What’s In A Name?

Have you ever felt that you were more of a Lola then a Susan? Do you look more like a Prada Jones rather than a Julie Jones?

Everyone has thought of swapping their name at least once. Maybe twice if you are Prince. Here are the how-tos of a change de nom.

In most states you can change your name by simply telling your friends and work associates that you would rather be called Beulah than Joan. This is called changing your name by usage. However, if you need a more official sanction of your new name, you will probably need to show the name on a driver’s license or social security card. To get your name changed on these documents will require presentation of either a court order or a marriage certificate.

Name Change By Court Order

As long as you are not seeking a name change to avoid the IRS, a name change by court order is not as difficultto obtain as it sounds.

Paperwork for name changes by court order can be found on most county court Web sites. After completing and filing the proper forms with the court, a hearing date is assigned. Some courts require notice of the court hearing to be published in a local newspaper and a time for objections to the name change to be filed in court. If no one objects to the name change and it is approved by the judge, the court will issue an order authorizing use of the new name.

The signed court order can be presented to the Social Security Administration, the Department of Motor Vehicles, banks or title companies as proof that your name has officially changed.

Name Change After Marriage

If you are getting married and you are only going to change your last name, a certified copy of your marriage certificate will serve as official proof of your new name.

With marriage certificate in hand, head to the Social Security Administration office and the Department of Motor Vehicles for a social security card and driver’s license in your new name. With your new driver’s license and a new social security card you will be able to make most other changes to your name on important documents.

What If Your Husband Wants To Take Your Name Or You Both Want To Change Your Last Name?

It is generally accepted that a wife can take her husband’s last name but not vice versa. If a husband wants to take his wife’s name or the couple wants to come up with a completely new name, a court order would be required.

What If You Are Going Back To Your Old Name After A Divorce?

In many divorce proceedings, the final divorce decree will include a provision for a return to a maiden or former name. In some states a birth certificate with a maiden or former name may be all you need to show in order to change your name on with government agencies.

Is There Any Time Limit After Marriage Or Divorce For Changing Your Name?

There is no time limit for changing your name after marriage or divorce. Some people never change their name upon either event.

One caution though … the line at the DMV isn’t getting any shorter.

Keller Smith is an attorney with The Keller Law Firm in Manhattan Beach, California; she can be reached at www.kellerlawfirm.com. She contributes a column once per month.

Rules of a (Broken) Engagement

A broken engagement is never fun. But sometimes, unfortunately, it is a reality. So if you find yourself in this predicament, be armed with good information to at least help on a practical side.

Whether you are the jilter or the jiltee, there is more to calling off a wedding then just notifying friends and family and returning the gifts. Here are just two things to keep in mind before you cancel the caterer.

1. Who Gets the Ring?


You may think Pamela Anderson has every right to keep the engagement ring that Kid Rock gave her, but it isn’t just a question of etiquette when it comes to who gets to keep the ring.

The question of whether or not a bride gets to keep an engagement ring if the wedding is called off has been argued in courts across the country for the last fifty years. Some states have even passed laws legislating who should get a ring given in contemplation of marriage.

You may be of the school of thought that says, “a gift is a gift.” Your fiance meant to give you a ring, he gave you the ring, and you accepted it. DONE DEAL.

Oh, if only it were this simple. Some states do agree a gift is a gift and the bride should be able to keep it. Other states say even though a ring was given on the condition a couple would marry, it should go back to the giver if the marriage doesn’t occur. What if the giver of the ring is the person who called off the engagement and the givee had every intention of following through with the marriage. Shouldn’t the givee be allowed to keep the ring?

Most courts don’t want to have to be in the middle of a he-said, she-said debate about who caused a break-up so may states follow a rule of “no-fault” broken engagements. Just as many states have adopted “no-fault divorces,” the no-fault broken engagement rule allows the groom to get the ring back regardless of whether he caused the break-up.

Other states have adopted a modified “fault” rule allows the groom to get the ring back unless he is the one who called off the engagement. Just this year a Connecticut court took the side of the bride allowing her to keep the ring because the groom caused the break-up.

Still, other states like California have laws to mandate that the ring goes back to the groom if the bride breaks off the engagement or it is mutual decision.

So no matter what etiquette, your gut or your mother tells you about returning the ring, your rights to the ring may already be determined by the laws in the state where you live.


2. Who gets the joint checking account?


Maybe more important than who gets back the diamond baubles, is who gets to keep the cash when there is a broken engagement.

Many couples, in contemplation of marriage, open joint checking accounts to pay expenses of the wedding or to make payments on shared bills, but most don’t understand the consequences.

In the event that either the bride or the groom decides to buy the Harley they always wanted or even to just withdraw all of the money in the account, either person on the joint checking account can do this without the permission of the other.

In other words, don’t dump the entire lump of your hard earned savings into a joint checking account until the wedding day, when you are sure half of that Harley will also be yours.

A broken engagement is never fun, but should it happen to you, it is best to be prepared.

Keller Smith is an attorney with The Keller Law Firm in Manhattan Beach, California; she can be reached at www.kellerlawfirm.com. She contributes a column once per month.

A broken engagement is never fun. But sometimes, unfortunately, it is a reality. So if you find yourself in this predicament, be armed with good information to at least help on a practical side.Whether you are the jilter or the jiltee, there is more to calling off a wedding then just notifying friends and family and returning the gifts. Here are just two things to keep in mind before you cancel the caterer.

Keller Smith is an attorney with The Keller Law Firm in Manhattan Beach, California; she can be reached at www.kellerlawfirm.com. She contributes a column once per month.

I Forgot To Get A Pre-Nup. What Do I Do Now?

We’ve all heard that one of the most common issues married couples argue about is money. Well, could a post-nuptial agreement be the answer to some of that marital strife?

If the pre-nup is the oft-dreaded, deal breaker for a couple headed to the alter, then the post-nup may be its easier to stomach, a less contentious step-child, if you will. Both can include provisions for division of separate and community property and even who will pay the electric bill, but one is done pre-marriage and the other can be done many years after marriage.

Although not as common as a pre-nup, a post-nuptial agreement can accomplish the same thing as the pre-nup, but without the nerves of an impending wedding. Many people even do post-nups decades after their wedding day.

Couples often consider a post-nup when they have received a large inheritance or are doing their own estate planning. A post-nup may even be recommended by a marriage counselor to ease tensions between spouses over finances.
Actually, a very common reason for getting a post-nup is that one spouse receives a large inheritance. If the inheritance is a mountain cabin that has been in the spouse’s family for generations, the spouse may want to make sure it stays in their family by signing a post-nup declaring it as separate property. Without a post-nup, it is possible the cabin could become partially or totally the other spouse’s property on death or in a divorce.

A post-nup is helpful for defining a financial relationship between spouses during marriage, on divorce or at death. Issues covered in a post-nup can include what will happen to separate assets of one spouse on divorce or at death and establish debt or income as the separate property of one spouse.

Not all states recognize the validity of post-nups so they are not as widely used as the pre-nup. Even if the post-nup is valid in your state, there are several issues critical to a valid post-nup.

1. There must be full disclosure of each spouse’s assets.
2. Neither person can be coerced or under duress when signing the post-nup.
3. The agreement has to be fair to both parties.
4. Both spouses should have their own attorney.

The last point may be the most important. Always see an attorney when considering a post-nup or a pre-nup.
If you forgot to do a pre-nup or have had a change in your financial situation because of a new business or large inheritance, the post-nup may head-off major financial issues you and your spouse never even considered pre-marriage.

Keller Smith is an attorney with The Keller Law Firm in Manhattan Beach, California; she can be reached at www.kellerlawfirm.com. She contributes a column once per month.

What is a Common Law Marriage and Am I in One?

MaryAnn and her boyfriend lived together for ten years. They lived in a house they bought jointly. He raised her kids; then, suddenly he just left. He skipped out on her leaving her to pay a mortgage all by herself.

She couldn’t sell the house because his name was on the title and she couldn’t find him. She had always thought that she and her boyfriend were in a common law marriage because they had lived together for so long and had a house together. Unfortunately, MaryAnn lives in California, a state that doesn’t recognize common law marriages. With no support from her boyfriend and no money to hire an attorney MaryAnn was unable to make house payments and not only ruined her credit but lost her house too.

Like MaryAnn, many women have heard about common law marriages and think because they have been in a long-term relationship, they will be able to collect spousal support from their partner if there is a split. In a common law marriage, partners, although not legally married, can sometimes collect spousal support if there is a break-up or inherit from one another if one partner dies. Unfortunately, very few states recognize common law marriage anymore.

Requirements for establishing a common law marriage differ from state to state but most require a couple has the capacity to marry, regard themselves as married, present themselves to the public as married and live together continuously. In other words, if there has been a long-term, live-in relationship in which two people view themselves as husband and wife, introduce each other as husband and wife and are generally believed to be husband and wife by the public, there may exist the ability to claim a common law marriage between them.

If a court does find a common law marriage has existed between partners, one partner may be able to collect some type of alimony payment from the other partner or may be able to inherit assets from a partner even if there is no living will stating those wishes. In either case, the party seeking support would have to go to court to have the common law marriage declared valid.

Palimony is another term frequently thrown around as a way to divide property or get alimony support from a former live-in boyfriend or girlfriend. Palimony is often claimed by a partner when support is sought under the argument that it was promised to the other partner in an oral agreement. Palimony cases usually occur when one partner claims the other partner said they would support them for the rest of their life and relying on this statement, the partner quits their job.

To establish an oral agreement of continued support was made would require a court hearing and could cost each partner in legal fees.

Palimony and common law marriage principles really apply in very few circumstances and so they should not be relied upon as an avenue for support in a future break-up between live-in partners. Only a legal marriage or a really good cohabitation agreement can ensure your rights as a partner, as well as your finances, are protected. If you have questions regarding your common law marriage rights or palimony issues, you should see an attorney in your State who specializes in family law issues.

Common law marriage is recognized in the following States:
Alabama, Colorado, District of Columbia, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah

New Hampshire (Recognized only for the purpose of inheriting from the other partner on their death)

Keller Smith is an attorney with The Keller Law Firm in Manhattan Beach, California; she can be reached at www.kellerlawfirm.com. She contributes a column once per month.

The Do’s and Don’t of Moving In With Your Boyfriend

Whether you are moving in with your boyfriend to save money or to test the waters for a future marriage, take stock of these dos and don’ts before you reserve the moving truck. These are not meant to set up for a failed relationship, but to help should something, unfortunately, go wrong.

1. DO DETERMINE HOW YOU WILL DIVIDE EXPENSES
Paying bills can lead to significant disagreements in the best of marriages, and living together is no exception. Avoid disagreements by putting down on paper who will be responsible for what expenses from buying groceries to paying the electricity bill.

If you have decided to open a joint checking account to pay bills, BE CAREFUL! If you open a bank account in both of your names you may each individually withdraw money from this account. If one of the roommates deposits $2000 in the account, it is assumed both roommates own it, so either roommate can withdraw it. This can be a problem if you don’t know your roommate’s spending habits. The safest arrangement is to keep all financial accounts separate in order to make a transition (should it be needed) back to the single life a little smoother.

2. DON’T MAKE MAJOR PURCHASES TOGETHER
Do not take on major purchases with your roommate or co-sign for a debt of your partner if you don’t want to be held equally responsible for the debt should you later not be together anymore. Do not take out a loan for a car your partner will be driving or buy major appliances for a house your partner owns. You may end up having to continue to pay those bills long after you have broken up.

3. DON’T QUIT YOUR JOB
If moving in with your partner means you do not have to work, think twice before you quit your job. Unlike married couples, the boyfriend who may be supporting you has no obligation to continue to support you once the relationship has ended.

Many people are under the false assumption if a couple lives together for a certain number of years the couple enjoys the rights of a married couple when they split under the common law marriage doctrine. Yes, in a state recognizing common law marriage, a couple is considered legally married even if they do not have a marriage license. But, only a few states in the United States still recognize common law marriages, so no matter how long you have lived with someone or how intertwined your lives and finances are, you may not be able to collect support after a split.

4. DO GET IT IN WRITING
If you are serious about protecting your financial assets when you move in with a boyfriend, you should consider entering into a Cohabitation Agreement. It’s like a pre-nup but without the nup. A Cohabitation Agreement can include provisions on every aspect of living together from a formal written division of household expenses to who will take custody of pets if there is a break up. If one partner is helping to make the mortgage payments on a home owned by the other partner, the agreement may include a split in any increase in equity on the home. Or maybe the homeowner just wants to accept rent from the other partner and the agreement includes a clause indicating the renting partner gets no part of the house on a subsequent break up.

This type of signed, written agreement spells out a separation of property, assets and debts at the beginning of a roommate relationship and legally binds both of you to this agreement.

Another useful agreement for unmarried couples is a Co-tenancy Agreement. If you are planning on buying a home together, a Co-tenancy Agreement specifies how much each partner is contributing to the purchase, mortgage, property taxes and repairs. The agreement also includes how the equity in the home will be divided on the future sale of the property. No one wants to deal with these issues when there is a break up, so spelling out decisions ahead of time will minimize an already tense split.

5. DO THINK ABOUT THE LONG-TERM
Couples who have lived together for decades and consider their partner like a spouse, want their partner to make decisions for them if they should become incompetent or ill. Unfortunately, just because partners have lived together for years does not mean they have the legal right to make healthcare or financial decisions for the other unless a prior written arrangement has been made. Instead, an immediate family member may be given the authority to make these decisions.

Likewise, one partner has no rights to inherit from the other partner. If your partner dies without a will, you may end up as a co-owner of property with the partner’s relative.

So before you start picking out furniture together, ask your partner about their assets, debts and expenses and understand how they deal with money. Specify in writing how you will pay for living expenses and make sure wills, trusts and healthcare decisions are in order. Then call the moving truck!

Keller Smith is an attorney with The Keller Law Firm in Manhattan Beach, California; she can be reached at www.kellerlawfirm.com. She contributes a column once per month.

Are You Really Married? Are You Really Divorced?

What if you were never really married to the guy with whom you walked down the aisle, and the one you share a house with or have children with? What if you never really got divorced from the lunk you thought you left in the dust? It’s hard to imagine, but it is more common than you think.

The stories that follow are true and involve women who believed they were married or divorced but found the opposite to be true. Learn how to avoid their pitfalls.

Shelley was preparing for her fourth wedding by having a pre-nup prepared by an attorney. Shelley had three grown children from her previous marriages, which had all ended in divorce. In her preparation of the pre-nup, the attorney asked to see the final judgments of dissolution from her three divorces. (The judgment is signed by a judge and states the terms of a divorce and pronounces the divorce final.) Shelley went back through her records and could only find the judgments from her second and third marriages. Shelley then remembered she had gone to a paralegal service to do her first divorce. She had signed all of the papers but never heard from the paralegal service again. She eventually moved out of state and just assumed the divorce was final. Inquiring of the county clerk where she used to live she found out the first divorce had never been finalized; this meant her second and third marriages were null and void.

Now, 30 years later, she finds she is still married to her first husband and had never been married to the fathers of her three children.

It sounds far-fetched but consider this: According to the Los Angeles Times, about 80 percent of people in California do their own paperwork for a divorce. It is estimated a third of those divorces have not been finalized because of difficulty understanding the court system. Many people do not understand that until a final order has been issued the divorce is not final and the couples are still considered married.

If a divorce was never finalized then the couple is still legally married and any subsequent marriages are not legal.
In most states, do-it-yourself divorces are very common and definitely doable under certain circumstances. Courts can be tricky to navigate without the help of an attorney. Make sure you keep up with the paper trail, notice and filing requirements, or you may discover that you are not only not divorced but possibly not even married to the person you consider your husband.

A couple travels to Mexico for a fun vacation and a romantic seaside wedding. They find a person who says he can perform a wedding ceremony at a local hotel and as the sun sets over the ocean they are pronounced man and wife. Fifty years later, as the couple organizes their important papers they come across the old marriage license and realize it doesn’t look very official. A few calls to local authorities in Mexico and they find out, in fact, it isn’t a valid marriage license. In a panic they go to their local courthouse in the United States and 50 years and two children later, they make the marriage official.

Destination weddings are so popular today this scenario is not as likely to occur as it once was. Many resorts and wedding planners not only plan your wedding but help you to fulfill all of the legal requirements to legally marry in a foreign country.

The trick is to plan ahead. Always check the marriage requirements of a foreign country with the embassy or tourist information bureau within the country. Plan the wedding far enough in advance just in case the laws of the country require you to be a resident for a certain amount of time before the wedding date. Some countries have residency requirements requiring the couple live in the country for up to 40 days prior to getting married.

People often worry a marriage performed out of the country might not be legal within the United States. If a marriage is legal and valid in the country in which it was performed then it is also legal and valid in the United States.

If you are married in a foreign country, the difficulty can sometimes come when asked to show proof you are legally married. If for any reason you are asked to present a certified copy of a marriage certificate in order to prove you are legally married, there may be some difficulty in obtaining a copy depending on the country in which you were married.

Some couples avoid this hassle by getting married at their local courthouse in the U.S. before or following a wedding ceremony in a foreign country.

To find out if you are legally divorced you may call your local county courthouse to check the divorce files. To obtain confirmation of a legal marriage, call your local county clerk to obtain a copy of your marriage certificate.

Keller Smith is an attorney with The Keller Law Firm in Manhattan Beach, California; she can be reached at www.kellerlawfirm.com. She contributes a column once per month.

The Four Legal Documents Every Smart Woman Should Have

You contribute every year to your IRA. Check.
You stash away a little each month for emergencies. Check.
You purchased a life insurance policy. Check.

But planning for the future really isn’t complete until you have an estate plan in place. These four basic legal documents can save you, your friends and your family the cost and hassle of settling your affairs through the court system.

1. A Will or Trust
You have worked hard to earn and save your money. Maybe you have already thought about leaving all your money to friends and family (or maybe to your favorite charity) should anything happen to you. But if you don’t have legally enforceable documents, your hard-earned cash could be spent on court costs, attorney’s fees, and ultimately be given to a relative you had no intention of ever receiving a penny.

These are worst-case scenarios, but unless you have a written will or trust giving direction as to how your estate should be left on your death, a court could step in and make those decisions for you.

Both documents have provisions to direct how a person’s money should be given away upon their death. You can do everything in a will that you can do in a trust. The only difference is that generally the assets given away by a will have to be supervised by a court in what is called a probate administration. A trust is completely private and the giving away of assets does not have to be supervised by a court.

In both documents you outline how you want your assets distributed on your death and who should distribute them. In planning your will or trust, you select an executor (for a will) or a trustee (for a trust) to gather up your assets on your death, sell your property, make gifts of personal items and ultimately give away your money according to your written wishes. In most cases, without a written will or trust, the courts step in and determine how and to whom your estate should be left.

A will is usually cheaper to set up and is often used by people with few assets as a means of transferring assets at death. As previously stated, a will would most likely have to be probated on death, which means a court is to monitor the administration of an estate; this can be costly and is often very time consuming. Wills have fallen out of favor because of probate costs and high attorney’s fees. More often people are using a trust to outline their wishes for the distribution of assets on death.

A revocable living trust does not have to go through a probate administration at death. A trust is like a contract. Assets are titled in the name of a trust during a person’s lifetime and a death. A trustee gives away those assets according to the terms of the trust document. There is no supervision of a trust administration so time and cost to friends and family can be minimal.

2. A Power of Attorney for Property
If you give someone a power of attorney, you have given him or her the ability to step into your shoes should you become incapacitated. In a power of attorney, you can designate a spouse, a friend, or a relative to take care of your finances if you should become incapacitated. Your agent under your power of attorney can pay your bills, sign your tax returns and sell your property to raise money for your care. Without a power of attorney, a court would have to nominate what is called a conservator to do these things for you.

3. A Power of Attorney for Health Care
In this document you can name a friend or relative to make health care decisions for you if you are unable to communicate your own wishes regarding medical care. You can also state your wishes regarding artificial prolongation of life or what is more commonly referred to as “pull the plug” language. This document is sometimes called a Living Will.

4. A Pre-Nuptial Agreement
Although a pre-nuptial agreement is not for everyone, it can be very helpful for women entering into a marriage who hold significant property as a result of an inheritance, high income, or owning their own business. A pre-nup is basically a contract that keeps property you had before the marriage as your own separate property throughout the marriage. If you have designated specific property or your income as separate property before marriage, then on divorce or death this property would remain your own. A pre-nup can save you time and money sorting out these issues on divorce and your heirs’ time and money unraveling a mess on your passing.

The reason to consider these documents now is to ensure that your friends and family will never have to go to court to get permission to do anything regarding your estate. So add these four documents to your to-do list and see an attorney for expert advice. A little planning in the short term can save you and your family a lot of money and time in the long run.

Keller Smith is an attorney with The Keller Law Firm in Manhattan Beach, California; she can be reached at www.kellerlawfirm.com. She contributes a column once per month.

Get It In Writing

Any lawyer will tell you that a simple rule for avoiding conflict is to, “get it in writing.” In other words, act in the moment by specifying the current terms of an agreement to avoid future conflicts.

It sounds so obvious to ask for an agreement in writing for car repairs, home repairs or large purchases, but, when it comes to business and marriage relationships, people often hesitate to ask for written specifics out of shyness or embarrassment. Women, especially, often feel it is impolite or distrustful to ask, “Can I get that in writing?”

Oftentimes, business partners or spouses feel they understand an oral agreement implicitly and trust the other person to stick to the bargain. The problem is that over the years conversations between friends, partners and business associates become fuzzy; and, what seemed like concrete terms in conversation are replaced with hopeful thinking about what the agreement should be, rather than what it actually is.

Here are a couple of circumstances where putting pen to paper can avoid conflicts, ease future transitions and solidify relationships.

Business Relationships
Sharon and Mallory have a great business idea. They have talked endlessly about the idea while working away late into the night. They both feel they share a common vision and ultimate goal for the business. It doesn’t take long before Sharon and Mallory have a long customer list and investors clamoring to buy the business. Mallory is thrilled with the idea of selling the business and moving onto a new venture, but Sharon sees it as her steady income and doesn’t want to let it go. Neither one imagined they would be at odds when it came to the future of the business. Now their relationship, both personal and professional, is on shaky ground.

Solving the sticky situation above could have been much easier if Sharon and Mallory had set down the terms of their professional relationship from the start. In business, this type of written agreement is oftentimes called a Buy-out Agreement and can clarify the different roles of the partners, how decisions are to be made, how much money and time each partner is going to invest, as well as exit strategies when one person wants out of a business and the other wants to retain it. Issues handled in writing ahead of time can make business transitions a lot smoother.

Marital Agreements

Mary Jo’s husband Ted owned a house before they were married. They have been married for six years and he tells her all the time that the house belongs to her as much as it does to him. The trouble is that the deed to the house still only has Ted’s name on it.

If Mary Jo and Ted did nothing about the issue above, the laws of the state in which they live would impose a solution on death or divorce. Most other couples are more pro-active when it comes to the title on their property, getting property ownership details worked out long before the ink on the wedding invitations has dried.

An agreement as to who owns what property during marriage can be ironed out before marriage in a Pre-Nuptial Agreement, and sometimes after marriage in a Post-Nuptial Agreement. In either agreement, disposition of assets on death and divorce will likely not be conflict-free, but can be cheaper and easier in the long run.

Promissory Notes
If you are a generous giver (as I know most of you savvy gals are) then you may have made a loan to a brother-in-law for the down payment on a condo or to your sister to start up her own business. Just because you are a generous “giver,” you shouldn’t be shy about asking the “receiver” to sign a promissory note.

A promissory note clearly outlines, for both parties, the specifics of a loan. Like a loan document, a promissory note sets out the terms of the loan, including the date it was made, when payments are due and how much interest will be charged.

Many people find it tacky or impolite to ask friends and relatives to sign a promissory note. On the other hand, nothing is more gauche then having to ask that brother-in-law to repay you over an awkward family dinner. Strains on a relationship tend to happen when your brother-in-law thinks he has ten years to repay a loan, when you really wanted it to be repaid in three. Specifics on paper to which both parties can refer translates to less talk about the loan around the Thanksgiving table.

(You can find standard promissory notes at most office supply stores.)

Co-tenancy Agreements

High real estate prices have forced more friends, relatives and partners to buy property together. For unmarried partners, friends and relatives, a simple co-tenancy or partnership agreement could hammer out the details of an ownership arrangement in advance. If one owner stops paying their part of the mortgage, does not contribute to upkeep, or wants to sell her half of the property, a co-tenancy or partnership agreement could outline how those issues would be resolved.

Wills and Trusts

Grandma always liked you best and she promised you her original Picasso would go to you on her death. Unfortunately, on her passing there is no mention of the Picasso in her will. Oral wills may make for good drama in the movies but directions for disposing of assets on death will likely only be legally enforceable if there is a written will. There are very limited circumstances in which an oral will would be recognized, but don’t count on it.

Each state has their own particular requirements for legal wills and a lawyer in your state is the best advisor when it comes to those requirements.

Written agreements, although they may be hard to ask for initially, can bring specificity to a relationship and force you and a partner to come to agreement on issues that might arise in the future.
You will never be sorry that you asked, “Can I get that in writing?”

Keller Smith is an attorney with The Keller Law Firm in Manhattan Beach, California; she can be reached at www.kellerlawfirm.com. She contributes a column once per month.

Am I Too Young for an Estate Plan?

The life of a savvy gal involves many things … going out with friends, professional and family obligations, travel and shopping, but not contemplating the division and distribution of your estate on your ultimate demise. How depressing! Why should vibrant women beginning a new career or starting a family ever need to think about a will? So morose! But, yet, it is important.

Sitting down, with an attorney’s help, to write out an estate plan has little to do with death and everything to do with organizing and creating a structure for a lifetime of financial dealings.

What used to be thought of as just writing a Will, now encompasses a broader range of issues, which involve estate taxes, business ownership issues, property rights, health care issues and the guardianship of minors. Today’s “estate plan” is definitely not your grandpa’s will.

You should be able to answer the following questions when you begin to talk to a lawyer about your estate plan:

• Who are the beneficiaries of your old 401k plans that you never rolled over into an IRA?
• Do you and a partner have a business? Have you thought about what might happen if one of you retired, passed on or just wanted to leave the business?
• Do you have some of your grandmother’s jewelry that she made you swear would always stay in the family?
• How did you specify the title to the house you just bought with your partner, friend or boyfriend? What happens to it if you split, one of you moves to Uruguay or simply stops paying their half of the mortgage?
• Did you or your spouse own a house before marriage and haven’t yet changed the title?

Few of these scenarios involve death — but all hold significant legal consequences for women if not addressed. Spending a little time and money to deal with these issues now will save you lots of time and money in the future.

For instance, say you bought a house with your boyfriend or friend and you decide to split up. Does one of you want to stay in the house? How much money did each of you put into the house? Was it equal? Laws in most states protect and even regulate the division of property for spouses if there is a divorce or a death, but in most cases unmarried partners don’t have the same protections. In the absence of laws governing the division of property, unmarried partners can make a contract spelling out what would happen in the case of a split.

And, even if you are in the midst of planning a wedding, some planning now can help to protect your assets for the future. You may deeply trust your betrothed, but if you have started your own business or inherited money before marriage you wouldn’t want to see it cut down the middle should the matrimony go south. A pre-nup and a little estate planning could preserve all of your hard work or family assets.

It’s never too early to start organizing your estate. Doing an estate plan in your 30s or 40s will make you more savvy in business and personal relationships, reminding you time and again when to memorialize money issues in writing. A little organization of your estate now will solve a lot of issues before they become problems in the future, and will allow you to continue on in the successful and savvy manner to which you have become accustomed.

Keller Smith is an attorney with The Keller Law Firm in Manhattan Beach, California; she can be reached atwww.kellerlawfirm.com. She will be contributing a column once per month.