Whether one of your family goals is to have your parents remain in their home, or if your family has decided that obtaining care outside of the home is the best choice, our lawyers can help.

We work with individuals throughout the Denver and Colorado Springs communities who specialize in finding the absolute best living situation for our aging loved ones. There are many options to choose from, including:

• At-home care – allowing parents to stay living in their home
• Assisted living – providing a new home for your parents where they can have access to immediate help and other services if needed
• Skilled nursing homes – offering more services and specialized care than a normal assisted living facility would offer
• Memory-care units – advanced care for our loved ones who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease

No matter what options work for you, our attorneys will be by your side.

Make Sure Your Parents’ Plan Is Up To Date

While going through the process of finding the best arrangements for your parents, it is equally as critical to ensure that their planning documents are up to date. This includes reviewing everything, including their:

• Wills
• Trusts
• Medical and financial powers of attorney
• Living wills
• HIPAA releases
• Property memos
• Declaration for final arrangements

If their plan is out of date or not written in a way that meets your parents’ goals, it can make things very difficult for you, your family, and wind everyone up in court. Our lawyers can make the process smooth and avoid the probate process for everyone involved.

The short and sweet answer to this one is no. Fortunately for the spouse, but unfortunately for the person attempting to disinherit them, there is a thing called the “elective share” in Colorado. This elective share means that a spouse can choose a portion of the estate if intentionally disinherited.

Colorado Law Says No. Is There Still a Way?

Under certain circumstances, you may successfully disinherit your spouse. Although, this pretty much comes down to whether or not the spouse is willing to accept the disinheritance. If everyone is amicable to the situation, then a properly drafted estate plan can, in fact, disinherit a spouse.

Should the spouse later decide that turning down money was a bad idea, he or she can simply change his or her mind, take the money and run.

There are ways to protect your loved ones and give more assets to individuals other than your spouse. These techniques require the assistance of a sophisticated estate planning attorney.

We can answer many questions regarding your will, trust and other estate planning documents following a divorce, including:

• Will my ex-spouse still inherit from me?
• Where will my property go after I pass away?
• Who will take care of my children if I pass, especially now that I am divorced?
• What do I do with my retirement accounts and investments after a divorce?
• Who will make medical and financial decisions for me if I am incapacitated?

Divorce raises many questions. Attorneys Jeff Althaus and our estate planning team can provide you with the answers. Make sure your plan is in order following your divorce, not only to protect you, but your children and the rest of your family as well.

There are many complex estate planning terms and probate terms that are just downright confusing. Two of these terms are “guardian” and “conservator.”

A guardian can come into play in one of two ways:

• Parents assign a person to care for children
• A court assigns a person to care for children or an incapacitated adult

Parents can assign an individual in their will to care for their children should something happen to the parent. This is the simplest and cheapest form of guardianship. It can solve lots of problems down the road, so it is highly recommended as well. If no guardian has been pre-decided upon, a court will have to make that decision. This decision will be costly, time consuming and stressful for the entire family. Make life easier on your family and choose a guardian today.

A conservator is a court appointed individual that manages the finances of someone who is unable to do so for themselves (this person is called the ward or protected person). Having a conservator appointed is also expensive and very time-consuming. The time and expense can be avoided by drafted a proper power of attorney in advance of any incapacity.

A living will is an advanced medical directive that allows you to say how long you would like to be kept on life support in an end-of-life situation. This document is morbidly referred to as the “pull-the-plug” document and applies under very strict circumstances. Basically, two doctors have to say that:

• You have a terminal condition or are in a persistent vegetative state
• That condition is permanent
• Life support or other life-sustaining procedures are the only thing keeping you alive
• You cannot communicate or understand any information given to you

Once all of the above factors have been met, then doctors will look to your living will for guidance on how you wish to be treated.

The major difference in a will and a trust is that wills go into action once you die. Trusts, on the other hand, can start working for you immediately while you are still alive and can avoid probate court. Pretty nifty, huh?

So why ever use a will? The short and sweet answer is that they are cheaper and not everyone needs the flexibility of a trust.

Trusts are used to avoid paying estate taxes in some situations. But more often, trusts are used to control how money will be distributed out to minor children or children with drug and/or alcohol abuse problems.

If you do not have minor children, a will may be all you need. Don’t let someone else sell you on more than can actually benefit you. Speak to an attorney at Althaus Law for straightforward and honest advice regarding your estate planning needs.

An annual review meeting with your attorney at Althaus Law is free of charge. If any action is required following one of these meetings, that service will be charged at a flat fee or hourly rate depending on the exact service needed.

It is always a good idea to review your plan annually so your attorney can accommodate for any changes in property or new additions to your family. As a client, an annual meeting with Althaus Law to assess your plan is free of charge.

Every estate plan is different, so determining the length of time is unique for each client. For a basic estate plan, the process should take less than one month to complete. For more complicated plans, the process can be much longer.

No. Certain things will transfer to your spouse automatically, such as jointly owned property, but there may be financial and healthcare decisions that your spouse will not be able to make without a proper power of attorney.

If you do not have an estate plan, your property will pass according to Colorado intestacy laws. These laws will apply even if you had verbal agreements with individuals regarding the distribution of your property, making it critical to have a lawyer draft your documents so you can be confident they will hold up in court.