April 11, 2018

A Faster Way to Stop Elder Abuse

One of the many challenges in fighting elder abuse, is that even when it is discovered, it can be difficult to stop it quickly.

Elder abuse can occur in several different ways. However, one of the most pernicious ways is when a person entrusted to help an elderly person, uses that trust to gain access to financial account information. The “trusted” person then commits abuse by managing an elderly person's accounts for his or her own benefit.

When this financial abuse of the elderly is discovered or suspected, it is not always easy to put a quick end to it through the legal system. Therefore, the abuse continues for longer than it should.

To fix this problem, some New Hampshire legislators think they have come up with a solution as Seacoast Online reports in "House bill would help elder victims of financial abuse."

The idea is to create a fast track for disabled people and the elderly to get legal relief, similar to how victims of domestic violence can get protective orders. Some elderly victims do currently qualify for domestic violence protective orders but not all.

The process varies from state to state. However, all states have some sort of process, whereby a domestic violence victim can get a quick protective order from a judge for immediate relief. Giving the same level of protection to victims of elder abuse, would speed up the process greatly.

Talk to an elder law attorney, if you have questions about what to do in your state to help victims of elder abuse.

Reference: Seacoast Online (March 17, 2018) "House bill would help elder victims of financial abuse."

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."

April 9, 2018September 4, 2024

Make the Most of Tax Season

Don’t think of tax time as the worst time of year but as an opportunity to get a good estate plan.

There are two types of people who like tax season. One is accountants and the others are tax attorneys. For everyone else, it is the worst time of the year. Even accountants and tax attorneys are probably relieved when tax season is finally over, because no one likes doing their taxes.

Since you have to get all of your financial information for the year sorted out and digest it in the way the IRS requires, it, you will not have to do everything over again to create an estate plan, as Forbes points out in “Make A Better Plan This Tax Season.”

When doing your taxes, you are looking at many of the same accounts you would consider when creating your estate plan. That takes care of one step in the process. After that, you just need to gather information about all of your other assets that were not part of your taxes for the year.

For most people, the rest of the estate planning process is relatively simple. You just need to determine who you want to have your assets after you pass away.

To complete your estate plan, you should hire an experienced estate planning attorney. When the attorney has your financial information and knows who you want to receive what is in your plan, an estate planning attorney can help you determine the best way to write a plan to accomplish your specific objectives.

Reference: Forbes (March 19, 2018) “Make A Better Plan This Tax Season.”

April 6, 2018October 25, 2023

Protecting Assets from Medicaid

If Medicaid ends up needing to pay for your nursing home care, the government will seek to take any assets that you have to pay for its costs. You might be able to create a trust to get around that problem.

One of the realities of aging in America, is that people who need to stay in long-term nursing home care cannot pay for their stays without losing all of their assets. There is nothing left for their children to inherit. They spend everything they have left, and only then will the government pay for their care through Medicaid.

If the elderly person has a home, the government will even seek to claim that and sell it after no one else is living there. That creates an awful feeling for many elderly parents, because they have nothing to leave their families.

There are some ways around this problem, including using a certain type of trust as the Times Herald-Record discussed in “Benefits of Medicaid Asset Protection Trust.”

A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust is a trust that set up specifically to protect assets from Medicaid, while still qualifying an elderly person for Medicaid assistance with long-term care. These are irrevocable trusts and any assets put into them at least five full years before applying for Medicaid are protected. The trusts are not perfect, since the trust settlors cannot use any of the principal in the trusts. However, income can be used.

If you are interested in a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust, talk to an elder law attorney about one and other options you might have.

Reference: Times Herald-Record (March 8, 2018) “Benefits of Medicaid Asset Protection Trust.”

April 5, 2018June 6, 2022

Who Really Needs an Estate Plan?

If you were to survey people about who most needs an estate plan, the most popular answer would likely be incorrect. People think that the wealthy need estate plans the most. However, that is not true. Parents with minor children need them more. Planning for young families is critical to protect loved ones.

One of the fascinating things about estate planning is how it is perceived by average Americans. When you talk to people about it, they often think of estate plans as a way for rich people to determine who gets their property when they pass away. That is a big part of it but it is not the only reason for estate planning. In fact, the wealthy benefit from planning more than other people, only if you think that money is the most important thing people have to protect and preserve.

Most people think protecting their children is more important than money. That is why parents with minor children have more reasons to plan their estates than wealthy single people, as Volume One points out in “When There’s a Will.”

When parents of minor children plan their estates, they accomplish two very important tasks. First, they figure out how their children’s expenses will be met. Parents who thoughtfully prepare their estate plans can decide who will handle their assets for the benefit of their children and how that will be done. Even more importantly, they can decide who will take care of their children, should they be orphaned.

An estate plan is the only means by which parents have a say regarding who should be appointed as the guardian of their minor children, if anything happens to the parents.

If you have minor children, talk to an estate planning attorney, so you can make sure they are taken care of if the worst happens.

Reference: Volume One (March 7, 2018 ) “When There’s a Will.”

April 4, 2018June 23, 2024

Farm Planning

Estate planning for farmers is different than it is for other people, since the focus must be on who will inherit the farm.

When farmers get older, they start worrying about what will happen to the farm, after they pass away. Many would like to keep the farm in the family.

Sometimes farmers only have one child and that child would like to take over the farm. However, most of the time, farmers have multiple children. One, all or none of the children may have any interest in the farm. That makes planning seem difficult, but in reality, there are only three steps to consider, as Agriculture.com discusses in “3 Steps To Succession Planning.”

The steps include:

Communicate with family members about what you want to happen to your farm after you pass away and figure out what your family expects to happen. This is especially important when children are not interested in farming, so their inheritance expectations can be known and taken into account.
Try to determine what tools are available to meet your goals. If you can modify a lease agreement to help meet your goals, then that may be an available tool.
The last thing to do is to determine your legal options. This is where a good estate planning attorney comes into play. The attorney will listen to your goals and figure how to meet them. What that will look like, will vary because every family farm is different.

Reference: Agriculture.com (March 8, 2018) “3 Steps To Succession Planning.”

April 3, 2018February 23, 2022

Advice for Widows and Widowers

It is not easy losing a spouse. However, widows and widowers do not have to let dealing with financial issues overwhelm them.

When people anticipate that their spouse will pass away, they often have a very difficult time handling everything afterwards. The grief that comes with the loss can make other things seem overwhelming, even for those people who have thought ahead and made careful plans. Things are also much worse when a spouse passes away unexpectedly.

If the deceased spouse was the one who handled most of the financial issues for the couple, things can get even more difficult. However, widows and widowers should not let financial issues bother them too much, as the Green Bay Press Gazette explains in “Financial planning tips for navigating loss of a loved one.”

The truth is that most financial decisions are not nearly as urgent or important as they are often made out to be. Widows and widowers do not have to make any financial decisions, until they are forced to do so. They should not make those decisions before. They should put off as much as they can, until they have had a chance to properly mourn the loss of a spouse.

Financial decisions do not have to be made alone either. If an attorney is helping with the estate administration, the attorney can make sure that all necessary estate financial matters are taken care of and suggest a professional to help with other things.

Things do go much better for widows and widowers, when the deceased spouse has made proper estate planning arrangements. Having an estate plan will greatly help your spouse, if something happens to you. Learn about the fundamentals of estate planning for Profit Law Firm.

Reference: Green Bay Press Gazette (March 9, 2018) “Financial planning tips for navigating loss of a loved one.”

April 2, 2018March 27, 2024

Cloning and Estate Planning

As far as anyone knows, there are not any clones of humans walking around yet. However, it might soon be possible. That could have some interesting effects on estate planning.

The idea of cloning humans has been a science fiction staple for a long time. The original premise was that an exact genetic match could be made with all of the knowledge, memories and personality of the original human reproduced in the clone.

The reproduction of things learned after birth is not likely anytime soon, so an almost identical genetic clone might be far off. America recently learned that Barbra Streisand had successfully cloned one of her dogs twice as The New York Times reported in “Barbra Streisand Cloned Her Dog. For $50,000 You Can Clone Yours.”

It is likely that some scientist somewhere will set aside ethical concerns and figure out how to clone humans. That could have a profound impact on estate planning. There is currently no legal status for clones.

Someday, the laws of intestate succession may need to determine whether clones have an equal or greater or lesser priority than children. It also might make a difference when and by whom the clone was made.

Science has never had a major impact on estate planning. The possibility of cloning and the possibility of “eternal life” that other researchers are working on could soon change things.

Reference: New York Times (Feb. 28, 2018) “Barbra Streisand Cloned Her Dog. For $50,000 You Can Clone Yours.”

March 30, 2018

Do You Want Your Child to Be Your Executor?

Without thinking about it too much, many people designate one of their children to be the executor of their estate. They should think about it carefully, before doing so.

The executor of your estate should be someone you trust to handle your estate just as you want it handled. You want to be certain that the executor will faithfully follow the instructions laid out in your will, including distributing your assets according to your wishes.

Many people trust one of their own children above all other potential candidates for this responsibility. They name that child as their executor, having put little thought into the consequences of doing so. It is not always a good idea, as Texas Lawyer discusses in "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Executors."

Being an executor is not an easy job. If people do not know what they are doing, it is very easy for them to make mistakes. They can often be held personally liable for those mistakes.

An executor does more than just distribute the assets of the estate. He or she must be able to communicate with the court and with any heirs about the estate. If, for example, the executor and a sibling do not get along, there can be problems. In some cases, executors will need to invest assets for a period of time, before they can be distributed. The executors need to do that investing wisely.

Before naming one of your children to be the executor of your estate, think through whether it is a role you really want that child to have. It might be better, in some cases, to name a professional.

Reference: Texas Lawyer (March 6, 2018) "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Executors."

March 29, 2018

Harper Lee’s Will Unveiled

Harper Lee valued her privacy while she was alive. Her will suggests that she also values it in death.

After writing To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee mostly kept out of the public eye. She did not release another book for decades and made very few appearances.

She died in 2016. Journalists and literary historians have been attempting to piece together details of the author's life, but they have met with little success. She was a private person and those who knew her have not been willing to talk very much.

Lee’s will has been unsealed but it does not reveal very much either, as Al.com reports in "Harper Lee's will is unsealed but questions about the legend of American literature remain."

Lee's will directs that all of her assets, including literary property, be put into a previously created trust. Details about the trust are not publicly known. There does not appear to be a way to make them public. The trust's beneficiaries and trustee are not known.

What Lee created is known as a pour-over will. It is a simple way to have assets transferred to a trust, after someone passes away. Since trusts do not have to go through probate and are private, this is a great method to use for people who do not want the details of their estates known to the public, as Lee apparently did not.

Reference: Al.com (Feb. 27, 2018) "Harper Lee's will is unsealed but questions about the legend of American literature remain."

Suggested Key Words: Wills, Trusts

Building Legacies that Last Estate Planning and Elder Law

Author: Profit Law Firm