Doing your own legal work may be risky

If you write your own will, you are taking your estate into your own hands.

Think of it as performing surgery on yourself. Is this something you really want to do?

If you decide to draft your own estate-planning documents, do it with the knowledge that you may be making mistakes that could be very damaging to your estate plan.

Some people title their assets in joint tenancy to avoid probate. Your probate estate would consist only of your property titled solely in your own name or in a tenancy in common. Your other assets, such as joint tenancy property, will pass to your heirs outside of your probate estate.

However, titling property in joint tenancy can be extremely risky. Before you put your children’s names on your property, you should consider the drawbacks. First, you can’t take your children’s names off of your property without their permission. This may be very problematic if you decide you want to change your estate plan.

Additionally, if your child goes bankrupt or causes a major accident that his or her insurance does not cover, it’s possible your child’s creditors will come after your property. While you could try to prove that the property is really yours, since your child did not contribute to it but it might cost quite a bit of money and would tie up your property while the difficulties are resolved.

Revocable trusts also work to avoid probate because the creators — known as “grantors” or “settlors” of the trust — transfer their property to the trustees. Then, the trustees of the trust manage the property for the benefit of the trust’s beneficiaries.

Usually, the grantors are the initial trustees of the trust. When the settlor-trustees resign, pass away, or become incapacitated, the successor trustees named within the trust document take over. If you draft your own trust, you may end up costing your estate many unnecessary tax dollars.

The cost to have a qualified professional prepare a trust for you is money well spent for the peace of mind of knowing that your trust complies to your state law, and knowing that you will not cost your estate unnecessary tax. There are many ways to structure the distribution of assets to avoid tax.

If you own a home or other real estate you should consider a trust. If you own real estate in more than one state, you should definitely consider a trust because you would be avoiding multiple probate proceedings for your heirs.

Like most things in life, you can chose to use a qualified professional to prepare your estate plan or you can do it yourself. The question that must be asked is whether the money saved is worth the risk that you are going to end up costing your heirs more money and increase their frustration in administering your estate in the end.

Scott Halvorsen is a local attorney residing with his family in Bunkerville. He is licensed to practice in Nevada and Utah, and works at Barney McKenna & Olmstead one of Mesquite’s business and estate planning law firms. He can be reached at 702-346-3100, at www.barney-mckenna.com or at 590 W. Mesquite Blvd., Suite 202A.