Got a Quit Claim Deed? Record It!!

Sometimes it is convenient for a husband and wife to use a Power of Attorney to manage property or real Estate such that only one party needs to sign any kind of documents related to such property. Many years ago I had a client who was a traveling salesman essentially in the United States but he lived in South Africa with his wife. He and his wife had decided to move to England and were selling their house in South Africa. However the client did not want to return for the closing as he had important sales calls to make in the United States that he would have to interrupt. I suggested that we do a Power of Attorney for him and contacted the closing agent in South Africa to determine whether such Power of Attorney if faxed to South Africa would permit the wife to sign the closing documents on behalf of the husband instead of him returning to South Africa. I was able to determine the information that the closing agent needed for that to happen, and we created a Power of Attorney for the husband that authorized the wife to sign on his behalf. We then faxed a copy of that document to South Africa and she was able to do the closing by herself and then fly to England where he would meet her after he completed his business in the United States, rather than him having to return to South Africa.

A gentleman and his wife had some property that was not jointly owned at the completion of their Estate Plan. In particular, there was a $300,000 plus farm that was solely in the husband's name. As with all Estate Plans I strongly encourage the client to move all property into his/her Trust so that in the event of unexpected circumstances – the client’s incompetency or death - the Successor Trustee would be able to manage and administer the property. However, the farm in question was being sold and since the closing was two weeks away he felt it was unnecessary and it would just overly complicate the closing, so he decided not to put the farm into his Trust. As bad luck would have it, the husband died the following week before the closing could occur and a probate Estate had to be opened and administered taking months to complete before the closing on the farm could take place. One of the big advantages of doing a Trust in transferring your property into the Trust is that you avoid probate completely as probate can cost significant dollars and is almost always two to five times more expensive than an Estate Plan.

A client who was recently divorced was concerned because his ex-wife and her brother (his ex-brother-in-law) were the personal representatives of his Will. While Missouri law would eliminate the ex-wife's claim to be personal representative and possibly the ex-brother-in-law, it would leave his Will without personal representatives, or in the charge of his ex-brother-in-law. We had a conference to talk about the situation and discussed changing personal representatives but the client decided to think about it further and delay. After all he was only 42 years old and didn't expect his Will would be needed in the near future. I reminded him several times about the situation but he still procrastinated. Approximately one year after initial discussion I received a phone call from his new fiancé asking me whether or not he'd completed changing his Will as she expected to be involved in the Will and the ex-wife and former brother-in-law were still the only personal representatives. I told her that he had not completed it but I encouraged him to do it and it would be something we could do fairly soon if he'll agree to move forward. She told me she was in the ICU and that the potential client was dying of lung cancer. I asked whether he was able to communicate. Her answer was no. The client died of lung cancer prior to completing the update to his Will which at the very least would mean there could be litigation with respect to what the personal representative should be, whether the brother-in-law should handle it or assuming that the ex-wife and former brother-in-law were excluded under Missouri law, and who the personal representative should be. Procrastination with Estate planning can result in bad situations and significantly increased cost because of unexpected circumstances.

Your Fairfield Law blog tip of the day!