Estate Planning Articles
Learn About Wills, Trusts & Estate Planning
Take a little time and learn about estate planning and how to protect your most valuable assets – your loved ones.
Read why you should hire us to prepare your estate plan with a revocable living trust.
Arizona residents: Take this free 3-minute estate planning assessment to uncover how prepared you are to protect your family, assets, and wishes. Get a personalized report that reveals the documents you may be missing, how they protect you and your family, and your next steps to get peace of mind.
Estate Planning Articles
- Arizona Residents: Learn Who Will Inherit Your Assets if You Die without a Will or a Trust
- Arizona Estate Planning FAQs – Answers to frequently asked questions about Arizona wills, trusts, and estate planning.
- What is a Revocable Living Trust?. Arizona law does not permit individuals to create a revocable or an irrevocable trust that shields assets in the trust from the trust maker's creditors. A trust that protects trust assets from the beneficiary's creditors and ex-spouses is an irrevocable trust created and funded by somebody other than the beneficiary.
- 6 Mistakes Parents Make When Naming Guardians of Minor Children: Download and read this book written by my mentor Ali Katz. As parents, we spend so much time and effort on how to prepare our children for the future, yet we often overlook the reality of how to protect and secure our children's future if we're no longer around. Using compelling stories, Ali Katz reveals the critical steps parents must address to plan effectively for their children's future. An eye-opening and much-needed guide!
- Benefits of an Arizona Beneficiary Deed that transfers Arizona real estate automatically on the death of the owner(s) without the need for an expensive Superior Court probate to the person, people, or entity named in the deed.
- Buy one or more Arizona Beneficiary Deeds by submitting our online Arizona Beneficiary Deed Questionnaire.
- Arizona’s Law of Intestate Succession. This is Arizona's law that provides who inherits the assets of an Arizona resident who died without a will or a trust.
Wills
- What is a Will? You probably know that a Will is a document in which you name who will receive your property after your death. Do you know the other important functions a Will serves? How about what happens if you don't have a Will?
- For a Will to be Valid, What Does Arizona Law Require? – Every state has different rules when it comes to estate planning. If you're going to create an Arizona Will, you should know what Arizona law requires for the Will to be valid.
- Choosing Who Will Inherit Your Personal Property: A Personal Property Memorandum – If you have items of tangible property that you want to go to specific people, a Personal Property Memorandum is the place to write it down. And, with a Personal Property Memorandum, you can change your mind without having to see a lawyer to amend your Will.
- 7 Secrets of a Successful Will– Fix potential problems with your Will today, since you won't be around to fix them when they arise.
- Top 10 Most Common Questions People Ask About Wills – Who needs a Will? Does it need to be witnessed? Can a Will be changed? What happens if I don't have one?
- Non-lawyers Preparing Wills – This woman hired a non-lawyer to draft her Will. After her death, her family wound up in court fighting about the estate – something that everyone should try to avoid.
Trust Basics
- Understanding the Significance of Trusts – An explanation of basic concepts of revocable and irrevocable trusts.
- Trust Incentive & Disincentive Provisions – Sample optional trust incentive and disincentive provisions.
- Arizona Trust Companies – A list of Arizona trust companies KEYTLaw recommends if you plan to name an institutional trustee.
Special Trusts
- NFA Gun Trusts – A resource for Arizona residents to understand the NFA, Title II firearms, and how and when to use a gun trust to own and use Title II firearms.
- IRA Inheritance Trust® – A new type of trust called the IRA Inheritance Trust® can ensure your beneficiaries stretch-out distributions over their lives for tax-free growth to maximize wealth accumulation and to provide asset protection if necessary.
- Pet Trusts – Since pets are our furry “kids,” it makes sense to protect them just like our human children. Often, pets are left scared and forgotten after a tragedy. Some might even end up in shelters, or worse. Don't leave Fido and Fluffy out of your estate plan – protect them with a Pet Trust!
- Special Needs Trusts – This Wall Street Journal article sheds light on this important type of trust for individuals with special needs.
Death & Disability Planning
- Healthcare Power of Attorney – If you are sick or injured and unable to make your own healthcare decisions, who will make them for you? With a Healthcare Power of Attorney, you decide. Without a Healthcare Power of Attorney, a court will decide—and it won't be cheap.
- Living Wills – Remember Terri Schaivo? After a heart attack, Terri was left in a persistent vegetative state. Terri's story made national headlines because her husband and parents couldn't agree on what Terri herself would have wanted. Did Terri want to be kept alive artificially in her condition? Or did Terri want to refuse the aggressive medical treatment and die naturally? Since Terri didn't have a Living Will, Terri didn't get to make that decision.
- HIPAA Authorization – Federal healthcare privacy laws (HIPAA) prohibit medical providers from disclosing your medical information without your permission. But what if you're unable to give permission because you're sick or injured? You probably want a loved one to be informed of your medical condition so they can make healthcare decisions for you. If you become incapacitated, a HIPAA authorization allows your medical providers to give medical information to a person that you choose.
- Financial Power of Attorney – We all have financial obligations. Unfortunately, they don't go away if you become incapacitated. If you are unable to handle your own finances, who will do it for you? With a Financial Power of Attorney, you can pick an agent to manage your finances – and pay the bills – when you can't do so yourself.
Other Considerations
- Caring for Fluffy and Fido After You're Gone – You can make sure your pet has the best possible care with a pet trust.
- Beneficiary Designations – Do you remember filling out a form naming your beneficiary when you set up your retirement account or purchased your life insurance policy? Do you remember who you wrote down? Since life insurance and retirement accounts are often some of the largest assets people own, designating the right beneficiaries is a critical part of estate planning.
- Estate Planning When a Spouse Is Not a U.S. Citizen – Ten things everyone should know about estate planning for non-U.S. citizens.
Transferring Property to Heirs
- Arizona Beneficiary Deeds – Use a Beneficiary Deed to avoid probate of Arizona real property.
- Arizona Beneficiary Deed Preparation Service – An explanation of KEYTLaw's low-cost Beneficiary Deed preparation service.
- How to Hire KEYTLaw to Prepare an Arizona Beneficiary Deed – Complete our online Arizona Beneficiary Deed Service Agreement, print and sign the document and then send it to us with payment of $195 per Beneficiary Deed.
- Transfer Your Vehicle Probate-Free – Arizona law allows you to transfer the title to your vehicle upon death to one or more beneficiaries of your choice. This estate planning tool is easy and inexpensive, and we'll tell you how to take advantage of it.
- Intestate Succession – What happens if you die without a Will? Your property will be distributed in accordance with Arizona's laws of intestate succession. This article explains how it might work in your situation.
- How to Hold Property – A description of the various ways to hold property, including joint tenants with right of survivorship, community property with right of survivorship, tenants in common, and tenancy by the entirety.
Estate Planning Mistakes
- Would You Perform Surgery On Yourself? Do-It-Yourself Estate Planning Mistakes – KEYTLaw's top 5 reasons to avoid DIY estate planning. This is a must-read article for anyone considering DIY estate planning.
- Anna Nicole Smith's Will: The Saga Continues For Her Family – A great example of a bad estate plan.
How Do I?
- How Do I Protect My Loved Ones with an Estate Plan and Avoid the High Cost of Procrastination and Neglect – How your family may suffer severe financial loss if you die or become incapacitated without a comprehensive estate plan.
- How Do I Handle A Deceased Family Member's Facebook Account – Instructions on how to memorialize and remove a loved one's Facebook account, who can memorialize and remove an account, and tips for copying media before removing an account.
- How Do I Transfer Real Property Into A Trust – An introduction to Arizona Beneficiary Deeds, when one is appropriate, the benefits and drawbacks to using a Beneficiary Deed, and forms provided by statute.
- How to Hire KEYTLaw to Prepare an Arizona Beneficiary Deed – Complete our online Arizona Beneficiary Deed Service Agreement, print and sign the document, and then send it to us with payment of $495 per Beneficiary Deed.
Questions? Book a free meeting or call or email one of our Arizona estate planning attorneys. We don't charge to talk to people.
Call or email Richard Keyt, the father
Direct phone: 480-664-7478
Email: [email protected]
Call or email Richard C. Keyt, the son
Direct phone: 480-664-7472
Email: [email protected]