FINAL INSTRUCTIONS

Recently one of my estate planning colleagues, addressed the importance of "Final Instructions".  This type of information is similar to an instruction manual that steps us through arrangements that we should address in advance of the inevitability of our passing.  We rarely get an instruction manual at birth, but we surely can leave one before our departure from life.  My thanks for this post goes to Ellen Gay Moser who practices estate planning in the state of Illinois.

Your “instruction manual” for your children or survivors should begin with the basics.  First, do you have a Trust and Will?  If so, have you written instructions for your kids (survivors) to follow at your death or disability? 

In regards to your estate, are you concerned about probate and taxes? If so, you have done a good job to provide for your heirs and save unnecessary costs, fees, and taxes. If not, you  may be leaving your kids  with no clues as to what to do and no instructions  for them to follow.  It's a well known habit that when all else fails, we read the instructions. But if we are left with no clues or instructions, what do we do? We waste a lot of time and money that tends to diminish your estate.

If you have a Trust,  then you  likely already have an instruction manual  stating your goals as to who gets what and when they get it. The duties of your Successor Trustee are set forth in your  Trust document and it is his/her fiduciary responsibility to abide by the law and the Trust. The Trustee must collect and manage assets, pay your debts and taxes and seek advice of counsel. Your goals to protect your loved ones can be carried out, if you state your goals loud and clear in your Trust.

Your “Final Instructions” may include specific distributions of special stuff /memorabilia/heirlooms/investments/etc  to go to certain people. Instructions will  often  include tax planning for married couples, disability planning when you become unable to manage your financial affairs prior to death, and who you want to be in charge of your property when you die or are disabled. Provisions may be made in your trust for protecting your children from predators and special instructions will protect your disabled children.

Do you have a plan to protect your children in the event your surviving spouse remarries? Do you care if a child is disinherited? Do you want to protect a spendthrift? If you plan your Will and Trust with lots of “baby sitter” instructions, your children may be protected for life, and your grandchildren too.    At the minimum,  Final Instructions are important to avoid the consequences of doing nothing.  I encourage you to take the time now to meet with an estate planning attorney such as myself to create or review your Final instructions. 

Give me a call, send me an email, or leave a comment on this posting, so I can respond in a helpful manner with information or to set a meeting discuss your  manual for “Final Instructions.”

Three Classic Estate Planning Blunders

As we push our way through Tax Month, we are reminded of the importance of the basics of estate planning.  My estate planning colleague in Hawaii, Scott Makuakane, recently posted the following article to revisit three areas we should avoid in estate planning. His article reflects the practical experience that comes his practicing estate planning and trust law in Hawaii since 1983.

 

Three Classic Estate Planning Blunders

Too often, estate plans fail.  Here are the three most common reasons.

1.   FAILURE TO PLAN.  You have heard that failing to plan is planning to fail, and it is true.  People procrastinate with their estate plans for a variety of reasons, one of them being the refusal of some of us to accept our own mortality.  Not to rub it in, but passing into the Great Beyond is not an “if,” but a “when.”  It will make a tremendous difference to your loved ones, your pets, and your favorite charities, if you have made a plan for what happens to your stuff (everything you own) when you assume room temperature. 

Your estate plan should also take into the account the possibility of your becoming incapacitated someday.  This is an issue that has become more and more important as advances in medical science have made it possible for us to live longer lives.  Unfortunately, medical science is still working hard to find the causes, and come up with solutions, to the various forms of dementia.  Although we live longer today than in years past, a growing number of us ends up needing long-term care.  It is absolutely critical to plan for how you and your loved ones will deal with the issues of long-term care, not the least of those issues being how you will pay for it.

2.   FAILURE TO IMPLEMENT.  Having a plan is great, but failing to implement your plan renders it all but worthless.  One of the primary ways people fail to implement their plans is to neglect to transfer their assets into the right “buckets.”  If you have a revocable living trust, it should probably hold most, if not all, of your assets.  Yet many people die with assets in their own names, which, in turn, results in costly and time-consuming probate proceedings that could easily have been avoided with some simple asset transfers. 

3.   FAILURE TO UPDATE.  Once you have set your course with your estate plan, you have to remember that even the best of plans will require course corrections.  Your health will change.  Your stuff will change.  The law will change.  The list of people you like and trust will change.  It is important for your estate plan to change so you can be sure that it will work as intended.  The best way to do this is through a regular discipline of reviewing your estate plan and updating it when necessary.

I’m here to help you avoid all three of these “blunder” traps.  If I can help, please contact me or leave a “comment” on this blog post.  As a trained estate planning professional, my goal is to guide and support you through the estate planning process. 

 

 

Financial Parenting Tips

Every parent is challenged to prepare their children for living meaningful lives and managing their affairs responsibly.  Here are a few parental tips to help set the tone for your children and their approach to handling the money you provide.

My thanks to my WealthCounsel colleague, Wayne Ball, for turning my attention to these financial planning tips first shared by his legal colleague in Little Rock, Arkansas -  Dee Davenport of Delta Trust.

·       Make money meaningful:  Good financial parenting could begin with an allowance that is tied to the completion of specific chores.  It’s important to teach children that money is the result of performance or effort.  It must be earned.

·       A sense of sharing: Give young children holiday gifts in three pieces: one piece to spend, one piece to save, and one piece to give to someone who is in need. Families report great results with this simple plan, and heirs remember the lessons learned and speak of them gratefully for a lifetime.

·       Give just enough:   The sage of Omaha, Warren Buffet says “Give your children enough so they can do anything, but not enough so they do nothing”. At the same time, mature children whose values are intact could do so much good in the world, not only for themselves and their families, but also for their communities.

·       Think long range:  Some of the most successful families have constructed “100 year plans” (four generations) to pass on both the family values and the family financial assets. Increasingly, families are engaging community members in their legacy development processes to assure the effectiveness of the gifts made.

These are just a few guidance tips for instilling many of the basic tenets of financial planning.  I hope you find one or more that you can incorporate into your parenting activities. 

For more formal estate planning strategies, I would enjoy meeting with you and sharing my experience and knowledge.  We can meet – just give me a call, or you can leave a comment on this post.

 

Estate planning for the rest of us

My WealthCounsel colleague, Suzann Beckett, offers an answer to one of the most often-asked questions I encounter in social gatherings. 

An acquaintance asked me about estate planning, not long ago. They weren't asking for professional advice, they were literally asking if I could explain what estate planning is, and how it might affect them. It's a good question, one that I wish more people knew the answer to.

First, it's worth knowing that estate planning is not limited to the DuPont's and Carnegie's among us. Admittedly, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have amassed fortunes so large as to suggest that significant thought needs to go into the planning of their estates. But estate planning isn't just about money. It's also about security, philanthropy, and control of our own interests.

One aspect of estate planning includes our health care plans. Not only can estate planning help determine our eligibility for Medicaid benefits, it can also allow each of us to issue specific directives about our own future health care. Even if a health crisis leaves us unable to speak for ourselves at some point, our prior planning can provide documentation of our wishes, which enables us to maintain control of our own destiny, even if we are temporarily or permanently incapacitated.

In fact, our estate planning can extend to the appointment of a specific person to act as our health care representative, as well as our desire to donate organs upon your death. It isn't just about our money and holdings. It is in a very real sense about us, as people.

Yes, estate planning allows us to make decisions while  in our prime that will come into play even after we are gone (see my previous post about Ben Franklin). And more importantly your decisions are legally binding on those who may, or may not agree with our wishes. Remember, this is your own estate and your own life you are planning to protect.

Beyond health care, estate planning allows us to designate who speaks on our behalf should the need arise. Entering into a power of attorney allows us to appoint the person we trust most to oversee our personal business if we are unable to conduct our affairs ourselves. Many people assume that we must appoint our lawyer when we issue a power of attorney. And you certainly can do that if you wish to. But you can also give that authority to your spouse, or a child, or a close personal friend, or anyone else you wish. A power of attorney is yours to give, or revoke, at your discretion. Estate planning can help you enter into, or terminate a power of attorney, on your terms.

Perhaps the most commonly known aspect of estate planning is the drawing up of a will. But even that can be more far-reaching than most people realize. You have the opportunity to not only decide what happens to your holdings after your death, you also have the chance to establish a trust if you wish to, so that you can provide for the care of a family member, or another charitable cause that is important to you. Trusts can also be used to minimize a tax burden, in some cases. Estate planning can even allow an individual to develop a strategy to avoid probate on some holdings. A practice that allows a well planned execution of our wealth, no matter how big or small, that keeps it all in the family, for lack of a better term – rather than running the entire contents of our lives through the court system before it is distributed to our heirs, or whomever we wish it to go to.

The assumption that only the very wealthy have any need, or the even the option of engaging in estate planning, is incorrect. Almost anyone who has something of value to leave behind can benefit from estate planning. And even those who do not have significant wealth can benefit in terms of health care planning.

Each and every one of us has a unique situation to deal with as we walk through life. There is no blanket answer or master plan that will work for everyone under every possible circumstance. Perhaps the practice of estate planning would be more readily understood of we called it Individualized Planning, instead?

It's worth thinking about, at least.

Many valid issues are raised in this posting.  If you have questions related to any of the issues, please call me or leave a comment below, and I’ll get back to you.

 

Compensating Caregivers

One in Seven Americans are Caregivers

There are some serious issues looming on the horizon for baby boomers.  Almost one in seven Americans looks after a disabled person age 50 or older.  Many compensated and many not compensated, but it is a rapidly growing number (the number has jumped 28% since 2004). It’s an emerging situation that needs the compensation element to be formalized for many.

In the recent November issue of Financial Advisor the article “Compensating Caregivers” quoted a  2009 survey found that 14.5% of the U.S. population – about one of every seven of us – is responsible for the care of a disabled person age 50 or over, up 28% since 2004.  Increasingly, the elderly disabled are paying family members to care for them in family home. This raises a number of issues.

This article takes stock of the situation and urges caution and awareness. It may seem odd, unnecessary, or even heartless, but they advise that the arrangement with caregivers be legally formalized, reported, and in some cases even treated as employment. The reason is two-fold.

Firstly, by formalizing and documenting the arrangement, you make it legally acknowledged and transparent for both the care-giver and care-recipient. As the recipient of care, you may be able to claim an income tax deduction all or part of the payments as qualified medical expenses. Additionally, your payments will be well-documented, should Medicaid eligibility ever become an issue. Without this documentation, the unidentified transfer of funds to family members could be seen as an attempt to cheat the system.

Secondly, simply establishing a legal process for payment of care can help open up family dialogue, and raise awareness – especially among non-care-giving family members. Arrangements of this nature are bound to put stress on all parties, but dialogue, contractual understanding, and compensation can help smooth over difficulties for the care-receiver, the care-giver, and other family members. The care-receiver has a vital say in the arrangement, can avoid feeling like a “burden,” and remain a vital part of the family. Family members can discuss who is to administer care or how exactly they can support one another in fairly supporting the care-receiver. For that matter, too, sibling squabbles can be lessened when it comes to inheritance and estate arrangements if the family care arrangement is legally recorded.

I thank my WealthCounsel colleague in Nevada, Lizette Sundvick, for authoring this commentary on “Compensating Caregivers”.

Foresight, solid financial planning, and an awareness of the extent of any care arrangements are vital. I am always available to assist you with long-term care and other legal issues commonly associated with aging. You are welcome to give me a call to schedule a consultation, or leave a comment below this post, and I’ll share the dialogue with all. 

 

Filing for Bankruptcy: What Can You Protect?

With 1.6 million Americans expected to file for Bankruptcy this year, we know that at least these 1.6 million and very likely many more researching the bankruptcy option have been asking the same basic questions.  “What can I protect?”   “What will be left?”

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal Digital Network addressed these very questions.  My colleague in Nevada, Lizette Sundvick, offers a summary commentary on this article.

Some may opine that we are climbing out of the recession, but the effects are still wearing on us. According to estimate by the American Bankruptcy Institute, more than 1.6 million Americans are expected to file for Bankruptcy this year, with 42% of filers citing “job loss” and another 65% citing “income reduction” as the determining factor. Against this backdrop, it’s unfortunate that bankruptcy hits responsible persons the hardest because they likely have the most to lose. If you are filing this year, then you may have a great deal you wish to protect. I thought I’d share some tips from a recent article on SmartMoney about what you can protect.

• A Home: The protection afforded your home depends on your state of residency.  In addition, different states offer different acreage allowances for city and rural properties. Beyond that, the equity you have in your house also can be important to protect, because most states have an exemption allowing a certain amount of that equity to remain with the homeowner in the event that the home is sold by the bankruptcy trustee.
• Tax-Exempt Retirement Funds: These are usually safe, and IRAs usually can be protected up to $1.17 million per person. Don’t, however, try to dump other assets (i.e., from investments that are not protected) into the retirement fund. This is a no-no.
• A Car: Trying to retain the car is similar to retaining the house, since your level of protection depends on the laws of your state of residency. If the value of the car is below the exemption limit, and it is owned by the filer, then it can be kept. Otherwise, equity up to the exemption can go to the filer in the event of sale. Of course, in the 16 states that allow the federal “wild-card” exemption, the rest of the value of the car may be covered and the car itself retained, but this itself depends on state laws and exemptions.
• Life Insurance Policy: If the policy is term-life insurance, then it is generally safe. Whole-life policies are generally regarded as investment vehicles, however, and in that case it will depend on state exemption levels.
• College Savings: If college savings are held in a 529 plan or a Coverdell account, there are a couple of factors you need to know. If the account is only 2 years old, it is only protected up to $5,000. However, if the account is older than 2 years, it will be safe for so long as the beneficiary is not also the filer.

Generally speaking, the biggest factors are the state-specific exemption levels and allowances. Be sure you obtain competent professional advice to protect your interests (and stay out of hot water).

If you're worried about the future and how you can guard against economic fallout, we can give you some reassurance.  Give me a call to discuss your options.  If you have a question or two, please submit as a comment to this blog post, and I’ll respond in the comment thread or address in a fresh blog post.   

 

"My Mother took care of me, so I'm going to take care of her."

I’m often asked the question, “What are the options for a baby boomer with aging parents?”  I was pleased to see this posting by my fellow Wealth Counsel member Suzann Beckett practicing in West Hartford, CT .  She offers one answer for the many baby boomers facing aging parents wishing to remain in their homes but lacking the financial means. 

Medicare benefits without Life of Poverty

The New York Times recently ran an outstanding article, detailing the basics of Pooled Trusts. Most American's are not familiar with the term, or the tool – but thanks to the Times, a much larger audience had the opportunity to read about a means of caring for aging family members, while intelligently keeping the wolf away from the door.

The unfortunate reality for many of us is that a time may come when we can no longer manage to personally provide appropriate care for a loved one in our own home, or in their own home for that matter. But at the same time, we may not have the financial capacity to afford private care providers that would be able to fill the gap.

Pooled Trusts are designed to bridge that void.

Rather than reiterate the content of a well written and very informative piece, I will simply recommend that anyone with an elderly family member read this piece, if for no other reason than to gain some basic insight into an option that may be available and viable, in certain circumstances.

You can find the story on the Internet at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/business/businessspecial5/05TRUST.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&src=twrhp&adxnnlx=1289307765-CdcouVKW+F0EwVbdadQHMQ

As a woman who has faced these issues in my personal life, with my own family members, I am intimately aware of the emotional and financial drain that advancing age and health issues can impose on a family. In order to deal with these issues to the best of our ability, we need to be aware of our options, and informed regarding the pros and cons of each of those options. This story is a good step in the right direction on that count.

I am so pleased the New York Times published Tara Siegel Bernard's excellent article on this very important topic.

This is good information on one way that baby boomers can prevent their aging parent(s) from going into a nursing home.  If this topic of “pooled trusts” is something that you would like to know more about, I am available to meet with you.