A Simple Will Is Not Enough

 

A basic last will and testament cannot accomplish every goal of estate planning; in fact, it often cannot even accomplish the most common goals.  This fact often surprises people who are going through the estate planning process for the first time.  In addition to a last will and testament, there are other important planning tools which are necessary to ensure your estate planning wishes are honored.

Beneficiary Designations
Do you have a pension plan, 401(k), life insurance, a bank account with a pay-on-death directive, or investments in transfer-on-death (TOD) form?

When you established each of these accounts, you designated at least one beneficiary of the account in the event of your death.  You cannot use your will to change or override the beneficiary designations of such accounts.
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With Premiums Rising & Benefits Dropping, Is Long-Term Care Insurance Still Worth It? 

In a recent Wall Street Journal article on the shake-up of the long-term care market, Sally Wylie, 67, a retired learning specialist who lives on Vinalhaven Island, Maine says that over the past two years, the annual premium for her and her husband’s insurance has increased by more than 90%. She says that in order to keep paying their $4,831 premium on a policy that promises to pay out as much as $268,275 per person, “she has taken on a part-time landscaping job. The couple has delayed home maintenance, travels less and sometimes rents out their house.
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How Do I Name A Guardian For My Children In Case I Die? 

The hardest part of estate planning is contemplating your own demise, and that task grows even more difficult if you have children. It is painful to even think about what their life would be like without you. But if you don’t go through this thought exercise, you risk putting your children in a living situation you would never agree to should the worst come to pass. 
In this blog post we’ll go over a few different guardianship scenarios and best practices, but we would advise anyone seeking advice on this important topic to make an appointment with an attorney because each family situation is different, and your unique scenario will not be fully covered here.
Wills are where your wishes about guardianship should be formally recorded so that a court will recognize them.
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How to calculate estate tax

In order to predict how much your estate will have to pay in taxes, one must first determine the value of the estate. To determine this, many assets might have to be appraised at fair market value. The estate includes all assets including real estate, cash, securities, stocks, bonds, business interests, loans receivable, furnishings, jewelry, and other valuables.

Once your net worth is established, you can subtract liabilities like mortgages, credit cards, other legitimate debts, funeral expenses, medical bills, and the administrative cost to settle your estate including attorney, accounting and appraisal fees, storage and shipping fees, insurances, and court fees. The administrative expenses will likely total roughly 5% of the total estate.
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Medicare vs. Medicaid: Similarities and Differences

With such similar sounding names, many Americans mistake Medicare and Medicaid programs for one another, or presume the programs are as similar as their names. While both are government-run programs, there are many important differences. Medicare provides senior citizens, the disabled and the blind with medical benefits. Medicaid, on the other hand, provides healthcare benefits for those with little to no income.
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The “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” that President Trump signed into law last month still has a lot of the country scratching their heads, trying to figure out if their taxes will be going up or down. One thing that is clear is that the new law makes a big change to estate taxes.

According to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center, about two-thirds (65%) of those surveyed feel they understand how the tax law might affect them and their families at least somewhat well. Before sitting down to look through the legislation, we would have put ourselves in that camp too. But the deeper into the weeds we got, the more we realized there was a lot in the bill that we did not know was there.
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Should you withdraw your Social Security benefits early?

You don’t have to be retired to dip into your Social Security benefits which are available to you as early as age 62.  But is the early withdrawal worth the costs?

A quick visit to the U.S. Social Security Administration Retirement Planner website can help you figure out just how much money you’ll receive if you withdraw early. The benefits you will collect before reaching the full retirement age of 66 will be less than your full potential amount.
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As you probably heard, Hugh Hefner, the magazine mogul and vanguard of the sexual revolution, died last fall. At first all we knew about his estate plan was that he would laid to rest in the crypt next to Marilyn Monroe, his first cover girl, which he purchased for $75,000 back in the 1990s. Now some other details have emerged, and they are pretty intriguing.

Although the “Playboy lifestyle” involves a certain amount of partying, it is no secret that Hef was not a fan of those who partied to excess or relied on drugs to have a good time. After becoming addicted to prescription amphetamines and mourning the loss of his secretary and confidant, Bobbie Arnstein, who committed suicide after a drug arrest, Hefner lived a substantially substance-free lifestyle.

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Preparing to Meet With an Estate Planning Attorney

A thorough and complete estate plan must take into account a significant amount of information about your assets, your family, your property, and your wishes during and after your life.  When you make your first appointment with an estate planning attorney, ask the attorney or the paralegal if they can provide a written list of important information and documents that you should bring to the meeting.  

Generally speaking, you should gather the following information before your first appointment with your estate planning lawyer.

Family Information
List the names, birth dates, death dates, and ages of all immediate family members, specifically current and former spouses, all children and stepchildren, and all grandchildren.

If you have any young or adult children with special needs, gather all information you have about their lifetime financial needs.
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Estate Planning for Unmarried Couples

Estate planning is important for everyone. We simply don’t know when something tragic could happen such as sudden death or an accident that could leave us incapacitated. With proper planning, families who are dealing with the unexpected experience fewer headaches and less expense associated with managing affairs after incapacity or administering an estate after death.

If a person fails to do any planning and becomes involved in a debilitating accident or passes away, each state has laws that govern who will inherit assets, become guardians of minor children, make medical decisions for an incapacitated person, dispose of a person’s remains, visit the person in the hospital, and more. In some states, the spouse and any children are given top priority for inheritance rights. In the case of incapacity, spouses are normally granted guardianship over incapacitated spouse, though this requires a lengthy and expensive guardianship proceeding.

Today, many couples are choosing to spend their lives together but aren’t getting married for a number of reasons. However, most states don’t recognize unmarried partners as spouses. In order to be given legal rights that married couples receive automatically, unmarried couples need to do special planning in order to protect each other.

In general, unmarried individuals need three basic documents to ensure their rights are protected:

1. A Will – A will tells who should inherit your property when you pass away, who you want your executor to be, and who will become guardians of any minor children. These issues are all especially important for unmarried individuals. In most states, an unmarried partner does not have inheritance rights, so any property owned by his or her deceased partner would go to other family members. Also, the living partner may not necessarily the biological or adoptive parent of any minor children, which could lead to custody disputes in an already very difficult time.  Therefore, it’s critical to nominate guardians for minor children.
    
2. A power of attorney – A power of attorney (for financial matters) dictates who is authorized to manage your financial affairs in the event you become incapacitated. Otherwise, it can be very difficult or impossible for the non-disabled partner to manage the disabled partner’s affairs without going through a lengthy guardianship or conservatorship proceeding.
    
3. Advance healthcare directives – A power of attorney for healthcare, informs caregivers as to who is responsible for making healthcare decisions for someone in the event that a person cannot make them for himself, such as in the event of a serious accident or a condition like dementia.  Another document, called a living will, provides directions on life support issues.

In the the end, It’s imperative that unmarried couples establish proper planning to avoid undue hardship, expense and aggravation.

Jolly Old Saint Nick must run one heck of an animal adoption agency at the North Pole. Each year he delivers new furry friends to good boys and girls around the world... and then counts on their parents to make sure the new pets are well taken care of! 

Housebreaking or litter training and obedience school are the first order of business, but once those tasks are accomplished, it is time to consider more long-term issues.
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