LIVE WELL and BE REMEMBERED as the HERO you already are.

This is a true story, from a lady who was in my office witnessing a client signing her Will.   It is also an example of the unlicensed practice of law.   I am both an attorney and an insurance agent. I have two (2) licenses. One (1) was hard to get. One (1) wasn’t. Guess which one (1) fits each category.   There is a lot of argument in the insurance and financial world about helping clients draft their Wills, Trusts and Powers of Attorney while getting paid to do so. Why?  Money .   Tennessee defines the practice of law as: As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires: (1) “Law business” means the  advising or counseling for valuable consideration  of any person as to any secular law,  the drawing or the procuring of or assisting in the drawing for valuable consideration of any paper,   document or instrument affecting or relating to secular rights, the doing of any act for valuable consideration in a r...

Recently a question was asked regarding expungement (expunction) of criminal records.  This reminded me of a scenario I've seen a few times that might be helpful to someone here. I have seen expungement (expunction) leave a “shadow” on a person's record. Here's the scenarios I've seen:  The “conviction” was expunged, but the arrest record with the police department wasn’t included in the destruction of the file. The arrest warrant was missed whenever the court expunged the conviction.  Since the entire court file gets destroyed, the arresting agency, which keeps its own records, has no order to show that the arrest should be removed from the record.  That scenario created a real issue for the individual since the file was destroyed with the court but not the arrest with the police department.  I’ve also seen one (1) conviction get expunged, but a companion conviction not be expunged. In that instance the companion sentence referred to the now expunged case....

  SUPER NERDY ALERT Did you ever watch the movie "Fight Club"?  If so, the persistent line throughout the movie is "Don't talk about Fight Club!"  Why?  Well, watch the movie. As many of you know, the i ntersection of law and insurance simply fascinates me.   Here's an instance of that:   All U.S. states have a State Guaranty Association.   These associations insure life and health insurance companies in case of failure.  Failure is rare, but it happens from time to time.  As both an insurance agent and an attorney, I have seen the results of this.  In that situation, the Guaranty Association worked out very, very well.  Consumers need to know that this program exists.  Who better to tell them than their insurance agent? For banks, consumers know that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) exists.  For their brokers, they know that the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) exists.  How?...

 Why does the proper titling of real estate matter? In my law practice, this situation has come up several times:   A couple is married.  Real estate is owned BUT only titled in one (1) of the spouse's names.  Even if they are both listed on the mortgage, only one (1) of them is on the title.  The titled owner then passes away without a Will. Who owns the real estate? Generally, for a husband and wife, the real estate is titled so that it passes entirely to the living spouse.  But, in our situation, the land was only titled in the name of the deceased spouse.  So, not all of the real estate passes to the living spouse. The Tennessee statute (31-2-103) tells us that real estate solely owned by the one (1) spouse immediately passes on death to his or her heirs.  The Tennessee statute (31-2-104) tells us who those heirs are. In this instance, if the person died with one (1) spouse and one (1) child.  According to the statute, the spouse and...

  For the sake of clarity, the term "Estate Planning" applies everything from Wills and Powers of Attorney to elaborate Trusts.  "Do's": Update your documents more than once a decade.   That's right.   I recently saw a Will that was fifty (50) years old!   Fortunately, some of the folks listed in it were still alive. If your documents pre-date cell phones, update them! Read your documents.   Even if an attorney drafted the documents, read them. Make sure you understand the documents. Recently I saw a document where  the attorney did not change the name on the document from one (1) of his/her previous clients.   That document was invalid. You need to make sure the words on the page are what they need to be.  Love yourself and your family enough to have the documents.   Those who love their families  make difficult times easier  with documents that prevent the family from having to get court ord...

I'm currently reading (listening to) Finish, Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Jon Acuff.  Stacey Brown Randall recommended it.  (That's Stacey with an "e".)  It is such a great book. So often, our Perfectionism is the enemy to our achieving our goals.  For example, I have been trying to blog for a while now.  Everything has gotten in the way.  So often, if I can't get it perfect, I don't even take a step toward getting it done. How often does that happen to you?  How many more goals could you finish if you just started?  How successful would you be if you just took a step? I remember the day when someone in my family said "You see, we are Perfectionists."  It was explained to me like it was a good thing.  Now I know it's simply the enemy to progress.  In that same period in my life, I can remember trying to play baseball.  I remember standing over home plate and trying to make the perfect swing at the perfect pitch.  Wha...