St. Louis Real Estate And Estate Planning Blog

There are several things parties must do when blending a family. Planning for the future is one.

If you have a blended family, you should consider updating or creating a proper estate plan. In preparation, consider a few important items.

During people's lives in Missouri they do many different things, work many different jobs, earn different amounts of money and incur different amounts debt. All of things are very relevant to the person while they are living, but they cannot take any of these things with them after they pass away. So, all of their property and debts must be dealt with by those who survive them. This is accomplished through the probate process when all assets are distributed and debts are paid.

At the beginning of the probate process, notice of letters testamentary must be published. This gives any beneficiaries and creditors notice that the estate is in the probate. This allows them to make any claims they have against the estate. However, the creditors do not have forever to make their claims. Creditors must file claims within six months of the when the notice of letters testamentary or within two months if the notice was directly served on the creditor by mail or other means.

There are many different businesses in Missouri that provide a number of different services and products. Some of them are small and some of them are very large. While some are able to operate out of their homes, most businesses have office space or rent spaces for retail. When these companies rent spaces they usually enter into commercial leases with the owner of the building. The provisions in these leases can vary greatly depending on the needs of the business, location and many other factors.

For instance when store owners rent retail space in a shopping mall, one provision that can be a major part of the lease negotiation is co-tenancy provisions. These provisions essentially state that the tenant may have different rent obligations depending on how full the mall is with tenants. Another aspect that is negotiated is that the tenant may want their rent obligation tied to whether certain key tenants are in the mall. Generally these are major retailers with anchor stores that bring shoppers to the mall.

Throughout people's lives in Missouri, there are many things they need to take care of for themselves. This includes daily tasks such as eating, going to work, paying bills, taking care of their children and other daily activities. People also from time to time have to attend to more important issues such as buying houses, opening investment accounts and other larger economic matters. Then once they do make those types of purchases and decisions they must ensure that they pay for the costs and manage them.

While it can become stressful at times to do all these things most people can take of all their responsibilities on their own. However, life is unpredictable and sometimes people are severely injured or develop a disease that makes it impossible to take care of their financial responsibilities. So, just like people plan for where their property will go after they pass through estate planning, people also can plan for situations when they are still alive, but incapacitated and unable to make decisions for themselves.