Hawaii Estate Planning Blog

Estate Planning Can Help Prevent Family Feuds

You may be interested in a recent article from Scripps Howard News Service titled “Estate planning can help prevent family feuds,” by Claudia Buck of the Sacramento Bee, which explores some of the practical reasons why people should do estate planning.  Here’s how it starts:

“The irate sister who smashed a crystal vase in her attorney's parking lot, rather than hand it over to her sister after Mom died.  The squabbling siblings who spent three years and $15,000 battling over a few hundred dollars' worth of JC Penney and Kmart knickknacks.  The brother who shot his deceased sister's beloved dog in order to collect his inheritance.  Talk with enough estate-planning attorneys and you hear the distressing, sorry sagas resulting from no -- or poor -- estate planning. . . .”

The full article is available online at http://www.scrippsnews.com/content/estate-planning-can-help-prevent-family-feuds

Special Dogs for Special People

When you think of a service dog, chances are, you think of a German Shepherd on K-9 patrol, a St. Bernard on an Alpine rescue mission, or a seeing-eye dog helping your neighbor walk to the store.  Service dogs do so much more for many people in the special needs community.  Tune in to PBS tonight for Through the Eyes of a Dog, which features service dogs in some roles that you may not have imagined.  Also see http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/pets/2010-04-20-dogeyes20_ST_N.htm for a USAToday story about the documentary.