Estate planning, elder law, family transitions, business planning – the legal issues that affect your family are always evolving. Jennifer writes regularly to keep you informed, educated, and empowered. Browse the latest articles below, or search by topic to find what you’re looking for.
Estate planning for a married couple is often pretty straightforward: you leave all of your property and money to your spouse who also takes care of the minor children. But what happens if both parents pass away unexpectedly or if you’re a single parent creating an estate plan? Parents will usually say “then the children get everything,” but a Minnesota...
As a Minnesota estate planning lawyer, it’s easy to see why so many people put off writing their wills. After all, no one really wants to think about their own death, let alone prepare for it. In reality, though, preparing by creating a will is exactly what we should all be doing. There are plenty of reasons to consider, and any reputable wills and trusts...
During the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, your mom or dad will likely need help managing his or her financial and personal affairs. If your parent already has a Power of Attorney or living will in place, a new diagnosis of dementia should cause you to take a fresh look at those documents, especially if they do not reflect your parent’s current...
Excluding someone from your will, particularly if it's your spouse or your child, can be complicated. In some states, it's not even allowed. Leaving out people who wouldn't automatically receive any of your estate is usually as simple as just not including them. However, if you do want to be specific about excluding someone to make sure they don't inherit...
Unfortunately, many parents of children with special needs wait until their child turns 18 to consider creating a Special Needs Trust. Sometimes, they even wait until their child eventually needs government benefits like SSI or Medicaid. However, Special Needs Trusts do a lot more than just protect the beneficiary’s access to government benefits and should...
One of the most common questions asked when it comes to settling an estate in Minnesota is, “How long is this going to take?” The answer to that question is, of course, going to vary depending upon several factors. In some situations, Minnesota probate may just take several weeks or a few months; in others, it could take well over a year. Due to the...
You’ve most likely seen articles and news segments about cryptocurrency. The most popular form is Bitcoin, but there are several others on the horizon. What is cryptocurrency? For the uninitiated, cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security, making it difficult to counterfeit. Cryptocurrencies are not issued by any...
What really happens if you don’t create a will, trust, or other estate planning documents and essentially keep your head in the sand? Any Monticello estate attorney will tell you, the honest truth is that you make things much harder, more costly, and more time-consuming for your loved ones if something happens to you. You might lose flexibility and lose...
Working with a Minnesota trust and estates attorney is an excellent way to prepare for the future and to protect the assets you want to pass on to your loved ones after you’re gone. A qualified estate planning lawyer will be able to offer you valuable advice, not only on setting up a will or trust, but also on related issues. Long-term care insurance is...
Planning for the death of an unmarried partner is critical, but so is planning for the possibility that one partner becomes sick, disabled, or incapacitated at some point during their lifetime. Under the laws of most states, an unmarried partner has zero rights to manage finances or make medical decisions when something happens to the other. As a Minnesota...
Dementia is one of the most devastating conditions affecting seniors, resulting in an eventual loss of cognitive functions. While there is no cure for dementia or the two leading diseases that cause dementia, Alzheimer’s and Lewy body dementia, there are treatments that can slow the effects and help make life more manageable. In order for these treatments...
Any type of co-parenting relationship can be complicated, especially when the relationship ends in divorce. Divorcing parents of a special needs child, even one that has reached adulthood, may have questions about their rights and obligations as guardians when it comes to making decisions for a child with disabilities. While laws may vary from state to...