Rushforth Firm LTD

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The Rushforth Firm's Estate Planning Pages
Written by Las Vegas, Nevada Trust and Estate Attorney Layne T. Rushforth

This Site. Welcome to the educational web site for The Rushforth Firm, Ltd., a Las Vegas, Nevada law firm. This is the firm's educational website, and it contains general, educational information related to estate planning, estate and trust administration, and business planning. It is intended to be educational and informative, as well as to encourage you to seek competent legal advice as to your own planning.

Our "Firm Brochure" Site. The Rushforth Firm's practice is focused on estate planning (including wills and trusts), business formation (including various forms of limited-liability companies, corporations, and partnerships), and trust and estate administration (including probate, trust administration, and disputes involving wills, estates, and trusts). The "firm brochure" web site is rushforthfirm.com, and it gives information relating to the firm, its personnel, contact information, billing policies and payments, and office location.
Disclaimer. Neither of our web sites provides legal advice. Be sure to click on the "Warning" tab, below, to make sure that you understand the limitations of our web sites.

TOPICAL TABS: Click on the blue tabs to view additional links.

Sample Nevada Health Care Power of Attorney (Advanced Health-Care Directive)
-This HIPAA-compliant document is a modified version of the Nevada statutory form that includes (1) a power of attorney, (2) an directive regarding life support ("living will"), (3) long-term care instructions, (4) organ donation instructions, and (5) instructions regarding a memorial service and the dispositions of mortal remains.
-Updated to comply with the changes made by the Nevada Legislature in 2009.

Memo Explaining Health-Care Power of Attorney

Adobe Reader software is required to view many files on these pages.

A kind of online newsletter that contains news, notes, and brief articles. (Updated occasionally.)

Memos - Educational materials related to estate-planning and estate-administration topics. Intended to assist you to evaluate your current estate plan and estate-planning options.

Forms - A few forms that may be useful for discussion, based on Nevada law.

IRS Forms and Publications - Link to official forms and publications from the IRS.

Questionnaires and Checklists - Questionnaires and checklists that help gather information for estate planning, business planning, and estate administration.

Most Popular - These are the forms and memos most commonly downloaded:

Health-Care Power of Attorney and related memo.
Nevada Declaration of Domicile and related memo.

Initial Consultation - These forms and memos are useful to prepare for an initial estate planning consultation:

Adobe Reader software is required to view these forms and memos.

Click on the title to download the document. These memos and articles are intended to be educational, but they are not intended to provide legal advice for any particular person or situation. Information contained in these memos is NOT an acceptable substitute for personal legal advice from an attorney who is (1) licensed in the state where you live; (2) experienced in the appropriate area of law; and (3) familiar with the details of your situation.

Allocating Assets to Subtrusts on the First Death
An A/B or A/B/C trust needs to be divided into subtrusts upon the death of the first settlor to die. [Large file.]

Describes techniques used to protect assets from creditors, such as offshore asset-protection trusts and Nevada's self-settled spendthrift trust.

Beneficiaries and Fiduciaries
Discussion of how to (1) identify beneficiaries for a will or trust and to describe how distributions are to be made to them and (2) select fiduciaries, including executor, trustee, guardians, etc.

Business Succession Planning
How to transition a closely held business to family or key employees

Should charitable giving be part of your estate plan?

Charitable Remainder Trust Management
Instructions to the settlor and to the trustee of charitable remainder trust.

Charitable Remainder Trust and Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust
Benefits that come from using a life insurance trust in combination with a charitable remainder trust

The Distribution of Your Estate
A memo to help you provide an outline or memorandum to your attorney explaining how, when, and on what conditions your estate assets are to be distributed.

Establishing Legal Domicile in Nevada
Memo outlining the steps to take to establish legal residency in Nevada.

Estate Planning Distributions
2-page memo regarding the ultimate distribution of your estate, summarizing different ways that you can have your assets divided and distributed.

Memo outlining estate planning objectives and the means to achieve them. [20 pages; large file.]

Estate Planning Objectives
2-page memo that answers the question, "Who will get my property when I die?"

Estate Planning Overview
Four-page memo outlining estate planning tools.

Estate Planning Using Business Entities
Methods of reducing the estate tax value of business entities and assets held in business entities.

Fees for Trust Preparation
Memo discussing estimated fees for preparing living trusts.

Policies of the Rushforth Firm relating to billing fees and costs for legal services.

Fiduciary Inventory and Accountings
Memo to a court-appointed Executor, Administrator, Guardian of the Estate, or a Trustee of a Testamentary Trust regarding the inventory and account reports that should be filed.

Trusts can be designed to "skip" taxation in one or more generations. This can save taxes for children and grandchildren. "Dynasty" trusts are those that endure for several generations (up to 365 years in Nevada).

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) Overview
Memo outlining the purposes and design of an irrevocable trust designed to hold life insurance (referred to as an "irrevocable life insurance trust" or "ILIT").

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust Management
Memo to the settlor and to the trustee of an irrevocable trust that is designed to be the owner of life insurance (referred to as an "irrevocable life insurance trust" or "ILIT").

Nevada Asset Protection Trust
Memo outlining asset protecting using a self-settled spendthrift trust under Nevada law.

Memo outlining tax-planning options after death, including methods for fixing problems arising from lack of planning or poor planning.

Outline of Nevada probate procedure. Explains probate procedures in general, which may apply in other states, too.

Property Agreements for Couples
An estate planner's perspective of why a prenuptial agreement, postnuptial agreement, domestic partnership agrement, or cohabitation agreement relating to income and property is important to avoid disputes when one spouse or partner becomes incompetent or dies.

Quin recibir mis bienes cuando yo muera?
Breve explicacin de cmo los bienes pasan de una generacin a la prxima cuando uno muera. (2 pginas.)

Spendthrift Trust Asset Ownership
The explains how the assets of a Nevada self-settled spendthrift trust (Nevada asset protection trust) should be owned.

Starting a Corporation
Basic information about starting a corporation.

Starting a Limited-Liability Company
Basic information about starting a limited-liability company.

Explains how to keep assets confidential and private and why that may not be the best idea.

Tax Planning in Revocable Trusts
Explains how revocable trusts established by couples and others can divide into subtrusts (A/B trust or A/B/C trust) to save estate taxes. [Large file.]

Use this form to see if your will covers all the bases.

Your Duties as Personal Representative
Memo outlining the duties and responsibilities of a court-appointed personal representative (executor or administrator).

Your Duties as Trustee after the Settlor's Death
Memo outlining the duties and responsibilities of a trustee of a living trust after the death of the trust's settlor (creator).

Your Duties as Trustee during the Settlor's Incapacity
Memo outlining the duties and responsibilities of a trustee of a living trust while the settlor (creator) of the trust is incapacitated.

Click on the form's title to download the form. These forms are provided to be used in conjunction with advice of legal counsel, and the use of any form without advice of legal counsel constitutes consent to be solely responsible for the consequences.

Affidavit of Entitlement
Affidavit used to collect the personal property of a deceased person if the estate is $20,000 or less. [NEVADA ONLY.]

Nevada Probate Checklist
Checklist for handling a probate proceeding in Nevada. Jointly prepared by Layne Rushforth and Don Ashworth. (Mr. Ashworth is a former Probate Commissioner in Clark County, Nevada.)

Form to supplement and update the schedule of assets belonging to a revocable trust.

Asset Checklist for Estate Planning
Checklist used to make an inventory of all assets owned.

Questionnaire for business owners entering into a buy-sell agreement.

Charitable Lead Trust (CLT) Questionnaire
Questionnaire for creating a charitable lead trust.

Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT) Questionnaire
Questionnaire for creating a charitable remainder trust, including a charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT) and a charitable remainder annuity trust (CRAT).

Estate Planning Questionnaire
Questionnaire for information needed to prepare a will or living trust.

Questionnaire for starting a limited-liability company.

Marital Property Agreement Questionnaire
Questionnaire for a prenuptial or postnuptial marital property agreement. Also used for unmarried domestic partners ("significant others").

Questionnaire for starting a probate proceeding in Nevada.

Q & A Archive
Archives of question and answers about estate planning.

Rushforthfirm.com is the "firm brochure" web site for The Rushforth Firm, Ltd., a Nevada Professional Limited-Liability Company, including information regarding the firm's practice, personnel, paying bills online, etc.

Repeal all existing federal taxes, repeal the 16th amendment to the Constitution, and enact a retail sales tax (not a value-added tax). This would virtually eliminate the IRS and tax-compliance costs, truly stimulating the national economy.

General Information is NOT Legal Advice! Before you read the articles, read this:

Nothing on this web site constitutes legal advice.
All articles published on the Internet (including those at this site) and in print media are necessarily oversimplified and may not be appropriate for any particular person's situation.
Information contained in these pages and information received from any newsgroup is NOT an acceptable substitute for personal legal advice from an attorney who is:

licensed in the state where you live;
experienced in the appropriate area of law; and
familiar with the details of your situation.

The information presented at this site (rushforth.net) and rushforthfirm.com is general information only should not be construed to be formal legal advice nor the formation of a lawyer/client relationship.
Because this site is general and cannot address all excepts and unique situation and because some of the information may not be complete or up-to-date, you cannot rely on the information on this site in making estate- or tax-planning decisions. More to the point, you should never rely on general estate planning information. The problems with a poorly designed estate plan--which may include a will or trust that is legal but inadequate--will not usually surface until it is too late to correct. Acting on general information can be penny wise and pound foolish.
Although this web site includes pages that discuss tax issues, nothing on this site contains legal or tax advice that can be relied on or otherwise used by a taxpayer for the purpose of either (1) avoiding tax penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer by the Internal Revenue Service or by a court or (2) promoting, marketing, or recommending any tax-planning strategy to another person. You cannot obtain from any web site or book a "covered opinion" that is compliant with Circular 230 issued by the U. S. Treasury Department. If you desire a "covered opinion", you will need to engage an accountant or an attorney to discuss the scope and purpose of the opinion you want, as well as the time and expense that it will take to provide you with such an opinion. Because of the uncertainly of some tax issues, it is possible that you will not find anyone willing to give a covered opinion on specific tax-saving strategies or for particular situations.
The State Bar of Nevada does not certify any lawyer as a specialist or expert.

The URL of this page may be freely distributed.
All other rights are strictly reserved.