Iowa Estate Plan

A common issue that pops up with family members after someone dies is "do we need to go through probate?"   To answer that question, there are series of follow-up questions to be answered first.  To start the process, you should have a list of the assets in front of you and go through a "filter" process of the following questions. Question 1: Is there a named beneficiary for the assets?  Do any/all of the assets have a named beneficiary?  For example, life insurance and annuities typically have a beneficiary.  Is there a POD (Payable on Death) or TOD (Transfer on Death) beneficiary?  If the answer is "yes"  to all the assets, then you are done.  Go straight to the claims process and pass probate.  If the answer is yes to some, but not all, we move to the next question. (If the beneficiary is the "estate", then that doesn't count but doesn't necessarily mean you have to go through probate.) Question 2: Is there a surviving joint owner...

Effective January 1, 2015, a new law will go into effect that can be effective and useful in several situations. Deeds with married couple, joint tenants or survivor language  - As I've written before , there can be issues (and have been many issues) where the way ownership of real property is listed on the deed can have serious impact on estate plan.  Tenants-in-common, joint tenants with full rights of survivorship, etc.  It used to be if you had a deed that transferred ownership to two or more people (such as a couple) without the magic language of "joint tenants with full rights of survivorship and not as tenants-in-common" it was presumed to be tenants-in-common which can have a significant different intended result.  Soon, that will no longer be true.  NOW, straight from the Iowa legislature, that rule is changed. Iowa Code §557.15 will soon provide that IF a deed fits under any of the following descriptions: (a) identifies two grantees as married to eac...

Well, in the past week, I had 3 different calls involving issues of how land was owned and resulting problems when one of the owners passed away.  It is not unusual, apparently, for individuals to prepare their own deeds or to not have deeds provided to them not reviewed by experts (and no, realtors and bankers don't necessarily qualify as experts in this area).  Sometimes, even attorneys have problems with these issues.  (Probably those attorneys that graduated from the University of Iowa.)   (Sidenote to realtors, bankers and Iowa law grads - please enjoy the good-natured humor.  For the Iowa law grads, ask a Drake law grad to read these big words to you.) Listed below are the more common options on ownership of real property in Iowa that could be placed on a deed with joint ownership.  Note two things I just indicated:  these comments apply to real property (you know, land, dirt, back 40...not your car) and land located in Iowa .  These same...

A recent case from the Iowa Court of Appeals helps illustrate the importance of putting business matters in writing. In the Matter of the Estate of John Liike , John and his brother had inherited some land from their parent and had operated the land as part of a partnership for several years. The land was never actually placed in the name of the partnership, but kept in their individual names as tenants-in-common. Eventually, they entered into a written partnership agreement which provided that when one of them died, the other partner would have the option of purchasing the partnership property. No changes were made to the title of the land. After John died, John's widow and John's brother did not see eye-to-eye, with each wanting John's one-half interest in the farmland. The trial court found, and the Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed, that even though the land was not titled in the name of the partnership, the facts and circumstances clearly found that the land was mea...