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Henningson & Snoxell, Ltd. is pleased to announce that attorneys Adam J. Kaufman and Kelly M. Eull are now shareholders of the firm. Adam and Kelly have been with the firm for several years, consistently providing knowledgeable assistance to clients in the areas of estate planning and family law, respectively.
Adam is part of our Estate Planning department, where he advises clients in the preparation of wills, trusts, incapacity plans, guardianships, conservatorships, and prenuptial agreements. He enjoys working with clients throughout their lives and helping them plan for their futures. Adam is licensed to practice in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Kelly is chair of the Family Law department and handles matters involving dissolution of marriage, paternity, custody, and child support. Kelly strives to achieve the best outcomes for her clients by applying her extensive experience in family law to help them make informed decisions.
Please join us in congratulating Adam and Kelly on becoming shareholders of Henningson & Snoxell, Ltd.
Want to learn more about Adam and Kelly? Visit our Attorney Profiles here!
It’s that time of the year when Minnesotans head south for the winter to enjoy the warmer climate in states such as Florida, Arizona, and Texas. If you are one of these lucky people, while you may not be establishing residency in these states, it is still essential to have a proper estate plan in place if something happens while you are on your extended vacation.
If you have a Will, Trust, Power of Attorney, and/or Health Care Directive in place, reviewing those documents before heading south for the winter is a good idea to make sure your plans and wishes are current. If you do not have an estate plan, getting something set up, even if it’s just incapacity documents, is better than having nothing expressing your decisions.
It’s important to remember that even though you may be living in another state for months at a time, you would still be considered a Minnesota resident. Therefore, your estate plan documents should reflect Minnesota law. However, your estate plan should also consider assets and regulations in the state you are wintering in, as that state’s laws may dictate what would happen if you become incapacitated or deceased.
First step: Ensure Incapacity Documents
First, you should ensure that your incapacity documents are up to date. Incapacity documents include Health Care Directives and Powers of Attorney. It’s essential to have a Health Care Directive that is general in nature, meaning it’s not applicable in only one state or with a specific wellness provider. Often health care providers will equip patients with a Health Care Directive, and while that Health Care Directive is helpful, it may not be accepted by another provider. For example, if you are in Florida for the winter and become incapacitated, your primary provider’s Health Care Directive on file in Minnesota may not be recognized at the Florida hospital you are being helped at. A properly executed Health Care Directive should be applicable in states outside of Minnesota and with nearly any medical provider.
Power of Attorney is another vital document to have in place. Minnesota has a statutory power of attorney document that can be utilized anywhere in Minnesota (financial institutions, real estate transactions, etc.). However, if situations arise where the attorney-in-fact (your designated agent) attempts to deal with a financial institution, real estate company, or government agency in another state, in that situation, the Power of Attorney based in Minnesota may not be accepted since it is specific to Minnesota law.
Therefore, it’s also crucial to have a Common Law Power of Attorney that is more general in nature. For instance, if you own real estate or have bank accounts in another state, the Common Law Power of Attorney should be effective in recognizing your attorney-in-fact to handle any transactions in that state where you are temporarily living.
Next step: Ensure Will/Trust
Lastly, you should always have a Will and/or Trust in place regardless of where you are residing. These documents will ensure that your assets will be distributed per your desires upon death rather than be subject to that state’s laws. You also want to make sure and nominate a Personal Representative/Executor who would be in charge of administering your estate. Possessing a Trust could prevent the need for a conservatorship during your life and probate upon your passing.
Whether your assets would be subject to probate would depend on which state they were owned in and the value of those assets; a trust could prevent that regardless of the location and value.
So while it may not be exciting to review or create your estate plan before leaving for the warmer climate, it is crucial to have documents in place so your loved ones can handle any issues that may arise due to any unforeseen event. Therefore, I would encourage you to ensure that everything is in place by contacting an attorney before heading south this winter.
Final step: Talk to an Estate Planning Attorney
Be sure to discuss with your attorney your Incapacity Documents along with your Will and Trust. Without having a Health Care Directive and/or Power of Attorney in place, your family could be left with a lengthy and costly court proceeding to get your affairs in order. These documents allow YOU to decide who you want to handle your medical and financial decisions, not the court.
Adam Kaufman is an attorney at the firm of Henningson & Snoxell, Ltd. located in Maple Grove, Minnesota. Adam helps individuals and families of all sizes and asset levels, by advising them and preparing: Wills Trusts Health care directives; and Powers of attorney.
Most people
associate “Estate Planning” with creating wills and trusts – in other words,
planning for what happens after death. An oftentimes overlooked part of the
estate planning process, however, is
preparing for incapacity. Incapacity is the physical or mental inability to
manage your affairs. As important as it is to plan for your estate upon death,
it is equally important to plan for what would happen should you lose mental or
physical capacity.
The pandemic has created a huge market for do-it-yourselfers in the home improvement space.
Many people have used extra time at home and the proceeds from stimulus checks to complete updates and remodels to their family’s space. With the help of Google and YouTube, some of us believe that we can gain the necessary skills to go from helpless homeowner to amateur carpenter (and save some money in the process).
Sure, installing a fancy new backsplash can be a learnable skill, but would you want to do your own electrical or plumbing? I think not! These types of specialized skills and tasks are best left to well-trained professionals.
So, why do some people believe in a DIY approach for their estate planning needs? There are a ton of online platforms and other tools available on the internet that market to the DIY estate planner. They offer fill in the blank forms that can be printed, completed, and signed with ease.
So why do you need a lawyer?
Do you know why certain situations require a Trust instead of a Will?
Do you have a solid handle on the ever-changing world of estate taxes?
Can you identify the differences between legal forms that are from one state or another, or perhaps that are current or outdated?
Do you understand the different roles of various agents, such as Personal Representatives, Trustees, Guardians, Health Care Agents and Attorneys-in-Fact?
Did you know that merely signing an estate or incapacity planning document may not be enough to make it legally binding? If not, you could be leaving behind a disaster of a “plan” that costs much more to fix than it would have cost to hire an estate planning attorney in the first place. Typically, a broken estate plan will require additional legal representation and the input of the Minnesota probate court to remedy an error or fill in a missing piece of information. This cost does not account for the frustration, time, and emotional burden placed upon the people you leave behind.
It is an estate planning attorney’s job to educate, plan for the unknown, and to ask questions you may not have known to ask yourself. When it comes to estate planning, there is no such thing as “one-size fits all”. Contact an estate planning attorney at Henningson & Snoxell, LTD for the thorough guidance necessary to develop an estate plan tailored to your family’s circumstances and goals.
Planning for long-term care is an
emotional and overwhelming task. It is
difficult to accept aging and even more difficult to accept that at some point
in our lives we will be dependent on others for help doing things we find easy
to do today. For most of us, talking
about death is difficult, but I have found that talking about long-term care is
even more taboo. For many of our elderly
loved ones, mine included, their biggest fear is being “thrown into a nursing
home.”
It is the eve of your child’s 18th birthday, and you are thinking about all the exciting things that lie ahead—high school graduation, going off to college, that first job, or perhaps even planning a wedding. At Henningson & Snoxell, Ltd. we recommend you take a few minutes to think about what happens, legally, to your relationship with your child the minute your child turns 18.
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