Megan Sheehan

Is Your Trust Fully Protecting Your Home?

Why Your Home May Not Be Fully Protected - Even If It's in a Trust

One of the most common misunderstandings in estate planning is the assumption that titling your home in a trust guarantees protection. While it's a critical step, recent disasters like the Los Angeles wildfires have shown that how your homeowners insurance interacts with your trust can make a big difference in protecting your property.

If your insurance policy doesn’t match your trust ownership, you may face delays or denials of coverage - especially as insurance companies become more stringent and weather-related losses increase.

Key Estate Planning Insight: Align Your Deed and Insurance Policy

If your home is owned by a trust, your homeowners insurance policy should list the trust as an additional insured. Failing to do this could lead to significant issues when filing a claim. Here's why this matters:

  • Insurance companies are increasingly strict about ensuring the policyholder matches the legal titleholder (your trust).

  • Naming your trust as an additional insured can prevent unnecessary claim complications or denials.

  • Keeping your deed and insurance aligned ensures that your estate planning for your home is fully effective.

Quick Checklist: Is Your Home Fully Protected?

To ensure your home is properly covered under your estate plan, take these two important steps:

  1. Check your deed - Is your home titled to your trust?

  2. Review your homeowners insurance policy - Does it name your trust as an additional insured?

Need Help Updating Your Trust or Deed?

We’re here to help you stay protected and informed. Whether you need assistance reviewing your trust documents, updating a deed, or confirming your insurance language, our team of experienced estate planning attorneys can help.

Don’t have a trust yet? This may be the perfect time to consider setting one up. A properly drafted and funded trust can offer peace of mind for you and your family - and we can guide you every step of the way.

Call us today or reach out online to schedule a review of your estate plan and ensure your home is truly protected.

DISCLAIMER: The Rhode Island Supreme Court and Massachusetts Supreme Court license all lawyers in the general practice of law. Neither court licenses or certifies any lawyer as an expert or specialist in any particular field of practice. Sheehan & Associates Law does not represent you in any matter unless we enter into a written engagement agreement. The above should be considered general education, and not legal advice. If you need legal advice, hire an attorney.

Important Updates: USPTO Trademark Fee Changes Effective Early 2025

There are recent changes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) fee structure for trademark applications and related filings, which take effect January 18, 2025. If you have a current pending trademark or thinking of filing for one in the future, it is important to understand the changes and plan accordingly.

Key Changes to USPTO Trademark Fees
The USPTO used to have two different filing systems with separate filing fees: TEAS Plus was $250 and TEAS Standard was $350. Now there is one base fee of $350, essentially getting rid of the two filing systems.

They have also increased Post-Registration Filing Fees and have now included fees for missing or incomplete information. For any information that is missing, such as a translation, consent, disclaimer, etc. there is an additional $100 per class; there was no fee associated prior. If you use the free-form text box instead of the Trademark ID Manual within Trademark Center to identify goods and services it is now $200 per class and every additional 1,000 characters when using this free-form text box is an additional $200 per class. The Post-Registration Filing Fee changes are as follows:

Section 8 or 71 Declaration (Use in Commerce): Increasing from $225 to $325
Section 15 Declaration (Incontestability): Increasing from $200 to $250
Section 9 Renewal: Increasing from $300 to $325

How These Changes May Affect You
The USPTO’s increased fees are part of their effort to align costs with the resources required to process filings. These changes could impact your filing strategy, especially if you have upcoming applications or maintenance filings due soon. Even if you filed an application prior to January 18, 2025, these fees will affect your applications, whether you receive an office action or your mark is already registered and you need to maintain it.

What You Can Do
If you’re considering filing a new trademark application, renewing a registration, or submitting a post-registration filing, we’re here to help. Our team can review your filings to ensure compliance and advise on the best approach for your trademark strategy in light of these changes.

Reach out to our office today to learn more!

DISCLAIMER: The Rhode Island Supreme Court and Massachusetts Supreme Court license all lawyers in the general practice of law. Neither court licenses or certifies any lawyer as an expert or specialist in any particular field of practice. Sheehan & Associates Law does not represent you in any matter unless we enter into a written engagement agreement. The above should be considered general education, and not legal advice. If you need legal advice, hire an attorney.

Featured as Top Women-Led Law Firm of 2024

We are honored to be recognized by RI Lawyers Weekly as a featured women-led law firm within the State! To us, being a women owned and operated firm signifies breaking barriers. We strive to continue challenging the status quo and demonstrating through our work that women can lead, innovate, and excel in the legal profession. Here are some highlights from the article:

"Being a women-led law firm signifies breaking barriers and offering a vital perspective that has been missing from this important field,” Sheehan says. “It means challenging the status quo and demonstrating that women can lead, innovate and excel in the legal profession.

The firm, which handles business law, probate, estate planning and civil litigation, has a natural empathy for the challenges women in the legal industry face when trying to balance career goals with the entrenched social expectation that they serve as primary caregivers.

“With so many mothers among our employees, we’ve faced challenges balancing demanding careers and family responsibilities,” Sheehan says. “Society’s expectation for women as primary caregivers limits our flexibility compared to male counterparts. Gender bias often misinterprets our firmness as rudeness or emotional instability, undermining our authority.”

Because these labels often trigger imposter syndrome, Sheehan said, women have historically had more difficulty establishing networks in the industry. To address the issue, Sheehan has taken an approach that seeks to empower not only its own lawyers, but female attorneys throughout Rhode Island.

Read more about us and other inspiring women-led firms here:In the Lead: Best Women-Led Law Firms 2024 – Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly

What is probate, and why should I “avoid” it?

Many estate planning attorneys and financial advisors talk about using your estate plan to “avoid probate”. But what on earth does that actually mean?

Probate is a way for a court to determine who should become the owner of an asset (real estate, bank accounts, cars, etc.) after someone has died. Not all assets have to go through probate. In MA and RI, the following assets typically do not go through probate:

  1. An asset you co-own with someone where the survivor gets the asset. This is most commonly seen in homes owned by married couples.

  2. An asset with a beneficiary designation or a transfer on death designation, so long as the person named as the beneficiary is alive.

  3. An asset that is held by a trust before the person dies.

  4. Some other types of assets that can pass by operation of law, such as an LLC ownership interest if the Operating Agreement says who the ownership goes to and that person is alive.

Otherwise, for all other assets, when someone dies here is generally what probate looks like:

  1. The person named as the Executor (called the Personal Representative “PR” in Mass) fills out a form to submit to the probate court letting the court know that the person has died.

  2. The probate court appoints the Executor/PR to be the legal representative of the estate. The Executor/PR gets a letter from the court that shows they have the legal authority for the estate.

  3. The Executor/PR finds all the probate assets. For things like bank accounts, the funds are cashed out and put into a new account under the name of the estate.

  4. The Executor/PR pays valid debts that are presented to the court by creditors, including Medicaid (**this can be a BIG one, people are often surprise by Medicaid claims).

  5. After the creditor period is over, the Executor/PR makes distributions to the heirs and closes out the estate.

Just having a will does not mean that you will avoid probate!

So why is this something to avoid? Here are the top reasons:

  • Cost: unfortunately the probate process is confusing, and not something that people can usually do on their own. The cost of the attorney to complete a probate can be $1k-$7k, depending on the complexity of the assets and debts. There are also additional filing fees and advertising fees.

  • Time: Assets need to be held until the creditor period is up, because the Executor/PR can’t give money to heirs if there isn’t enough to pay the creditors. In MA that is 1 year from the date of death, in RI that’s 6 months from the opening of the probate. In both states there can be exceptions to those timelines which can tie up the probate assets for even longer! If there are minor children or disabled heirs who are relying on immediate access to funds, this can be a big problem.

  • Privacy: Probate documents are public record, which you might not want. There is also typically a notice that has to be placed in the paper.

  • Family Dynamics: All heirs need to be notified in the event of a probate, even if an heir isn’t actually receiving any money from the will (think estranged child). This can stir up all kinds of family conflict, which can also result in conflict in the court proceeding.

For probate avoidance, the best option is to work with an estate planning attorney to establish a trust and fund it during your lifetime. This can also be a vehicle to potentially save on estate taxes as well. Contact us to find out more about the process, and to discuss whether probate avoidance is important for you and your family: https://www.sheehanlawoffice.net/contactus.

DISCLAIMER: The Rhode Island Supreme Court and Massachusetts Supreme Court license all lawyers in the general practice of law. Neither court licenses or certifies any lawyer as an expert or specialist in any particular field of practice. Sheehan & Associates Law does not represent you in any matter unless we enter into a written engagement agreement. Our attorneys are licensed only in RI and MA, and the above may not apply to the jurisdiction you’re located in or have assets in. The above should be considered general education, and not legal advice. If you need legal advice, hire an attorney!

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