Initiating Discussions about Property Distributions

Do you have concerns about property-distribution issues? Discuss these particular situations with your adult children, trusted friends, or parent/guardian. The correct responses are provided for residents of Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

• Prepare Your Estate Plan Case Study 3: The disadvantages of writing your own will
• Prepare Your Estate Plan Case Study 4: The surviving spouse's share
• Prepare Your Estate Plan Case Study 5: How much will each heir inherit?
• Prepare Your Estate Plan Case Study 6: The dangers of making someone a co-owner of a bank account as joint tenants with right of survivorship

Resources

• “Critical Conversations about Financing Long Term Care” (about long-term care concerns that could affect property inheritance): http://www.financinglongtermcare.umn.edu/pdfs/
  conversationstarters/criticalconversations.pdf
• “Talking with Aging Parents about Finances” (see “Family Finance Discussion Points”: http://www.montana.edu/wwwpb/pubs/mt9324.html
• About Health Care Advance Directives [Link to Communicate]
• “Who Gets Grandma's Yellow Pie Plate?" (provides methods and discussion for distributing untitled property): http://www.yellowpieplate.umn.edu/indexB.html

• "Estate Planning: Wills and Probate in Kentucky," Suzanne Badenhop, Ph.D., Extension Specialist, Family and Consumer Sciences (provides a Kentucky example of how property is distributed with or without a will). Download a copy at http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/fcs5/fcs5425/fcs5425.pdf

Lesson Contents

I. Introduction

II. Estate Planning

III. Power of Attorney: Planning for Incapacity

IV. Property Transfer: Documents and Legal Arrangements

V. A Will: Who Needs One?

VI. The Probate Process

VII. Personal Representative: To Carry Out Your Wishes

VIII. Gifting and Tax Strategies

IX. A Trust: Who Needs One?

X. How to Hire and Work with an Attorney

XI. Learn More

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Glossary

Case Studies and Resources

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Disclaimer

Acknowledgments

Prepare Your Estate Plan belongs to a series called Legally Secure Your Financial Future. The series also includes information to help you organize important household papers and to communicate your health-care wishes.