Category: Estate Planning

A Word About Granting A Power Of Attorney A power of attorney (“POA”) allows someone else to handle your legal, financial, or medical matters. General powers of attorney cover a wide range of transactions, while limited powers of attorney cover only specific situations, such as authorizing a car dealer to register your new vehicle for…

Distribution of the estate is just that, distributing the assets of the decedent. Prior to the distribution of an estate, if the deceased person dies with a will or intestate, the opening of the probate must be advertised so that creditors to the estate have a chance to respond.  One of the things that a…

I recently had the opportunity to work with a landowner regarding a land related issue.  The owner happened to be the executor of an estate.  As it turns out the estate was valued at about twenty million dollars.  You may wonder how I know the estate’ value?   Because his estate planning tool was a will,…

Dying Intestate To die intestate means to die without a valid will. The Oklahoma law of Intestate Succession is addressed in 84 Okla. Stat. § 213.  Intestate succession is receiving the property of one who dies without disposing of their property before they die.  And there are a lot of quirky rules with the succession…

Simply put, succession is the natural transition of property.  Business succession is the process of choosing someone to take over your business, and developing a plan to make it work.  Several questions come to mind when thinking through business succession. While lots of business owners overlook business succession planning until the last moment, it is…

Several years ago, a friend of mine was on his way to go deer hunting with a friend over Thanksgiving weekend when they were involved in a head on collision.  He ended up in the hospital for a month with a broken pelvis and multiple fractures in both legs.  Fortunately, over time he recovered.  His…

Earlier this year, a childhood friend of mine died suddenly. We had not seen each other in three years, and his death hit me pretty hard. As I sat at his funeral, I wondered whether he had life insurance, a trust, or a will, and whether his family would be okay if they hadn’t prepared…