Idaho Law Blog

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

Many times in my nearly 20-year career as a Idaho estate planning attorney I’ve had clients come to me and talk with me about how they can create a valid last will and testament in Idaho. During many of these meetings clients often bring to me the documents that they created from online services or from software kits that they purchased from an office supply store. Sometimes these documents are signed and sometimes they are not. Most regularly, these documents are not properly witnessed or notarized. When this happens, I have to tell my clients that the document they presented to me is not a valid last will and testament in Idaho.

To help you understand what creates a valid will in Idaho this blog will review the Toms v. Davies case which was decided by the Idaho Court of Appeals in 1995. Even though this case is over 20 years old it still provides a good deal of insight as to what creates a valid written last will and testament in Idaho, and how witnesses are important.

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

When it comes to Idaho estate planning we all tend to get into that Norman Rockwell state of mind from time to time, where everything is perfect and we are able to leave a sizeable inheritance to our children. But then reality kicks in and we can see that this may not actually be the case for us after all. This could be based on a number of factors, such as not having saved much money for retirement in our later years. Or perhaps we were dealt an unlucky hand and had sizable medical bills or other financial problems that plagued us during our lives. Regardless of the reason not everybody is in a position to leave an inheritance for their children.

If you are considering leaving an inheritance for your children here are a few things that you should keep in mind.

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

In working as an estate planning attorney for nearly 20 years I have had numerous clients come to me who want to disinherit an individual from their estate. Idaho law allows an individual to disinherit others from their estate if they choose to do so. However, it a disinheritance never just works automatically. Rather, there are very specific things that have to be done in order for a disinheritance to actually work. If you are thinking about disinheriting somebody from your estate through your Idaho estate planning here are three things that you should know.

Who Can I Disinherit?

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

During my 20 years of experience in helping my clients complete their estate planning I often have unusual and interesting conversations with them. Several weeks ago I decided to ask my clients one simple question. The answers from the question that I asked is what creates the content for this blog today. The question that I asked my clients was: “What is the single best estate planning tip you ever received?” In order of popularity or frequency, here are the 4 best estate planning tips my clients say they ever received from other people.

PUT IT IN WRITING

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

We’ve all been there. It’s something that seems to happen to me quite often. That is I will meet someone new and they will ask me what I do for a living. After I explained that I have been an estate planning attorney for nearly 20 years I will usually get one of two reactions. The first reaction is that the person I have just met will ask me questions about estate planning and tell me that they really need to get it done. The second and usually the most common reaction is that I will have the individual say to me “I really don’t need to get my estate planning done because my family knows what I want and they will take care of it.”

When I was young I would try to explain to these individuals that no their family really didn’t know what they wanted. I’ve come to learn though that trying to convince somebody that they need to get their estate planning done is pretty much the same as the dentist telling them they need to floss more often. People hear it, I think they understand it, I think they may even agree with me about it, but they usually don’t do it.

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

After working as a estate planning attorney for nearly 20 years it has become clear to me that we can often learn great lessons from famous people. We are nearing the second anniversary of the death of the musician Prince who died in April 2016 at the age of 57 from an accidental overdose. After several reports it appears that Prince’s estate will top out somewhere between $250 million and $300 million dollars. It is difficult to tell the total value of his estate because sales of his music have spiked since his death. Even though it has been two years since his death, there are several lessons that we can still learn from Prince that can assist us with our own estate planning. Here are three of those specific lessons:

1. Have a Written Estate Plan

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

Many people I’ve talked to during my 20 years of working as an estate planning attorney seem to believe that going through probate is worse than dying. I can understand why many people would feel this way. Most people talk to family and friends and usually it’s only fun to talk about horror experiences rather than good experiences. As a result at your family party or when you’re talking with your friends over the phone or looking at Facebook stories generally all you hear about are the worst case scenarios when it comes to probate.

Nevertheless there may be some legitimate reasons to avoid probate. The biggest one that most people can think of is simply privacy. The second biggest reason is because of the expense associated with probate. Finally, some people want to avoid probate because they simply do not understand it and they believe that it’s worse than getting a root canal, being audited for taxes, and speaking in public, all rolled into one. If you are convinced that you want to avoid probate here are the three ways that you can do it:

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

We live in a day and age when traveling has never been easier or more available than it is today. Through modern technology the speed of travel has increased and a person can literally find themselves in any major city in the world within a short time. As an estate planning attorney for the last 20 years I have had numerous clients ask me about what they should do with their estate planning documents when they travel. Below is a list of the three main documents included in a person’s basic estate plan and what should be done with these documents while traveling.

1. Your Powers of Attorney

By Lane V. Erickson, Idaho Estate Planning Attorney

With nearly 20 years of experience in assisting clients with their estate planning and helping their families with probate issues later, I have seen numerous problems that arise with property that is held by a person who passes away. It seems to be more and more common that nobody wants your stuff. The main reason for this seems to be the generation gap and the difference this brings to what each generation believes is valuable and worth owning.

We often help our clients work through these issues while they are alive so that they don’t become a big problem after they die. Here are three specific things that you should know about giving your property away to your family after you die.