My Loved One Has Died: As an Heir or Beneficiary, Do I Need an Attorney? Mesa's Preeminent Lawyers Explain What To Do When Your Loved One Passes Away You just found out that your favorite aunt, Aunt Melba, has died. In the midst of your grief and sadness, you receive a notice from the attorney [...]
Handling the Legal Affairs of an Estranged Noncitizen Spouse at Death As the world becomes more of a global community, it is no longer uncommon for married couples to maintain different citizenships. While a difference in citizenship alone can present complexities from an everyday tax perspective, another set of challenges arises when a noncitizen spouse [...]
How to Choose a Trustee Arizona Trust Attorneys List Things to Consider When Choosing Your Agent When you establish a trust, you name someone to be the trustee. A trustee does what you do right now with your financial affairs—collect income, pay bills and taxes, save and invest for the future, buy and sell property, [...]
Five Mistakes Successor Trustees Make and How to Prevent Them Arizona Trust Attorneys Give Advice to Prevent Successor Trustees Mistakes When establishing a trust, you must give serious thought to who you choose as your successor trustee—the person who will manage, invest, and hand out the trust’s accounts and property once you are no longer [...]
Can Dual Citizenship Ruin Your Estate Plan? In early 2020, married actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson became honorary citizens of Greece. The president of Greece bestowed this honor upon them due in large part to their humanitarian work in the country after a deadly wildfire swept through Athens in 2018. Hanks and Wilson spend [...]
Should You Own Your Timeshare in Your Trust? Timeshares have come a long way since they first arrived in the real estate market back in the ’70s. In the early days of timeshare ownership, high-pressure sales tactics, exceedingly vague contracts, and inflexible scheduling policies caused many people to quickly regret such purchases. Over time, however, [...]
The Recipe for a Satisfying Estate Plan Misconceptions about who needs an estate plan abound. Most people believe that estate planning is only for extremely wealthy business moguls or celebrities. But that could not be further from the truth. Estate planning is the process of making decisions about what happens to you, your money, and [...]
A Tale of Two Celebrities: Chadwick Boseman and Eddie Van Halen The death of an iconic figure can sometimes impact us deeply because it reminds us of our shared humanity. With a celebrity’s passing, we realize that death is an equalizer. It also reminds us of the importance of a Mesa estate planning attorney to [...]
What to Do When a Loved One Dies Abroad The death of a loved one can be one of the most disorienting life events. But if the loved one dies while traveling in a foreign country, the emotional and bureaucratic burdens can multiply exponentially. Contact the United States Bureau of Consular Affairs If foreign local [...]
How Refinancing a Property Can Affect Your Estate Plan The mortgage business is booming in many parts of the country. Historically low interest rates have created an almost frenzied environment with homeowners scrambling to refinance their home loans at these low interest rates. Even a few tenths of a percentage point of interest, over thirty [...]
