Henderson Office: 702.433.4455
Las Vegas Office: 702.254.4455
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At the law offices of JEFFREY BURR, we help clients with their estate planning.  But having the plan, a Will or Trust, is only part of the process.  I found an interesting graphic on social media and I thought I would plagiarize the idea.  The graphic discussed preparation of a “death dossier” –  the files and documents that are helpful to gather in planning for your death.   I thought of a few other names for this as listed in the title.

Here’s a summary of the documents or categories of documents that are helpful to gather and keep with or nearby your estate planning paperwork:

  1. E-mail accounts
  2. Social Media
  3. Media (Music, Movies, TV, e-Books, Photo bank, etc.)
  4. Bank Accounts (already stated above)
  5. Credit Cards
  6. Utilities (Water, Power, Gas, TV, Internet, Sewer, HOA, etc.)
  7. Computer Passwords
  8. WiFi passwords
  9. Phone and Tablet passwords and PINs

Taking care of these details can really help streamline the administration of your estate. Call us today at 702.433.4455.

-Attorney Jason C. Walker

Many people who establish Trusts prefer to nominate an individual, often a child or other family member, as a Successor Trustee of their Trust in the event of their death.  In this situation, the Successor Trustee is often also a beneficiary of the Trust.  A conflict of interest exists in that the individual is, on one hand, a Trustee with a number of duties and responsibilities to the Trust and its beneficiaries, and on the other hand the individual is a beneficiary of the Trust with his or her own self-interests. Normally a Court does not allow conflict of interest situations.  However, Courts recognize the fact that a person creating a Trust often wants a child or family member to serve as Successor Trustee and that the person is also one of the primary beneficiaries of the Trust.  The Court allows this type of conflict of interest, but imposes a number of duties and responsibilities on the Successor Trustee.  Some of these duties are:

In summary, the Successor Trustee must always put the interests of the Trust and its beneficiaries ahead of his or her own self-interests, and must not take personal advantage of his or her position as Successor Trustee.  For example, a Successor Trustee could not sell a Trust asset such as a vehicle at a below market value to his or her own spouse or child. If the Court finds that a Successor Trustee has violated one of his or her duties and damaged the Trust or its beneficiaries, the Court will hold the Successor Trustee personally liable for such damages.

At the law offices of Jeffrey Burr, we have many years of experience assisting and protecting individual Successor Trustees in the administration of a Trust after the death of a Trustor. One of our main objectives in doing so is to educate the Successor Trustee as to his or her many duties and responsibilities so that he or she does not unknowingly violate one or more of the duties imposed upon a Successor Trustee.

-Attorney John R. Mugan

This past year our probate department reviewed numerous Wills that were not executed or signed properly.  In some cases, through affidavits from the subscribing witnesses, we were able to correct some of these errors and admit the Wills to probate.  Unfortunately, in other cases, the problems were not able to be fixed. Most of these errors were from Wills that were not prepared by an attorney.  Once a person is deceased, errors in the execution of a Will cannot always be corrected.  This can result in complete devastation, with assets being distributed to persons that were not intended by the decedent.

The Nevada requirements for the execution of a Will are set forth in the Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 133. These requirements must be followed with exactness.  One missing word can be the difference between a valid Will and an invalid Will.  The requirements are not difficult; however, to someone who is not an attorney, the requirements are easy to miss.  We have found that there are many incorrect Will forms floating around on the internet and are not worth the paper they are written on.

If you have questions regarding the validly of your Will, contact an attorney and they will be able to quickly tell you whether your Will is properly executed.

Attorney – Corey J. Schmutz
Henderson Office
2600 Paseo Verde Parkway, Suite 200
Henderson, NV 89074
Phone: 702.433.4455
Fax: 702.451.1853
Las Vegas Office
10000 W. Charleston Blvd., Suite 100
Las Vegas, NV 89135
Phone: 702.254.4455
Fax: 702.254.3330
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