Luck Has Nothing to Do with It

four leaf clover with marble background

My husband’s family is Irish. I feel in my bones that their Irish luck will rub off on me and I will somehow find my pot-of-gold. Or win the lottery. Actively planning to protect your family, however, is much better than just leaving everything to chance. Here are seven steps to take. 1.  Update beneficiary […]

How Not To Get Legal Advice

Becky Cholewka: I wanted to do a quick video on how not to get legal advice because, unfortunately, this is one of the biggest areas that I see a lot of people trip up on. A lot of people are getting legal advice from their tax person, their financial planner, their brother who lives in […]

Setting Up POD or TOD On Your Bank Accounts

Becky Cholewka says: I wanted to take a moment and give you a couple tips about your checking savings and brokerage accounts. One way to make sure these accounts avoid the probate process is to make sure you have a beneficiary listed on each of your accounts. That does not mean one beneficiary form per […]

How Often Should You Review Your Estate Plan?

Becky Cholewka:  I always like assigning homework to my clients. It’s fun for me, because it’s something that somebody else has to do instead of me. One of the things of homework that I always assign is to make sure that my clients pick an important date, some date that they will remember, an anniversary, […]

The difference between simple and typical documents

Becky Cholewka: One of the things I hear all the time, probably about 3-4 times a week in my office is “Becky, you know what, I’m simple. I just need simple documents.” What I really think people are trying to tell me is that they are “typical”. Maybe they have a checking account, and a […]

How Often Should You Review Your Estate Plan?

Becky Cholewka:  I always like assigning homework to my clients. It’s fun for me, because it’s something that somebody else has to do instead of me. One of the things of homework that I always assign is to make sure that my clients pick an important date, some date that they will remember, an anniversary, […]

Probate in Arizona: Everything You Need to Know

A lot of angst seems to surround the word “probate,” due mainly to general unfamiliarity with its meaning. Simply put, probate is the legal process that takes place upon a person’s death, much of which is avoided if the decedent took proper steps during his or her estate planning. This process involves: Proving the validity […]

Special Planning for Special Needs

Estate planning takes on a greater importance if you have a special needs beneficiary. Many parents struggle with preparing to care for their child with autism, Down Syndrome, or mental or physical disabilities after they are gone. Here are just a few steps or issues to consider. Step One: Create a will naming who will […]

Let’s Eat Grandma! Let’s Eat, Grandma!
(Commas save lives)

I saw this t-shirt in the Sky Mall magazine a few years back and completely cracked up. Crazy as it may seem, punctuation, grammar, and correct usage of legal words and phrases can save thousands of dollars on litigation and estate administration costs. For example, last month I had a client whose father had prepared […]

The Importance of Beneficiary Forms

Did you know that a beneficiary form, such as life insurance beneficiary form, supersedes beneficiaries who are named in someone’s will? Are you surprised? Recently I attended a seminar where 5 out of 6 people thought the exact opposite-that a will supersedes a beneficiary form. One attendee commented, “That’s not intuitive. I thought a will […]

Schedule a Free Meeting