A slow market is a good time to tidy up your personal affairs. In the past 6 months, five long time subscribers have died without any warning to speak of or long illness. Some of their lucky widows had no difficulty settling their estates because they had taken the time to up the Real Property into Land Trusts and their Personal Property, including Land Trust shares, stocks, bonds, and valuables into Personal Property Trusts. All Trusts funneled down through their Living Trusts to their designated heirs without the need for the delay and expense of Probate.
In contrast, a couple of people had held title to their property in their individual names and had done nothing to arrange for the passage of their estate. In their mid-50s they reasoned that they had plenty of time to do their estate planning later. As a consequence, their widows and families are destitute because they can’t prove that they have any right to the property.
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