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If you have ever gone through a hospital admissions process, you've likely been asked if you have a living will (also known as a directive to physicians) and a medical power of attorney. If you answer no, they may let it slide and not require you to produce one. Or, they may give you a pre-printed form to fill out. This may suffice for an emergency situation, but having an attorney review what you need for a living will and medical power of attorney is still preferable. The medical power of attorney is needed for many healthcare treatment providers. You may still be asking yourself, What are a living will and medical power of attorney? And why would I need them?

If you are considering starting a small business, you're most likely trying to sort out the different types of businesses and trying to decide which type is best for you.

Tragedies like the recent death of Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, the other young parents, and some of their children bring home the tragedy of thinking you are too young to do estate planning. Hopefully, these parents had done estate planning to protect the settlement of their estates for the loved ones left behind. So many times, however, that has not happened because the parents didn't believe they were old enough to think about this. Or, commonly, younger people believe estate planning is too expensive for them to take on at this stage in their lives. Neither of these things are true!

The price you pay for this advice before signing a contract can easily save you many thousands of dollars and lots of headaches and trouble in the future. A review of a standard residential purchase contract generally would not be more than a few hundred dollars. More complicated contracts, of course, would cost more to review or draft, but the cost would still be far less than any negotiation or litigation later to address problems that arise.

The good news is that the lien foreclosure gives you a process to recover some or all of the money still owed you. The bad news is that you are going to have to deal with very complicated, tricky legal foreclosure steps to get there.

I have written about how a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement can be an element in an effective financial plan or an estate plan. Many people believe that it is very expensive to have a prenup or postnup drawn up. The expense will depend totally on the situation, and may not be nearly as large as you might think.

With so many lawyers out there, it’s difficult to know which is the right one for you. But you don’t have to settle for an attorney who isn’t a good fit for you or your legal matter.

The time of year is coming up for holiday travel and family gatherings. Holiday travel frequently causes clients to make a desperate last minute call to my office to make estate plans. If the call comes very close to the holiday travel date, it may not be possible to get the documents drafted in time. Attorneys like to take time off to enjoy the holidays too.

The holidays are a perfect time, while family and friends are gathered together (safely distanced, of course), to discuss whether estate planning and related legal matters are in order. It is a difficult subject to approach, but it is much better to be brave and tackle the subject than to avoid the discussion and regret later that plans which should have been made were not and you're left with a mess to deal with.

In this series of blogs, I am outlining various types of probates or probate alternatives to settle an estate and their likely costs. As I mentioned in the introduction to this series, the cost is predominantly determined by the type of procedure followed.