Here’s the secret to being a successful agent under an estate planning document: treat it like a second job. You might as well, because as an agent you will end up spending at least as much time as you do for your day job, only with more stress and financial risk.  If this sounds attractive, then read on for a short description of the most common agent jobs.  Trustee You will administer...

The word “ademption” should strike fear into your heart. It can strip away your entire inheritance. That is exactly what happened to Eloise’s friends.   Eloise signed a will that left, or devised, a specific 86 acres of her “home place” to several friends. Ten years later she sold the home place for an $80,000 promissory note. Then she died.  Eloise’s friends recognized that they could not inherit Eloise’s home place because Eloise...

Mother’s Day, a national holiday created in 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson when he apparently had nothing better to do, formally recognized that a mother-child relationship is a lifetime pact.   That doesn’t even begin to describe it. The mother-child bond is complicated and ever-changing.        When you were a child, your mom had the right and the duty to make all your decisions for you. You might have argued, sulked, and rebelled,...