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It’s sad but true that many pets end up in shelters after their owner dies or becomes incapacitated. In fact, the Humane Society estimates that between 100,00 to 500,000 pets are placed in shelters each year for exactly this reason, and a large number of these animals are ultimately euthanized.

Unfortunately, the law considers pets to be nothing more than personal property just like cars, furniture, and electronic devices. So unless you take the proper steps to include your pet in your estate plan, your beloved companion could end up in a shelter or worse following your death or incapacity.

In light of this cold reality, here we’ll detail how you can use estate planning to ensure your pets receive the best possible care when you’re no longer able to care for them yourself. Consult with us as your Personal Family Lawyer® to put the proper legal documents in place to provide for your furry friend’s future care.

Selecting a trustworthy caregiver is the first—and most important—step in protecting your pet via your estate plan. You might assume that your kids, relatives, or friends will step in and care for your pet should something happen to you, and these folks may even tell you as much in conversation. But properly caring for most pets is a major commitment of time, energy, and finances, so you shouldn’t rely on simple promises to ensure your pet’s future is secure.

It’s best to come up with a list of potential candidates, and then have a frank talk with each of them, discussing the extent of care your pet requires and whether they have any personal issues (allergies, housing, children, other pets, etc) that might prevent them from providing the proper care.

If you don’t know any suitable caregivers, charitable groups, such as the Safe Haven® Surviving Pet Care Program, can provide for your pet in the event of your death or incapacity.

Once you’ve chosen your pet’s caregiver—along with one or two alternates in case something happens to your top choices—then you’ll need to outline all of your pet’s care requirements. At the very least, your caretaking instructions should include your pet’s basic requirements: dietary needs, exercise regimen, medications, and veterinary care. But if you are like most pet owners, you probably want your pet to receive more than just the bare necessities, so consider leaving instructions for any other special treatment you want your furry friend to receive.

From special grooming arrangements and yummy treats to weekly visits to the park and favorite toys, your care plan can provide your beloved companion with whatever lifestyle you wish for them. Finally, don’t forget to address what you want to be done at the end of your pet’s life, such as burial, cremation, and/or memorial services.

When determining how much money to put aside for your pet’s care, you should carefully consider the pet’s age, health, and special care needs. Remember, you’re covering the cost of caring for the animal for the rest of its life, and even basic expenses can add up over time.

In addition to the bare necessities like food and vet visits, make sure you also calculate the costs for any special treatments or services you include in the care plan and leave enough money to pay for them. And if you end up leaving more money behind than needed, you can always name a remainder beneficiary, such as a family member or charity, to inherit any funds not spent on the pet.

Since pet care can be quite complicated and costly, the best way to ensure your wishes are properly carried out is to set up a pet trust. While it’s possible to leave care instructions and funding for your pet in a will, a will cannot guarantee the new caregiver will use the funds properly—or even that they will care for your pet at all.

In fact, a person who’s left their pet in a will can simply drop the animal off at a local shelter and keep the money for themselves.  A pet trust, on the other hand, allows you to layout legally binding rules for how the funds in the trust can be used. Additionally, pet trusts can cover multiple pets, work in cases of incapacity as well as death, and they remain in effect until the last surviving animal dies.

To ensure your wishes are accurately carried out, you should name someone other than the caregiver as a trustee. This way, the trustee can manage the funds and make sure they are used exactly as spelled out in your care instructions.

Although leaving assets in a pet trust is fairly simple, creating a properly drafted trust that includes all of the necessary terms can be quite complex. To this end, reach out to us, as your Personal Family Lawyer,® for support in creating your pet trust.

We can make sure that your pet trust contains all of the necessary elements to guarantee that your beloved companions will continue to receive the love and care it deserves no matter what happens to you. Contact us today to schedule an appointment.

This article is a service of Christine Faulkner, Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. If you’re ready to create a comprehensive estate plan, contact us to schedule your Family Wealth Planning Session. Even if you already have a plan in place, we will review it and help you bring it up to date to avoid heartache for your family. Schedule online today.

This is the fourth in an ongoing series of articles discussing the true costs and consequences of failed estate planning. The series highlights a few of the most common—and costly—planning mistakes we encounter with clients. 

If you’re like most people, you probably view estate planning as a burdensome necessity—just one more thing to check off of life’s endless “to-do” list.

You may shop around and find a lawyer to create planning documents for you, or you might try creating your own DIY plan using online documents. Then, you’ll put those documents into a drawer, mentally check estate planning off your to-do list, and forget about them.

The problem is, your estate plan is not a one-and-done type of deal.

In fact, if it’s not regularly updated when your assets, family situation, and/or the laws change,  your plan will be totally worthless when your family needs it. What’s more, failing to regularly update your plan can create its own unique set of problems that can leave your family worse off than if you’d never created a plan at all.

The following true story illustrates the consequences of not updating your plan, and it happened to the founder and CEO of New Law Business Model, Alexis Neely. Indeed, this experience was one of the leading catalysts for her to create the new, family-centered model of estate planning we use with all of our clients.

When Alexis was in law school, her father-in-law died. He’d done his estate planning—or at least thought he had. He paid a Florida law firm roughly $3000 to prepare an estate plan for him, so his family wouldn’t be stuck dealing with the hassles and expense of court or drawn into needless conflict with his ex-wife.

And yet, after his death, that’s exactly what did happen. His family was forced to go to court in order to claim assets that were supposed to pass directly to them. And on top of that, they had to deal with his ex-wife and her attorneys in the process.

Alexis couldn’t understand it. If her father-in-law paid $3,000 for an estate plan, why were his loved ones dealing with the court and his ex-wife? It turned out that not only had his planning documents not been updated, but his assets were not even properly titled.

Alexis’ father-in-law had created a trust so that when he died, his assets would pass directly to his family and they wouldn’t have to endure, but some of his assets had never been transferred into the name of his trust from the beginning. And since there was no updated inventory of his assets, there was no way for his family to even confirm everything he had when he died. To this day, one of his accounts is still stuck in the Florida Department of Unclaimed Property.

Alexis thought for sure this must be malpractice. But after working for one of the best law firms in the country and interviewing other top estate-planning lawyers across the country, she confirmed what happened to her father-in-law wasn’t malpractice at all. In fact, it was common practice.

When Alexis started her own law firm, she did so with the intention and commitment that she would ensure her clients’ plans would work when their families needed it and create a service model built around that.

We hear similar stories from our clients all the time. Indeed, outside of not creating any estate plan at all, one of the most common planning mistakes we encounter is when we get called by the loved ones of someone who has become incapacitated or died with a plan that no longer works. By the time they contact us, however, it’s too late.

We recommend you review your plan annually to make sure it’s up to date, and immediately amend your plan following events like divorce, deaths, births, and inheritances. We have built-in systems and processes to ensure your plan is regularly reviewed and updated, so you don’t need to worry about whether you’ve overlooked anything important as your life changes, the law changes, and your assets change.

You should also create (and regularly update) an inventory of all your assets, including digital assets like cryptocurrency, photos, videos, and social media accounts. This way, your family will know what you have and how to find it when something happens to you, and nothing you’ve worked so hard for will be lost to your state’s Department of Unclaimed Property.

We’ll not only help you create a comprehensive asset inventory, but we’ll make sure it stays up to date throughout your lifetime.

When you create a trust, it’s not enough to list the assets you want it to cover. You have to transfer the legal title of certain assets—real estate, bank accounts, securities, brokerage accounts—to the trust, known as “funding” the trust, in order for them to be disbursed properly.

While most lawyers will create a trust for you, few will ensure your assets are properly funded. We’ll not only make sure your assets are properly titled when you initially create your trust, we’ll also ensure that any new assets you acquire over the course of your life are inventoried and properly funded to your trust.

This will keep your assets from being lost, as well as prevent your family from being inadvertently forced into court because your plan was never fully completed.

Our planning services go far beyond simply creating documents and then never seeing you again. Indeed, we’ll develop a relationship with your family that lasts not only for your lifetime, but for the lifetime of your children and their children, if that’s your wish.

We’ll support you in not only creating a plan that keeps you family out of court and out of conflict in the event of your death or incapacity, but we’ll ensure your plan is regularly updated to make certain that it works and is there for your family when you cannot be. Contact us today to get started.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. If you’re ready to create a comprehensive estate plan, contact us to schedule your Family Wealth Planning Session. Even if you already have a plan in place, we will review it and help you bring it up to date to avoid heartache for your family. Schedule online today.

If you are like most parents, you were probably struggling with guilt even before the virus. You simply can’t make it to every award ceremony or recital, and you might not have as much time to play with your kids or help them with their homework as you’d like. Those feelings of guilt may now be compounded by all the additional responsibilities you’ve had to take on in a short space of time.

If you have not already legally documented who you would want to raise your children, if you could not finish doing it yourself for any reason, find our Kids Protection Plan on our website. It’s free. It’s easy. And the site guides you through who to choose and creates a legal document for you.

Legally documenting your choices for who you want to take care of your kids if you can’t is a great first step to getting legal planning in place for the people you love. (Yes, I said “choices” because you want to name at least one person with two alternates.) And, doing so can provide you with a lot of relief, if you have not taken care of this yet for your kids.

After you are done, contact us for a no-charge review of the documents, and we’ll guide you to the next step in ensuring the well-being and care of your kids (and your assets), if something happens to you.

If the parents get sick with COVID-19, this is one of the most important things you can do for your kids right now, and we’re making it as easy as possible for you to get started with it.

So that’s one way we can support you to remove some of that mom or pop guilt you may have. And, here’s another…

While you’re probably already spending a significant amount of time with your kids, it may not be very high quality.

But you may be too tired or overwhelmed to plan big activities, or the things you used to do for “quality time” may not be available.

So, what’s a parent to do?

Nothing.

Yes, you read that right, nothing.

If you can take 15 minutes or so out of your day and do nothing with your child, it could be the best 15 minutes you spend with them, and with yourself, all day. Maybe you’ll even be able to stretch it to 30, 45 or 60 minutes of nothing.

It’s truly one of the best gifts you can give to your kids, and the best part is you don’t have to do anything.

We hope this idea provides some relief from the guilt. You don’t have to DO as much as you think. Mostly, your kids really just want to know you are there, and will give them your full attention, without screens, even if they aren’t paying attention to you.

If you’re on an emotional roller-coaster right now, your kids are probably having some similar struggles. This is an opportunity to connect with them, and a good time to show them a little vulnerability of your own. Remember how important sharing words of love and comfort can be, both to them and to you.

A friend of mine has three kids ranging from eight to fourteen, and she recently told me a story about a very special conversation with one of her children.

After my friend had spent a few weeks juggling school, work responsibilities, and a million other household duties, she was feeling worn out and discouraged.

Then she took a quiet moment to just sit around and talk with her tween daughter and share some of what was going on for her, that it was hard, and how she was making it through. Out of the blue, to my friend’s surprise and gratitude, her child gave her a big hug and said, “You do so much to take care of us all the time. That must be so hard. Thank you.”

This special moment filled my friend’s heart, and it has gotten her through some tough days. And it never would have happened if she hadn’t taken a little time out to just talk with her kid, without a particular agenda.

If you have been feeling really alone and need support, reach out for help. Sometimes venting to your friends is enough, and chances are they’ll be able to relate! But if you are not getting the support you need, there are professionals who will communicate via phone and even text message. You can find local therapists and phone, video, and online therapists through Psychology Today’s directory.

Or, if family dynamics are rearing their head during these stressful times, and you want to keep your family out of court and conflict, give us a call to see how we can help.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. If you’re ready to create a comprehensive estate plan, contact us to schedule your Family Wealth Planning Session. Even if you already have a plan in place, we will review it and help you bring it up to date to avoid heartache for your family. Schedule online today.

In a recent Facebook post “Processes to go through with your parents before they die,” Daniel Schmachtenberger, founder of the Critical Path Institute, outlined seven simple exercises to use with your parents that can offer significant healing and completion for their life and yours.

While Daniel shared these processes in the context of the impending death of a parent, the reality is that your parents are heading toward death, even if there is no official diagnosis. And starting these processes when mortality is not immediately on the table is even better.

Create a timeline of all the big events in their life, starting with birth and their earliest memories up to the present. This is a great way to get to know them even better while you still can. Recalling their life through these stories can help them harvest the gifts, relive the good times, and identify any areas that still feel unresolved.

There are apps for creating timelines, but it is easily done with pen and paper. Create the timeline by writing “birth” on the far left of the page, and draw a horizontal line going towards “death” on the far right. Experiences are placed on the line chronologically in the order they occurred. Positive experiences are depicted as vertical lines going up from the horizontal line, and difficult experiences as lines going down. Write short descriptions to correspond with each experience.

One way to help prompt memories is to ask questions about different people, places, and things from their past: romantic relationships, jobs, and places they lived. Going through old photos, letters, and music can also trigger meaningful memories.

When documenting their life events, the positive experiences can simply be recalled and enjoyed. For the negative ones, you can ask them what they learned from the experience and write that lesson in the description. In this way, you can find beauty and meaning in all of it.

To foster healing in your personal relationship with them, focus on three areas:

●       Peacemaking: Forgive them for any way they hurt you, and help them forgive themselves. Apologize for the ways you hurt them. You want to ensure that neither of you feels any residual pain (resentment, guilt, or remorse) in the relationship.

●       Appreciation and gratitude: Write them a letter detailing everything you learned from them and all the positive experiences you had together. Go deep within to discover all they did for you, really appreciate it, and use the letter to help them feel your appreciation. Pinpoint any of their virtues you hope to embody most in your life and share that commitment with them, so they know they will live on through you once they are gone.

●       Reassurance: It is common for parents to resist leaving you over concerns for your future well-being. Reassure them that you are alright, will be alright, and it is okay for them to go. Using estate planning to help them get their affairs in order is a major part of this.

If possible, help other family members go through the above healing process with your parents. Help your dying parent make peace with everyone in their life, even if some individuals cannot speak directly with them. Reassure them that you will help take care of those loved ones who are in the most need.

Ask them for life advice on anything and everything you can think of. As the old African proverb says, “Every time an old person dies, a library burns,” so make sure to write down or record as much of their personal wisdom as possible.

To make the most of the time you have left, ask them if there is anything they really want to experience before they go, and fulfill as many of these bucket-list items as you can.

In addition to documenting the positive impact they have had on your life, help them inventory all of the meaningful ways they have touched the lives of others. You want them to clearly see all of the beauty and meaning their life has brought to the world.

While the above steps can help bring them peace, if they experience any fear of death, do your best to help them move through that. When death comes, you want them to be ready to greet her as an old friend.

If they are fond of a particular religion or spiritual practice, you can recite their favorite verses, hymns, and/or prayers. Or they might find comfort in hearing their most beloved poems or songs. Silent or guided meditation is often helpful as well. But sometimes, simply offering them your loving presence and holding their hand is enough.

We are exceedingly grateful to Daniel for sharing these practices. If you would like to share them with friends or family, you can either share this article from us or share Daniel’s note directly here.

The life stories, lessons, and values that come from these final conversations can be among the most precious of all your family’s assets.

Indeed, legacy planning is so important that we encourage you to select only an attorney who incorporates legacy planning into every estate plan they create. Using a series of helpful questions and prompts similar to the exercises Daniel outlines, you are guided to create a customized recording in which you share your most insightful memories and experiences with those you are leaving behind.

What’s more, you can ensure these life lessons are documented and preserved well before you and/or your loved ones are close to death.

Though estate planning is mainly viewed as a way to pass on your financial wealth and property, when done right, it also enables you to preserve and pass on your true legacy: your memories, values, and wisdom. And it can also be a source of overall healing in the family. With the right support, having these all-important final conversations does not have to be intimidating or awkward at all.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. If you’re ready to create a comprehensive estate plan, contact us to schedule your Family Wealth Planning Session. Even if you already have a plan in place, we will review it and help you bring it up to date to avoid heartache for your family. Schedule online today.

Last week in part one of this series we discussed how Hsieh became an Internet pioneer, starting two wildly successful companies, LinkExchange and Zappos, the latter of which he sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion. It was as CEO of the online shoe brand Zappos where Hsieh developed his vision for life and business: delivering happiness.

Hsieh outlined this mission in the 2010 book, Delivering Happiness: A Path To Profits, Passion and Purpose, which became a New York Times number-one bestseller. Yet while the young entrepreneur was busy bringing joy to his customers, employees, and friends, Hsieh was privately coping with mental health issues and substance abuse. These struggles reportedly intensified in 2020, as the pandemic-related quarantines put an end to the non-stop parties and socializing Hsieh came to crave.

Hsieh’s downward spiral also coincided with his relocation from Las Vegas to Park City, Utah. In Park City, Hsieh became further isolated from longtime friends, surrounding himself with a new group of friends, many of whom were reportedly much younger than Hsieh and encouraged his escalating use of drugs, including ketamine, ecstasy, and nitrous oxide.

Further complicating matters was the fact that many of Hsieh’s new friends had moved to Park City after Hsieh promised to double their highest salary if they would relocate with him and assist with his efforts to revitalize the downtown area of the ski-resort town.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the walls of Hsieh’s Park City mansion were covered in thousands of color-coded sticky notes, which Hsieh used to record financial commitments he made to employees, friends, and local businesses. What’s more, Hsieh reportedly purchased dozens of properties in Park City, including homes, condos, and businesses, all of which were owned through a number of limited liability companies (LLCs).

In August, Hsieh announced that he was retiring as CEO of Zappos, which he had run largely autonomously for more than a decade after selling the company to Amazon in 2009. Around that same time, family members and friends worried about Hsieh’s increased drinking and drug use, reportedly staged multiple interventions in an attempt to get him professional help.

Although reluctant at first, Hsieh eventually decided he would seek treatment for his addictions. According to the Wall Street Journal, Hsieh was going to check himself into a rehab facility in Hawaii following the Thanksgiving holiday, which he planned to spend with his girlfriend in Connecticut. Sadly, Hsieh would never make it to Hawaii, as he perished from injuries he suffered after being pulled unconscious from a house fire in the early morning hours of November 18th.

During his visit to Connecticut, Hsieh stayed in a waterfront home in New London, with his longtime girlfriend and former Zappos executive, Rachael Brown, as well as his brother, Andy Hsieh. According to property records, Hsieh purchased the $1.3 million home for Brown in August 2020, but it was a likely vacation home, as Brown reportedly lived with Hsieh in Park City, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.

It remains unclear what started the fire. Based on reports from the Wall Street Journal, at some point in the evening, Hsieh told others in the house that he was going to a storage shed that was attached to the home, and that they should check on him regularly throughout the night. From there, Hsieh apparently locked himself—either intentionally or by accident—in the storage room and wasn’t seen or heard from again.

When firefighters arrived on the scene around 3:30 am, they found smoke billowing from the storage area at the back of the house where Hsieh was located. The others staying in the house told first responders Hsieh was locked inside the shed and was not responding to their pleas for him to come out. Firefighters were forced to break through the door into the storage area, where they found Hsieh lying unconscious.

Paramedics performed CPR on Hsieh at the scene, and then he was flown to a local hospital, before being relocated to the Bridgeport Hospital Burn Center, where he ultimately died nine days later on November 27th—just two weeks before his 47th birthday. Because the investigation into the fire is still ongoing, local authorities are not releasing any information about the suspected cause of the fire, but they maintain Hsieh’s death was accidental and caused by complications from smoke inhalation.

Hsieh is survived by two brothers and his parents. Just a week after his death in early December, a judge in Clark County, Nevada, granted a motion filed by Hsieh’s father, Richard, and his older brother, Andrew, to be named co-special administrators and legal representatives for his estate. In the ruling, the judge ruled that Hsieh’s personal and business affairs “require immediate attention to prevent loss to the estate.”

According to court reports, Hsieh’s family was unclear whether or not he had a will or any other planning documents. His father and brother sought to be named administrators of his estate, so they could access his safety deposit boxes and speak with his lawyers and other associates in order to determine if he had made any plans for how his assets should be managed upon his death.

Although Hsieh had moved to Park City earlier in the year, he was still listed as a resident of Nevada. This means that if no will is found, all $840 million of Hsieh’s assets will be distributed under Nevada’s intestate succession laws. According to those laws, Hsieh’s mother and father stand to inherit his entire estate.

However, before any of his assets can be transferred, they must first be located. Given the immense size and scope of the assets Hsieh likely accumulated over his lifetime, just identifying everything he owned will likely take his loved ones several months or even years. Depending on the type of records Hsieh kept, it’s quite likely that some of his assets will never be located, and instead of passing to his family or funding one of Hsieh’s favorite philanthropic causes, those assets will end up in the state Department of Unclaimed Property.

In addition to locating his assets, Hsieh’s family must also pay off any debts or liabilities Hsieh incurred during his lifetime. And this process will undoubtedly be extremely complicated due to his penchant for doubling his friends’ salaries in exchange for relocating to Park City with him.

Each one of the thousands of sticky notes covering the walls of Hsieh’s mansion in Park City could potentially be considered a valid contract, and if so, each of those individuals could have a claim against his estate. To complicate matters even more, it’s highly likely that there will be questions as to whether Hsieh was in a sound state of mind during his final months and if he had the mental capacity to even make binding contracts.

Hsieh’s failure to use formal legal agreements to govern his business relationships will undoubtedly lead to bitter court battles, pitting his family against some of the so-called “friends” Hsieh surrounded himself with during his final months.

Furthermore, Hsieh’s recent spending spree on real estate and businesses in Park City, much of it done through multiple LLCs, will also need to be sorted through. This will be a particularly lengthy and expensive process given that his loved ones must deal with the court process of probate not only in Hsieh’s home state of Nevada, but in every state he owned property in.

Finally, once all of Hsieh’s debts and creditors have been paid via probate, whatever remains of the estate will be subject to the federal estate tax before it can pass to his parents. The estate tax is not a factor for most people, as the tax code provides for a hefty exclusion that can be used to transfer a certain amount of wealth tax free to your heirs upon your death.

Yet given Hsieh’s massive fortune, his family will be hit with a tax bill that could potentially run in the hundreds of millions. Based on the federal estate tax exclusion for 2021, the first $11.7 million of Hsieh’s estate will pass tax-free to his family, but whatever remains of his $840 million estate after probate will be taxed at a whopping 40% rate.

Following Hsieh’s death, his family released a statement to the press that read in part, “The Hsieh family hopes to carry on Tony’s legacy by spreading the tenets he lived by—finding joy through meaningful life experience, inspiring and helping others, and most of all, delivering happiness.”

While Hsieh’s sudden death is certainly tragic, hopefully it serves as a wake-up call, reminding us all that we never truly know how much time we have left or when the end will come. To honor Hsieh’s legacy and deliver happiness to those you love most, meet with us to put your plan in place today.

Whether you already have a plan created or nothing at all, we’ll find the specific planning strategies best suited for your life situation and asset profile. With us as your Personal Family Lawyer®, you’ll have access to the same planning tools those in the Fortune 500 use, which are designed to keep your family out of court or conflict no matter what happens. Contact us today to get started.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. If you’re ready to create a comprehensive estate plan, contact us to schedule your Family Wealth Planning Session. Even if you already have a plan in place, we will review it and help you bring it up to date to avoid heartache for your family. Schedule online today.