You need a Last Will for many reasons.  Even if you do not have a Last Will, you have an estate plan. That plan is laid out by New York’s intestacy statute, which provides the order in which your relatives will inherit your estate if you die without a will.  If you are survived by your spouse only, your spouse will inherit your entire estate. If you are survived by your spouse and children, your spouse will inherit the first $50,000.00 of your estate, and the remainder will be split equally between your spouse and children.  This provides the first reason why you should have a Will. (Click here for more…)

A health care power of attorney designates an agent to make decisions regarding health care when a person cannot make those decisions due to incompetence or unconsciousness.

In South Carolina, only one person can serve as your health care agent at one time. You may designate another person to serve if the first agent can not, but they cannot be designated to act at the same time.

A living will is simply (Click here for more…)

If you interact with an estate attorney, you may hear the term “heirs.”  You may think you know what this term means, but it actually has a precise legal definition.   In South Carolina, the term heirs is defined in South Carolina Code of Laws 62-1-201(17). The statutory definition is “those persons, including the surviving spouse, who are entitled under the statute of intestate succession to the property of a decedent.”  The statute of intestate succession is found in South Carolina Code of Laws 62-2-102 and 62-2-103. Intestate succession is where you turn to determine the persons entitled to inherit from a Decedent when there is no Last Will and Testament.

The South Carolina intestacy statute sets forth the heirs as follows: (Click here for more…)

Absolutely. If you are divorced, you must revisit your estate plan. A change in marital status can lead a formerly sound estate plan to cause numerous unintended consequences. If your divorce attorney does not specialize in estate planning, ask him or her for a referral to an estate planning attorney. The time and money spent now could save even more time and money down the road.

There are many estate planning traps for the unwary when a (Click here for more…)

A Power of Attorney is a document that can be used to appoint an individual (Attorney-in-Fact) to manage the affairs of another. This is useful for a time when people become incapable of managing their own affairs, whether through mental or physical disability. It is required that a person be competent to execute a Power of Attorney; an incompetent person may not validly execute a Power of Attorney. Thus, once a person becomes incompetent, it is too late. However, a Durable Power of Attorney executed while competent is not affected by subsequent incompetence and will remain in effect.

Why is it important to (Click here for more…)