“If you moved to Nevada recently from some other state, you need to get your estate planning documents changed at least to show Nevada law controls, not the other state law.”
An estate planning attorney will be able to craft an amendment to your grantor (living, revocable) trust to be legal with the changes to Nevada law. The attorney can also correct your will by doing a codicil.
The Nevada Appeal’s recent article, “Change to estate planning documents if you moved,” also notes that as long as you're working with the attorney, it would be a wise move to also have her prepare a power of attorney for medical decisions and the power of attorney for financial matters to be in compliance with Nevada law.
Making those changes can avoid a lot of time, trouble and confusion in the future for you and your family.
Another thing to consider while you're making those changes, is to be certain the documents show your current goals and desires. If you want to make a change in trustees and/or executors, now is a good time to do that.
Remember that serving as trustee and/or executor isn't an easy task. It is possible that one of your children or a close relative is no longer the best choice at this point in time. Whoever is selected to do that work, will probably work with your CPA and your estate planning attorney. Therefore, it might be a good idea for you and the person you name to meet and go over all your goals and wishes.
In addition, many people leave an additional letter of instructions for other items like funeral services and burial or cremation instructions. You can keep the letter with your trust and will. However, you also should discuss it and make sure to tell your family members where it's located.
If you have a safe deposit box, you might tell your executor or trustee where the key to the box is kept. You may want to keep that key with your important documents. Discuss giving your executor or trustee access to the safe deposit box; you’ll need to visit the bank branch to ensure that authorization to access the safe deposit box is taken care of.
If you’ve acquired special items such as antiques, valuable jewelry, or collections, you may draft a list of possible appraisers and information about those special items. Another good idea is to take some photographs of the items that need special valuation or handling.
Another option is to make gifts now of some of these items, to be certain that the right person receives them. There’d be no gift tax to pay if the total gifts are less than $11.4 million. If it turns out they don’t want the gift, then you have an opportunity to give it to someone else.
Reference: Nevada Appeal (February 22, 2019)
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