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preference to the ward’s spouse or other close family members. In some cases, the guardian is required to post a bond, which typically requires good credit and some level of deposit to be held in the event of the guardian’s wrongdoing. This bond requirement often disqualifies friends and family, who either don’t have good credit or the resources to post a bond.

If a relative or friend is not willing—or capable—of serving, the court will appoint a professional guardian or public guardian. This is one of the ways that an estate can be drained extremely quickly. If you want to hear more about how this can happen, read this terrifying article about the way public and professional guardians are stealing from our elders.

A guardian will only be appointed if a court determines there is enough evidence to show a person is mentally incapacitated, such that they can no longer make legal, financial, and/or health-care decisions.

Depending on the extent of the ward’s mental capacity, a court-appointed guardian can be given near complete control over a person’s life and finances. Some of the most common duties include:

• Paying the ward’s bills
• Determining where they live
• Monitoring their residence and living conditions
• Providing consent for medical treatments
• Deciding how their finances are handled, including how their assets are invested and if any assets should be liquidated
• Managing real estate and other tangible personal property
• Keeping detailed records of all their expenditures and other financial transactions
• Making end-of-life and other palliative-care decisions
• Reporting to the court about the ward’s status at least annually

The extent of duties the guardian is responsible for is up to the court, and the guardian will not be allowed to act in areas the court has not authorized. Moreover, guardians are required to seek the ward’s preferences whenever possible—though ultimately, the decision about what action to take will be in the guardian’s hands. 

The court can also divide out responsibilities to multiple parties. For example, one person may oversee the financial decisions, while another handles living arrangements and health-care decisions. What’s more, the court often requires detailed status reports, such as financial accounting, at regular intervals or whenever important decisions are made, such as the sale of assets.

Whether you’ve met with an estate planning lawyer before or it’s your first time, it’s important to understand how working with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® is different from meeting with a traditional lawyer.

Here we will explain what’s involved with our process, in hopes that it will inspire you to meet with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® and get clear on what your family needs you to have in place, so you don’t leave behind a mess if you become incapacitated or when you die. We promise to help you make the wisest, most affordable, most effective, time-saving plan for yourself and the people you love.

Given the unique approach of Personal Family Lawyer® firms, an initial consultation with our firm is quite different from an initial consultation with a typical estate planning attorney. A typical “initial consultation” would be a meet-and-greet-type of meeting, in which the lawyer describes the various legal documents you need to put in place and quotes you a fee to provide those documents.

In those types of meetings, it will likely be quite difficult for you to know exactly what you need for your unique family situation, assets, and how to make the right decision, outside of simply considering whether the cost of these documents fits within your budget. Deciding what you need based solely on the cost of documents will likely lead to you receiving a set of documents that won’t serve and protect your family or your assets when they need the most support.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen it all too often: You have the best of intentions to do the right thing and get a will or trust in place, but you either don’t do it, don’t complete it, or work with a lawyer who puts in place a documents-only plan that is little more than what you could do yourself online through an online document service. And then you become incapacitated or die, and your family is left with a mess: They don’t know where your assets are, they don’t know who to turn to, your documents are out-of-date, and your loved ones are lost, confused, and grieving all at once.

We’ve designed our entire process, which we call Life & Legacy Planning, to support an entirely different reality—one in which you use the estate planning process to not only leave behind a plan for the people you love, but to make your life even better right now. Let me explain how we do that.

As your Personal Family Lawyer® firm, our entire process is designed to support you to make the right decisions for yourself and the people you love during your life and to leave a legacy of support and love to the people you care about most.

In service to that, our initial meeting with you is a two-hour working session, called a Family Wealth Planning Session. During this session, you’ll educate us on everything you own and all of your family dynamics, and we’ll educate you on how the law would apply to you, your assets, and your family in the event of your incapacity or death. Then, together we will create a plan for how to structure your affairs, how you’d like to have your family supported, and how to keep track of your assets, so your family never feels lost, confused, or alone during a time of grief. And by the time you leave the Session, you’ll feel relieved, cared for, and more clear than you’ve ever been about how to make life choices in alignment with the legacy you desire to leave, as a parent, as a business owner or professional, and as the CEO of your life.

This Planning Session is $750. But if you’d like us to waive this fee, we will do so if you are willing to do a bit of homework ahead of time. This homework is a critical part of the planning process, and it will benefit your loved ones whether you engage in a full plan with us or not. The homework will guide you to find everything you own, and document it, using our Personal Resource Map: Family Wealth Inventory and Assessment.

Just completing this initial assessment will likely get you more financially organized than you’ve ever been before.

We are consistently surprised to see that many of our clients do not have a clear awareness of what they own or how to locate all of their assets. And if you don’t know what you have and where it is and you haven’t documented it, how will your family know? This is exactly why there is more than $58 billion (yes, that’s billion with a “b”) of lost and unclaimed assets held by state and federal agencies in the U.S. This happens when you become incapacitated or die, and your family is unable to find or simply overlooks assets you’ve worked so hard to create because most people fail to properly inventory their assets and/ or keep that inventory regularly updated. So we support you to start there.

We know you haven’t devoted years of your precious time and energy to build your family wealth only for your heirs to lose track of it when something happens to you. That’s one reason the Family Wealth Planning Session is so beneficial. Whether you decide to create a full estate plan or just rework the one you have, after working with us, at the very least your family will know what you have and how to locate it should anything happen to you.

And if you do decide to create an estate plan or redesign an existing plan with us, the Family Wealth Planning Session will guide you to choose the type of plan you want based on your budget, what’s most important to you, what’s not important to you, and with a clear understanding of the impact of your choices. We will guide you to choose the most affordable and effective planning solution for your life and the people you love, so you can get your affairs in order and keep them that way throughout your lifetime and through all of life’s changes.

This investment of your time now will save your family countless hours of heartache and work down the road, while also keeping your loved ones out of conflict and out of court. If you choose to work with us, you’ll get the peace of mind that comes with knowing you never have to make another financial or legal decision without our guidance again. And if and when something happens to you, your loved ones will get the same type of trusted advisor, who will be there for them when you can’t be.

Death is unavoidable. But you can make it far easier on the people you love by the choices you make now. And facing the reality of this fact allows you to make choices that will let you enjoy your current life even more. In fact, our clients often report a huge sense of relief after meeting with us, and they frequently say they wished they’d created a life and legacy plan sooner.

You see, we’ve discovered that estate planning is about far more than planning for your death and passing on your “estate” and assets to your loved ones—it’s about planning for a life you love and a legacy worth leaving by the choices you make today—and this is why we call our services Life & Legacy Planning.

As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we are specially trained to educate, empower, and support you to make the right decisions for your life and for the people you love. Furthermore, because your plan will be designed to provide for your loved ones in the event of your death or incapacity, we aren’t just here to serve you—we’re here to serve your entire family.

In the end, your Life & Legacy Plan goes far beyond simply creating documents and then never seeing us again. We will develop a relationship with you and your family that lasts not only for your lifetime but for the lifetime of your children and their children if that’s your wish. And this all starts with our Family Wealth Planning Session. If you’d like to learn more about this process or schedule your appointment, contact us, your Personal Family Lawyer® today.

This article is a service of a 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.

Committing to a conscious divorce means protecting your children from end-of-marriage related trauma. When the marriage ends in a cooperative manner, divorce can be transformed from a contentious event into one that can inspire healthy growth.

In fact, engaging in divorce with a positive focus can better prepare both you and your kids for your new lives. But getting the divorce finalized is only the first step. Where the rubber really meets the road is how you navigate your new relationship as a co-parent.

To this end, it’s vital you keep the same mindful, child-centered approach to co-parenting. Conscious co-parenting means both parents put aside any negativity they may have toward one another, so they can place their children’s needs first.

While this may sound simple, it can be challenging. To help you get started, we’ve outlined six steps that are crucial to a collaborative approach to co-parenting.

Your marriage with your ex may done, but your relationship as co-parents will last a lifetime. Think of your new co-parenting relationship as a business partnership, where your business is raising successful, well-adjusted children. This professional approach can not only help you become a more effective parent, but it also helps prevent unnecessary conflict over personal boundaries and past problems.

For example, if you schedule a time to pick up the kids, treat it like an appointment with a colleague; don’t blow it off or be late. Be as courteous to your co-parent as you would with any business colleague.

This can be difficult, especially in the beginning when emotions are still raw. Just keep in mind that most people you work with aren’t necessarily your friends, but you must still work together to get the job done. Your job as co-parent is no different.

Effective communication is paramount to successful co-parenting. This can present a challenge if poor communication was a primary cause of the divorce. By setting a professional tone, however, you may find communication becomes easier, since it’s free from emotional baggage.

Stop blaming and finger pointing, and leave emotion out of your correspondence. Instead of accusing, think in terms of discussing. Co-parenting isn’t about one side winning and the other losing; it’s about teamwork, compromise, and conflict avoidance.

When communicating, make your kids and their healthy adjustment the focal point. Tailor everything you say in terms of shared responsibility, using terms like “we” and “us,” instead of “you” or “me.” Avoid anything judgmental: stick to the facts and how they affect your children’s well-being.

Never talk down about your ex in front of the kids, and don’t allow your children to be disrespectful toward your co-parent, either. You never want them to feel like they must choose a side.

Finally, don’t use your children as messengers. Speak directly to the co-parent yourself. With so many convenient ways to communicate these days, you should have no problem getting your message across directly. Indeed, there are special websites and apps, such as Coparently and Our Family Wizard, specifically designed to enhance co-parenting communication and allow you to easily share information and even upload joint calendars and schedules.

Every successful partnership requires planning, so sit down together and come up with a set of mutually agreed-upon guidelines and routines. This is essential for fostering security and predictability to help the children quickly and comfortably adapt to their new situation.

Even though they may despise it, kids thrive on structure, so be consistent. If the rules and schedule are different when they’re with mom than when they’re with dad, this can cause conflict and confusion. Children develop best when parents present a united front, so make sure they understand rules will always be enforced.

The more details the plan includes, the better. Try to anticipate potential problems ahead of time. How will holidays, birthdays, and vacations be shared? How will you resolve major disagreements between co-parents? How will new romantic relationships be handled? Be sure to revisit and update the plan regularly as the kids mature.

Developing such a comprehensive plan with an ex is challenging, so it’s often helpful to have a third-party present for advice and dispute mediation. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we can either help you to develop and maintain conscious co-parenting arrangements or refer you to trusted colleagues in the community who can do so and make sure that your estate planning reflects your custody wishes.

Next week, we’ll continue with part two in this series, discussing the key steps in conscious co-parenting. 

We don’t 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. Schedule online today.

NFTs, or “non-fungible tokens,” are the latest sensation in the cryptocurrency universe, or as we like to call it the “Cryptoverse.” And if you haven’t heard about NFTs yet, now is a great time to learn because they are likely to be a big part of our collective future.

So what is an NFT?

In the most basic terms, an NFT is a cryptographic token that exists on a blockchain and is used to establish proof of ownership of digital artwork, videos, GIFs, collectibles, and other digital assets. While NFTs use the same blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrency, NFTs themselves are not a traditional currency, though they can operate similarly to currency. Some people call them JPGs because they are literally graphic images, but they represent much more than just a simple JPG file.

NFTs have been generating a major buzz in the tech and art sectors for years now, but after Christie’s auction house sold a single NFT collage from the digital artist Beeple for a staggering $69.3 million this March, NFTs have begun making mainstream headlines.

Since then, a number of other big-money NFT sales have made the news, including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet made into an NFT, which sold for $2.9 million; a video clip of a LeBron James slam dunk sold for more than $200,000; and a GIF of Nyan Cat (a flying cat with a Pop Tart for a body) went for $600,000.

At this point, you might be wondering why anyone would spend such vast sums on digital images that you can download from the Internet for free. Here, we’ll answer that question and explain the basics of what you need to know about NFTs, including how they work; what makes them so valuable; where you can get them; and why they have the potential to revolutionize the way in which we own, exchange, and consume both digital and real-world assets—along with how to ensure your estate plan covers them if you happen to own one.

While NFTs and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are all part of the Cryptoverse, cryptocurrency is a “fungible” asset, meaning it can be traded or exchanged with another identical unit of the same value. For example, one Bitcoin is equal in value and can be exchanged for another Bitcoin, just like one dollar is always worth the same as another dollar.

However, NFTs are “non-fungible,” meaning each NFT is totally unique and not mutually interchangeable. Given this, no two NFTs are ever the same, and they cannot be replicated. Think of it in terms of traditional artwork: anyone can buy a Mona Lisa print, but only one person can own the original artwork.

Although primitive versions of NFTs, such as Colored Coins, have existed since 2012, the first NFTs to really become popular were CryptoKitties. Launched in 2017, CryptoKitties is a virtual game that allows players to adopt, raise, and trade virtual cats on the Ethereum blockchain.

Each CryptoKitty has unique attributes, and they can even reproduce to generate entirely new offspring, which have different attributes and valuations compared to their parent kitties. CryptoKitties became immensely popular, and within a few weeks, fans of the virtual cats had spent $20 million worth of ETH (Ethereum token) on the game, with some virtual cats selling for over $100,000.

As with cryptocurrency, a record of who owns each NFT is stored on a blockchain ledger.  The vast majority of NFTs reside on the Ethereum blockchain, though other blockchains like Bitcoin Cash and FLOW also support them. Whenever a new NFT transaction is verified, it’s added to the blockchain, where it cannot be changed, replicated, or forged.

The code embedded in NFTs can include specific information about the asset and its creator. For example, an artist can sign their digital artwork by including their signature in the NFT’s metadata. The unique information related to an NFT is stored in what’s known as a smart contract, which is one of the most unique and powerful features underpinning NFT technology.

A smart contract is a digital contract in which the terms of the agreement are set in code. A smart contract can be programmed to execute a specific action when a set of predefined conditions are fulfilled. For example, a smart contact can be programmed to make royalty payments to an NFT’s creator whenever their digital art is sold to a new owner.

Traditional pieces of art like paintings are valuable precisely because they are one of a kind, yet digital art can be easily duplicated an infinite number of times. With NFTs, digital art and other assets can be tokenized, which creates a digital certificate of ownership that allows the buyer to own the original item.

The value comes from both the scarcity and collectibility of the asset, as well as its potential for future sale. NFTs work like any other speculative asset, in that you buy it and hope that the asset’s value increases over time, so you can sell it for a profit.

NFTs typically increase in value for three reasons: 1) they are part of a series that gives you access to an exclusive club or community, 2) if they include licensable or brandable content that could be used to increase the value of the intellectual property, and 3) they can be used to “flex” or signal for status purposes (aka bragging rights).

Essentially, NFTs transform, or “tokenize,” digital art, videos, and other collectibles into one-of-a-kind, verifiable assets, which allows them to be easily bought, sold, or traded on the blockchain. NFTs are basically like any other collector’s item, such as a painting or a vintage baseball trading card, but instead of buying a physical item, you’re instead paying for a digital file and proof that you own the original copy.

Yet it’s the intellectual property (IP) aspect of NFTs that make them most interesting. Once you own an NFT, you have ownership of the IP representing the content of the NFT. As the owner of this now licensable content, you can use the content for branding, or you can even develop an entire persona or creative pursuit around your NFT.

You can see this in action with some of the owners of NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (#BAYC) NFT Collection. Universal Music Group bought 4 Bored Apes, and has begun branding them as the newest band they’ll promote, called KINGSHIP.  KINGSHIP will release music and products, building a fan base around this collection of four digital apes.

Building upon the success of the BAYC series of NFTs (a collection of 107 Bored Apes recently sold for $24.4M in a Sotheby’s auction), other creators have begun to release sets of 10,000 NFTs with hopes of mimicking the success of the BAYC series.

Currently, the majority of the NFT market is focused on collectibles, such as digital artwork, GIFs, virtual trading cards, videos of sports highlights, digital music, virtual avatars, and video game skins. However, NFTs are now even attracting the attention of major brands, and we’re seeing a number of big-name companies capitalizing on the trend.

For example, Nike has patented its own blockchain-based NFT sneakers, which it calls CryptoKicks. Marvel Comics has released its own NFT collectibles based on Spider Man and Captain America. Even Taco Bell has jumped on the NFT bandwagon with a collection of taco-themed images and GIFs.

In collaboration with the NFT marketplace VeVe, Disney released its Golden Moments NFT collection, which features digital statues inspired by some of the most beloved characters and moments from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and other Disney franchises. And in September 2021, Hollywood got in on the action, when the film Zero Contact became the first feature-length movie to be released as an NFT.

Musicians have also been releasing NFT-based songs, albums, and other music-related items with major success. For example, pop stars like Kings of Leon, Grimes, and Steve Aoki have all created NFTs. Moreover, Rolling Stone reports that NFTs could revolutionize how musicians connect and market their music to fans by including not only songs and albums as NFTs, but also videos, artwork, 3D avatars, wearable accessories, and even tickets that give fans a chance to have a virtual meet-and-greet with the artist.

If you are looking to get in on the NFT Cryptoverse, you’ll need to access the proper technology—and load up on cryptocurrency to fund your purchase.

First, you’ll need to get a digital wallet that allows you to store your crypto and NFTs. Metamask is a popular option because it connects directly to marketplace platforms, such as OpenSea, where you can buy and display your NFTs.

Then you’ll need to purchase cryptocurrency to make the purchase, and since the most popular blockchain for NFTs is currently Ethereum, your best bet is to get their version of digital coins, which are called ether (ETH).

From there, you’ll want to visit the NFT marketplace where the NFTs are sold. Some of the most popular NFT marketplaces include OpenSea, Mintable, Nifty Gateway, Axie Marketplace, and Rarible.

Additionally, there are also niche marketplaces for more specific types of NFTs, including NBA Top Shot for basketball video highlights; Valuables auctions off famous autographed Tweets like Dorsey’s; and Autograph, which is a platform launched by NFL superstar Tom Brady that offers a variety of NFT collectibles from sports icons like Tiger Woods, Simone Biles, Wayne Gretzky, and Tony Hawk.

Due to the high demand for certain NFTs, the tokens are often released in batches, known as “drops,” much like when batches of concert tickets are released at specific times. As with any other popular event, there’s often a rush of fans eager to snatch up the most in-demand NFTs when the drop starts, so you’ll need to pre-register and have your wallet full of crypto and ready to buy.

While buying a virtual cat may sound like an extremely trivial venture, the future potential for NFTs and how they can be used has more serious implications, especially in business and finance. For example, NFTs have already been used in a real estate transaction, in which a millennial from Silicon Valley purchased an NFT that gave him ownership of a studio apartment and a piece of art by the famous local street artist Chizz.

By allowing for the digital representation of physical assets, NFTs offer the potential to reinvent the way we own, exchange, and consume just about any asset. Perhaps the most obvious benefit of NFTs is increased market efficiency. The conversion of a physical asset into a digital asset streamlines the process of identifying IP, removes intermediaries, and creates entirely new markets.

Obviously, the digital representation of physical assets is not exactly new or novel. However, when you combine this concept with the benefits of the trustworthy and tamper-proof nature of blockchain-powered smart contracts, NFTs stand to become a potent force for change.

While many see NFTs as merely another passing fad and expect the NFT bubble to burst any day now, skeptics said exactly the same thing about Bitcoin. With this in mind, we remain cautiously optimistic about the future of NFTs, and only time will tell how this new technology pans out as the future unfolds.

As with cryptocurrency, if you currently own or plan to acquire NFTs, the first and most important step in securing these assets is to let your family, trusted partners, and of course, your lawyer, know you own it. If no one knows you own these assets, they will be lost forever when you die. You can document ownership of these assets by including your NFTs and cryptocurrency in your Family Wealth Inventory (a key component of our Life & Legacy Planning Process) listing all of your assets and liabilities.

Along with the amount of cryptocurrency and number of NFTs you own, you should also include detailed instructions about where these assets are located and how to find the instructions to access them, including the encrypted passcodes needed to unlock your account. Just make sure to keep these instructions in an absolutely secure location because anyone who has them can take your crypto and NFTs. As part of our Life & Legacy Planning Process, we’ll work with you to ensure that your cryptocurrency and NFTs are properly documented, as well as secure.

As technology continues to evolve and our lives become increasingly digitized, it’s vital that you adapt your estate planning strategies to keep pace with these changes. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we can assist you in updating your estate plan to include not only your traditional wealth and property but all of your digital assets, as well. Contact us today to learn more.

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.