The Shaw Law Firm, LLC

Estate Planning Tip: When more than one person owns a piece of property in Missouri, there are three basic forms of property ownership. The first is Tenancy in Common, which allows a co-owner to decide through his will (or a beneficiary deed) who will inherit his interest in the property. The second form of ownership is Joint Tenancy, which at a co-owner’s death passes the deceased owner’s interest in the property to the remaining surviving co-owners. The third is Tenancy by the Entirety, which is when married couples own property together, and at the death of one spouse, the surviving spouse inherits the deceased spouse’s interest in the property. The form of ownership you have is important, so you should make sure that the land you own is titled the correct way so that it passes to your heirs in the way you intend.

Estate Planning Tip: When people think about their property, they often just think about the physical things they own. Recently, however, there have been several court cases involving digital assets. Digital assets are things like your email accounts, twitter account, eBay account, Amazon account, Dropbox, iCloud, iTunes, blogs, and even your Facebook page. After a person dies, there may be valuable digital assets a person owns that can only be accessed by the deceased pe...rson. Some companies like Facebook and Google have processes for gaining access to a deceased person’s information, but others like Amazon and eBay do not. Even companies that do have processes to retrieve information from a deceased user’s account, often have very stringent requirements that need to be met. The best way to preserve your digital assets is to have provisions in your power of attorney and will that allow someone else to gain access to this information (or make sure your family knows all of your passwords and usernames to access your accounts). As more business is done digitally and in the cloud, I am sure there will be many more updates on this topic in the future. See more

Just a reminder that I am presenting a free Estate Planning Seminar this Thursday (August 1st) at 7:00pm at the Bowling Green Community Center. I will explain the benefits of common estate planning documents such as wills, trusts, powers of attorney, medical directives, and deeds. If you would like to attend, please call me at (573) 470- 5378, send me an email at [email protected], or send me a message on Facebook. I hope to see you there!

I would like to invite all my Facebook friends to attend a free estate planning seminar on Thursday August 1st at the Bowling Green Community Center at 7:00pm. During the seminar I will be giving a presentation about the basics of estate planning. The presentation will last between 35-40 minutes and then I will take questions. If you would like to attend, please call (573) 470-5378, or send an email to [email protected], or send me a message on Facebook. I hope to see you there!

Estate Planning Tip: It is graduation time and many parents may be getting ready to send their kids off to college. One document parents might want their children to have before they go off to college is a HIPAA authorization. HIPAA is a federal law that restricts hospitals and doctors from giving out a person’s medical records without the person’s permission. Once a child turns 18, their parents are no longer able to request their medical records or talk to the child’s doctors unless the child has signed a HIPAA release. By having a college bound student sign a HIPAA authorization now, parents can be assured they can have access to the child’s records in case an emergency occurs and the student is not able to give the permission themselves.