Episodes

Join us for an engaging podcast discussion with our friend Gerry Beyer. Professor Beyer teaches law at the Texas Tech University College of Law. He is a national authority on a number of topics — but especially on, shall we say, unusual estate planning issues. Like gun trusts, and pet trusts, and digital wills. Prof. Beyer often lectures on estate planning issues raised by planning for your pets. In fact, he is one of the leading experts in the country on “pet trusts.” Here he explains the conc...

You already understand the importance of signing a durable financial power of attorney. You know that you need advance health care directives, including a health care power of attorney. But have you thought about the importance of selecting your agents and alternate agents? How many agents should you name on your powers of attorney? Should multiple agents be empowered to act independently of one another? Or should they have to act together, or by some kind of consensus? What about the naming o...

We occasionally get asked about “gun trusts.” Does everyone who owns a firearm need to think about setting up a gun trust? Or is this something only gun dealers need to worry about? For most casual firearm owners, there’s no need to worry about a separate trust to handle guns. But join us for our podcast episode, as we talk through the issues with a nationally-known expert on gun trusts. Prof. Gerry Beyer, who teaches law at the Texas Tech College of Law in Lubbock, speaks about the issue all o...

Springing vs. surviving durable financial powers of attorney: what’s the difference? Which is better? A “springing” power of attorney becomes effective only when the signer becomes incapacitated — lawyers talk about it “springing” into existence. A “surviving” power is immediately effective, and survives even if the signer later becomes incapacitated. Which do you prefer? Join us for our podcast discussion about the difference between springing vs. surviving powers of attorney. We aim to give ...

We’re lucky to count Prof. Gerry Beyer among our good friends. He’s the Governor Preston E. Smith Regents Professor of Law at Texas Tech University College of Law. You can imagine that his business cards must be larger than usual — and that’s before he even gets to his academic credentials, accolades and identifiers. Prof. Beyer is nationally-recognized for his expertise in estate planning. He’s particularly known for his interest in, and work with, less common kinds of trusts. One day last mo...

Everyone wants a “simple” estate plan. But many have complicated notions about distribution of assets. We want to help you simplify your estate plan. We see many clients with fixed ideas about which assets should go to which beneficiaries. Do you have four children? Well, couldn’t you just open four accounts at different financial institutions and leave one to each child? Or perhaps you think one child might want to live in your home. Can you just adjust the amount in each of those financial a...

Arizona is one of the forward-thinking states authorizing some sort of electronic signing of wills. So what is the status of electronic wills in the era of coronavirus concerns? Turns out it’s not yet ready for the real world. Arizona (and most of the other states at the forefront) still requires witnesses to be physically present with the signer. That defeats the central value of allowing a signer to remain completely isolated. And it’s worse than that. If you’re thinking that family members ...

Like you, we are trying to stay ahead of the developing pandemic. As we explain in this COVID-19 update, we want to continue to provide services to our clients, trust beneficiaries and wards. Some of those services are essential; all of them are important. At the same time, we do not want to put anyone (in our office, in our client base or in the wider community) at risk. We are adapting as knowledge and rules change. As we have described before, the process in our office is evolving. We do no...

When should your trust include spendthrift trust provisions? Are they only for spendthrifts, or only for “special needs” beneficiaries? In this podcast episode, Tucson elder law attorneys Robert B. Fleming and Elizabeth Noble Rollings Friman discuss limitations on trust distributions. Bottom line: spendthrift trust provisions are useful for all sorts of trust beneficiaries. They are essential for some kinds of beneficiaries.

Public and private offices all across the country are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Law offices are no different. But at Fleming & Curti, PLC, we are a little bit different. We have some additional considerations to cope with in deciding how to respond. Our weekly newsletters have addressed what we think clients ought to do, and what we intend to do, about the pandemic. In this special podcast episode, we talk about what we are doing, and how that might change. Our main message: we’re w...

One of the most challenging jobs for a successor trustee or personal representative of an estate: dividing personal property among the beneficiaries or heirs. If you’re in charge of administering an estate, how do you decide which of your siblings gets the silver, who gets the antique furniture, and how you’re going to handle thousands of family photos? In an earlier podcast episode, we talked about what to do with your parent’s house. The same principles apply to personal property — except tha...

Suppose you have been named as trustee of your parents’ trust, or as personal representative (executor) of your last surviving parent’s estate. You wonder: What do I do with my parent’s house? Do you sell it immediately, as is? Or can you sell it to one of your siblings? Can you buy it from the trust or estate? One pervasive problem: how much work needs to be done on my parent’s house before it can be sold? Should you get it completely cleaned, paint most of the rooms, replace the carpet? How a...