicate estate administration
When you agree to serve as administrator or executor for someone's estate, that means taking on substantial responsibility. You will have to read and interpret the will and other estate documents, pay creditors, file taxes and distribute assets according to the wishes...
Dividing the personal items of the deceased when there’s no specific plan
Nothing stirs up old resentments and rivalries among relatives than a significant death in the family. Before some relatives have even had a chance to process the information that their loved one has died, others may use their spare key to let themselves into the...
Why do wills end up being contested?
For the most part, contested wills arise out of an heir’s (or potential heir’s) sense that a deep injustice has been done. Estate fights commonly break out between siblings who have a longstanding rivalry or stepparents and their deceased’s spouse’s children from a...
What can you do if your spouse wrote you out of their last will?
Not everyone who struggles in their relationship with their spouse will wind up getting a divorce because of those issues. Some people, either due to a personal sense of ethics or a religious rule because their faith is important to them, will decide that divorce is...
What should heirs do with a vacation cottage?
Ever since you were a kid, you can remember spending the summers at the family’s vacation cottage. It is just an hour or so from your main home in the city, but it has a secluded atmosphere and direct water access. It’s a relaxing place to go to. You and your brothers...
What to do with a jointly inherited house
You and your sibling inherited the family home together -- but you’re not sure exactly what you should (or can) do with it now. You aren’t even sure if you and your sibling can agree on what to do with the home since you tend to have very different goals for the...
