April 26, 2017February 23, 2022

Absolute Minimal Estate Planning

Even if you do not think that you need an estate plan, there are a couple things that you absolutely must do.

You need to do some estate planning. Even if you think that you do not, you do.

Your possessions will not just magically go to whomever you want after you pass away, if you do not make some sort of estate plan.

While you should visit an estate planning attorney and get the most comprehensive estate plan that you can get, you might wonder what the absolute minimal amount of estate planning you can do to make sure that you have everything done that is absolutely necessary.

Recently, Fidelity discussed that in “Estate planning must dos.”

There are really two things that must be done at a minimum.

First, you need to check beneficiaries on documents such as life insurance policies and retirement accounts. These beneficiaries are legally entitled to the proceeds of the accounts after you pass away.

The second thing you absolutely must do is to title any real property you have appropriately. Of course, what is appropriate titling, depends on your individual family situation and is something you should discuss with an attorney.

Those are the two absolute basic minimal estate planning requirements.

If you do not want to do just the minimum and would prefer to do more, talk to an estate planning attorney about what more you can do. Our site provides information on the basic estate documents you need for fundamental planning.

Reference: Fidelity (March 27, 2017) “Estate planning must dos.”

April 24, 2017May 5, 2022

Planning for a First Child

New parents have many possible things to worry about. One of them does not need to be what will happen to their newborn, should anything happen to them.

First-time parents are stereotypically known to be a nervous group. That is understandable. Bringing a new life into the world that you are responsible for, is a daunting task for even the most financially secure and emotionally stable people.

It is not easy being a parent and it is anything but cheap. Parenting a child costs a lot of money in today’s world. It requires careful planning. We have some of the basics about planning for young families on the Profit Law Firm website.

Recently, Wealth Management outlined some financial planning advice for new parents in “Six Financial Planning Steps for Expecting Parents.”

All of the steps listed in the article are important and worthy of consideration for new parents. However, the last one is of particular importance, because it is the one that is most often forgotten.

New parents need to get estate plans.

It is through estate planning that parents can prepare for the worst case scenario if something happens to them, the parents, before their children reach adulthood.

It is in estate planning that guardians are nominated for minor children.

It is also through estate planning that financial arrangements are made to make sure that minor children have the resources needed for their care, if something happens to the parents.

If you are expecting a child, make sure you do not neglect to see an estate planning attorney so you do not have to worry about what will happen to your child, if something happens to you.

Reference: Wealth Management (March 31, 2017) “Six Financial Planning Steps for Expecting Parents.”

April 12, 2017October 25, 2023

The Core of Estate Planning

If you feel overwhelmed about planning your estate, it might be helpful to remember what is at the core of estate planning. It is a way to transfer assets.

Estate planning can be and do many different things. It can provide for the care of minor children. It can be a way to let people know that you love them. It can create a charitable legacy.

In fact, there are so many things estate planning can be and do that may people get overwhelmed thinking about all of them. As a result, they do not create estate plans.

At its core, however, estate planning is not that complicated. Estate planning can be as simple as transferring your assets after death.

As the Times Herald-Record explains in “Transferring assets upon death,” there are four main ways to do that, including:

Wills – In a will you state who should get your assets and appoint someone to be in charge of making sure that your wishes are carried out. Wills have to be approved by a probate court.
Joint Ownership – If you have assets in joint ownership with another person, then by law when you pass away the joint owner becomes the sole owner of the asset.
Beneficiary Designations – For life insurance policies, retirement accounts and savings accounts, you name a specific beneficiary to receive the assets after you pass away. A court does not need to approve the designation.
Trusts – With a trust, you state how your assets should be handled, appoint someone to handle them and name the people for whose benefit the assets will be handled.

How do you know which approach or approaches are best for your circumstances? Contact an experienced estate planning attorney.

Reference: Times Herald-Record (March 15, 2017) “Transferring assets upon death.”

April 11, 2017

A Good Time to Get an Estate Plan

While you are busy doing your taxes this year, it is also a good time to think about getting an estate plan.

Every year at about this time, Americans breathe a big sigh of relief when they seal their tax returns and send them off to the IRS or hit "send" to file electronically. The sigh is even bigger, if the envelope did not include a check written to the government and the tax filer can expect to receive a refund in the next couple of months.

No one likes doing their own taxes.

When they are finally done, the last thing that most people want to do is to deal with more financial issues. However, it is a good idea to do one more thing, as CTV News points out in "The mistakes of not having a will."

When you finish doing your taxes, you should get an estate plan or update your plan, if you already have one.

To do your taxes, you had to get out many of your financial documents. You have also been thinking about how much money you have and where it is all located. Doing those things is one of the first steps to getting an estate plan.

You could put all of your financial documents away and think about other things. However, if you later decided to do estate planning, you will have to start all over again.

Why not just go ahead and get an estate plan now, while things are still on your mind?

Reference: CTV News (March 21, 2017) "The mistakes of not having a will."

April 4, 2017August 9, 2024

What Estate Planning Really Is

You can think about estate planning in many different ways. One of the simplest and best approaches is to think of estate planning as a way of telling your family that you love them.

Estate planning is often thought of in cold or detached legal and financial terms. It is a way to decide who will get your assets, after you pass away and what the best legal instruments are for distributing those assets.

Viewed in that way, estate planning might not seem very important to many people, especially if they do not have many assets and do not particularly care about the legal aspects of transferring those assets after they pass away.

There is, however, another way to think about estate planning as Lifezette reports in “Estate Planning: A Love Note to Your Family.”

Estate planning is a way to let your family know that you love them.

As the article suggests, it is a love note to your family. You might not care too much about how your assets will be distributed when you are no longer around to worry about it, but it can make a big difference to your family.

Getting a proper estate plan, can spare your family the costs and legal headaches of having to go through the probate process. It can even stop them from fighting over who gets which assets.

When you think about estate planning in those terms, then it should be obvious that everyone should get an estate plan. If you love your family, it is one the best things that you can do for them.

Reference: Lifezette (March 7, 2017) “Estate Planning: A Love Note to Your Family.”

March 31, 2017May 16, 2022

A Common Estate Planning Myth

People who do not have a large amount of assets, think that they do not really need an estate plan. They are wrong.

Not everyone is wealthy. Not everyone has billions, or even millions, of dollars that need to be divided up between their relatives after they pass away. In fact, most people do not have that kind of fortune and never will.

Many of the people who are not wealthy, think that means they do not need estate plans. They reason that if there is little to divide up, then there is little to fight over. Consequently, they believe everything will go smoothly.

Unfortunately, that is a myth.

Even people who do not have a large estate need an estate plan, as the Pauls Valley Daily Democrat explains in “More on estate planning myths.”

You never know when family members will decide to fight over an estate and exactly what they will fight over. While it is true that a large amount of money often leads to a fight, it does not always do so.

Sometimes the most bitter of estate battles are actually over little things. Some estates have even been known to easily settle large fortunes, but have long and bitter feuds over small personal items that are not worth very much.

This means families might choose to argue over estates that do not have anything of value, if there are sentimental items wanted by more than one family member.

It happens a lot more often than you think.

No matter how much money you have, you need to see an estate planning attorney and get an estate plan.

Reference: Pauls Valley Daily Democrat (March 1, 2017) “More on estate planning myths.”

March 29, 2017November 29, 2022

Millennials Also Need Estate Plans

Many articles are written about what the Millennial generation wants and needs. Not enough articles are written about their need for estate plans.

Whatever field you are in, you have undoubtedly heard a lot of talk about how it relates to the Millennial generation. No one hears about it more than Millennials themselves. They like to discuss what their generation needs and their elders like to tell them about what they think they need.

With all of the talk about how Millennials live, behave and even vote, there is not much room left for talk about what will happen if they pass away.

It might seem premature to have those discussions, because Millennials are young and expect to live for a long time. However, many of them will pass away long before they think they will.

That means they need to think about their mortality and get estate plans established, as the Christian Science Monitor points out in “Millennials, don’t forget estate planning.”

One of the most important things estate planning can do for Millennials is to get them to think about what happens to their belongings and their children after they pass away. Estate planning focuses the mind on how the decisions we make, can have a long-term impact on our loved ones.

If done properly, estate planning also gets young people to think about their need to save money for retirement, emergencies and the possibility they might pass away while they have minor children.

If you are a Millennial, then seek out an estate planning attorney.

You should go ahead and get your first estate plan, just in case something does happen. That will get you started on making important plans, which is a good habit to get into.

Reference: Christian Science Monitor (March 7, 2017) “Millennials, don’t forget estate planning.”

March 28, 2017May 15, 2022

Hire the Right Estate Planning Attorney

Most attorneys are specialists in their particular practice areas. For your estate planning, you should hire an attorney who is a specialist in estate planning.

Human beings can only become truly knowledgeable in a limited number of areas. We cannot all be experts on everything. This is true even within disciplines.

For example, if you wanted to learn something about the history of 16th century Britain, you would be unlikely to learn very much by asking a historian who specializes in the Roman Empire. You would want to ask a historian who specializes in English history. Even better would be asking someone who only studies 16th century Britain.

A similar need for specialization is even more obvious, when you think about your health.

If you need heart surgery, you would not seek the services of an ear, nose and throat specialist. You would not even want a neurosurgeon. You would want a cardiac surgeon.

The same thing is true with legal matters and estate planning, as the Norman Transcript points out in “The right attorney is needed for wills and estate planning.”

Estate planning is a complicated and specialized legal field.

Only attorneys who have dedicated their lives to studying the field can be guaranteed to give you the services that you need. You might know someone who is excellent in criminal law or who excels at writing contracts. While he or she might even be willing to help you with your estate planning, you would be better off going to an estate planning expert.

Many avoidable mistakes are made when people do not seek out the services of an estate planning attorney. Do not let those mistakes happen with your estate plan.

Reference: Norman Transcript (March 5, 2017) “The right attorney is needed for wills and estate planning.”

February 21, 2017

Have You Really Talked to Your Children About Your Finances?

For most estate plans to go well, it is important that parents talk to their adult children about the family finances. While many parents claim that they do, the children say that they do not.

Estate plans often have many complicated pieces, since they reflect the complicated nature of people's finances. Those who are not financial experts, often have problems dealing with the complexity of handling an estate, if they have not been told beforehand what they will be dealing with and how to handle it.

For this reason, estate planning attorneys normally advise their clients to have an in-depth conversation with their children about their finances. If the children are going to be called upon to act as a power of attorney in the event of incapacity or to administer any portion of the estate, then they need to know what to do before they need to do it.

Forbes reports that those conversations may not be happening nearly enough in "The Last Taboo: Your Parents Still Won't Talk About Their Money With You."

A total of 70% of parents report that they have had detailed conversations with their children. However, only 50% of their children report that those conversations have actually taken place.

What this suggests is that while parents might be giving what they think are detailed explanations about their finances, the children still have questions that should be answered.

It is important not to assume that your children know what they are supposed to do from a brief overview. Invite them to ask questions and answer any that they have.

Reference: Forbes (Jan. 31, 2017) "The Last Taboo: Your Parents Still Won't Talk About Their Money With You."

February 13, 2017

Estate Planning Challenges for a Really Long Life

Increasingly wealthy people are paying for medical services that could potentially help them live for over a century. That creates estate planning challenges that did not exist for previous generations of the ultra-wealthy.

No one can guarantee that they will live a longer than normal life, no matter how much money they have to spend on their health care. However, medical advances and new personalized medical care plans, such as concierge care, make it so that those with enough means can make it far more likely than ever that they will live much longer than their peers.

This could mean that in the near future it will be common for the ultra-wealthy to live for 100 years and even decades longer, in some cases. This will have some benefits, but it also comes with some unique estate planning challenges.

Forbes recently discussed some of the challenges in "Estate Planning For The Ultra-Wealthy When Living To 120 Or Beyond."

The biggest issue is that it is common for people to retain control of their own assets until they pass away. That can become a problem the longer people live. Scientists still do not have a cure for dementia and the longer people live, the more likely they are to suffer from it.

A long life of carefully managing money could easily be undone. Younger family members might also start to grow impatient waiting to take control and cause problems.

The ultra-wealthy who plan to live long lives, might want to consider an estate plan that gives control to someone else before they pass away. At what age should that be done and under what circumstances, are matters these families should discuss.

Reference: Forbes (Jan. 18, 2017) "Estate Planning For The Ultra-Wealthy When Living To 120 Or Beyond."

Building Legacies that Last Estate Planning and Elder Law

Category: D.C. Estate Planning