Will/Trust

Chris Lawson - he's in the Johnson County area and I think he would be very helpful for you. His e-mail is ____@____.com

Hi M.
I can recommend someone in Overland Park/Olathe area that may be close to you. Dan Dorsch at http://www.dorschlawfirm.com/.

Good Luck!
M.

If you have a life insurance policy or even assets I would recommend a Trust, it would assign someone to properly disburse the trust contents at death.

I personally have both a Living Will and a Trust.

I did the forms myself and had an attorney look over them.

Hi M.. I work for an estate planning law firm in Missouri. It is very important that you consult with a local attorney in your area to discuss the best option for you. There are so many considerations like what age should your child receive your assets, how to provide for college, who should take care of them. Although you may not have many liquid assets, your child would also receive life insurance proceeds or if you pass as a result of an accident, your child could receive additional money. I noted that a few individuals referred you to attorneys in the KC area. Please contact one of them and do not attempt to do these forms yourself that are available online. Although it may be a little costly up front, it will save a ton of money in the long run to have your estate plan prepared properly. You can also look at www.lawyers.com or www.martindale.com for a local attorney in your area that specializes in estate planning if the attorneys listed by other Moms are not near Olathe. Kansas laws are a bit different than Missouri but in Missouri - we recommend a trust for people with minor children. Good luck. D.

Hi M.,

I am an attorney in Clayton, MO & do estate planning & probate. It's a good idea to have something in place now that you have a child. So many people overlook this b/c they rationalize the probability of something bad happening is slim to none without realizing all it takes is a tragic car accident. I would be happy to meet with you or discuss your situation if you wish (I could even meet with you at a Starbucks). Unfortunately without knowing what your assets & goals are, it is difficult to say with exact precision, which documents will be most effective.

As far as doing it yourself, there are many books & forms available to the public but the problem with them is that they're standard forms which are sometimes not specific to each state (& each state has different rules regarding a valid Will or Trust) and therefore deficient. Drafting a will for an adult without children or many assets is perfect for these types of forms, but not for Trusts or when children are involve in my opinion.

Simple estate planning is not expensive (couple hundred bucks), especially me since I'm new. You can email me through Mamasource or my work email (____@____.com). I did Wills for all my friends who recently had babies, as well as my own. It's not the most exciting topic to deal with but important.

I would not recommend doing any such documents yourself. In the end it may only be worth the paper it is written on. They are far more complex instruments than people realize. I have a will, health care directive, and a revocable living trust. All are necessary. The trust holds all assets but they are disbursed through the will. My will also contains instructions on my wishes for the children. The health care directive contains my wishes for life support and such. The whole package cost around 1,200 from a good attorney. As I said before you get what you pay for.

Hello my name is S. and I have a 2 year old daughter and another girl on the way. Personally I have tons of things to do on a daily basis and a lawyer was super expensive to set something in place, so me personally, I went to a website called www.uslegalforms.com, I think the cost was $30.00 and the form was already set up and ready for 2 parents (or more options depending on the family) and it instructed me where to enter my information and then I just had to have it notorized, and now it's all done and this way in case something would happen to us everything is set and no one can argue it. This was our cheapest and easiest route and helped us get it together fast so we didn't have to dwell on it:) Hopefully that will help you.
Also we directed that in case something would happen to us the girls would go to my parents, then stated if for any such reason, they were unable to care for them or were not around then we directed a second in command. Otherwise if something only happened to one of us their is a section stating the children go to the spouse:) Good Luck! I feel it's so depressing but so wonderful to have in place:)

My husband and I did a trust for our little guy and we just went through one of our local lawyers. I think it is a great idea to do one so then you know that if something were to happen then there should not be anyone getting thier nose out of joint about anything cause everything is already in place. I am not from the Olathe area so I can't help you there I just wanted to let you know that I think it is a great idea to do.

Do a trust!! All wills go through probate. If you and your hubby pass away, all your belongings and articles will be inventoried, and the probate dept. will tax it all according to how much time and work they do to your estate. there is one way to keep the house from being taxed, and that is to have a T.O.D. Transfer of Deed. It will take the value of your house off the estate death tax, and will go directly to whomever you say it goes to. The tax is uaually 4-10% of total value. And may take months to get it all through probate, before your will is divided up as you wished. It depends on how much they spend on your estate. Please check it out, most lawyers will ignore this minor problem with this state, and most states. there are only about 5 states left that still have a T.O.D. Kansas is talking about eliminating it, they lose too much money from an estate that way. it is a 3 billion dollar hidden industry. I do not have the name of the firm that told me all of this, but please ask around and confirm it yourself. God bless

M., Good for you in thinking ahead. I know it's hard to think about, but it's something we have to do to make things better. Find you a good lawyer and have him go through the options with you, that's what we did. And one thing that our lawyer suggested is to only name one person (and a back-up) for your kids. For example my kids would go to my sister and brother-in-law, but in our wills we only named my sister. This way if anything happens to us and they get the kids and then my sister and BIL end up divorced she still keeps my kids and all our assets. He also suggested not giving all our money to my sister. Most everything we have is set up to go to her, we figure she has the kids she's going to need it to take care of them. But a couple of our life insurance policies go to my father-in-law and he's promised that if soemthing should happen he'll take that and save it for my girls school. My sister plans on taking some of the money and putting it away for their school also, but having some of the money go somewhere is for insurance is a good idea. And I don't know about Kansas, but I know in Missouri just because you name someone doesn't mean they will get the kids, the court will still have the final say. But it makes the whole process much easier. And for you and your hubby, make sure that you do the power of attornies for health - my lawyer thinks that is the single most important thing you can have. Good luck!!

Good morning.

I used Craig Reaves at Reaves Law Firm to do exactly the same thing. He explains that Wills or people who have lots of money and posessions. Trusts on the other hand follow survivors as the grow and age.

Mr. Reaves explained it all in very simple language and made sure I understood everything before signing day.

His office is near the Plaza at 4400 Madison Avenue, Kansas City MO 64111 His phone number is ###-###-####.

Act now and not later.

Traci

www.cleanducts4kc.net

M.,
Super smart of you and your husband to be thinking ahead! When my husband and I started considering this, we dug into it and found that a living will is the only way that you protect your assests from probate. Then we looked into recommendations and found Austin Living Trust. Their practice only focuses on wills and trusts and they were extremely nice and helpful, and have been doing it since the 1980s. If I remember correctly they offer an initial interview at no charge. The living trust covers everything, you can state what goes where, who will be the executor, who will care for your children, everything! And be prepared, they ask for your first choice, second choice and maybe even a third option for your children and executor. And they don't have to be the same. You can get as detailed as I want my class ring to go to my son, or as vague as 50% goes to ___, 20% goes to ___. You get the idea. ;-) And best of all, it is easily adjusted, as your family grows, if you so choose.
I would highly recommend at the very least calling them. They are located off Bannister Road (near where Bannister Mall used to be), so not a far drive from Olathe. The number is 800-248-8852.
I wish you well with making the right choices for your family. Best wishes, J.

I have a trust within my will. I think it depends on your financial situation, if you need a trust or not. Your will should have all of your son's guardianship information included in it in the event of your/your spouse's death(s).

I know he's not in Olathe, but MARK GILGUS is an excellent attorney. He is located in Downtown KC, phone: ###-###-####. He has done several wills for me (pre-marriage, post-marrige & post-adoption) and also my husband's business purchase. His specialty is wills, trusts & estates. He doesn't miss a trick and is worth every penny.

A proper will is the most important thing you can do for your family. Don't wait!! Get everything in writing NOW.

Hi M.,

You've gotten some great thoughts/advice and leads. I just wanted to give you a different perspective on how we looked at who would raise our kids if something happened to us. We discussed it, actually for years and agreed that a family member would NOT be the best option to raise our kids for a variety of reasons.

One of my brothers would have been ideal but had a successful career out of state. I would have been very unfair for my to ask him to give that up to move here to take care of the kids. Or for the kids to move to him since he is a bachelor.

My husband's brother and his family really was our second choice. But they lived 1/2 way across the country. AND there is a lot of fighting in their house, something our kids are not used to.

So we agreed that my best friend from high school would be the best option. Her 2 kids were about the same ages as our kids and they were raising them with very similar values and style as we lived. PLUS they are here local. It broke my heart to think that GOD forbid something would happen to my husband and I and our kids would be uprooted from the only home they've ever known, all their friends and school.

Now having said all that, we set up our will/trust that my friend would raise the kids and my brother was the executor of the estate. And all parties knew and agreed that if my brother wanted to give up his career and move back here he would have the kids.

It is a lot to think about and not to be taken lightly. I agree with the other posters who say, good for you for thinking of this and getting it done early.

In good health,

Lori K

I would highly recommend the law firm of Schlagel Gordon & Kinzer in Olathe. This is who we use for everything, and they specialize in this. Very good people - church going & involved in the community. Let me know if you want to try them - My mom works there, you may be able to get a friends & family discount??

201 E. Loula St. # 200
Olathe, KS 66061
###-###-####
http://www.sgklawfirm.com/

Good Morning M.. Your really thinking ahead, which will be good in the long run. We made a will a long time ago. In fact I think it was in 1980..lol Since then the lawyer skipped town and we haven't updated it. We joke about if anything happens to us my brother Still gets our boys...lol 34 & 32 now.

A Will would be best as it states who you wish to have as executor and custody / guardianship of your child. A trust could also be in place for any assets collected after the estate is closed, placing all your property in your child's name as beneficiary to be collected at a certain age, IE part to be collected or released for College funds, balance to be collected at like age 21 etc. Just remember if you have more children all the information will need to be updated.
As to both naming custody issues, all that is needed is the wording of WE then your names written in.

Geez I wish I could remember the name of a certain insurance type policy most companies offer for children. It might pop in my head in a minute.. Anyway it can start with as little as 50.00 and be added to monthly or yearly, with great interest and the company usually matches the deposits each year. So by the time a child reaches maturity they have a nice cushion. Well it still hasn't popped up in the gray matter. So will wish you well and hope you find information that helps

God Bless you
K. Nana of 5
If I remember it will send you private note or add ps here.
Must need more coffee, WAKE up !!!!

Good Morning M.,

Our kids are 6 1/2yrs, 6 1/2yrs and 5 1/2yrs. We had a Will done about 4 years ago. It only cost us a few hundred dollars. You can basically name everything in one document instead of each of you having your own seperate. The only other document that we had added was that we each signed something saying what we wanted it something happened to one of us and not the other, like a living will. I know that our Lawyer retired, but if I hear of someone reasonable I'll let you know. We just called around when we decided to do it and priced a few for what we wanted. Mostly that was that we had everything in place for someone to take custody of our children so that our parents didn't fight over them. Good Luck.

We just finalized our Will last month and even though in some way it was disturbing to do it, I feel so much better.

This is who we used.
Lori A. Gregory
Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, L.C.
1010 Walnut, Suite 500
Kansas City, Missouri 64106
###-###-#### (direct phone)
Areas of Practice: Estate Planning, Elderlaw, Medicaid, Probate, Trust Administration, Estate Tax, Special Needs Trusts, Estate and Trust Litigation, Guardianships/ Conservatorships, and Adoptions.
Licensed in Missouri and Kansas.

We don't have much to leave either but we did the same thing for our children and it has made me sleep ALOT better. We used David Adams, he was great and had it all done the same day while we were in his office.(we did a trust and transfer of deed for the house) It tells who will take care of you affairs after you are gone ( pay bills, settle accounts, etc) it has a spot in case there is anything of value that you want to go to a specific person. It names the person that you want your child to go to and the secondary person you want your child to go to if the first person should be gone also, who will handle your child's money until they are old enough to handle it on their own. (if there is any left after all the bills etc. are taken care of or if you have life insurance)He is in the local phone book and is in old Olathe, great guy, not out to make a million bucks on you like some lawyers. He also handled my sons adoption and did a great job for a great price.