You can read the whole article here – and I’ve pasted most of the column below (and bolded my portion for my mom’s easy reading):

It was just a week ago that the nation was captivated and horrified by the runaway weather balloon that supposedly carried away six-year-old Falcon Heene–or so we thought. But the Heenes could now be, charged with staging an elaborate hoax.

While most people seem to be focused on the criminal charges the Heenes may face, what damage was inflicted on their children? And does the state of Colorado have grounds to intervene?

Clearly the incident had a detrimental effect on balloon boy himself, as the world watched him vomit on live TV during an interview with Meredith Viera.

Today we hear accusations from a former co-worker of Mayumi Heene claiming that Richard Heene is unbalanced and worrying that a Jonestown incident could ensue if his wife and children are not taken out of the home immediately and placed in protective care (apparently Richard was trying to earn enough money from a reality show so they could build a bunker and hide from the sun exploding in 2012).

And while I hate to see any child taken out their home and placed into the hands of strangers, there may be legitimate cause for concern.

In fact, it may already be too late to avoid state involvement according to Victor Medina, managing partner of Medina, Martinez & Castroll, a Pennington, NJ law firm focused on counseling families in crisis.

According to Medina, the state agency charged with child welfare has a responsibility to make sure the Heene kids are safe.

“If this was truly a hoax, you can bet the parents will have to explain why they thought it was a good idea to involve their kids in this stunt. If it wasn’t a hoax, then Richard and Mayumi Heene will still have to say why they permitted such a potentially dangerous situation to unfold. Either way, the Heenes can expect to answer for their actions as parents,” he said.

But state intervention isn’t always the answer, Medina contends. “By all accounts, this was a loving, if misguided, family. Sometimes the court system can get over-involved in the lives of a family and create more of a mess down the road. As in all things, reactions have to be carefully measured so that the best interests of the children, both balloon boy and his siblings, are served,” he says.

So what, if anything, can the Heenes do at this point to ensure their kids don’t wind up in the care of strangers if they are incarcerated or deemed unfit as parents by the state?

According to Georgia Family Law attorney, Steve Worrell, it’s not too late to make custody arraignments should both parents get slapped with jail time.

Worrell says, “The Heenes can name guardians now for their kids in the event the state deems it necessary to intervene. Then if they are found to be unfit, their choice of guardians will likely be honored by a court unless the selected parties are also found to be unfit.”

Only time will tell what’s going to happen with these poor children, but I’d like to know what you think? Should the state intervene to protect the welfare of these kids? Or is this just a case of poor judgment from otherwise loving parents that can be easily fixed with counseling?

Article written by Amber Watson-Tardiff and featured at NJ.com Parenting Guidance Section posted here on October 22, 2009.

One of the places where President Obama showed up was an online forum sponsored by the AARP. In his response to a question about a proposed health care bill, President Obama said that he and First Lady Michelle Obama each have living wills (but hoped it would be a long time before either one has to put them to use).

Like any diligent parent, the President and First Lady have thought about what might happen in the future and have taken steps to make sure that their decisions and directives will be followed in case the unthinkable happened.

I would add that, as parents of young children, everyone should have a kids protection plan in place to take care of their children if something happened to them.

Finally, I’m giving away FREE living wills for the month of August. I chose to do this because of the work I had to on behalf of a local fireman who was injured on the job. I was shocked how 3 attorneys needed to get involved just so decisions could be made. I want to help fix that problem. So, make an appointment in August for a Family Wealth Planning Session (free, valued at $750) and receive a FREE living will and advance health care directive for you and a spouse.

Posted by Victor J. Medina
Medina, Martinez & Castroll, LLC

Of course, no one doing the reporting is an estate planning attorney, so they didn’t mention the likelihood that there were likely ZERO assets owned in his individual name. The Family Trust referenced in his Will was likely created before he died and, if he did the right thing, his assets were funded into that trust. (The Family Trust was probably a living trust. Living trusts are like buckets. Funding is the process of taking your assets and putting them in the bucket.).

Instead of tearing apart the Will, dissecting the provisions of the guardianship nomination, I want to spend a few paragraphs discussing all of the right moves that Michael Jackson made in planning his estate. (I’m more of a “glass-half-full” kinda guy.)

First, he created a living trust and funded his assets into the trust. Back in the days where you could eat 6 days a week on a lawyer’s dime listening to a living trust seminar (the same rubber chicken meal, for sure), people were flocking to lawyers to have these magic books created.

What happened then, and what still happens often in estate planning, is that the lawyers left the job of funding the trust to clients, without any guidance (or at least, guidance that wasn’t billed hourly) from the lawyer. Personally, I think that’s a terrible way to practice and so we’re very diligent about making sure that our client’s trusts are funded.

If you visit a traditional estate planning attorney, clients are sent home with a nice, leather-bound book and a letter saying, “Now go move your assets into the trust.” This is hardly the best way to serve a client. Regardless, I’m hoping that Michael went with a great estate planning attorney that made sure that the assets were funded into the Family Trust.

We’ll soon learn whether the trust was fully funded because if Michael Jackson owned any assets in his individual name, they’ll have to go through probate to be put into the Family Trust – and we’ll see just how good his estate planning was.

Second, as a parent of young children, Michael likely separated the responsibility of caring for the kids from the caring of the money. (Again, we don’t know for sure because the Family Trust is a private document.) When I counsel clients with minor kids, I tell them that the only way to make sure that they money they leave for their children (through term life insurance or otherwise) is to keep the guardian’s hands off the spigot. That means having one person serve as guardian and a totally different person serve as trustee of the Trust created for the kids’ benefit.

As you can see, if you have the same person serving both roles, there is chance that the funds will be depleted before the kids are done being raised. Just as important, you will have lost control over the assets that you left for your children’s benefit. This issue is not so much about trust, but about control and taking every step that the assets you took time to plan to leave for your loved ones are there when they need them.

While we don’t know exactly who is named as a trustee, Michael likely kept those roles separate and therefore made it much more likely that the money will be used correctly for his children’s benefit and will last throughout their lifetime.

Third, his Family Trust afforded him the opportunity to keep his affairs private. We already know how fiercely private Michael Jackson was. If he died early, there would like be a frenzy of publicity digging into his life, his finances, etc. By creating a living trust, he’s been able to minimize the effect of his death as to access of his affairs. And you can see the fruits of this in the way that no one has been able to report what is in the Trust, who the trustees are, and who gets what, etc.

Now, it may be that one day the document is leaked, but the difference is that the Will was required to be filed as a public document, whereas the Trust is a completely private document. Unless you are a mega celebrity, the people that you trust with your assets (like your lawyer and your trustees) will be able to keep that secret and your affairs private. Even when predators come in to see if they can get some of those hard-earned financial assets that you left for your children.

Finally, Michael planned before it was too late. It’s unfortunate that it takes a tragedy for us to act – and it’s even worse that people will say “I need to so something” now and forget about it in a few weeks.

Unfortunately, tragedy knows no economy. The time is now for you to plan. As an estate planning attorney, father and husband, I’m thrilled to see that Michael Jackson did some good planning before he died.

I’m hosting a workshop on July 12th at 4pm at The Little Gym-West Windsor. If you are thinking about taking action and planning your estate, you owe it to yourself to attend. Here is the link for more information – Kids Protection Planning Workshop

Posted by Victor J. Medina
Personal Family Lawyer

Here are the first two paragraphs and I urge you to visit her site and read the rest. Well-written and very informative:

Like many people my age, I am a HUGE fan of “early” Michael Jackson. Loved him pre-surgery, during the disco and Thriller eras. It was sad to watch such a talented individual become a self-hating recluse. It was sad to see him on trial for sexual molestation of a young boy, and I can only hope that he didn’t really do it. He was acquitted, in any event. It kind of made me sad to see how oddly it seemed he was behaving with regard to his kids – contracts with the birth mother, veiled faces, a baby dangled over a balcony…remember the weirdness?

Now everyone is talking about how much money he left behind and how complicated his estate will be, what with all of his credit and debt issues and split ownership of certain rights to music. There’s a lot of talk about how it could take years to settle his estate. I guess that mostly depends on the type of estate planning he’s done, and we’ll find out all about it soon enough.

But what about the kids?

Here is the link to the entire post.

1) Do Nothing.

By far, this is the largest segment of the population. I often speak to local mom’s groups (younger market) and service organizations (older market). These are workshops where there is just as much a chance that someone’s done estate planning as has not. Invariably, over 90 percent of those folks have done ZERO estate planning.

This means that they are leaving the “wrapping” up of their affairs to their loved ones (who, by the way, have likely not done estate planning either). The result is that loved ones are “learning on the job.” Let me just suggest that the grieving period is probably not the best time for dealing with uncharted waters. I’ll talk about how our approach is different in a second. The point is that folks have the opportunity to help their loved ones through a transition and maintain control and flexibility during their lifetime. The overwhelming majority choose not to.

2) Do It Yourself.

The Internet has empowered a lot of people to take on projects that have typically been left to “experts.” The effect has been the removal of service professionals from many routine activities. People can now shop for and choose mortgages (maybe that’s a bad example in this economy), buy cars, purchase life insurance, etc. without the need of an intermediary. While there are many circumstances where that’s okay, there are other times where a mistake is too costly.

I can’t do anything for people who believe that the planning of their estate can be accomplished by filling out a form (even online, these days), printing out the result and putting it on a shelf until it’s needed. There are number of sites that are promoting estate plans (even sophisticated techniques like living trusts and life insurance trusts), such as LegalZoom, LegalDocs and LegacyWriter. While I think it’s a great business for these folks to be in, I think it’s a terrible way to plan and in some ways, it’s worse than doing nothing.

Doing nothing means that the state-sanctioned estate plan, that of intestacy (where you die without a will), will step in. It’s pretty “fair” plan in that it makes sure that your spouse and your children get your stuff, but it adds some hurdles and expenses that are, frankly, optional in many cases.

If you do your own estate plan with a software program or Internet service, you run the risk of making a major error. Because these forms are not drawn up by a state-specific attorney, they may not be compliant in your state and may not achieve the objectives you set out to do. The consequence is that the entire plan may be thrown out. And, while these companies may offer you some sort of guarantee – do you mind if I ask you how you know whether your estate plan works? When do you know if your estate plan worked? Isn’t that a little late to start waiving around your iron-clad guarantee?

By the way, there are financial implications to having a plan that doesn’t work the they way you thought it would. BUT, there are also non-financial implications as well. Answer me this question – what’s the cost of a living will (advance health care directive) that doesn’t work the way you thought it would?

I’ll just leave you with this – Don’t you think it’s strange that all of these places tell you that they’re not giving you legal advice and that you should check with a lawyer in your state? (BTW, if you call our office and reference this blog post, I’ll review your online-designed estate plan and waive our normal $950 review fee – that’s FREE to you. If you’re reading this, you’re being diligent about planning your estate and you deserve to know whether your plan will work or not.)

3) Use A Documents-Driven Attorney.

There are a lot of law firms that tack on “Wills & Trusts” to the end of their practice areas like a side order of fries at a diner. What passes for “estate planning” at those firms is little more than word processing. 90% of estate plans are one of 3 forms and if you let me look at it, I can tell you which one.

This type of estate planning is like the online, form-filling approach, except the lawyer’s is the one filling out the form, not you. You owe it to yourself, and your loved ones, to go with an attorney that focuses their practice in this area; not someone who deals in estates as an after-thought.

Even attorneys that focus on this area of law use forms extensively in their practice. You should decide whether you are comfortable with a “fill-in-the-blanks” estate plan, rather than a plan customized to your and designed with your goals in mind. As I discuss below, your estate planning attorney should take the time to educate you about your plan – not treat you like Monday’s appointment. Estate Planning is not a cookie-cutter activity. There are perils in dealing with a documents-driven attorney.

4) Plan With A Counselling-Orientated Lawyer.

This is the strongest option. A counselling-orientated attorney will take the time to learn about your family, your goals and will take the time to educate you on how your plan works. This kind of attorney will also make sure that the estate planning process include financial strategy meetings with your advisors and additional educational opportunities for you and your loved ones.

The top counselling lawyers will have a maintenance plan in place to make sure that your estate plan is up-to-date with your “family” changes, current with the law (financial and non-financial), and will reflect advances in your attorney’s experience and education. Counselling-orientated attorneys will also charge a fixed fee, which includes all necessary telephone conferences. It shouldn’t cost you extra to fully understand your plan.

I’d rather not go on and on about this choice, because I know it will quickly devolve into a not-so-transparent advertisement to do planning with me and my firm. That really isn’t my point. I just want to make sure that you understand the difference in the approaches. If you want to see the 6 common mistakes make when selecting an estate planning attorney, I suggest you sign up for the free report on the right-hand side of this blog. You’ll get your free report almost immediately and you’ll be able to compare apples to apples as you investigate your options.

Whether you go with a documents-orientated lawyer or a counselling-orientated attorney isn’t that important to me. I know which one I think is better, but you’ll have to make that decision for yourself. I just hope that you walk away from this reading this post having made the clear decision not to do Approaches (1) and (2) – to be blunt, those really stink.

Posted by Victor J. Medina
Medina, Martinez & Castroll, LLC

I apologize that the link is coming from TMZ (a bit exploitive), but it’s worth it to show what happens with proper planning. Rather than hear a story about how someone failed to provide for people after their death, or learn the intimate details of who was getting what, when and how (traditional, public wills) – we get a will that says exactly what it should say: everything left to the living trust.

Now, I can only hope that there were few or no assets left in Crichton’s individual name. (A proper trust is one that is fully-funded with the decedent’s assets.) Assuming that’s true, Crichton accomplished a few, incredible things. First, he totally or near totally avoided the time and expense of probating a will. If he owned property in more than one state (as the wealthy often do) and transferred title to the living trust, he avoided having to probate each of those properties in the states where they lie.

Second, he ensured that the administration of his estate took more like 15 minutes than 15 months. Third, he left a portion of his estate totally and completely protected from creditors and predators.

Actually, I can go on and on with the benefits, but it makes me so happy (really it does) to see someone has invested the time and money while they were still alive to make the transition smoother for them in the future.

As I say to my clients all the time, it’s much easier for you to take care of these things while you’re alive and well than it will ever be for your family to do it when you’re gone, if you don’t.

Finally, check out the comments on that news piece I posted – there was someone who recognized that he did some proper planning.

News stories like these make me proud to be a Personal Family Lawyer.

Yup, here’s the substantive copy:

Victor Medina is the managing partner of a small law firm run entirely on Mac computers and Apple products. He will teach a course entitled “Macs In the Law Office” at Solo Practice University™.

Victor focuses his practice on representing public school districts and families in crisis. He serves as general counsel for many families, handling the gamut of special education, estate planning and closely-held company matters. He is also assists many young families with protecting their kids and their family’s wealth.

Victor has professional training in psychology and law. He served as a full law clerk with The Hon. Alvin W. Thompson of the United States District Court in Hartford, CT. Prior to starting his own firm, he worked with two multi-national law firms in Boston and Princeton, handling business transactions.

A self-described technophile, Victor serves as the host and moderator of MILO Chat Weekly, a semi-regular podcast for Mac-using lawyers and other folks interested in the business application of Macs and Apple products.

Victor also maintains several blogs, substantive and not. His personal blog is Another Thing To Do. He maintains legal-related blogs at New Jersey Estate Planning, New Jersey Divorce & Family Law and New Jersey Education Law.

So, it turns out that I will be the Mac Guru for all of the newly minted students at the Solo Practice University. If I knew who my Windows counterpart was, I’d probably start goading them into some childish bet, but I’m above that.

In all seriousness, I’m going to be teaching a phenomenal course that will be instructive for new and old Mac-users alike. If you’re an attorney who has been toying with getting a computer system in that works, well now’s the time. Enroll in the Solo Practice University just for the Mac portion because I promise to get you rolling in your practice without any hiccups.

I’m excited about my association with SPU and encourage anyone interested to learn more at Solo Practice University.

Chances are, most times people will go to 4 or 5 different attorneys for those things and not come back to their own personal family lawyer to assist them along the way. Our law firm is doing things different. Our goal is to be your lawyer for life. Whether you come to us in a crisis, or as part of your proactive planning in life, we will be here for you for the long haul. You won’t have to worry about looking for references or taking a chance on a lawyer you hardly know. If we’ve been doing our job correctly, we’ll be with you every step of your life and as the needs arises, we’ll be by your side to help you when you need a lawyer.

This blog is primarily about estate planning, and we’ll get back to that subject in a minute, but I thought it was important to discuss this firm’s guiding principles. One of them is being your lawyer for life.

If you have a need to see an attorney, whether for a real estate purchase, family wealth planning, or some other matter, schedule your appointment today to meet with your Personal Family Lawyer and begin the relationship of a lifetime.

We only have 10 spots open every month for new clients and we’re already booking into August – don’t let this month go by without starting that lifetime relationship.

Visit the Medina, Martinez & Castroll, LLC Website and call our Client Services Director Tiffany Lauritsen to reserve your spot.

Posted by Victor J. Medina,
Medina, Martinez & Castroll, LLC