Aspen Estate Planning, LLC

09/03/2026

"I want my spouse taken care of when I'm gone — but after that, I want what's left to go to my children."

We hear it in nearly every meeting with a blended family. It's also the one goal a Will alone may not deliver: nothing legally requires your spouse to leave your children from a prior relationship anything. A properly drafted trust can protect your spouse and your children.

Our new blog post covers some trust options for Louisiana blended families, and how to choose a trustee: https://www.aspenestateplanning.com/blended-family-trusts-in-louisiana-protecting-your-spouse-today-without-disinheriting-your-kids-tomorrow/

Want to hear more about estate planning for blended families? Join Rebecca and Nick for a free webinar Tuesday, September 15 at 6:30 PM CT. 🗓️ https://www.aspenestateplanning.com/blended-families-webinar/

09/02/2026

Who gets left out when you remarry? 💍

Could be your spouse. Could be your kids. But not with the right estate plan.

Join Rebecca and Nick Zotti for a free webinar on the estate planning questions blended families can't afford to skip — including Louisiana-specific rules (like usufruct) that catch people off guard.

🗓️ Tuesday, September 15 | 6:30 PM CT
💻 Free — from wherever you are

Save your seat: https://www.aspenestateplanning.com/blended-families-webinar/

09/02/2026

Summer flew by — vacations, festivals, work squeezed in between it all. If yours felt like a blur too, you're in good company.

Ours was full: PrideFest, Saints training camp, Legal Coffee Talk, and what might be an unreasonable number of Jewel and Lucy photos (no regrets). It's been a good season for Aspen Estate Planning.

As we come into fall, we're looking forward to cooler weather and football, and we're grateful for every family who trusted us with their planning so far this year.

Here's to a great remainder of the year - and Geaux Saints!

📞 504-284-8910 | 🌐 aspenestateplanning.com

08/31/2026

If you've remarried, estate planning may not be as straightforward as you assumed.

You may have children from a first marriage, a spouse you want taken care of, property you owned before the wedding, and a set of unique Louisiana rules — community property, usufruct, forced heirship — overseeing it all.

The mistakes that we often see are small, but even the smallest mistake can lead to unintended consequences:

• Assuming a Will alone sorts it out
• Leaving everything outright to your spouse and trusting your spouse to take care of your children from your prior relationship
• Forgetting a beneficiary form that still names your former spouse

Our newest blog post walks through some of the most common estate planning mistakes made by blended families, and how you can fix it.

If any of these sound like your situation, we offer a free 30-minute consultation. 504-284-8910 or aspenestateplanning.com.

These days, remarriage after a spouse’s death or divorce isn’t unusual in the US. Many couples today are in blended families – second marriages for one or both spouses with children from prior relationships, creating stepfamilies. Spouses in blended families often want to take care of their cu...

08/28/2026

"We don't need a plan. My family will just figure it out."

We hear it all the time, and we understand it. It comes from a good place — you trust the people you love, they get along, and nobody in your family is the type to fight over a house.

Here's the part that surprises people: in Louisiana, if you don't have a Will or trust, your family doesn't get to figure it out. The law already did.

Without a plan, Louisiana's intestate rules decide who inherits what. Depending on your family situation, your children may end up owning your half of the community property, with your spouse holding only a usufruct. A judge decides who administers the succession, and who serves as tutor if your children are minors. None of that turns on what your family agrees would be fair — and everyone can be perfectly reasonable and still be stuck with a result nobody wanted.

Getting a plan in place isn't about expecting conflict. It's about making sure the answers come from you instead of Louisiana's default laws.

If you've been meaning to get around to it, we offer a free 30-minute consultation. 504-284-8910 or aspenestateplanning.com.

08/26/2026

Look, we know. We post a LOT of pictures of Jewel and Lucy.

In our defense: it's National Dog Day, they're extremely cute, and neither one of them has ever once asked us to stop.

Jewel is the one who thinks every treat is the best thing that has ever happened to anybody. Lucy is the one giving you the side-eye in roughly 80% of these photos. Together they have logged zero billable hours and hundreds of naps.

Happy National Dog Day from our Chief Security Officers 🐕

08/24/2026

Think about how much of your life lives behind a login now.

Your email. Your bank and investment accounts. Years of family photos. The subscriptions quietly charging your card every month. Your phone itself.

Now imagine your family trying to reach any of it without you. They may not know which accounts exist, let alone where the passwords are — and companies generally won't just hand access over to whoever calls and asks. We've seen families lose photo archives entirely, and spend months untangling subscriptions nobody could cancel.

It's a straightforward thing to get ahead of:

• Make a list of the accounts that matter — you don't have to catalog every login, just the ones with money, memories, or monthly charges attached
• Store the passwords somewhere secure that a trusted person can actually reach — a password manager, or a sealed list in a safe place
• Name that person in writing in your estate plan. Telling someone "you'll handle my accounts" carries no legal weight on its own

Your digital life is part of your estate whether you've planned for it or not. Worth an afternoon.

📞 504-284-8910
🌐 aspenestateplanning.com

08/18/2026

August is National Make-a-Will Month — a good excuse to talk about the thing most people keep meaning to get to.

If you don't have a will in Louisiana, state law decides who inherits. Not you. Those rules are fixed, they don't account for your family's particulars, and they often surprise people who assumed things would pass the way they'd expect. It also tends to mean a longer, more involved succession for the people you leave behind, at the exact moment they have the least energy for it.

The good news is that putting an estate plan in place is more approachable than most people imagine. It starts with a single conversation — not a pile of paperwork you have to figure out alone.

Give yourself, and your family, a plan that's actually yours instead of one a court fills in for you.

📞 504-284-8910 — free 30-minute consultation
🌐 aspenestateplanning.com

08/13/2026

If something happened to you tomorrow, who would take your pets home tonight?

It's the question almost nobody plans for — and in Louisiana, the answer may not be who you'd expect.

Under Louisiana law, pets are legally property. Not family members, not dependents — property. Which means without a plan in place, your pet gets handled like any other asset in your succession, and a judge decides who takes them home. Not you.

And here's the part that's hardest to think about: even when someone does step up, it doesn't always hold. A family member may not be able to afford another animal, may have a lease that doesn't allow it, may have allergies or another pet who won't tolerate a newcomer — or may simply not want the responsibility. When that happens, the animal often ends up at a shelter. Not out of cruelty. Just because no one had been asked ahead of time.

So the single best thing you can do for your pets is two-fold: ask the person first, then name them in writing in your estate plan. A conversation alone isn't enough — a verbal promise carries no legal weight, and memories differ when a family is grieving. Naming a caretaker and an alternate in your plan is what actually directs where your pets go, and your plan can set aside funds for food, vet bills, and medication so the person taking them on isn't shouldering a surprise expense.

Our own Chief Security Officers are the reason we think about this more than most. If your pets are family, it's worth putting on paper — with the goal of helping make sure they land exactly where you'd want them to.

📞 504-284-8910
🌐 aspenestateplanning.com

08/11/2026

Naming an executor sounds like a formality. It isn't.

This is the person who will file with the court, track down accounts, deal with creditors, and keep your family informed — often while they're grieving the person who chose them.

Three questions to really think about before you decide:

1️⃣ Can this person handle paperwork, deadlines, and a court process while grieving? Organized and calm matters more than who is oldest.

2️⃣ Do they live close enough to Louisiana to practically manage it? Distance turns simple filings into slow ones.

3️⃣ Will naming them create tension with anyone else in the family? Sometimes the best choice isn't the obvious one.

The right answer may not be the oldest child or the person who assumes that it'll be them. The right answer is the person best suited to the job - and it's worth close consideration so that your family may be spared stress and conflict later.

📞 504-284-8910
🌐 aspenestateplanning.com