In 2003, the United States Department of Health and Human Services enacted regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or as it is more commonly known, “HIPAA”. Under this new law, medical providers can face serious sanctions and monetary fines for releasing unauthorized “Protected Health Information,” usually meaning medical records. As a result, medical… Continue reading HIPAA Authorizations – Why They Are Important
A creator or grantor of a normal revocable living trust usually serves as the trustee of a trust until their incapacity or death. After one of those events, a successor trustee takes over the trust to manage and administer the trust assets. Some trust creators have two children or have two people they trust enough… Continue reading The Problems of Successor Co-Trustees in a Trust
When handling people's estate plans, I am often asked how life insurance, retirement accounts, and other “beneficiary” property should be handled with regards to the young children. More often than not, people with children want some or all of the proceeds of these accounts to go to their minor children. For example, if a client… Continue reading (Minor) Children in Your Estate Planning
Know you need an estate plan, but don't know what you need or where to start? Call our offices today for a FREE CONSULTATION with our Attorney, Penni Skillern, Esq. Our attorney takes a comprehensive and integrated approach to estate planning. Your estate plan should complete your vision, goals, values, and needs for the… Continue reading Call for a Free Consultation!
Whenever an attorney creates a Revocable Living Trust for a client, the trust needs to be funded. "What does it mean to fund a trust?" is a common question that our attorney at the Skillern Law Firm gets from clients. It is a very important step in the estate planning process. To see what a Revocable… Continue reading Funding A Revocable Trust
If you do not have a Revocable Living Trust, your estate will need to be probated or be small enough for a simple affidavit. Probate is the legal process required for estate administration and asset distribution. To read more specifically about what probate is, read our previous post "what is probate." One important thing about… Continue reading Oklahoma’s Simplified Probate
Becoming a small business owner is a big decision. People, for the most part, begin working on operating agreements and articles of incorporation, and then move on to working on the business to make it successful and profitable. Few, if any, ever work on their exit strategy for their business from its inception. Most only start to… Continue reading Exit Strategies for Small Businesses
Most, if not all, timeshare owners will have to decide, at some point in their life, who they want to receive their timeshares after they pass away. Most timeshares are real property interests, that are deeded into the owner(s)'s name(s). If a timeshare is held in an individual's name at death, just like any other piece of… Continue reading The Importance of Placing Your Timeshares Into A Trust
One of the most prominent cases of Living Wills or Advance Directives was the Terri Schaivo case in the early 2000s. It is prominent for Living Wills, in that Terri Schaivo did not have one, and her situation caused a legal battle that lasted years and costed thousands of dollars for her family. In this… Continue reading Avoiding the Terri Schaivo Case – The Oklahoma Advance Directive
New businesses, or start-ups, often struggle later on its the business's life due to how the business was originally set up or organized. This is more often a problem with businesses with more than one founder, since at one point or another, personalities and ideas will clash between the founders or later buy-ins. Too often, business co-founders… Continue reading Important Considerations for Business Co-Founders to Consider
