Estate Planning Archives - Page 9 of 10

Tell Your Estate Attorney About All of Your Assets

Posted on June 8, 2015

Some people are naturally secretive about their finances. People either feel judge by the level of their assets if they believe they don’t have enough, or they don’t trust anyone enough to say where all of their assets are. And so stock certificates are held in file cabinets, cash is stuffed in loose books, funds are held overseas, and random banks and passbooks hold small account balances. My message to you: Secrecy may cost you dearly when you pass away. Whenever you earn interest, the IRS receives a 1099 from the financial institution. When I have a recently deceased client whom I suspect has withheld account information (despite my urgings to let me know during her lifetime) I ask the

Give It Back! New York Turnover Proceedings

Posted on May 20, 2015

When a person passes away many people have a tendency of ransacking the decedent’s home and absconding with property. Co-Signers run to the bank to empty the safe deposit box (which they are NOT allowed to do in New York), people with access to the house take all types of personal belongings (so you know, the door locks should be changed immediately), and some people illegally use the decedent’s credit cards. Other people will accumulate mail containing financial information, then act as they see fit. Other times people will have an incapacitated person sign a Power of Attorney or blank checks, or even forge the signature. When that person dies the property that was supposed to go to one person goes to

Wills Only Deal With a Deceased Person’s Money

Posted on May 13, 2015

The title of this blog seems clear: A will only deals with a deceased person’s money. But what exactly does this mean? Is a retirement plan such as an IRA a deceased person’s money? How about a life insurance policy owned by the deceased individual? The term “estate” means many things, though the term essentially means “property”. Real estate is often referred to as real property by attorneys. The “gross estate” means all property owned by the deceased person for taxation purposes, meaning everything they have control over (including life insurance, some joint property, and retirement plans). However, the “Probate Estate” is only property that passes through probate. Probate proceedings do not distribute funds paid outside of probate. Life insurance

Asking Your Attorney About “Wise” Investments

Posted on May 5, 2015

Attorneys have a reputation for “killing” more deals than they enable. In my experience this is a true statement: Several clients make haphazard investment decisions, such as signing contracts with “silent partners,” getting involved with high risk investments (my least-favorite: forwarding money for an independent film), or getting their feet wet with a new sure-thing-get-rich-quick scheme (i.e. flipping a home or entry into the rental real estate market). Several attorneys can share horror stories of clients break their backs and banks on these ventures. But the question that should arise is often overlooked by the client: Does the attorney actually have any qualifications or experience to condone or dismiss the investment cost? By their nature, most lawyers are good with

Dealing With the Unthinkable: Handling Affairs After the Death of an Adult Child

Posted on April 24, 2015

I was 4 years old when my father passed away. This obviously caused me a great deal of childhood trauma, and the associated financial and emotional cost to my family to “rehabilitate” me was substantial. Only as I have aged and entered this profession have I become aware that his death seriously affected many other people in the family, not least of which was my mother. But instead of choosing the more obvious individuals, let’s discuss the strain that affected his parents, my grandparents. Depending on the family’s financial dynamic, the loss of an adult child can be absolutely devastating: Some parents have placed an enormous amount of resources on raising that child, and may have sacrificed to the point

GUEST BLOG – Cari B. Rincker, Esq: Farm Estate and Succession Planning

Posted on March 28, 2015

In the words of Ben Franklin, “[f]ailing to plan is planning to fail.” About 90% of farming operations do not survive the transition to the next generation. There are many possible reasons why a family farm does not succeed to a future generation; however, poor estate and succession planning is a prominent concern among the agricultural industry. After all, the average age of the American farmer is approximately 65 years old with very little (if any) estate or succession planning. In way of background, the term “estate planning” involves how the farm assets will be distributed to the heirs while “succession planning” delves into how the agri-business will continue to the next generation. Your objectives will help guide the entire

ESTATE PITFALLS: Simple Things that Will Save Your Estate Money

Posted on March 24, 2015

I will not belabor the point: It costs far less time and money to fix things while you are alive than after your passing. I cannot tell you the number of estate cases I have personally fielded that simultaneously frustrated and burdened beneficiaries and padded my own wallet with no real necessity to do this from the beneficiary side. Here are some things you can do to pass more money to your beneficiaries and less to the attorney administering to your estate: STOCK CERTIFICATES: Yes, these still exist. Some stocks may have split, some may have been merged into another company, some certificates may be lost or not in a convenient place for your beneficiaries to find them. Transfer these

Medicaid Planning for the Single Non-Parent: Huh?

Posted on February 24, 2015

The heading of this posting says it all: I see very little reason for a single individual with no children to do Medicaid planning. Now let me explain why: First, Medicaid is designed to transfer family wealth. And yes, a niece, nephew, brother or sister are all considered family. But it is very rare that siblings or aunt / uncles share the same bond and sense of responsibility that are indicative of the parent / child relationship. Parents will sacrifice a great deal for their children, but most aunts and uncles have much more limited boundaries. I do see exceptions, but they are rare. Now for the real heart of the topic, and don’t be surprised when you read this:

Smart Ideas for Making Your Agents Known (When Needed)

Posted on February 24, 2015

Too many attorneys fail to inform a person’s Power of Attorney, Health Care Agent, or Executor that he/she has been named as a person’s agent or, even worse, fail to tell their clients to inform these people of their responsibilities. These practitioners appear to have the attitude of “I’ve been paid, you have your legal documents, let’s both move onto the next thing in our lives.” While this does not rise to the level of legal malpractice, it certainly is inconsiderate and potentially dangerous, for the following reasons: These documents are not public record. If there is an emergency, how is a Health Care Agent going to be identified by the admitting health care facility? The documents may be hard

Requiem for ILITs (Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts)

Posted on February 24, 2015

My study group of like-minded Trusts and estates attorneys recently got together to discuss the ins-and-outs of ILITs. After a somewhat half-hearted review of the features and benefits of these trusts, we slowly realized the sad truth: It was time to bury these time-honored tax-saving mechanisms. An Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (“ILIT”) is—surprise—an irrevocable trust that both owns and is the beneficiary of a life insurance policy. When estate tax exemptions were much lower several years ago, meaning that more people were paying a “death tax,” these trusts were ideal because, at death, the life insurance policy was paid to the trust and, when done correctly, transferred the proceeds free from estate taxes. This, coupled with the absence of income