Episodes

Very recently we updated our audience about the surprising changes in the Corporate Transparency Act. That’s the federal law that requires owners of limited liability companies (LLCs), family limited partnerships (FLPs) and other entities to file a form with a new federal agency. Now we have another piece of news: a January update on the CTA. As we explained earlier, a federal court had ruled that the entire CTA was unconstitutional, and no one would have to file. Then a federal appellate court...

Too often we see one spouse of a client couple becoming incapacitated. Of course it’s also one of the things we help plan for, but it still causes problems. Problems for the well spouse, naturally. But also problems for the couple’s lawyers. It’s not about us, but we do run into conflict problems when counseling half of a couple we have represented. The conflicts can be legal, practical — and ethical. Today we talk about what that can sometimes mean.

The 2024 election is over. But 2025 was already going to be a confusing year for estate planning, and that promises to be even more true now. We talk about what might happen — recognizing that it’s all speculation at this point — under a new administration and new Congress. Our prediction: we probably won’t know what — if anything — needs to be done until well into next year. There is actually some certainty. Or at least confidence. For most people, there won’t be any important change in their ...

In this week’s podcast, we give you a Corporate Transparency Act update. The CTA is still set to require nearly every LLC and small corporation, plus many other family business entities, to file identifying information before December 31 of this year. But a brand-new court case out of Texas may have changed the rules. Or not. We wrote about the CTA in our weekly newsletter a few months ago, and updated our coverage earlier this month. As we explained then, the Act requires anyone with more than...

Longtime Fleming & Curti, PLC, law clerk Jordan Young is a lawyer. For now, a young lawyer. She’s been working with and for us for almost two years — all through her last year of law school, studying for the bar and waiting for results. But now she’s an honest-to-goodness lawyer. And we couldn’t be happier or prouder. If you’ve been in our office in the past couple of years, you’ve likely met Jordan. She has been deeply involved in meeting clients, drafting documents and following up on detail...

Our clients often want to name multiple fiduciaries — trustees, agents, personal representatives, etc. — in their estate planning documents. We try to encourage them to just name one, or to name their children in sequence rather than making them co-fiduciaries. We are often unsuccessful. Clients might think they don’t want to show favoritism. Or they are adamant that their children get along well. Or they want to compel them to work together. We will prepare our clients’ documents with multipl...

You might already know that paying for long-term care can be very expensive. That’s true whether the care is in-home care or in a facility. And the costs associated with facilities vary widely (though all seem expensive). Just to set a benchmark for discussion, look at Genworth Financial‘s estimate of long-term care costs in different communities across the country. According to Genworth’s figures, nursing home care in a semi-private room in Tucson is about $9,125 per month. Want a private room...

You may already know that the federal estate tax exemption for 2024 has been $13.61 million. We now have the tax exemption amounts for 2025. The federal estate tax exemption is the amount your estate must exceed before you will owe any estate tax. Some people have a smaller exemption amount than the published 2025 figure. They might have used up some of their exemption amount in 2024 or earlier years, for instance. But the general estate tax exemption amounts for 2025 will be $13.99 million for...

Nominating a guardian (in your will) for an Arizona family member can save legal fees, hassle and time. Maybe you have a minor child, or a child with a disability. For that matter, you might have an incapacitated spouse. You even might have a spouse at risk for becoming disabled. In all of those circumstances, your will nominating a guardian can smooth the process. That’s true even for other family members (though not as effective), and it even works for a conservatorship of their estate. And i...

Room and board agreements don’t jump out as the most important item for your SSI-receiving child to consider if they live at home. But they can be important. Why? As we explain in this week’s podcast episode, signing such an agreement with your son or daughter can maximize their Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit. That can mean (in 2025) an increase from $624/month to the full, maximum $967. How much do you have to charge in room and board agreements? At least $343 (in 2025). But maybe...

If you have a child with a disability, you might be familiar with individually designed living arrangements (IDLAs). We often help clients create estate plans that make it easier for their child to benefit from an IDLA. Can individually designed living arrangements include your child staying in your home, where they grew up and feel comfortable? Yes, though the mechanics of those arrangements can make them challenging to implement. And the reality is that your family home might not really be id...

We often get calls from family members who are eager to start preparing for a death of a loved one. Perhaps mom has entered hospice. Maybe the hospital has indicated that it’s soon time to remove life support for a sibling. Or dad is failing rapidly, and the family just wants to be prepared. What can we suggest when preparing for a death in the family? In a nutshell, our usual advice is: you don’t want to spend your time with us. There’s usually not that much that can be done to make things ea...

Clients often ask us to update their estate planning documents by preparing codicils or trust amendments. The idea of a codicil, particularly, is rooted in centuries of experience. If all you want to do is to make a minor change, wouldn’t it be easier to sign a codicil than a whole new will? The same thinking can apply to a trust amendment. Wouldn’t it be easier (and, probably, less expensive) to just prepare a 2-3 page document amending only the provisions that need to be updated? The truth i...

From time to time we relate stories about do-it-yourself estate planning gone awry. It’s not that we get pleasure from explaining common mistakes. And we’re not just trying to terrify people about self-help. We’re trying to make it clear that the problems created by trying to save a couple dollars in legal fees so often end up costing far more than the legal advice would have cost. And the kinds of problems are hard to predict. Things that might seem reasonable to a non-lawyer can end up violati...

Trustee disclosure is required by Arizona law. But how much disclosure? Arizona’s Trust Code sets some minimum requirements. The trustee of an irrevocable trust must let the “qualified” beneficiaries know that there is a trust, and how to reach the trustee. On request, the trustee must provide at least some financial information. But that’s the minimum. In most (but not all) circumstances, we recommend that trustee disclosure include much more information. Bank and brokerage statements, time r...

What are spendthrift trusts? It’s pretty simple, really. A spendthrift trust has language directing the trustee not to honor attempts by the beneficiary’s creditors to reach the trust assets. It also prohibits the beneficiary from encumbering the trust’s assets on their own. More significant, though, is what benefits accrue as a result of the status of spendthrift trusts. The value of adding spendthrift language to a draft trust is to give the beneficiary at least some measure of creditor prote...

Maybe you are involved in a trust administration proceeding. You might have created a revocable trust and wonder what you need to do to maintain it during your life. Perhaps you and your spouse created a trust, and you wonder what needs to be done now that your spouse has become incapacitated. Or maybe you are named as successor trustee and the original trustee has died. So do you need to hire an attorney in each of those situations? Or can you handle trust administration on your own? Our onli...

SSI and SSD(I). It’s so hard to keep them straight. Especially since SSDI is often referred to (including by us) as SSD. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a disability-based income program that requires recipients to meet financial eligibility tests. Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI or SSD) is also a disability-based program but does not require that the recipient meet income or asset eligibility tests. The definition of “disability” for SSI and SSD is identical. But only the for...

This week, a little inside baseball: we talk about Clio, our law office case management program. Fleming & Curti, PLC, had a decades-long relationship with Time Matters, starting with the DOS version in about 1992. It was once the leading case management program for law firms. We used it extensively, and in fact were recognized as national leaders in the use of the program. But it stopped adapting in the past decade or so, and it became obvious that it was time to move on. A relative newcomer ...

When you establish a special needs trust pay particular attention to the most important part: choosing a trustee. The choice of trustee really determines how well the trust will work. There are several different types of special needs trust. Some are established by a parent or other person for the benefit of someone with a disability. Others are established by the individual themselves, or their guardian or a court. There are also pooled trusts. But they all share a common element: choosing the...

At Fleming & Curti, PLC, we often act as fiduciary. We might be a trustee, or a guardian or conservator, or an agent. In all of those roles, we try to make regular home visits. Why do we feel strongly about home visits? Because that’s the best way to get to know our beneficiaries, principals and protected individuals. Regular visits are actually required in cases of guardianship, but we think the same idea applies to other fiduciary roles, as well. And we encourage other fiduciaries to adopt th...

Clients often come to us because they believe they need a guardianship. Perhaps their spouse has ended up in assisted living or a nursing home. Maybe their developmentally disabled child just turned 17 and they have been told they should get the process underway. Or a parent has become increasingly confused and a dementia diagnosis seems inevitable. Here’s a common thread for those sessions: we usually begin by challenging whether they actually need a guardianship. Not whether they could prevai...

When a former client becomes incapacitated, we might hear from family members asking that we share documents and offer legal advice. We might take a little time to figure out what we can share and what additional information we might need to get. If our original client (the one who signed the documents) is still alive, we might not be able to give legal advice to their trustee/agent. We wrote about this issue last week in our newsletter/blog post. But it’s nuanced enough that we wanted to talk ...

You’ve carefully considered your estate plan, and decided it’s important to avoid probate. One way to accomplish that: use beneficiary designations to direct assets to named beneficiaries. But don’t forget the importance of maintaining those beneficiary designations over time. Understand that there are effects of your simplified estate planning. One point to consider: maintaining your beneficiary designations is key to keeping your plan current. And don’t be surprised if we tell you that you mi...