National Estate Planning Awareness Week
In 2008, Congress designated the third week of October as “National Estate Planning Awareness Week.” The reason for this designation is that most Americans do not have an adequate plan in place to handle disability or death.
Below is a list of some estate planning documents that many people should consider to protect themselves and their families:
- Revocable Living Trust. Upon either disability or death, a Revocable Living Trust allows persons you designate (“successor trustees”) to easily take control of your assets and to follow your instructions about what should be done. During disability, your successor trustees will be able to pay your bills and make sure that your investment and financial needs are handled properly. Upon death, your successor trustees will be able to settle your estate, without court involvement, and distribute your assets to your beneficiaries on confidential terms and conditions that you establish.
- Funding Documents. In order for a Revocable Living Trust to be effective, your assets (other than retirement plans, life insurance, and annuities) should be titled to your trust. Check your bank statements, financial statements, stocks, bonds, and deeds to real property to make sure that your trust –and not you as an individual –is the registered owner.
- Beneficiary Designations. Retirement plans, life insurance, and annuities are typically not titled to your trust while you are living. As such, you should make sure that the “designated beneficiaries” for these assets are up-to-date and coordinated with your overall estate plan. If you do not have a copies of your Beneficiary Designations, ask your financial institutions for copies and keep them with your estate planning documents.
- Pour Over Will. Even if you have a Revocable Living Trust, you should also have a Pour Over Will. The Will names your trust as the beneficiary for any assets that are not titled to the trust or do not have designated beneficiaries. A Pour Over Will can also handle assets that you neglected or forgot to title to your trust.
- Durable General Power of Attorney. A Durable General Power of Attorney designates someone to handle matters for you during a period of disability (an “agent”). Your agent will be able to handle any assets during disability that are not titled to your trust. In addition, your agent will be able to sign tax returns on your behalf, have access to your mail, and deal with Medicare, Social Security, and other government agencies.
- Advance Health Care Directive. Your Advance Health Care Directive performs two key functions. First, it gives authority to someone you choose to make health care decisions for you during a period of disability. Second, it allows you to express your wishes as far as how that person should make such decisions.
- HIPAA Waiver. HIPAA is a law that, among other things, protects your medical privacy. It prevents health care providers from disclosing your health information to third parties. This can become a problem when your successor trustees, your power of attorney agents, or your health care agents need to know your condition in order to carry out your plan. A HIPAA Waiver authorizes health care providers to disclose your health information to certain individuals you designate.
For “National Estate Planning Awareness Week,” take the time to consider these documents listed above. If you do not have any of the documents, think about whether you might need them. If you already have these documents in place, take the time to review them to make sure they are up to date. A qualified trust and estate planning attorney can help navigate you through the process.
Please feel free to share this edition of Estate Planning Matters with your clients who need to establish or update their estate plans.
We welcome the opportunity to be of value to individuals who are interested in arranging a Complementary Consultation to discuss their estate planning goals.
If you would like to discuss a particular client situation, or arrange a consultation on behalf of your client, please contact The Levin Law Firm directly at (610) 977-2443.
The 8 Threats to Your Estate Plan
While working with your current clients and new prospects, please suggest that they arrange a meeting with an experienced trust and estate planning attorney in order to establish or update their personal estate plan. We would be pleased to offer your clients a Complimentary Consultation to help them avoid The 8 Threats to Your Estate Plan.
Lack of an Up-to-Date Will – Financial Power of Attorney – Health-Care Power of Attorney
Over 70% of Americans do not have a valid up-to-date Will. Therefore, make sure you ask your clients if they have their core estate planning documents in place to protect themselves and their family in the event of an illness, injury, incapacity, or death.
Fiduciary Selections: Executors – Trustees – Guardians
Current individuals appointed as a fiduciary under Wills and Trusts may be deceased, relocated, or unable to serve when required. Make sure that your clients review and update their existing fiduciaries.
Distributing All Property Outright vs. Trust-Based Estate Plan
A trust-based plan can provide your clients’ beneficiaries with valuable asset protection benefits by essentially placing a shell around their assets in order to provide protection from potential predators and creditors.
“All-to-Spouse” Plan vs. “Disclaimer Trust” Plan
Based upon current tax law, a Disclaimer Trust Plan can save families over $345,800 for married couples with collective assets over $2 million, upon the passing of the surviving spouse.
Personal Ownership of Life Insurance vs. Trust Owned Life Insurance
When properly designed and implemented a Life Insurance Trust can insulate the death proceeds of a life insurance policy from Federal estate tax consequences that can range from 37% – 55%.
Failure to Establish or Update Your Business Succession Plan
Business owners should have a business succession plan, or “Business Will.” When properly designed and adequately funded, a deceased owner’s family can receive fair value for the decedent’s share of a business, and surviving business owners will be in a much better financial position to continue the business enterprise.
Failure to Consider a Retirement Plan Trust for “Inherited IRAs”
Retirement Plan Trusts can ensure that your clients children stretch-out their Inherited IRAs, to create a lasting legacy, instead of cashing them out upon receipt, with adverse income tax consequences. Asset protection benefits for the beneficiaries are also available through use of a Retirement Plan Trust.
Lack of a Coordinated Financial and Estate Planning Team
Experience reveals that taking a team approach helps our clients to better see and allow us to solve their financial and estate planning concerns, providing a win-win for all parties.
Every client is different, and each unique situation presents its own estate planning challenges and opportunities. We encourage you to visit The Levin Law Firm website, which contains easy-to-understand trust and estate planning topics that can help your clients plan today to protect and preserve their estate. Feel free to print any page, bookmark it to return later, or forward a copy to your clients, along with your friends, family members, and colleagues.
At The Levin Law Firm, we try to make the estate planning process as simple and convenient as possible. When your client is ready to schedule their initial consultation, our Estate Planning Fact-Finder contains valuable tips on how to prepare for their Estate Planning Consultation.
If you would like to discuss a particular client situation, or arrange a consultation on behalf of your client, please contact Laura or Ginni at (610) 977-2443.
Estate Planning Fundamentals
While some clients think that estate planning is only about how to divide their property after they pass away, one of the most important reasons to create an estate plan is to pass on values and beliefs.
A comprehensive estate plan should also focus on taking care of clients while they are alive and implementing the best strategies for providing optimum flexibility in the event of an illness, injury, or incapacity.
Our clients agree that estate planning is about:
- Maintaining control of their property while alive;
- Taking care of themselves and loved ones in the event of a disability;
- Giving property to who they want, the way they want, and when they want; and
- Minimizing taxes, expenses, and court costs which are legally possible.
At The Levin Law Firm, we strive to provide caring and compassionate client service. We want our clients to know that we are here to take care of them by first listening to their unique concerns and goals. Only then, can recommend viable estate, trust, and tax planning strategies designed to achieve the goals and objectives of our clients.
Every client is different, and each unique situation presents its own estate planning challenges and opportunities. We encourage you to visit The Levin Law Firm website, which contains easy-to-understand trust and estate planning topics that can help your clients plan today to protect and preserve their estate. Feel free to print any page, bookmark it to return later, or forward a copy to your clients, along with your friends, family members, and colleagues.
At The Levin Law Firm, we try to make the estate planning process as simple and convenient as possible. When your client is ready to schedule their initial consultation, our Estate Planning Fact-Finder contains valuable tips on how to prepare for their Estate Planning Consultation.
We welcome the opportunity to be of value to individuals who are interested in arranging a Complementary Consultation to discuss their estate planning goals.
If you would like to discuss a particular client situation, or arrange a consultation on behalf of your client, please contact The Levin Law Firm directly at (610) 977-2443.
Is Your Estate Plan Up-to-Date?
Make this season the one where you resolve to get your estate plan in order. Unlike my previous newsletters, this one is expressly directed to you, the advisor, as it is my experience that when financial advisors have their affairs in order, they are more likely to ensure that their clients do too.
The court fight over Jimi Hendrix’s assets lasted 30 years. Bob Marley was diagnosed with cancer eight months before his death and he still did not do prepare a Will. Sonny Bono died suddenly in a ski accident without any Will in place. His ex-wife Cher filed claims and a love child appeared looking for a share of his estate. When Stieg Larsson, author of the book, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, died suddenly of a heart attack without having a Will, his lifelong partner of 32 years received nothing; Swedish law divided his intestate estate between his father and his brother.
The moral of the story is:”If you do not have an estate plan, your family will inherit the state’s plan.”
More specifically, the law in the state in which you are domiciled and own property has written a Will for you under their intestate statute. Almost without exception, intestacy laws are not the ones you would like applied for the distribution of assets you have worked hard to accumulate over your life. This is especially true if you are unmarried, have children from different marriages, family conflict, charitable intentions, or own one or more businesses.
8 Estate Planning Resolutions That Are Keepers
Resolve to take the following actions this Spring:
- Gather Your Personal and Financial Information. Take time to sit down with your spouse/significant other and review it. Is it all in order? Are all your beneficiaries (primary and secondary) up-to-date? Are your assets titled properly (individual name, jointly owned, or in trust)? Do you have copies of all your important documents and passwords, and do you each know how to access them? What if something happens to both of you? Who else has that knowledge?
- Review Your Insurance Coverage. Is all your insurance up-to-date with adequate coverage amounts? Review life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance, property and casualty insurance, and your umbrella liability policy.
- Financial and Health-Care Protection. Make sure every adult member of your family, including you, your partner/spouse, your children and your parents have up-to-date Durable Financial Powers of Attorney and Health-Care Powers of Attorney.
- Review Your Estate Planning Documents, Based Upon Your Current Personal, Financial, and Family Circumstances, along with Tax Law Changes. With the assistance of your estate planning attorney, review your legal documents, not just from a technical point of view, but also from an operational point of view. For example, if you died today, would your property distribute to the right people, at the right time, and in the proper manner? Would a trust-based plan be wise for one or more of your beneficiaries, compared to an immediate outright distribution of your property? Examine the practical and tax consequences of your current Will or Trust.
- Prepare an Income and Asset Analysis. If you became injured, incapacitated, or passed away today, would your surviving family members have a good understanding of the asset size and structure of your estate? Do you have a financial plan and is it up-to-date? If you became disabled or died, would the people you care for now be provided for in the proper manner?
- Review Your Fiduciary Selections. Who have you appointed as Executor and Guardian under the terms of your Will, as well as Agent under your Financial Power of Attorney and Health-Care Power of Attorney? Are the current fiduciaries under your existing estate plan still appropriate, or should your selections be modified, based upon changes which have occurred in recent years? Who is named as Trustee for any property which you own that you do not want distributed outright in the event of your death? Have you made back-up choices for your fiduciaries in the event that one or more people you have selected to serve as a fiduciary become unable or unavailable to carry out their responsibilities to your family, and are your selections still the right ones?
- Communicate Your Wishes Clearly. Consider writing a Letter of Instructions to those people who you have selected to handle your affairs, as well as family members, which convey thoughts that you may not wish to express now while you are alive, but that would be important for others to know later.
- Update Your Contact List. Prepare a list of all your professional advisers, including their updated contact information.
Please take time this Spring to review these eight (8) estate planning resolutions, and make sure that you have truly accomplished them…..then encourage your clients to do the same.
As the saying goes: “Besides death and taxes, the only constant in life is change.”
To learn more about how The Levin Law Firm can create a comprehensive estate plan designed to help you achieve your wealth transfer, business transition, and retirement distribution goals, please contact our office to arrange a Complimentary Consultation at (610) 977-2443.
It is estimated that over 120 million Americans do not have up-to-date estate plans and long term financial strategies to protect themselves or their families in the event of an illness, incapacity, or untimely death. The purpose of National Estate Planning Awareness Week is to encourage citizens to address these vital issues, before a life event occurs that might adversely impact their daily lives, resulting in the inability to establish or revise their estate plan.
Estate planning encompasses many areas that your clients need to properly address, including:
Asset Protection Planning;
Beneficiary Designations;
Selection of Executors, Trustees, and Guardians;
Insurance-Based Financial Solutions;
Long-Term Care Planning; and
Legitimate Tax Minimization Strategies
For the many millions of Americans who do not have an up-to-date life and estate plan, including a Will, Financial and Health-Care Powers of Attorney, Advance Medical Directive, and Financial Plan, the consequences can prove devastating in the absence of a cohesive plan.
Knowledge of what steps to take, and implementing a well designed estate plan, prevents delays, unnecessary expenses, and confusion which results when crisis planning is required.
Wills, Trusts, and other important estate planning legal documents should only be prepared by a knowledgeable and experienced estate planning attorney. To arrange an “Estate Planning Check-up” with your selected clients, contact Sherri at The Levin Law Firm to schedule a Complimentary Consultation at 610-977-2443.
