Will and Trust
Attorney servicing Omaha, Lincoln, and Greater Nebraska
What exactly is estate planning? In its simplest form mind estate planning is simply creating a plan for what happens to you while you are alive and cannot act for yourself, and a plan for what happens to your assets after you die.
But on a more complex level an estate plan is planning a deviation from a predetermined set of plans that are already in place in most states. In Nebraska, someone could opt not to make an estate plan, and there are statutes which specifically say what happens to your assets in a variety of instances. If someone does not make an estate plan, there are laws to allow for them to be taken care of via a guardianship or conservatorship. The problem is those laws may not be exactly what you want them to be.
Let’s try and un-legalese some of the terms of estate planning.
Like I said before, estate planning is not just about death, but about what happens when you are alive as well:
Bucket One is the living bucket, things that happen while you are alive:
1.
Guardian:
A person who makes decisions for someone else when they cannot do so. This could be for a minor OR it could be for an adult who is impaired (such as Alzheimer’s or another disability). This person decides what medical treatment to seek, where a person should live, and other non-monetary decisions. A guardian is appointed when someone seeks a court’s order to have a guardianship created.
2.
Conservator:
A conservator is the other hand to a guardian. The conservator makes the monetary decisions and issues payments. A conservator is appointed when someone seeks a court’s order to have a conservatorship created.
3.
Power of attorney:
These are somewhat like the guardian/conservator notion. The power of attorney lets someone else make decisions on your behalf. The difference between a power of attorney and guardian/conservator is that the power of attorney is not court appointed. In Nebraska, there are two types: durable financial power of attorney, and medical power of attorney. The names in this case are self-explanatory. A durable financial power of attorney is like the conservator and makes financial decisions. A medical power of attorney is the person who makes medical determinations.
4.
Living will:
A living will be also known as an advanced directive. This is the item which dictates what happens during someone’s life where a medical decision needs to be made. The living will is a clear advanced statement by the person making it as to what they want to happen, this relieves the person holding a medical power of attorney from some of the decisions related to life and death.
5.
Trust:
A trust is a separate entity that holds someone’s assets, such as their house, bank accounts, and vehicles. A trust is created while you are alive and continues past your death until all requirements created by you are met.
6.
Trustee:
A trustee the person who manages the trust. They carry out your wishes, and determine what distributions occur from the trust and when.