January 25, 2018

What Does It Mean to Unduly Influence a Will?

Successfully contesting a will is not easy. There must be a reason why the court should not accept the will. A common reason is because there was undue influence in the will's creation.

Wills are supposed to be the testator's carefully thought out wishes about who should have their property after they pass away. They are supposed to be made with great care and after deliberation.

One of the key ideas behind wills is that the contents of the will are the wishes of the testator and only the testator. They should not be the result of anyone else pressuring the testator into doing something in a will that the testator does not really want.

When the will is the result of what someone else wants, it is known as "undue influence" as My Prime Time News discusses in "Undue Influence."

Undue influence can happen when someone who benefits from a will encourages the will's testator to create the will for the influencer's benefit. Merely encouraging someone to make a will does not create undue influence.

A common example is one child convincing his parents to leave him more in the will than his siblings. The siblings will be upset and may decide to challenge the will.

If the court does not believe there was a valid reason for the different inheritances, then the court will invalidate it on the grounds of undue influence.

One way to avoid having your will invalidated on undue influence grounds is to hire an estate planning attorney who can ask the appropriate questions to make sure the will you are getting, is really what you want and not what someone else wants. Profit Law Firm, is an estate planning attorney in Bethesda, who can help strenthen your will against attacks.

Reference: My Prime Time News (Jan. 18, 2017) "Undue Influence."

January 19, 2018

Baby Created from 24-Year-Old Frozen Embryo

Tennessee woman sets a new world record.

A Tennessee woman has recently broken the record for successfully birthing a baby from an embryo that was frozen 24 years ago, according to CBS Baltimore in "Woman, 26, Has Baby Born From Record Breaking 24-Year-Old Frozen Embryo."

That is the longest time on record for a successful birth to occur, after an embryo was frozen. The embryo was frozen when the mother was only a year and half old. It came from her.

Why this was done when the woman was so young is not known.

This creates even more challenges for estate law, when it comes to posthumous births.

The length of time from when a person passes away to when the deceased person's biological child can be born keeps increasing. What should be done about previously administered estates, when a new child is born so long after death is not clear.

States that have addressed the issue have not all reached the same conclusions. It is something that will need to be addressed with increasing clarity in the near future.

People who might have posthumous children should talk to an estate planning attorney about what they would like to happen in case they do have one.

An estate planning attorney can advise you on creating an estate plan that fits your unique circumstances.

Reference: CBS Baltimore (Dec. 19, 2017) "Woman, 26, Has Baby Born From Record Breaking 24-Year-Old Frozen Embryo."

January 17, 2018

Do Cryogenics and Estate Planning Mix?

Estate planning faces a challenge, if death is not a certainty.

Cryogenics could create challenges for tax authorities and estate planners, according to Wealth Management in "Do Zombies Pay Taxes?"

One of the bigger questions is how the estate of a person who dies and is expected to come back to life at a later date, should be taxed and distributed. Government will have to wrestle with whether the estate tax should apply.

For people planning their estates, the challenges are even greater. They will need to decide how much of their assets should be set aside for their own future life and how much should be distributed to their families who will need to survive in the interim.

Reference: Wealth Management (Dec. 20, 2017) "Do Zombies Pay Taxes?"

January 15, 2018

New Tax Law Creates New Advantages

It might be wise to take a fresh look at your estate plan for new options.

Many estate plans will need to be changed to take advantage of the new tax laws, according to the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog in "A Gift from the New Tax Act: Kill That Trust."

One of the key changes for estate planning purposes, is that the estate tax exemption has been doubled.

Thais means people with estate plans that created trusts for the sole purpose of limiting their estate tax exposure may want to revisit their plans. They might now be better off revising those trusts or even getting rid of them altogether.

An estate law attorney can advise you on creating an estate plan that fits your unique circumstances and may include a trust or dealing with the doubling of the estate law exemption.

Reference: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (Dec. 26, 2017) "A Gift from the New Tax Act: Kill That Trust."

January 12, 2018June 23, 2024

Entire Family Signed up for Cryogenics

A Wisconsin man signed his entire family up to have their bodies frozen when they pass away, in the hopes that they can be brought back to life at a later date.

There have always been people who dream about living forever. There is something about the idea of not knowing what will happen after we pass away that captures the imagination.

We all want to know how the story ends. We all pay attention to different stories. Whatever story we follow, such as business, politics, sports or a long running TV series, we would like to know how it ends.

The inevitability of death creates a barrier to that.

It is a barrier that some people are trying to get around, as the Daily Mail reports in “Father spends $140,000 to sign his whole family up to be frozen in cooling chambers when they die, in the hope they can be woken up in the future, to have a ‘second chance at life’.”

A man in Wisconsin has signed up for himself, his wife and their three sons to all be cryogenically frozen after they pass away. Their hope is that someday scientists will be able to unfreeze them, bring them back to life and cure whatever it was they died from.

Most experts would say this is an impossibility because the freezing process damages the brain. However, those who support cryogenics have faith that future scientists can fix that.

Whatever your opinion of cryogenics and its potential effectiveness, you probably should think of death as still inevitable. You are going to pass away.

Even if you are brought back to life in a thousand years, the people you left behind in the interim could benefit from you having an estate plan.

Reference: Daily Mail (Dec.18, 2017) “Father spends $140,000 to sign his whole family up to be frozen in cooling chambers when they die, in the hope they can be woken up in the future, to have a ‘second chance at life’.”

January 11, 2018November 26, 2024

You Might Need More Than One Will

People who have substantial assets in more than one nation, might need more than one will to have an effective estate plan.

Ordinarily people only have one will. They cannot have more than one. If they create a second will, then the first will is no longer valid.

This principle is central to estate law.

The last will a person drew up and executed, is the only will that should be used in the absence of extraordinary circumstances to settle an estate.

However, it is not always technically true.

There are people who might need more than one will. If you have assets in more than one country and are a citizen of both countries, then you might need a valid will in each country, as the Financial Review explains in “Double trouble for dual nationals.”

The problem is that some countries have strict laws about who can inherit certain property. There are laws about how much of an estate must be given to a spouse and to children.

Most countries do not allow deviation from these laws, even for people who do not live there full time and who have a valid will in another nation.

Even if your will is valid in the U.S., it is possible that another country where you hold assets could invalidate it for the property you hold in that country.

If your estate might be subject to the laws of more than one nation, make sure that your estate plan is valid in all the nations where you own property. If that does not seem possible, then have separate estate plans for the property in each nation. You may want to see an estate planning attorney in Bethesda, MD.

Reference: Financial Review (Sep. 20, 2017) “Double trouble for dual nationals.”

January 5, 2018February 23, 2022

Assisted Reproduction and Technology

Estate laws have not kept pace with all of the latest technological ways that help people have children today. That means that you should have an estate plan that covers them.

The average family today looks a lot different than just a few years ago. Many couples do not stay married for life today and not all of a couples’ children are biologically their own.

Americans today live in all sorts of blended families rearing children from multiple marriages.

Estate law has generally kept pace with these changes. However, it often requires careful estate planning.

In the past couple of decades, things have become even more complicated as medical science has developed new ways for people to have children through such things as surrogacies and frozen embryos.

The law has not kept pace with all of these developments, according to Private Wealth in “Yours, Mine, Ours And ‘ART’.”

When children become part of a family through technological means, it is not always clear what their legal inheritance rights are. Different states have different rules.

For example, if a child is born after someone passes away through implantation of a frozen embryo, should that child have a right to a portion of the estate of the deceased? The default answer is different in different states.

What this means is that people who have or who might have children with technological assistance, need to be sure their estate plans take the laws of their state into account. That makes it more important than ever to have the assistance of an estate planning attorney.

Reference: Private Wealth (Sep. 13, 2017) “Yours, Mine, Ours And ‘ART’

December 29, 2017

Moving to Another State and Your Estate Plan

I f you move to another state, you should review your estate plan to make sure that it will still work.

Americans often move from state to state, especially after they retire. The laws in most states are similar. However, there are sometimes minor differences that can have a big impact on estate planning.

That leaves many people wondering whether an estate plan they drafted in one state, will still be valid if they move to another state. The answer is “maybe,” as The Times Herald discusses in "Moving can affect your financial planning."

Generally speaking, if a will you had drafted was valid in the state in which it was drafted at the time it was drafted, the other states will consider it to be valid.

Trusts are valid in every state, since the state in which they were created always governs over the trust.

Most of the time your estate plan will be valid in your new state. However, there can be some issues, especially if you purchase real estate in your new home state. Some states have particular rules about how real estate has to be handled.

You should also be aware that your new state could have tax laws that are different than your old state. Something you have done in your estate plan might still be legal and valid, but it might not be tax-wise.

At a minimum, you should visit an estate planning attorney in your new state and let the attorney review your estate plan.

The attorney can tell you whether you should do something different to adapt to the laws of your new state.

Reference: The Times Herald (Dec. 1, 2017) "Moving can affect your financial planning."

December 28, 2017October 25, 2023

Incapacity Planning

It is important that you make plans for what will happen to your family and your possessions after you pass away. It is also important to plan for what will happen to them, if you are incapacitated.

You might be aware that you need a will or a trust, so you can make sure your family is taken care of after you pass away. Getting a will or trust also lets you determine what happens to your property after you pass away.

If you have not done so, you really should see an estate planning attorney to get a will or trust as soon as possible, just in case.

While you are at the attorney’s office, you should also get plans for what might happen if you become incapacitated, as the Times Herald-Record discusses in “Make plans in case you are incapacitated.”

The issue is that if you are incapacitated, someone else needs the legal authority to act on your behalf.

Someone will need to be able to handle your bills and to make medical decisions for you, should it be necessary.

If you do not plan ahead, it can be a difficult process for someone else to get the legal authority.

Someone will have to hire an attorney and go to court to get a judge’s permission to act as your guardian.

Fortunately, planning for what will happen if you become incapacitated is not difficult.

You just need a general durable power of attorney and a health care power of attorney.

The estate planning attorney can prepare both of them for you.

Reference: Times Herald-Record (Dec. 12, 2017) “Make plans in case you are incapacitated.”

December 21, 2017

Children and Inherited Retirement Accounts

If your children inherit your retirement accounts, they will have a few options about what to do with them.

Most people designate their spouses as the beneficiaries of their retirement accounts after they pass away. Consequently, the surviving spouse then becomes the owner of the accounts and can use the account in the same way that the deceased spouse did.

However, sometimes people name non-spouse beneficiaries, such as their children or the children end up receiving the accounts after the designated spouse passes away.

What the children can do with the accounts is not as simple as it is for spouses. However, there are a few options.

The Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog discusses some of these options in "What Your Kids Can Do When They Inherit Your Retirement Accounts."

The options include:

The assets in the account can be taken out immediately as one lump sum.
The assets in the account can be taken out whenever needed, as long as the account is empty within five years.
The children can choose to stretch the account out over their own expected lifetimes. However, they will need to make annual required minimum distributions and must take the first one by a set time.

If you have questions about your retirement accounts and your heirs, then talk to an estate planning attorney to get answers. While you are at it, learn more about how your retirement accounts can be used as part of an overall estate plan.

Reference: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (Nov. 22, 2017) "What Your Kids Can Do When They Inherit Your Retirement Accounts."

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Tag: Estate Planning