TRAVELING SAFELY WITH CHILDREN: THE BASICS

• Everybody needs a child safety seat, booster seat, or safety belt!
  
  
• There must be one safety belt for each person. Buckling two people, even children, into one belt could injure both.
  
  
• People who are not buckled up can be thrown from the car or around inside the car, and seriously hurt themselves or others.
  
  
• Never hold a child on your lap! You could crush him/her in a crash, or the child may be torn from your arms.
  
  
• Never ride in the cargo area of a station wagon, van, or pickup! Anyone riding in the cargo area could be thrown out and severely injured or killed.
  
  
• No one seat is 'best', The 'best' child safety seat is the one that fits your child and can be installed correctly.
  
  
• Children age 12 and under should ride properly restrained in back.

Estate Planning Lessons to Be Learned From Anna Nicole Smith

The unexpected death of Anna Nicole Smith created a media circus and court battles over her burial, but there are some valuable estate planning lessons to be learned from the controversy. Vickie Lynn Marshall, a.k.a. Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy Playmate and widow of billionaire J. Howard Marshall, left behind a five-month old daughter. Her adult son died last September. According to estate planning experts, her will contains some serious flaws that could tie her estate up in court for years to come and illustrate how important it is to keep a will up to date.

When Ms. Smith wrote her will, she had only one child. Her son died shortly after her daughter was born, but she never updated her will. Because her will leaves her entire estate in trust to her son, making no provision in the event he died before (predeceased) her, the trust will likely fail and her estate will probably pass to her daughter under the laws of intestacy (when someone dies without a will). Causing confusion and making it even more important that Ms. Smith kept her will up to date is a provision in the will specifically disinheriting future children.

In addition, Ms. Smith may have been able to avoid the fight over her burial if she had made definite burial plans. Ms. Smith's mother wanted her buried in the family plot in Texas, while her longtime companion claimed she wanted to be buried next to her son in the Bahamas. If she had put her wishes in writing, her family and friends would have known exactly what she wanted.

The most important thing to remember is to hire an experienced estate planning attorney to draft your estate plan. Some of the problems with Ms. Smith's estate could have been avoided with better planning.