When you think about estate planning, it’s easy to focus on the documents—your will, trusts, and maybe even who gets the family heirlooms. But what about your properties? Whether it’s the home you live in, a cozy Cape Cod getaway, or that charming White Mountain rental, ensuring your properties are properly aligned with your estate plan is just as crucial. Think of it like fitting together pieces of a puzzle—you need everything to be in the right place to see the full picture.
Swimming is a sport that demands consistency, dedication, and regular practice to achieve peak performance. The same principles apply to estate planning. Establishing, maintaining and updating your estate plan requires ongoing effort and commitment to ensure it remains effective. With the US Olympic Swimming team preparing for Paris, we draw inspiration from their approach and compare it to our own methods in estate planning.
Arguably one of the most popular events of the Summer Games is women’s gymnastics. Simone Biles, along with several familiar faces are going for gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics, and it promises excitement. You may be wondering why an estate planning law firm in Lynnfield, MA, is writing about the 2024 Summer Olympics women’s gymnastics team. However, there are numerous parallels between estate planning and gymnastics when we take a closer look.
Have you ever watched the relay race at the Olympics? The runners train for months and years to master a perfect handoff from one runner to the next. One misstep and the transfer of the baton could be in jeopardy, costing the team a chance at victory. Much like athletes prepare with planning and coordination, the transfer of wealth also requires the same. How can you “pass the baton” of your wealth smoothly and efficiently? Just like the perfect handoff in the relay races at the Olympics, we are exploring ways you can do the same with effective estate planning. [Read more…]
Overcoming Obstacles: Navigating Estate Planning Challenges
Athletes face numerous obstacles when preparing for the Summer Olympics, from injuries to the pressure and stress of competing for their country. These challenges test their agility, strategy, and resilience. Similarly, in estate planning, there are many obstacles or “challenges” that must be overcome to ensure a smooth transition of wealth and assets. While some challenges may seem obvious, there are others that our team has the experience to anticipate and address, helping you prepare for the future. [Read more…]
Most people would rather clean out the gutters than plan for their family’s life after they die, especially if they’ve just added a new member to the family. But the arrival of a new baby is exactly when you need to make sure you have a comprehensive estate plan in place.
SF Gate’s recent article, “Congrats on Your New Baby! Now It’s Time for an Estate Plan,” says that an estate plan is typically thought of as a series of legal documents created with a qualified estate planning attorney that sets out your wishes for the disposition of your assets and the responsibility for your dependents if they are minors when you die. At Family Estate Planning Law Group, however, we recognize that it’s about something even more important: taking care of your family in the event of your death or incapacity. Let’s look at some of the people your estate plan should take into account.
Children. For many, especially those with minor children, this is the most important consideration: in your plan, you’ll designate the person or persons you want to care for your minor children in the event you and your spouse die unexpectedly. You can designate one or more individuals or family members to live with the child and make medical and other personal decisions that a parent would make. This is typically called a guardian.
With regard to financial matters, it’s usually best to have assets held in a trust and managed, used for the child at the discretion of one or more responsible adults. This person (or people) are called trustee(s). The guardian(s) and trustee(s) may be the same person or different people, but we recommend that a living trust be used to hold assets to prevent court supervision.
Loved ones. Your estate plan will also direct your loved ones on how to make health care decisions on your behalf in the event that you become incapacitated. This is a big responsibility for the person chosen, so be sure to clearly state your intentions in a Health Care Proxy and consider having a conversation with your designated health care agent regarding your specific wishes. No planning for health-related issues is complete without a HIPAA release, either. Without it, your loved ones won’t be able to access necessary medical records and your doctors could refuse to speak with them.
Your assets. Most people don’t want to go through the probate process and want to structure their estate plan in a way that will save their heirs and loved ones the time, money, stress and grief often associated with the process. However, to successfully avoid probate, you’ll need to work with an experienced estate planning attorney to not only draft a trust, but to align your assets with the trust. If you don’t put your assets in the name of the trust, it’s not owned by the trust and the trust won’t dictate what happens to those assets when you pass.
Also, to avoid misunderstandings or hard feelings among your heirs, detail the reasons behind your estate planning in a Family Care Meeting. You should also take that opportunity to let everyone involved in executing the plan get a handle on their role and responsibilities.
Yes, it may seem a bit morbid to think about death while holding a newborn or celebrating another happy life event. However, creating an estate plan is an important way to take care of those you love. An experienced estate planning attorney will not only create the legal documents that you need, but guide you through the decision-making process, help you align your assets with your plan, make sure that your wishes are clear and—most importantly—that your family is taken care of.
For more information, explore our website and contact us to schedule your consultation today!
Reference: SF Gate (December 22, 2016) “Congrats on Your New Baby! Now It’s Time for an Estate Plan”
A loan from your 401(k) could very easily become the single most expensive loan you’ve ever had in your life—even if you remember when credit cards and mortgages were at 20% or higher. It’s never a good idea. Wealth Advisor’s recent article, “Why You Shouldn’t Take A 401(k) Loan,” lists some of the reasons why.
Many people who borrow from their 401(k)s, wind up lowering or completely stopping their contributions while they’re paying back the loans. This can mean the loss of 401(k) matching contributions when their contribution rates fall below the maximum matched percentage.
Most people thinking about changing jobs don’t know that their outstanding 401(k) loan balance becomes due when they leave their employer. Whether a job change is voluntary or involuntary, who among us has the financial resources available to pay back a 401(k) loan right away if we leave our employer? As a result, many individuals default.
However, the new tax law gives a little cushion, and you have until your tax return due date the next year. Plan balances that leave 401(k) plans due to loan defaults, are rarely ever made up. That makes it less likely that loan defaulters will build sufficient retirement savings.
It’s a delicate discussion, but when parents are aging, their children should find out if their parents have several basic estate planning documents in place and talk about their final wishes. If they have not done any planning, now is the time—before a crisis occurs.
The Monterey Herald’s recent article, “Financial planning: Making sure Mom is taken care of,” says to first make sure that she has her basic estate planning documents in place. She should have a will, trust, and an Advance Health Care Directive. Talk to an experienced estate planning attorney to make sure these documents fully reflect your mother’s desires. An Advance Health Care Directive lets her name a person to make health care decisions on her behalf, if she becomes incapacitated. This decision-making authority is called a Power of Attorney for Health Care, or Health Care Proxy, and the person receiving the authority is known as the agent.
Senate Bill 901, which is called “Younger-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Act” was introduced in late March by a number of Senators who crossed party lines to support the amendment to the Older Americans Act. According to McKnight’s Senior Living’s article, “Bill would aid those with younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease,”Senate Bill 901 was introduced by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), chairman of the committee, Senator Bob Casey, ranking member and Senators Doug Jones (D-AL) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV). In the House of Representatives, the bill H.R. 1903 introduced was introduced by Representatives Kathleen Rice (D-NY), Pete King (R-NY), David Trone (D-MD), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Chris Smith (R-NJ).
Nutritional programs, supportive services, transportation, legal services, elder-abuse prevention and caregiver support have been available through the OAA since 1965. However, under the current law, only individuals over 60 are eligible.
“These programs would make a huge difference in the lives of individuals living with younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease, who don’t have support services available to them,” said hearing witness Mary Dysart Hartt of Hampden, ME, a caregiver to her husband, Mike, who has young-onset Alzheimer’s.
About 200,000 individuals aged less than 65 have younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease, according to hearing witness Clay Jacobs, executive director of the Greater Pennsylvania Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, North Abington Township, PA.
Unpopular opinion: ‘funding’ or ‘aligning’ your assets is one of the most important things a client can do to ensure the success of their estate plan. To illustrate, please enjoy this very complex metaphor concerning how and why a person would align their assets: If your Estate Plan is a ‘bucket’, and your assets are your ‘stuff’, funding/aligning your assets is putting your ‘stuff’ in your ‘bucket’. Wills, Trusts, Ancillary Documents, are all the foundational building blocks of your Estate Plan and are definitely necessary to make sure your ‘stuff’ goes where you want it to. However, even if you built the perfect bucket, if you never put anything in it, no one can take anything out.
To explain things a bit more in depth, take for example, your bank accounts. While your estate planning documents may have designated all of your bank accounts to your family, the bank can refuse to distribute the funds in a timely matter for many different reasons. There are a variety of situations in which one’s family members may need to go through a lengthy and expensive process through probate court in order gain access to the assets that their loved ones left behind for them. However, if the account is already owned by a person’s trust during life, there is no need have to go through a lengthy probate court process. A simple form to change the ownership to one’s trust, puts the asset directly in ‘the bucket’. Simply, those who have been designated as trustees, have legal authority and can immediately gain access to these assets through this method.
