April 10, 2018

Planning After You Retire

After you retire, you should continue to make plans so that you will be ready in case anything happens.

Everyone knows that it takes a lot of planning to retire properly. You must make sure that all of your finances are in order. You also should make sure that you have completed everything you need to receive Social Security benefits, when you want to start them and to enroll for Medicare.

It might be tempting to stop planning after retirement. However, there is still some planning left to do, as the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog explained in "Post-Retirement Planning: A Checklist for Seniors."

Retirees need to plan for emergencies and the possibility of no longer being able to handle their own affairs. They need a general durable power of attorney, a health care power of attorney and a living will.

Fortunately, those documents are easy to get from elder law attorneys. However, just getting those documents is not quite enough.

If something happens to a retired person, the people designated to help immediately need to be able to step into their roles. That means all the information necessary for them needs to be gathered into one place. This information includes a list of financial, investment and digital accounts. It also means that the legal documents need to be stored in the same place. Finally, a trusted friend or family member should be told where to find everything, if needed.

Talk to an elder law attorney, if you have questions about what you need to do to plan after you retire.

Reference: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (March 20, 2018) "Post-Retirement Planning: A Checklist for Seniors."

March 16, 2018October 25, 2023

Hidden Costs of Probate

People will often go to great lengths to make sure that their estates do not have to go through probate. They often fail to take little steps and find themselves in probate unnecessarily for other reasons.

Probate is often thought of as something that happens after a person passes away. If a person has not planned to avoid probate, then the estate must go through probate for administration before any assets can be distributed to heirs. What many people do not realize, is that probate courts handle more things than just wills.

Consider the case of one elderly couple in Arizona. The wife suffers from dementia. She had a modest retirement account of $25,000. Her husband wanted to withdraw funds from the account to pay her medical bills. Before he could do that, he had to go through probate court to be appointed his wife’s guardian and conservator. In the process, he incurred $6,000 in attorney’s fees as WLTX19 reports in “Man spends thousands in probate costs to help wife with dementia.”

This unfortunate situation can often be avoided. Estate planning attorneys do more than just help their clients’ estates avoid probate, after the clients pass away. They also help people plan for end-of-life care and what will happen should they ever become incapacitated and can no longer look after their own affairs.

If you have not planned for this, then visit an estate planning attorney and ask about a general durable power of attorney. That document will let you appoint someone to look after your finances, if you become unable to do so.

Reference: WLTX19 (Feb. 15, 2018) “Man spends thousands in probate costs to help wife with dementia.”

February 16, 2018October 25, 2023

Disability Planning

The number of Americans who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease is expected to double in upcoming decades. It is important to make plans for what should happen, if you are one of the victims.

Alzheimer’s is a scary disease to contemplate. Those who suffer from it slowly lose their cognitive abilities. They no longer recognize their loved ones and are increasingly unable to take care of even their most basic affairs.

Unfortunately, experts do not think a cure for this disease is likely in the near future. They expect that the number of people who suffer from it in American will double by the year 2060.

That is a scary proposition for many and it is something everyone should make plans for as the Times Herald-Record discusses in “Disability planning is vital in case of cognitive impairment.”

Fortunately, planning for Alzheimer’s disease is not very difficult.

An estate planning attorney or elder law attorney can assist you in getting your legal paperwork in order. You will need a health care power of attorney, so someone of your choosing can make your medical decisions for you. You will need a general durable power of attorney, so someone of your choosing can handle your day to day financial affairs. You will also need a living will so that doctors will know what to do and not to do, when you are terminally ill with no chance of recovery.

There is no reason to delay getting these documents. They are easy to get. Everyone should have them, just in case something happens.

Reference: Times Herald-Record (Jan. 18, 2018) “Disability planning is vital in case of cognitive impairment.”

January 26, 2018

Questions About Powers of Attorney

When you get a general durable power of attorney, it is a good idea to ask questions about how it will work, given your unique life circumstances.

In most states, getting a general durable power of attorney is fairly easy.

Some legislatures have included form documents in the statute books that are templates for powers of attorneys. Online services are more than willing to offer cheap form documents that can also be filled out to create general durable powers of attorney.

The ease with which these documents can be obtained masks an issue with them, as MD Magazine discusses in "Five Questions to Ask About Your Financial POA."

The problem is that form documents contain boilerplate language that might not work for everyone's unique situation. If you take care of an elderly parent, you will want to make sure that the general durable power of attorney authorizes the agent (you) to continue paying for ongoing care and to make investment decisions.

These problems can be overcome by hiring an estate planning attorney to craft your general durable power of attorney.

The attorney can assist your elderly parent to create a document that does what he or she needs done and that is not just boilerplate language. For an estate planning attorney located in Bethesda, Maryland contact Profit Law Firm.

Reference: MD Magazine (Dec. 27, 2017) "Five Questions to Ask About Your Financial POA."

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.”

November 23, 2017March 7, 2023

What Aging Parents Need

Planning for retirement can be challenging.

People usually need to save a lot of money before they consider retiring. When that is done, they need to apply for Social Security and Medicare.

At the same time, these same people need to make arrangements for where they want to live during retirement, if they do not want to stay in the same place.

Many people seek their children’s assistance for some of these decisions. They assume that if anything else is needed when they retire, then their children will be able to help them.

However, planning for retirement is not quite done until an estate planning attorney is consulted.

Some fundamental legal documents need to be drafted as Gambit points out in “The legal needs of
aging parents.”

Parents need to think about the legal ability of their children to take over for them, when necessary.

For example, the children need to be able to handle the parents’ finances and make medical decisions
for the parents, if necessary.

Preparing for that goes beyond just making sure a child has the knowledge to do those things. The child
also needs the legal authority.

That is where a visit to an estate planning attorney comes in.

The attorney can draw up a general durable power of attorney to give a child the legal authority to
handle the finances, when necessary. The attorney can also draw up a health care power of attorney to
give a child the legal authority to make medical decisions, when necessary.

Reference: Gambit (Oct. 30, 2017) “The legal needs of aging parents.”

August 11, 2017

You Need a Power of Attorney

No matter who you are and what you do for a living, if you can read this, then you need a general durable power of attorney.
Think for a moment about everything you routinely do to make sure that all of your finances are in order. You pay many kinds of bills, including cable, phone, utilities, rent or mortgage and many more.
You probably pay these bills every month without much thought, other than a bit of grumbling.
You are used to it. You know how to pay them. You know if there is enough money in your accounts to cover the bills. You can also get that money out of the accounts and get it where it needs to go.
However, what if something were to suddenly happen to you?
You need to consider how difficult it would be for someone else to take care of all those bills, as WMUR 9 ABC points out in "Money Matters: Why you need a durable power of attorney."
You need to think about what would happen, if you have an accident and could not pay your bills for a few months or even longer.
What would it be like to get out of the hospital and come home to a big stack of unpaid bills? How many of your services would be cut off? Would you be in any shape to pay all of the stacked up bills to quickly get everything back in order?
There is a way to avoid that scenario.
You need to go to an estate planning attorney and get a general durable power of attorney. This will allow someone that you trust to pay your bills, if you are physically or mentally unable to do so.
Reference: WMUR 9 ABC (July 6, 2017) "Money Matters: Why you need a durable power of attorney."

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Tag: General Durable Power of Attorney