When creating an estate plan, one of the most basic documents you may wish to include is a will. If you have a more complicated estate, you might also need to have a trust in place. Both a will and a ...

Like many aspects of personal finance, estate planning can be daunting. You’ll encounter complicated terms, intimidating procedures and it’s all about your inevitable demise. Of course, everyone ...

The new system is known both as "representation," and "per capita at each generation," and is taken from the Uniform Probate Code. It has two basic principles, which are illustrated by the examples ...

In Archer v. Moody, the litigants in the declaratory judgment action were remainder beneficiaries of a trust created in 1934 and owned a 15,000-acre ranch near Junction, Texas. No. 14-15-00945-CV, ...

Ah, those Latin words that lawyers love. Or, at least, used to. These days most lawyers do try to communicate in English, but some Latin terms persist because they are shorthand for well understood in ...

Question: Help! My will divides my estate among my “issue per stirpes,” but what does that mean? Answer: Per stirpes is Latin meaning “by roots” or “by branch.” “Issue” refers to everyone down the ...

This week’s column continues the discussion of “legalese,” the strange language and terms that lawyers sometimes use. You may have heard, “What do you get when you cross the Godfather with a lawyer ...

The majority of beneficiary designations are straightforward. Spouses leave retirement accounts primarily to each other and contingently divided among their children. If their children have not yet ...