Wills, Trusts, and More Common (and Costly) Estate

Costly mistakes can be made when doing estate planning. In most cases, mistakes are made by wellintentioned people who failed to take advantage of opportunities to accumulate wealth, shelter assets from estate tax, and protect estates for future generations. Some common estate-planning mistakes are listed here. By exercising care now, you can save a fortune later.

1. Neglecting items of sentimental value

Billy left a portion of his estate to his children in equal shares, and some to the stepmother of his adult children. Unfortunately, the trust or will was silent as to distribution of his personal property, which included numerous paintings of purely sentimental value. The stepmother felt she was entitled to the paintings. The personal representative, however, distributed the paintings among the adult children. The stepmother hired an attorney to fight for the paintings, which were ultimately divided evenly among the four beneficiaries. But the legal fees far exceeded the value of the paintings, family relations were strained, and in the end nobody was happy.

Solution: Some people wrongly believe that there is no place in a trust or will for personal property that does not have significant monetary value. If you are leaving items of personal property, whether of actual or sentimental value, clearly state how you want them to be dis-

Planning Mistakes

by Jeffery J. McKenna

tributed, or include them in the written list of specific gifts of personal property attached to your trust or will.

2. Failing to secure the documents

Patty’s Uncle Bob, with whom she had a close relationship, died. Bob had prepared a will but it was nowhere to be found. Patty said Uncle Bob had promised her a substantial inheritance, but because the will was missing and she was not related to him by blood, the Court gave the entire estate to nieces and nephews who lived overseas—and who Bob had never met!

Solution: Make copies of your documents and store them in a safe place. Put the original in a bank safety deposit box; even if the key is lost and the whereabouts of the box is unknown, it can always be located by a vault box search. Give copies to your personal representative and attorney. And keep a copy in a safe place at home.

3. Keeping secrets

An elderly woman named Gwen died and left $40,000 to her devoted caretaker. The other beneficiaries of Gwen's large estate included nephews and nieces who were jealous of the caretaker's relationship with their aunt. When the trust was read, they expressed anger that Gwen had left money to her caretaker. They argued that the caretaker had exercised undue influence over Gwen, and therefore was not entitled to the bequest. Although the bequest was upheld in court, the challenge was costly, caused delays, and upset Gwen's devoted caretaker.

PANGUITCH OFFICE AT 46 NORTH MAIN STREET TO SERVE CLIENTS IN AND AROUND GARFIELD COUNTY.

Jeffery J. McKenna is a local attorney whose practice has been focused on Estate Planning for over 20 years. He is licensed and serves clients in Utah, Arizona and Nevada. He is a shareholder at the law firm of Barney, McKenna and Olmstead. If you have questions you would like addressed in these articles, please feel free to contact him at 435 628-1711 or jmckenna@barney-mckenna.com or visit the firm’s website at WWW.BARNEYMCKENNA.COM, he would enjoy hearing from you.

Solution: Make your feelings known to your trustee or personal representative and beneficiaries— preferably before you die— about which people you wish to leave bequests to. If you think this may cause conflict, explain in a letter why you feel the way you do; send the letter to all relevant beneficiaries and attach a copy of it to your trust or will. Ideally, you should resolve potential disagreements and quell hostilities (as much as possible) while you are still alive.

Hide & Seek

In my neighborhood, there was a couple who had given their twin sons very weird names. One was named Trouble, while the other boy's name was Mind Your Own Business.

So, one day they were playing hide and seek. Mind Your Business counted to a hundred and then started looking for his brother. But, somehow he couldn't find him anywhere. He saw a police car passing the neighborhood, so he stopped it to ask for help.

When the police officer asked him for his name, he replied, "Mind Your Own Business!" Feeling insulted, the police officer still asked politely who he was looking for. Mind Your Own Business replied, "I am looking for Trouble!"

Haircut

I was in a barbershop when a man and his young son walked in to get a haircut. The man asked the barber to give his son a haircut while he shopped for groceries nearby. The barber finished giving the haircut but there was no sign of the father. An hour passed, two hours passed. We finally asked the son where his father was. The boy shocked us by saying, "That man was not my father. He just told me that if I wanted to get a free haircut at the barbershop, I should come with him."

THEME: Outdoor Fun ACROSS

Fuss, to Shakespeare

15. Pine

16. Filthy dough

17. Marxism or Taoism, e.g.

18. Skylit lobbies

19. *Outdoor repast

21. *Two-wheeling

23. Agreement word

24. *Climbing turf

25. "I wish I ____, I wish I might..."

28. Cracked by yegg

30. Cowardly color

35. Slightly (2 words)

37. Matterhorn location

39. Charles III's ex

40. She played Carla on "Cheers"

41. Nev.'s neighbor

43. Rotisserie skewer

44. Indianapolis team

46. Underwater "nose"

47. Color of a bruise

48. Trying experience

50. "The Breakfast ____"

52. p in mph

53. Ranee's husband

55. ____ de plume

57. *Gather berries, e.g.

60. *Water slaloming

63. Soft single in baseball

64. *Sun "kiss"

66. Beau's and Jeff's acting dad

68. Cut-down sailing sheep

69. How many "if by sea?"

70. Have effect

School Friend

My daughter brought a friend from school and she said his great-great-greatgreat-grandfather was coming to pick him up later. I was impressed and asked: "Does he know how his so many greats grandfather lived for so long?" My daughter answered: "It's because of my friend's stutter."

Bank

Robbers

As a group of robbers entered the bank, their leader went to the manager and asked him to open the vault.

He threatened the manager by saying, "If you try to do anything smart, you're fiction."

The manager was confused and asked him, "Don't you mean 'You are history'?"

The robber angrily replied back, "Do not change the subject, okay?"

71. Gibbons, e.g.

72.

sign

29. *Capture it!

31. Speech defect

32. Drink like a cat (2 words)

33. Chilled (2 words)

34. *Balloon filler

36. U.K. art gallery

38. Place for a house plant

42. Get an F

45. Serape, alt. sp.

49. Jet follower

51. Water-heating apparatus

54. Bulwark

56. Hundred Acre Wood creator

57. Wing motion

58. Exude

59. Fish eggs, pl.

60. Winter precipitation

61. Person, place or thing

62. Swirling vortex

63. *Part of a bikini

65. Leave speechless

67. Morning condensation of adore

27. Triangular road

Solution on B6

Birthdays

Paula Pace's 80th Birthday

by Mack Oetting ~ mackoetting @gmail.com

It is too bad that every day couldn’t be like spring. Spring brings long daylight days, warmth in the morning and a cool down in the afternoon with a few sprinkles. The trees are in full bloom, with beautiful red and white blossoms; you have to go back to D.C. to see anything better. Maybe with all of the moisture and not much wind, they will last longer than last year.

With all of the water up at the Lake, Panguitch City has turned the ditch water in a month early. I don’t think that has ever happened before. It will save you money by not having city water to use on your lawn.

This weekend is the Memorial Day holiday. It signals the start of the tourist season, however, out at Zion National Park, the season has been going for some time. I hear that they are averaging 3,900 riders a day on the buses. People are getting the word out on how the Grand Staircase is so beautiful.

Friday is the day that the American Legion will be putting up flags at the cemetery at about 4. If you haven’t got anything to do, they can always use your help. Please, if we miss

Obituaries

Jens Munthe

8 March 1945 - 16 May 2023

ESCALANTE - He chose his time.

“I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

—Robert Frost Donations

to

ColorCountryAnimalWelfare.org.

any of the veterans' graves with flags, give me a call at 676-2418; we have plenty of flags.

Saturday morning is the annual Panguitch City curbside sale, so bring your goods that you finally can part with and raise some pocket money. This can be a good fundraiser for your organization.

The red poppy is a symbol of Memorial Day. In the war torn battlefields of Europe, the red field poppy was one of the first plants to reappear. Its seeds scattered in the wind and sat dormant in the ground, only germinating when the ground was disturbed, as it was by the very brutal fighting of WWI.

As time is really flying, it is not too early to be reminded of the Panguitch Quilt Walk and all that it has to offer. It starts off with the Chocolate Fest on Wednesday evening, and much of the candy is produced by our local candy makers. April Hookham is taking charge this year. It looks like Pat is doing a little delegating on several events. The Quilt Walk play is being brought back this year by Elaine Baldwin and Cheryl Church. Practice is being held on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Thursday through Saturday, there will be a ton of classes offered, many in the latest ideas. Saturday morning will be the famous Panguitch Lions Club breakfast at Zions Bank. All of the money that the Lions Club raises goes right into the community. Pioneer home tours will take place on Friday. Tera Connors and her daughter,

Jaynie, are taking charge this year. The proceeds still go to the Sub for Santa fund, so come out and support this great fundraiser. Thanks to the homeowners for their major effort on this project.

The NBA season is winding down a little too fast for me. My team, the Lakers, are down three games to zip. But there is still an underdog team that is doing well and that is the Miami Heat; they are up three games to zero. Denver just has too many three-point shooters on their team for the Lakers, who have one. They also have the Joker who can make shots from anywhere. Each game that Denver and the Lakers play have come down to the last minutes and have been fun to watch.

By the time this column is out, the Class of 2023 will have graduated with high honors. Both in academics and in sports, in the last three years, they have helped bring home fifteen state championships, and many are going on to college or trade schools or on missions. The future of our country is resting on their shoulders, and each day is theirs to do well in their lives.

Oh, what the sound of sirens and red lights flashing off our ceiling and air horns brings to town; it brings great joy. It always means that we have won one or two more championships. It is a great thing to hear, even if it is 12:30 at night. Oh, what a great place we have to live in. Mack O.