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Law Office of Rick Todd Blog
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
To write a valid will in the state of Maryland you need to quite a few things. Here’s a discussion of what most people require when they draft their will. Read more . . .
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Here in my office in Columbia, Howard County, Maryland, I have been asked on occasion about some of issues facing trust administration. Trust administration is necessary for those who wish to avoid probate or who have young children. I’m not going to discuss trust types for this blog entry. I’m going to stick to trust administration solely because it is an issue that often overlooked when clients decide they need to draft a trust. Read more . . .
Monday, May 8, 2017
As a client, your biggest issue with revocable living trusts is probably that you don’t fund your trust and your estate is administered through the will. As an attorney who primarily puts clients into wills rather than trusts, I see this as a good thing, but if you are a client who has paid an extraordinary amount of money for a revocable living trust, you probably would see it as a bad thing.Read more . . .
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Whenever you own a home and have a mortgage, it can become tricky when it comes to retitling your home. You may wish to retitle your home for various reasons: you want to have a tenancy by the entirety to have additional asset protection, you may want to put your home in some kind of trust. The most common type of trusts that people put their home into are revocable living trusts. Read more . . .
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Do you need a trust? Trusts are used to avoid the estate tax, protect assets from lawsuits and avoid probate. An estate planning attorney will tell you whether that is necessary. Trusts are more expensive than wills are alone. The trusts used to avoid the estate tax and protect assets are very expensive. You may also not need them. Read more . . .
Friday, March 31, 2017
Here in the Columbia and Ellicott City Axis, I regularly write Powers of Attorney for my clients. Generally I draft them as part of an estate planning package, but occasionally I draft them alone for the unique issues that client may have. Powers of attorney are for the very ill, not for the deceased, which is a common mistake that clients make. Read more . . .
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Revocable living trusts have become a way for estate planning attorneys to grab just a little bit more from their clients. I am asked occasionally to draft revocable trusts and I am also asked to retitle deeds for them. I do the work, but I warn the client to be careful and if they wish to do their estate plan in the future just to use a will for simplicity’s sake. Read more . . .
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
No money manager can guarantee positive returns. In fact, it is not allowed on any financial institution’s publications to say such a thing. That's why you should trust in large mutual funds such as Vanguard and Fidelity to watch over your trust. Read more . . .
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Unfortunately, in our capitalist under-regulated society, everyone wants to make a buck. Be careful of working with an attorney who doesn’t immerse themselves in the area of practice that you need. Read more . . .
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Probate is a judicial action that the vast majority of society has to go through when they die, particularly if they have inheritable assets. Probate doesn’t occur everywhere; it takes place in the county seat (capital) of the county where the deceased person resided and had assets. In Maryland, probate occurs at the Register of Wills; the Register of Wills is commonly found at the circuit (state not federal) court house. In Howard County, that is in Ellicott City, Prince George’s County’s is in Upper Marlboro, Montgomery County’s is in Rockville, etc. Register of Wills offices can be tiny operations with less than a dozen employees to enormous operations with hundreds of employees as is found in both Montgomery and Baltimore Counties. Read more . . .
Sunday, January 8, 2017
For many people in the Columbia area, their estate consists almost entirely of their home. Their retirement accounts will fall to second place, but it will be a distant second place. This brings up the importance of maintaining a home for a person’s wealth portfolio. Home values in the Columbia metropolitan area are off from their 2008 peak, but have rebounded nicely since then. Homes are basically savings vessels for people. Read more . . .
The Law Offices of Rick Todd has offices located in Columbia, Chevy Chase, Fairfax, Virginia, and Maryland and serves clients throughout Clarksville, Columbia, Ellicott City, Fulton, Rockville, Bethesda, Potomac, Laurel, Howard County, Montgomery County, and Washington D.C.
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