Buffalo Estate Planning Law Blog

Here is something Buffalo readers are not going to read about every day. A Florida polo club founder has adopted his adult girlfriend so that she could have access to several hundred million dollars in a trust set up for the man's children.

It might seem strange, but from a strictly tactical standpoint, it may be a good idea. The maneuver means that the girlfriend (and, perhaps by extension, the man himself) would have access to the trust, into which the man can put assets and thereby shield them from being used to satisfy a judgment against him in a pending wrongful death suit. Of course, life isn't always just "strictly tactical." After you finish the story and learn about all the details, you may decide you feel this was an underhanded misuse of our body of wills, estates and trust law.

As we have pointed out before, the time for Buffalo residents to get going with estate planning is today, not tomorrow. We don't mean to put pressure on you, since we all have things going on in our lives, but it's just a fact that incidents that will make estate planning steps worth it can happen at any time. We do not like to think about that, but it is true.

That being said, where does one even begin estate planning? Step One is not as easy to find as one might think. Of course, making an appointment with an estate planning attorney is a great idea, but if you walk into that attorney's office without doing any sort of preparation, you may find yourself walking out with way more to consider than you thought.

By now, Buffalo readers have swept up the confetti from the New Year's Eve parties, washed the champagne flutes and apologized to the neighbors for all the racket on the night of Dec. 31. But there is one more task they should try to check off, according to personal finance experts -- a quick update of estate plans.

One personal finance expert identified four things to keep in mind when you are making estate plans

Executors of an estate may be entitled to some sort of compensation, but generally speaking, it typically isn't much. There is the fear that if an executor takes home too nice a paycheck for his or her duties in administering an estate, it will look like he or she is taking advantage of his position.

However, if an estate is very large or hard to manage, most people in Buffalo and elsewhere would probably agree it is fair to give an executor a raise from time to time, particularly if he or she has done a lot to keep the estate shipshape. That's what happened in the case of the estate of the recently deceased pop star Michael Jackson. A judge recently said it would be okay for the executors of his estate to take home a little more for their efforts.