Michigan Estate Planning Blog

Late in Life Marriages Require Estate and Financial Planning

 

Marriage at any age involves compromises of varying degrees. When couples marry late in life, the financial and legal decisions revolve around different issues. Who pays for the bucket-list trips? Whose name should go on the deed to the new condo or the home the newlyweds will share until death parts them?

A recent article from The New York Times, “Remarrying in Retirement? It Can Make Money Management Tricky,” explains a growing trend as Americans 65 and older are getting remarried at an increasing frequency. The marriage rate increased from 4.6 people per thousand in 1990 to 5.1 in 2022. By contrast, the remarriage rate in the general population plunged by about 50%.

Merging money and estate planning can get complicated when you marry later in life. People over 65 are more likely to have assets, including retirement accounts and real estate. There may also be children from prior marriages.

Women often arrive in second marriages with fewer assets than their male partners. However, this is more likely to be the case for older women whose generations were limited by social restrictions on women’s earning capacity and career advancement.

For women in this situation, a second marriage can become financially perilous if they don’t have a claim on a home that is to be inherited by stepchildren. Women who have contributed to a household for decades but whose name was never added to the deed very often find themselves in a no-win situation.

If heirs decide to sell the house after a father dies, the stepmother will not have a legal claim to the property or the proceeds unless the deed was changed. Promises made and provisions in a will won’t overcome the deed, even if the surviving spouse was on the mortgage.

For older couples, prenuptial agreements, life insurance and trusts are powerful tools to protect each other. A prenup forces a conversation about what happens if the marriage ends, whether by divorce or death. It may be an uncomfortable discussion, but it can shed light on assumptions about important issues. If both partners have children from prior marriages and intend to give their children all their estate regardless of their partner’s needs, it’s better to know this from the onset.

Life insurance is a good way to provide for spouses or children from prior marriages. In some cases, allocating different percentages of contributions to household expenses is used to address wealth disparities. The math sometimes gets complicated. However, every couple hopefully finds a fair resolution.

In many cases, trusts can be used to protect a financial legacy. This is especially appropriate if one spouse has large healthcare costs not covered by Medicare and needs long-term care. A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT) is often used for these situations.

These types of legal structures can seem cold-hearted and transactional. However, they are necessary to ensure that the surviving spouse has a financial cushion if they don’t have enough resources of their own.

Conflicts often arise when a homeowner gives their surviving spouse the right to live in a home they owned together until the spouse’s death. The children from a prior marriage must wait to sell the house, which can engender bad feelings towards the second spouse.

For some couples, remarriage doesn’t make sense from a financial standpoint. For example, marriage triggers inheritance rules for certain retirement accounts. If one spouse has a pension, they may be legally required to name the other as a beneficiary. If the person with the account had wanted it to go to a child, the spouse would have to cede their right to it with extra documentation. Remarriage might also mean sacrificing alimony, pension benefits, or Social Security payments.

An experienced estate planning attorney can address many of these concerns through trusts and other estate planning strategies. Ideally, this should be done before you say “I do” again, but it can also be done after you’ve walked down the aisle together.

Reference: The New York Times (May 10, 2025) “Remarrying in Retirement? It Can Make Money Management Tricky”

What’s Best Way to Pass the Family Home to Heirs?

 

 

Transferring a home to heirs after death can be a complex process. Many states have created a new path for homeowners to document their wishes, using a “transfer on death deed.” However, according to a recent article from The Wall Street Journal, “When Leaving the House to Your Heirs Backfires,” this method is far from foolproof. It even describes the TODD as a “blunt instrument.”

The complications of life make the TODD a disaster waiting to happen. People make mistakes filling out the forms, heirs are disinherited and the deed can conflict with the goals of the overall estate plan. Then it gets bad.

One man named his niece as the beneficiary using a TODD. However, his ex-wife set the house on fire and destroyed it a few days after his death. The niece owned only the land and lost the battle to get any insurance proceeds for the house. The case went to court, and the judge determined that while the TODD form made the niece the sole owner, the uncle was the insured, so the insurance didn’t cover her loss.

This is admittedly a dramatic example. However, it’s one of many cases where what seems like a simple solution in estate planning becomes a complicated, expensive mess.

Many homeowners are considering selling their homes, which have soared in value, paying significant capital gains taxes, or giving them to their children tax-free after death.

Wills are used to instruct how property is to be distributed after death. After death, the wills are submitted to the court, which then supervises the transfer of assets through probate. Many people set up trusts to avoid having their assets go through probate. The trusts contain detailed instructions for how they want the property to be distributed.

The challenge with trusts is to ensure that they are funded; that is, the assets intended to go into the trust must be retitled properly so the trust owns them. If the trusts aren’t funded, they don’t work. When created by an experienced estate planning attorney and with a capable trustee, trusts are an excellent way to transfer property.

Transfer on death deeds were created to avoid probate in a streamlined manner. When the owner passes, the beneficiary named on the deed can take direct ownership of the house, in much the same way named beneficiaries receive assets like 401(k)s or life insurance policies.

However, if any missteps occur, the results will not be what was intended. Homeowners can revoke a TODD at any time, which can undo whatever estate plan was created. If a TODD is used without being coordinated with the overall estate plan, there can be problems.

States are still making changes to these new deed laws because of cases like the owner’s ex setting the house on fire. In another case, a man is fighting for a 200-acre family farm left to him by his father, who was awarded the farm in a divorce settlement. The father made payments on a rent-to-own agreement with his maternal grandparents, which started in 1999. The grandparents said the TODD violated an anti-transfer provision in the contract and cancelled the contract. The Minnesota Court of Appeals agreed with the grandparents. The man has now lost the farm, despite more than two decades of payments made by both the father and son.

One last example and a reason to be wary of using a TODD: an 80-year-old man left his girlfriend a $700,000 house using a transfer on death deed. She got a surprise tax bill for $25,000 in estate taxes. She could have avoided the surprise if he had left her the house as a bequest in his will.

Talk with an experienced estate planning attorney about how to best transfer the family home and integrate it with the rest of your estate plan. Transferring such a sizable asset requires careful consideration to avoid unnecessary complications.

Reference: The Wall Street Journal (May 10, 2025) “When Leaving the House to Your Heirs Backfires”

What Happens If You Die Without a Will?

 

No matter where you live, dying without a will is going to lead to a costly, stressful and expensive experience for loved ones. It will also make distributing assets more complicated than necessary. A recent article from the Daily Journal, “Intestate succession: The risks and complications of dying without a will,” makes a strong case for having an estate plan, including a will, prepared by an experienced estate planning attorney.

When there is no will, assets must be submitted to a local court to be probated, including transferring legal title to property from the decedent to heirs. Most probate proceedings take at least 18 months and, in some cases, can extend to several years. There are attorney and administrative fees based on the gross value of the assets plus taxable gains on sales and receipts.

What is a very rough estimate of costs for an estate with a total value of $1 million when there is no will? While it varies by jurisdiction, a total cost of $30,000 is not unusual. Add costs like maintaining a property, paying a mortgage and other expenses; you can see why having a will is better.

Another reason to have a will: the delays of probate can make it difficult for the estate to pay expenses. If the personal representative (executor) needs to pay bills but the estate account is not funded, even more complexities and costs will occur.

Laws vary from state to state over who receives the estate assets when there is no will. California is a community property state, so that the spouse will receive all the community property and a portion of the separate property. How much separate property will be received depends upon the number of children, grandchildren, living parents or siblings and their own children.

In most states, the distribution of assets is governed by kinship. If there is no surviving spouse, the estate may pass equally to children or their children. However, the court may need to search for blood relatives without children or grandchildren. If you have no children but have relatives you haven’t spoken to for years and no will, they may become your heirs.

The simplest way to prevent a nightmare for your loved ones is to consult an experienced estate planning attorney and create an estate plan, including a Will, Power of Attorney and Healthcare Proxy.

A will is used to name a guardian for minor children, an executor to administer the estate and set the terms for the distribution of property. Without a will, the court makes these decisions, including who will raise minor children and where they will live. A court-appointed guardian will not be the same as a beloved family member, altering the course of children’s lives. For parents of young children, this should motivate an appointment with an estate planning attorney.

Estate planning also includes a detailed check on the ownership status of accounts for the option to name a designated beneficiary. Insurance policies, investment accounts, pensions and bank accounts will likely allow a beneficiary to be named. These assets will go directly to designated people, no matter what your will says or if, despite reading this article, you decline to have a will created.

Whatever your situation and wherever you live, you’ll want a will created to leave a legacy of caring for your loved ones.

Reference: Daily Journal (May 5, 2025) “Intestate succession: The risks and complications of dying without a will”

Estate Planning Documents Every Family Needs

 

 

Estate planning is not something only very old or very wealthy people need to do. Anyone who doesn’t want to leave a mess for their loved ones after they’ve died or if they are too sick to be able to make decisions, needs an estate plan. A recent article from Military.com, “Wills and More: These Are the Legal Documents Every Military Household Needs,” isn’t just for military families. Estate planning is for everyone, and one last important point: estate planning documents require upkeep to be effective.

The foundations of an estate plan include a will, beneficiary designation, and powers of attorney.

A will details who you want to receive your property when you’ve died and names an executor in charge of your estate. If there is no will, the laws of your state come into play. You may not like who is chosen to manage and distribute your estate, but it will be too late for you or your family.

Beneficiary designations apply to bank, investment, and retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and any asset permitting a beneficiary to be named. If your will has one instruction but the beneficiary designation says another, the beneficiary designation wins. This is just one example of why updating your estate planning documents is important. You may have opened an account decades ago and named a person who is no longer in your life or living.

Power of Attorney (POA) is a legal document that gives you the authority to make legal and financial decisions if you are incapacitated. A related document, Power of Healthcare Attorney, permits someone else to make healthcare decisions. Think of the two POAs as a mini-succession plan, giving authority over essential parts of your life to someone else if you become incapacitated.

If these documents aren’t in place, family members will need to go to court to obtain guardianship or conservatorship to take over routine matters like paying bills and being able to talk with doctors and make medical decisions. This is an expensive, time-consuming, and stressful process, easily avoided by having these documents prepared by an estate planning attorney.

Here’s an example of why updating documents is so important. Let’s say your mother receives a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease. She’s still functioning, but the disease is progressing. Once someone is incapacitated, they are not allowed to sign legal documents. If you fail to update her POAs and other estate planning documents on a timely basis, the documents can be challenged and may be deemed invalid.

Events requiring estate planning document updates include happy things like marriage, welcoming a child or grandchild into the family, or coming into a large inheritance. Unpleasant events require updates as well: divorce, death, a serious disease, or financial losses.

Remember, estate planning is about protecting your family and your property. You've protected yourself and your loved ones by making a will, keeping beneficiary designations updated, and having POAs and related documents for incapacity. Your family will be spared the stress and cost of cleaning up a mess, which is probably not the legacy you want to leave. Meet with an experienced estate planning attorney and get started on this most critical task.

Reference: Military.com (April 21, 2025) “Wills and More: These Are the Legal Documents Every Military Household Needs”

Is Power of Attorney for Health Care Needed If You’re Healthy?

 

Like most people, a 61-year-old man never thought he would have a health crisis. Neither did his family. However, he was struck with a sudden heart attack, followed by complications leading to a brain injury and he became incapacitated. The family was faced with a terrible situation in addition to their father’s health crisis.

The couple had never done any estate planning, nor did they have a Power of Attorney for Health Care. The spouse assumed she would have the legal right to make medical choices for her husband. However, without a POAHC, she had no standing. A recent article from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, “Wisconsin Spouses can’t make medical decisions without this document,” should serve as a wake-up call for families across the country, since this is not a one-state issue.

There is no automatic right to make healthcare decisions for an incapacitated partner. Unless both spouses are joint owners, one can’t access bank accounts. Without having the right estate planning documents in place, a spouse won’t be able to make decisions, pay bills, or transfer money between accounts to ensure the household runs smoothly.

Medical decisions for the man fell into legal limbo and got tangled up in red tape. Instead of focusing on his recovery, they embarked on a legal process that could have easily been avoided with one document.

First, the family had to petition the court for legal authority over his medical care, known as guardianship. This was an expensive, time-consuming and emotionally exhausting process, all going on while they were adjusting to this dramatic change in his health.

Making matters worse, he was not a compliant patient in his altered state. He wandered frequently, and one night, he got out of the hospital on a bitterly cold night. To make matters worse, the hospital couldn’t discharge him to a rehabilitation facility until the court awarded the family guardianship. The family was bombarded with questions about the status of his case, which was scheduled weeks away.

At the same time, there were further problems with the hospital without a designated health care agent. First, the hospital administrators insisted that the patient be discharged to a long-term care facility. They then said the insurance company had stopped paying, so he had to go home. When the family sought help from the county, the hospital threatened to tell the courthouse that the family was neglecting him and threatened the guardianship process.

The hospital reneged on its promise to help provide at-home nursing care when the guardianship process was finally completed. The family was left on their own to find appropriate care.

This nightmare could have been avoided if the couple had an estate plan, including naming a healthcare agent with a Power of Attorney for Healthcare. When he became incapacitated, his wife or adult child could have had the legal authority to make health care decisions on his behalf without the delays, added expense and frustration of court proceedings.

Everyone should have a Power of Attorney for Healthcare, sometimes known as a Healthcare Proxy, to name another person to step in and make decisions for them in case of incapacity. We never know what will happen, even to our healthiest family members. Anyone over age 18 needs to have a POAHC. Talk with your estate planning attorney and take care of this before it’s needed.

Reference: Wisconsin Newspaper Association (April 7, 2025) “Wisconsin Spouses can’t make medical decisions without this document”

Three Top Excuses Heard by Estate Planning Attorneys

 

Recognition of your mortality and taking the time to plan for tying up the business of your life are two very different things. Estate planning attorneys hear reasons for delay all the time. However, the explanations aren’t going to help your family when they have to administer an unprepared estate while grieving. A recent article from MarketWatch, “The top 3 excuses people make to put off estate planning--and why they’re all wrong,” offers food for thought.

I don’t own enough to need an estate plan. Even if you die in debt, you need an estate plan to prevent loved ones from having costly problems like probate, taxes and other issues. If you’re in a nursing home and all you own is a bank account with a named beneficiary, you may not need a will. However, you definitely need medical directives, including:

Healthcare Power of Attorney (or Healthcare Proxy), someone you name who can make medical decisions.

HIPAA Release so a person of your choosing can access health insurance information and medical records.

Designated representative for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security

Living Will to express wishes for end-of-life care. Do you want to be kept on life support if you aren’t expected to regain consciousness? What about artificial feeding? These are tough issues to address. However, without expressing your wishes, your family won’t know what you want.

Procrastination has worked before, so why change now? Many people are waiting to see if changes will come to federal estate tax exemptions, which are set to happen at the end of 2025 unless Congress acts. No one knows what will happen. However, if your estate is hovering near the $7 million mark and you wait until the last minute to make changes, your estate could become taxable. Creating and executing an estate plan takes time, so that procrastinating could cost your heirs 40% of your estate.

I don’t know where to start. This is what experienced estate planning attorneys are for. Just as you wouldn’t be advised to perform surgery on yourself, you need the services of a skilled and trained estate planning attorney to create an estate plan to achieve your goals.

Start by gathering any documents you might already have, including investment and pension accounts, life insurance policies, titles and deeds and anything you think might be relevant. Next, make an appointment with an estate planning attorney who can explain the process, offer strategic tools to minimize taxes, transfer wealth and prepare an estate plan to protect you and those you love.

If you need more of an incentive consider this: putting a loved one through the process of a scavenger hunt to identify documents, spend their own money to retain counsel to go to court to obtain a guardianship if you are incapacitated and need their help, or be powerless as a lifetime of work evaporates in estate taxes, will teach a valuable lesson of what not to do. If you’d prefer to be remembered with love and affection and not resentment, it’s time to stop procrastinating.

Reference: MarketWatch (April 17, 2025) “The top 3 excuses people make to put off estate planning--and why they’re all wrong”

Just the Facts on Estate Planning

 

While you do need an estate planning attorney to prepare an estate plan properly, you don’t need to go to law school to understand basic facts about estate planning. As reported in a recent article from the Pauls Valley Democrat, “Some real facts about estate planning,” getting the right information on estate planning basics can alleviate unnecessary anxiety and help resolve concerns.

You can use a trust to avoid taxes. Well, not always. Creating a trust alone doesn’t save taxes. It depends upon the type of taxes being discussed—income taxes, federal estate taxes, state estate taxes, or inheritance taxes—and the type of trust being created.

The person who establishes the trust, known as the grantor, pays income tax on a revocable living trust. If the trust is an irrevocable trust, income held in the trust will be taxed at rates near the highest individual tax rate.

Trusts do offer possible estate tax savings, depending upon the type of trust and how it’s structured. However, estate taxes aren’t even a concern for most people, since an individual must own more than $13.9 million of assets at the time of their death before any federal estate tax applies. Whether or not this historically high exemption level remains after December 31, 2025, is still unknown and you should speak with your estate planning attorney to be sure you are prepared if your estate is near the $7 million level just to be sure.

The heir pays estate taxes. Not always. Beneficiaries don’t pay the estate tax. The estate pays federal and state estate taxes. Federal estate taxes apply only to the estates of people with large amounts of wealth, who have likely done the proper estate planning to avoid paying estate taxes in the first place.

If you live in one of the few states with an inheritance tax, then you’ll pay inheritance tax based on the laws of your state.

If inherited assets include a large amount of appreciation, there won’t be any capital gains taxes paid because the recipient receives the assets at their fair market value at the date of death. For example, let’s say your mother dies owning $100,000 of land, which she bought in 1958 for $10,000. If she sold the land, she’d pay capital gains tax on $90,000. However, her heir’s basis is $100,000, and they could sell the land for $100,000 and pay no taxes.

The best way to avoid worrying about estate planning is to schedule a consultation with an experienced estate planning attorney and discuss your unique situation. They’ll be able to create a plan to minimize your taxes, discuss whether a trust would be appropriate for you and your heirs, and give you the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’ve taken care of yourself and the next generation.

Reference: Pauls Valley Democrat (April 11, 2025) “Some real facts about estate planning”

Here’s Why Everyone Should Have a Will

 

There isn’t an estate planning attorney alive who doesn’t have horror stories of what happens to families when a loved one doesn’t have a will. The person without a will leaves behind a mess for loved ones to take care of, including the risk of minor children being placed in foster care. This should be enough to motivate you to call an estate planning attorney, says a recent article from Investopedia, “What’s the Worst Thing That Can Happen If You Die Without a Will?”

Having an estate plan in place does not have to be complicated. However, not having one is. Family conflict is more likely to occur, probate can drag on for months or years and take a big bite out of your estate’s value. If you don’t have an estate plan with medical directives, you might be kept alive by artificial means, even if you’ve told everyone in the family you don’t want this to happen.

Every state has its own laws about how assets are distributed when there is no will. For the most part, they follow bloodlines. Estranged relatives could end up owning everything, or one child could end up with an unwanted responsibility. Having a will lets you be intentional about distributing your assets.

Even close families fight over inheritance when there’s no will. Without documenting your intentions in a will, family members can end up in court, sometimes fracturing families permanently. This is probably not the legacy you’d want to leave behind.

Probate is a legal process where the court validates a will, appoints an executor and allows the executor to administer the estate. If there is no will, the court will appoint an administrator, who is likely to be a stranger. They’ll track down assets, pay debts and distribute what’s left after their fees are paid.

While the court-appointed administrator is handling the estate, heirs will need to wait for any inheritance and the fees, and the months may stretch on far longer than if there were a will and an executor named.

Estate planning is also a means to preserve wealth and pass it on to the next generation. For families who are just getting started, receiving an inheritance of any size could make the difference between owning a home or continuing to rent without the opportunity to build equity for their own descendants.

If you think of creating an estate plan and a will as a gift to your children and your grandchildren, it may be more comfortable than thinking of it as a reminder of your mortality. An estate planning attorney in your community will have the legal knowledge and understanding of how families work. You can leave a legacy of caring, planning for the future and take care of those you love with an estate plan.

Reference: Investopedia (April 11, 2025) “What’s the Worst Thing That Can Happen If You Die Without a Will?”

Should You Put Your Home in a Trust?

 

If you own a home, you know your name on the title proves ownership. If you decide you’d like to transfer ownership, the name on the title changes. According to an article from ABC 45 News, “How, and why, to set up a trust for your house,” you can transfer ownership of your home to a real estate trust.

One of many reasons to put your home into a trust is to make it easier for your executor and heirs if your estate plan includes passing the home to your children. Transferring your home to a real estate trust involves certain legal and tax benefits. Here’s a look at why this might be something to discuss with your estate planning attorney.

First, what is a real estate trust? A real estate trust is a trust designed to own real estate property, which is transferred into the trust by retitling the deed. Once this is done, like any other trust, the asset—the real estate property—is managed by the trustee for the benefit of the grantor and beneficiaries.

In most cases, the home's original owner names themselves as the trustee to maintain control of the property, although someone else can be named as a trustee. An adult child is often named as the trustee if the original owner is ready to take this step.

Trusts have many applications for estate planning as well as tax planning and asset protection. Depending on the type of trust your estate planning attorney determines is best, a trust can be established to protect the home from creditors as well as passing directly to heirs without needing to go through probate court.

If you need a revocable or living trust, the grantor (the person who creates the trust) can make changes or even close the trust at any time. This is appealing to some people because they want to be able to be in charge. When the grantor dies, the property is distributed to beneficiaries according to the directions in the trust.

If you put your home in an irrevocable trust, the asset is protected against lawsuits and creditors. The same protection doesn’t extend to a revocable trust, however. The irrevocable trust may be eligible for a stepped-up basis on the grantor's death, reducing estate taxes and capital gains taxes when the property is sold, if all required conditions are met.

Trusts are a popular means of circumventing the need to go through probate court, which can cost thousands and take months or years to complete.

Senior homeowners should consult with an estate planning attorney to learn how placing their home in a trust will impact their overall estate plan and Medicaid eligibility. If there is no estate plan currently in place, this is something to address as soon as possible. We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know that having an estate plan provides peace of mind for all concerned.

Reference: ABC 45 News (March 14, 2025) “How, and why, to set up a trust for your house”

What Should Be Included in Your Estate Plan?

 

Estate planning attorneys often have clients who are more than 100 years old. However, those clients have usually made all their estate planning decisions while they were far younger, like in their 70s or 80s! A recent article, “Guidelines for estate planning, from a Golden Valley attorney,” from Sun Post, explains what your estate plan should include and why.

People should have their estate plans in place long before they turn 100, to provide peace of mind for themselves and for their heirs and executors, who will need to take over their affairs in case of incapacity or when they ultimately die.

Everyone should have a healthcare directive, sometimes called a Power of Attorney for Healthcare or Healthcare Proxy. This allows another person to have access to medical information and acts to express your wishes if you can’t communicate your wishes because of illness or an injury.

One person should be appointed to follow your healthcare and end-of-life instructions. Making your wishes clear in a legally binding document ensures that your loved ones know what you want and will help them make decisions for your care during a healthcare crisis.

You’ll also want a financial power of attorney in place so someone else can manage your financial life. Some people opt to make their bank accounts payable to a trust or retitle the bank as a “Transfer on Death” (TOD) account. This lets someone gain access to your finances. Let’s say you needed to be hospitalized for an extended period—having these documents in place will allow bills to be paid, your home maintained and avoid penalties for late or non-payment.

Many people today have trusts to prevent the estate from going through probate. When a will goes through probate, it becomes part of the public record. Probate takes time and can be costly. While probate in some jurisdictions isn’t as bad as in others, it can delay settling your estate by months or years.

Everyone who is over 18 needs to have a will. A will describes how your assets are to be distributed. If you have family heirlooms, for instance, your will can clarify who you want to receive a necklace or piece of art. The will instructs your executor, so they know exactly what you want to happen.

Your will is also used to nominate a guardian for minor children. Parents should always have a will, so they can name the person they want to raise their children in case both parents die.

Not having an estate plan leads to all kinds of problems for families. For one thing, the distribution of assets, and who should be the guardian for children and executor of your estate, are all decided according to the state’s laws. You may not have wanted your first cousin to raise your children. However, the court will make the decision for you. It’s better to have a will.

If you already have a will but haven’t updated it in more than three years, it’s time to dust it off and have it reviewed by an experienced estate planning attorney. Changes in your life and tax laws could mean that your will isn’t going to work the way it once did.

A final note: ask your estate planning attorney about how to store your estate planning documents. If your documents are stored at a safe deposit box, they will be sealed upon death and won’t be accessed until a court order has been obtained. This can delay settling the estate and create complications for loved ones.

Reference: Sun Post (March 20, 2025) “Guidelines for estate planning, from a Golden Valley attorney”