The community of Eldorado appreciates its closeness to nature, the close relationships it fosters, and the fact that all of the needed amenities are close by. In many senses, it can feel like all life’s biggest troubles are far away. However, bad luck can always make an ideal situation quickly turn upside down.
Families in Eldorado can feel more at ease when there are preparations in place. The right arrangements can ensure that everyone knows what to do next should an accident or unexpected death occur. That’s where an Eldorado at Santa Fe estate planning lawyer can provide assistance.
New Mexico Financial & Estate Planning Attorneys can guide you through all of the steps needed to protect and instruct your family when the time comes. From writing a will to completing an advance directive to forming a trust, we’ll personalize your estate plan to perfectly fit your life situation and the outcomes you want to achieve. Our goal is to help our clients feel confident that, no matter what life may bring, their loved ones can be ready.
Find out more about how to start on your estate plan (or bring an existing one up to date) during a confidential, no-obligation consultation. Schedule your appointment with an attorney team you can depend upon when you call our offices at (505) 503-1637 or contact us online.
It’s true that there are self-help tools out there that can assist you with creating the estate planning documents you need. But it’s also true that you can quickly run out of chances to get your estate plan right. When the time comes to execute it, any flaws in your documents or the way they were executed could jeopardize all of your careful preparations.
Working with an Eldorado at Santa Fe estate planning attorney means that you get professional, experienced help through every stage of the process. We’ll listen closely to learn about your situation, the assets that make up your estate, your family dynamics, and the goals you want to achieve in the future. You can then receive recommendations for a one-of-a-kind estate plan, one that’s tailored to your needs — rather than the needs of some imaginary, generic “user.”
When you come to New Mexico Financial & Estate Planning Attorneys, you can expect attentive assistance with every aspect of getting prepared. That includes:
In short, we can handle every aspect of estate planning, including when it comes time for your loved ones to enact the careful preparations you put in place.
A complete estate plan in Eldorado can contain all of the following documents, strategies, and components:
Your estate plan may only rely on a few of these elements, or it could use all of them. The ones you choose should depend on your goals, your risk tolerance, your desire to avoid probate, and other major factors. You can refer to an estate planning lawyer in New Mexico for personalized guidance and recommendations for which components might make the most sense to include for your unique situation.
A will is, legally, the only way to make specific arrangements to transfer your property during probate. While there are many ways to transfer assets outside of probate, including by making gifts during your lifetime, the truth is that not all property can be handled through these alternatives. This limitation is especially true for personal belongings and other sentimental, untitled property, including many types of family heirlooms.
It’s also true that arrangements made outside of a will may not always pan out as expected. A will, therefore, is a critical “backup” mechanism. A contingency clause in your will can safely handle any property where the original intended transfer method falls through. If it turns out, for example, a residence was not transferred fully into a trust prior to your death, then a clause in the will can gift the property to your intended heir.
A residuary clause is another important component that can be included in an Eldorado will. An estate planning lawyer can include this clause to ensure that any property not specifically mentioned by the will (or transferred by any other method) still goes to your intended party or parties. If, for instance, you sold a vehicle and purchased a new one prior to your death and neglected to include language in your will reflecting the new asset, a residuary clause could leave any and all property remaining in the estate to a spouse, your children, a charitable cause, or another chosen recipient.
The biggest risk in not having a will is that state laws are then used to determine who inherits property. New Mexico’s statutes (NM Stat § 45-2-102) require that an estate without a will (known as an “intestate” estate) have its assets transferred to very specific parties.
In cases where the decedent (the person who passed) has both a surviving spouse and surviving direct descendants, then the spouse inherits all community property and one-quarter of the remaining separate property. The descendants split the remaining separate property amongst themselves.
If someone passes with a spouse but no descendants, the spouse inherits everything. If there were direct descendants but no surviving spouse, then the descendants split everything as evenly as possible.
In cases where the person who passed had neither a surviving spouse nor any surviving direct descendants, then the courts will look to identify the next-closest surviving kin. This might apply to, in order of priority:
Note that the first-available group inherits the entire estate, split equally among that category of relation. Also note that stepchildren and unmarried partners have no legal claims to any estate property under these arrangements.
As you can see, these situations may not reflect what the decedent would have wanted. Moreover, the people who are entitled to inherit may have to figure out the best way to split their share of the estate evenly.
Accordingly, it is prudent for everyone living in Eldorado at Santa Fe to look into creating a will, along with the rest of their estate plan. These preparations give them a say in who receives what property, including by providing for people who would not normally inherit under intestate succession laws.
Certain types of property can be transferred without needing a will, avoiding the delays and complications that can be introduced by probate. These non-probatable assets include:
Reducing the probated size of your estate expedites the inheritance process and can potentially limit assets’ exposure to creditor claims and other estate expenses. If making probate less complicated — or avoiding it entirely — is one of your goals, make sure to discuss the available strategies with your Eldorado estate planning attorney.
You should review your estate plan every 3 – 5 years to make sure it still fits with your asset portfolio, your wishes, your family dynamics, and your current values.
Any time you’ve had a major life event, it’s also a good idea to go back and revisit your old plans. Often, you may need to make minor updates throughout the documents. You may need to, for example, change out your address after moving and mention the newly acquired home in your inheritance (or transfer) plans.
In other cases, such as after a divorce, you may need to completely overhaul the document.
Examples of life events where it may be a good idea to review and revise your estate plan include:
There’s never a bad time to look back over your documentation, however. An Eldorado estate planning attorney will always be eager to help. They can point you towards the areas of your estate plan that may need major changes. They can even help you properly redo documents, like your will or powers of attorney, to ensure that they match what’s needed for your current situation.
New Mexico Financial & Estate Planning Attorneys has decades of collective experience helping families and individuals with making the needed preparations. We are available to look over your plans and ensure they can work the way you expect when the time comes. We are also able to help you create custom plans for estates of all types, including complicated ones with closely held business assets, portfolios with multiple properties, intricate family dynamics, or highly specific inheritance arrangements.
From creating trusts to executing your will to helping you plan for your possible incapacitation, you can rely on us to take care of everything you need. Find out what the ideal personalized Eldorado estate plan could look like for you when you call (505) 503-1637 or contact us online to schedule a confidential appointment with an experienced attorney today.
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