For clarity purposes, when listing blood-related children and step-children within a Last Will and Testament, Living Will or Living Trust, it is suggested that all children be specifically listed in the document by name and then referred to as “my children”. No designation past that is required.

If the changes to a Last Will and Testament or a Living Trust are significant, a person can create new documents to take the place of the existing documents. But a Will and Trust must be handled differently. [ Read More… → ]

The laws of each state may effect who is appointed with Power of Attorney.

Generally, spouses make decisions for an incapacitated adult.

If one is not married, state law may permit the children of that person to make medical decisions, assuming that all of the children agree on the care to be provided. [ Read More… → ]

Generally, there is no requirement that Will or Living Will documents must be re-drawn when a person moves from one state to another, provided that the original document meets even the basic requirements of each state’s laws.

If there is any doubt regarding the validity of your documents, we suggest you create new ones, given that doing so is so very affordable using Standard Legal’s do-it-yourself legal forms software.

Let’s use an example of a husband and wife who do not “mix finances”. The wife owns the house solely in her name, and the husband has a business solely in his name with debts both personal and under the business. They carefully keep completely separate bank accounts, credit card accounts, etc. [ Read More… → ]

Generally, a Last Will and Testament outlines the distribution of a person’s assets upon his or her death, while a Living Will defines the type of health care a person wishes to receive if incapacitated and unable to make such decisions directly.

In most instances, the person who is creating either one of these documents should [ Read More… → ]