Traditionally, these items have been passed down to the next generation. But today, the next generation has different needs, tastes, and wants. As a result, there is a surplus of “stuff” baby boomers don’t need or have room for, and their adult children don’t want. Maybe that includes you.

This is an all too common problem with a few helpful solutions.

The thought of tossing a lifetime of belongings in the trash is more than many can bear, which explains the advent of the senior move management industry. Today, there are a plethora of professionals who can help your loved one go through each item to decide what should be kept, what should be given away, and what should go to charity or donated. If you are downsizing, this may be a good time to give your family heirlooms to your loved ones.

The cost of this professional service can be up to $5,000 for a large estate, but it eases the burden on the adult children and ensures the loved one’s wishes are listened to and honored.

Bear in mind, as the baby boomer generation ages, charities and nonprofits that typically accept used furniture and other belongings are faced with the burden of too much stuff. The dated styles baby boomers preferred during their prime don’t fit the tastes and needs of today’s generation. The current generation views belongings like furniture and dishes as functional and more disposable, better suited to their urban, fast-paced lives where minimalism and portability are more prized than sentimentality and tradition.

Another way to decrease the time and effort it takes to dispose of all your belongings is to be very clear about what you consider to be heirlooms and valuable items by indicating in your will, or in a separate writing ancillary to your will exactly what’s important to you and what isn’t. This is formally known as a personal property memorandum.

Most importantly, talk to your children or other heirs to see what they want and don’t want. And to make sure they know what’s important to you, and what isn’t. The more you can communicate about this now with your loved one’s, the better. With the holidays upon us, these more sober matters may not be a preferred topic of conversation, but the big family gathering is a great opportunity to show the younger generations how wonderful traditions can be and all the “stuff” that goes with them.

You may be surprised to discover that most family fights that break up families aren’t over money at all, but over the personal property of mom and dad that the kids fight over because there was not clear instructions. People have special family memories and certain family articles have special meaning and to more than one child. Discuss these things with your family and how items should be divided. It can be a great way to go down a happy memory lane and save the family from disagreements later.

As more baby boomers age and non-profits turn away dated donations, the need for thoughtful estate planning is greater than ever. A comprehensive estate plan can ensure your belongings either go to those who will cherish them or to charities that will benefit from them.

This article is a service of the Law Office of Lasca A. Arnold, PLLC. We don’t just draft documents, we help you make informed decisions to help you and your loved ones.

Your responsibilities can vary greatly depending on the size of the estate, the type of assets, how many beneficiaries there are, the document’s terms to name a few. You should think carefully before making your decision to serve.

Remember, you don’t have to take the job.

Yet, depending on who nominated you, declining to serve may not be an easy or practical option. On the other hand, you might enjoy the opportunity to serve.

This article offers a brief overview of what serving as an executor or trustee typically entails.

Primary Responsibilities


Although every estate is different, serving comes with a few core requirements. These duties primarily involve accounting for, managing, and distributing the estate’s assets to its named beneficiaries as a fiduciary.



As a fiduciary, you have the power to act on behalf of the will or trust’s creator and beneficiaries, always putting their interests above your own. Indeed, you have a legal obligation to act in a trustworthy and honest manner, while providing the highest standard of care in executing your duties.



This means that you are legally required to properly manage the estate or trust and its assets in the best interest of all the named beneficiaries. And if you fail to abide by your duties as a fiduciary, you can face legal liability.

Some of your key responsibilities as an executor or trustee include:

• Identifying and protecting the estate or trust assets
• Determining what the will or trust’s terms require in terms of management and distribution of the assets
• Seeking professionals, typically legal and financial, to help with administration
• Communicating regularly with beneficiaries
• Being scrupulously honest, highly organized, and keeping detailed records of all transactions
• Closing the estate or trust according to its terms

No Experience Necessary


It’s important to point out that being an executor or trustee does NOT require you to be an expert in law, finance, taxes, or any other field related to estate or trust administration. In fact, trustees are not only allowed to seek outside support from professionals in these areas, but they’re also highly encouraged to do so, and the estate will pay for you to hire these professionals.



Serving as in this capacity may seem like a daunting proposition, you won’t have to handle the job alone.

Getting Help

State law requires that executors have attorneys represent them in the probate process and since serving as a trustee involves such serious responsibility, you should utilize an attorney to help you navigate that process. Proper counsel is essential to ensure you legally and ethically fulfill all the will or trust creator’s wishes without exposing the beneficiaries—or yourself—to any unnecessary risks.

Finally, accept this job only after careful consideration. But know that the will or trust creator asks you to serve in this position only because you are highly trusted and respected.

This article is a service of the Law Office of Lasca A. Arnold, PLLC. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed decisions for yourself and the people you love.

And even if your loved ones can access your digital assets, in some cases, doing so may violate privacy laws and/or the terms of service governing your accounts. You may also have some online assets that you don’t want your loved ones to inherit, so you’ll need to take measures to restrict and/or limit access to such assets.

Here are a few of the steps you should take to help ensure your digital assets are properly accounted for, managed, and passed on.

1. Make an inventory: Create a list of all your digital assets, along with their login and password information. Some of the most common digital assets include cryptocurrency, online financial accounts, online payment accounts like PayPal, websites, blogs, digital photos, email, and social media.

Store the list in a secure location, and provide your fiduciary (executor, trustee, or power of attorney agent) with detailed instructions about how to locate and access your accounts. To make them easier to manage, back up any cloud-based assets to a computer, flash drive, or other physical storage device. Review this list regularly to account for any new digital property you acquire.

2. Include digital assets in your estate plan: Just like any other property you want to pass on, detail in your plan who you want to inherit each digital asset, along with your wishes for how the asset should be used or managed. If you have any assets you don’t want passed on, include instructions for how these accounts should be closed and/or deleted.

Do NOT include passwords or security keys in your planning documents, where they can be read by others. This is especially true for your will, which becomes public record upon your death. Instead, keep this information in a separate, secure location, and provide your fiduciary with instructions about how to access it. Consider using digital account-management services to help streamline this process.

If you have particularly complex or highly encrypted digital assets like cryptocurrency, consider including provisions in your plan allowing your fiduciary to hire an IT consultant to deal with any technical challenges that might come up.

3. Restrict access: Include terms in your plan detailing the level of access you want your fiduciary to have to your digital accounts. For example, do you want your fiduciary to be allowed to view your emails, photos, and social media posts before passing them on or deleting them?

4. Include relevant hardware: Don’t forget to include the physical devices—smartphones, computers, tablets—upon which your digital assets are stored in your plan. Having quick access to these devices will make it much easier for your fiduciary to manage your digital assets. And since the data can be transferred or deleted, you can even leave these devices to someone other than the individual who inherits the digital property stored on them.

5. Review service providers’ access-authorization functions: Some service providers like Google, Facebook, and Instagram allow you to give specific individuals access to your accounts upon your death. Review the terms of service for your accounts, and if these functions are available, use them to document who you want to access your accounts.

Double check that the people you named to inherit your digital assets using these access-authorization tools match those you’ve named in your estate plan. If not, the provider will likely give priority to the person named with its tool, not your plan.

Keep Pace With Technology

As technology evolves, you’ll need to adapt your estate plan to keep pace with the ever-changing nature of your assets.

This article is a service of the Law Office of Lasca A. Arnold, PLLC. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed decisions for yourself and the people you love.

For plenty of folks, it’s easy to know what to do when it comes to home organization, but the idea of legal and financial ordering can be complex and confusing.

This article will give you a few places to start:

1. Review Your Beneficiary Designations

Request updated beneficiary designation forms from your life insurance account and retirement account custodians. Look at the form and identify whether you have a minor designated as either a primary or contingent beneficiary. If you do, those assets will be tied up in Court, unnecessarily, and may not be available to the people you’ve named to care for your children.

Also consider your bank accounts, they can be payable on death. This can help avoid probate, but make sure they designate the best beneficiary.



Consider designating your life insurance, retirement and bank accounts to be distributed to a trust for the benefit of your heirs, providing Court and creditor protection, and ensuring your children do not inherit money before they are properly prepared.


2. Update Your Family Wealth Inventory

Create an Inventory of your assets, make a list of all you have and how to access each item. If the asset has a designated beneficiary or how it is titled. I encourage my clients to prepare a Family Wealth Inventory, where we document the assets that you own, so that in the event you become incapacitated or when you die, your family will know how to find what you own.

Without an updated Family Wealth Inventory, your assets could be lost to the state department of unclaimed property. In 2018, Texas had $4 Billion dollars of assets in its state department of unclaimed property because most people do not leave a clear record of their assets at the time of their incapacity or death.

3. Consider if You Need to Name New Guardians (Long or Short-Term)

Review your guardian nomination designations. Have you named guardians for both the short-term (local) and the long-term (people you would trust to raise your kids fully)? If so, do they need to change? Is there anyone you would wish to exclude? Does the ID card for your wallet need to be updated? This is the time to check.

4. Check Out the Title to Your House

Get a copy of the deed to your house and make sure that your trust is listed as the owner on the deed, if you want your house to stay out of court in the event of your incapacity or death. If you see your personal name on the deed, and there is not a trust listed, you can be sure that would result in your house having to go through the court process of probate in the event of your death. If you don’t want that, now is the perfect time to spruce up your planning.

5. Consider Your Agents

Who is named as your agent under your Power of Attorney? Do you have a Power of Attorney in the event of incapacity? Who is named to make medical decisions in the event of an accident or incapacity? These are important people in your life, so the choices should be carefully considered. Having documents in place in the event of an accident or incapacity is crucial. Get your housekeeping started today.

This article is a service of the Law Office of Lasca A. Arnold, PLLC, Personal Family Lawyer®. We don’t just draft documents, we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.

Family dynamics are complicated and prone to conflict even during the best of times. But when tragedy strikes a family, even minor tensions and disagreements can explode. And when access to money or sentimental items are on the line, the potential for discord is exponentially increased. Ultimately, there is no greater cost to families than lost relationships after the death or incapacity of a loved one.

By becoming aware of some of the leading causes of conflict over your estate plan, you’re in a better position to prevent those situations. The following issues are among the most common catalysts for conflict.

Poor Fiduciary Selection

Many disputes occur when a person you’ve chosen to handle your affairs following your death or incapacity fails to properly carry out his or her responsibilities.

The individual you select, known as a fiduciary, is legally required to execute those duties and act in the best interests of the beneficiaries named in your plan. The failure to do either of those things is referred to as a breach of fiduciary duty.

The breach can be the result of the person’s deliberate action, or it could be something they do unintentionally by mistake.

Solution: Given the immense responsibilities involved, you must be careful when selecting your fiduciaries, and make sure everyone knows why you chose the person you did.

It’s crucial that your estate planning documents contain clear terms spelling out a fiduciary’s responsibilities and duties, so the individual understands exactly what’s expected of him or her.

Contesting the Validity of Wills and Trusts

The validity of your will and/or trust can be contested in court for a few different reasons. If such a contest is successful, the court declares your will or trust invalid, which effectively means the document(s) never existed in the first place.

Just because someone disagrees with what they received in your will or trust doesn’t mean that person can contest it. Whether or not the individual agrees with the terms of your plan is irrelevant—it is your plan after all. Rather, they must prove that your plan is invalid (and should be thrown out) based on legal grounds.

Solution: There are times when family members might contest your will and/or trust over legitimate concerns, such as if they believe you were tricked or coerced into changing your plan by an unscrupulous caregiver.

Here, we’re addressing – contests that are attempts by disgruntled family members and/or would-be beneficiaries seeking to improve the benefit they received through your plan. We’re also seeking to prevent contests that are a result of disputes between members of blended families.

It’s vital to make sure your plan is properly created and maintained to ensure these individuals will not have any legal ground to contest your will or trust. It is important to include clear language that you are making the choices of your own free will, so no one will be able to challenge your wishes by claiming your incapacity or duress.

Blended Families Increase Likelihood for Conflict

The potential for dispute is significantly increased if you have a blended family. If you are in a second (or more) marriage, with children from a prior relationship, your children and spouse often have conflicting interests.

Solution: It’s crucial that your estate plan contain clear and unambiguous terms spelling out the beneficiaries’ exact rights, along with the rights and responsibilities of executors and/or trustees. Such precise terms help ensure all parties know exactly what you intended.

Prevent Disputes Before They Happen

The best way to deal with estate planning disputes is put planning strategies in place aimed at anticipating and avoiding common sources of conflict and informing your loved ones of your wishes while you are alive.

This article is a service of the Law Office of Lasca A. Arnold, PLLC. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed decisions about life and death.

What is probate? Probate is the process where the Court confirms death, determines who has the authority to collect assets of the estate of the deceased person, pay creditors of the estate and distribute the assets of the estate either under the terms of a valid will or under the laws of intestacy (if deceased had no will).

If Deceased had a Will, do you always need to probate? No, beneficiary designations (i.e., life insurance, pay on death designations on bank accounts, naming a beneficiary on retirement accounts, etc.) supersedes probate laws. Also, if you have a joint account with right of survivorship, then probate is not needed for this account transfer.

If I’m married and the only assets are a house and cars, do I have to probate my deceased spouse’s Will if I am the only beneficiary? It depends. For Example, if there is a trust that holds all of the deceased person’s assets, probate may be avoided. The community property home is a common reason for the need to probate. Frequently there is no right of survivorship agreement with the titling/deed of the home. The court ordered probate creates the legal transfer of ownership to the surviving spouse.

Whose duty is it to probate? If the deceased had a Will, the executor or personal representative named initiates the probate process. If there is no Will, an heir of the deceased should file an application to determine the heirs and from there, the Court will appoint an attorney (called an attorney ad litem) to determine who all the legal heirs are.

How long do I have to probate a Will? Generally, four (4) years from the date of death. There are some allowable exceptions.

What are Letters Testamentary? They provide the legal authority for the Executor to act on behalf of the deceased person. For example, assets such as stocks and bonds can be in individual accounts which may not have a designated beneficiary. In such case, the financial institution would then require Letters Testamentary from the Executor to transfer these accounts. Letters Testamentary give the Executor authority to work with financial institutions, taxing authorities, creditors, and debtors of the estate. If there is no Will, an interested party will be named as the dependent or independent administrator and receive Letters of Administration that work in the same way.

If assets of the deceased that need to be transferred are minimal, is there a simpler way? Under Texas law, if the assets are under $75,000.00 then the heirs and two (2) disinterested witnesses could sign and submit a Small Estate Affidavit. This is helpful when there is no Will and little or no debt of the deceased.

Do Courts require an attorney to probate a Will? In almost all cases an attorney must assist the executor.

What information do I need to prepare for a probate application? The original Will, if available, death certificate, social security and driver’s license numbers of executor and deceased, statements of accounts, secured creditor information, and deeds are the first places to start. If there is no Will, the names and contact details of at least two disinterested witnesses that will speak to the family history of the deceased.

How long does the probate process take? This depends on several things. Will there be a contest between the beneficiaries? Are there creditor claims of the estate? How extensive is the estate, how long will it take to identify and gather the assets? However, generally if there are not issues, the process often takes less than six (6) months.

This article is provided by the Law Office of Lasca A. Arnold, PLLC.