Posts Categorized: Wills

A benefit of working hard is sharing the fruits of your labor with your loved ones. However, gift or estate tax consequences may impact high net worth clients when they share their wealth. By crafting a comprehensive estate plan, we can address these concerns and protect high net worth clients and their loved ones. The following three types of trusts may assist high net worth clients in sharing their wealth in a tax-advantageous way.

A grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) is an irrevocable trust you can use to make large financial gifts to your loved ones while also minimizing gift tax liability. These financial gifts remove future appreciation from your estate, reducing the amount that will be subject to estate tax at your death. However, there may be gift tax liability, which would be owed and paid at the trust’s creation. READ MORE

Adding a payable-on-death (POD) or transfer-on-death (TOD) designation to an account allows the assets (money and property) in that account to be passed to a named beneficiary when the original account holder dies. 

Like trusts, POD and TOD accounts bypass probate. They are also fast, easy, and usually free to set up. However, they do not provide the full range of benefits that a traditional trust does and can have some unintended consequences.  READ MORE

Fraudsters and scam artists are nothing new, but changing tools and technology are making it easier than ever for scammers to target their victims, especially seniors. To protect your aging parents (or yourself) from these con artists, it’s crucial to equip yourself with the knowledge of how these scams work and what your loved ones need to know to keep their assets and emotions safe.

In this two-part series, we’ll explore four of the most recent and insidious financial scams that have surfaced, shedding light on their tactics and providing you with practical steps to shield your parents from potential harm. READ MORE

Being self-employed is no easy task. You are the owner, and in some cases, the only employee. While you may have more freedom than the average worker, a lot of responsibilities lie on your shoulders. Working together, we can craft a comprehensive estate plan that will help you address three important concerns you may have.

You are your own boss, and you have your own business. That means it is your responsibility to obtain the important things we associate with employment, such as retirement accounts and insurance. To properly plan for your financial future and the future of your business and loved ones, it is important to have a comprehensive plan and an experienced advisor team. The right advisor team can educate you about the available retirement plan options and the best investment strategies based on your unique situation. READ MORE

As kids return to school, they’ll spend most of their day in the care of other people – their teachers, coaches, and babysitters. That means that your children will spend most of their time with people who do not have any legal authority to take care of them for more than a brief time in the event you are in an accident or can’t be reached for any reason. 

And, if your kids are going off to college, you’ll no longer be able to make decisions for them or have access to their medical records in an emergency unless your adult kids create Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives. READ MORE

You might think that estate planning is something you can complete one time and then check off your to-do list for good. But the reality is that in order for your estate plan to work for you no matter how your life changes, your plan needs to change with it.

To make sure any big changes in your life are considered in your plan, I recommend reviewing your estate plan with your attorney at least every three years. But if any major life events happen before then, it’s crucial to have your plan reviewed as soon as possible so it can be updated if needed. READ MORE

You may think that it would make sense to refer to yourself and your family members or loved ones by using their Social Security numbers to ensure that they are correctly identified when the time comes. It is important to provide information in your estate planning documents that is sufficient to properly identify your beneficiaries, but using full legal names, including middle name or initial, is typically adequate.

Providing Social Security numbers would leave the individual vulnerable to the risk of identity theft because there are several estate planning documents that may become part of the public record. A will may need to be filed with the probate court at your death, or a power of attorney or certificate of trust may need to be recorded if real estate is transferred. Once these documents are part of the public record, complete strangers will have access to this private information by making a simple request of the probate court or recording office and paying a small fee. Considering that in 2022 alone, the Federal Trade Commission received 1.1 million reports of identity theft, Social Security numbers should never be included in anyone’s estate plan. READ MORE

Maybe you thought that creating a Will or Trust is something you can do once and then your family and assets are protected forever after. It seems to be how most lawyers structure their services, so it wouldn’t be surprising if you did think this. You work with your lawyer, they draft documents, you bring them home in a binder or notebook, put them on a shelf or in a drawer, and you never hear from them again. Estate plan, done. But, it’s not, and thinking of it that way could leave your family with a big mess when something happens to you. 

In reality, life events can drastically affect your estate plan and even cause your plan not to work in the way you intended. To make sure your plan remains up to date throughout your life, we recommend reviewing your plan at a minimum of every three years. Because I am so passionate about this, I offer to review my clients’ plans every three years for free. READ MORE

Estate planning helps bring peace of mind and a sense of security, both in our lifetime and beyond. While we cannot predict our fate, we can at least dictate how our money and property will be distributed and ensure that we provide for our loved ones.  Physical security is a big part of feeling emotionally, READ MORE

The national debt ceiling is a legal limit set on the amount of money the government can borrow to finance its operations and meet its financial obligations domestically and around the globe. When the government reaches this limit, it cannot borrow more money unless Congress raises or extends the country’s debt ceiling. If the ceiling isn’t raised and the United States can’t pay back its debts, the country’s global creditworthiness is affected as well as financial security abroad and at home.

Congress raised the national debt ceiling on June 3, 2023, which means the United States will not default on its loans. This is good news, and yet the extension of the debt ceiling can still affect the economy and your family. READ MORE

If you are thinking about creating an estate plan, you may hear some new and confusing terms that make your brain hurt. To add to your bewilderment, not only are some of the words unfamiliar, they may also be homophones – words that are pronounced the same as other words, but have different meanings and spellings. For example, an heir is a person who legally (under a will or according to state law) receives money or property from another person when that person dies. In contrast, air is an invisible gaseous substance made up primarily of oxygen and nitrogen that surrounds the earth. The two words sound alike, but obviously have vastly different meanings.

Likewise, if you have heard an estate planning attorney mention a devise, it is very different from a device – which usually refers to a piece of electronic or mechanical equipment. So exactly what is a devise in your estate plan? Adevise is a legal term that traditionally has referred to a gift of real estate made by a will. However, in common usage, it has been used interchangeably with other legal terms such as a bequest, which traditionally refers to a gift made in a will of personal property – that is, property other than real estate. Courts will uphold the use of either term for a gift of real or personal property in a will if the will clearly shows that the person who created it (the willmaker) intended to make the gift.  READ MORE