Don't Leave Your Children with the Babysitter Until You Read This

Consider the following scenario:

You and your spouse are out to dinner, and your kids are at home with the babysitter. On your way home, you get into a car accident. When you fail to make it home on time, the babysitter calls you repeatedly, but when no one answers, she calls the police.

The police arrive and find your kids with the babysitter, who offers to stay with the children until a relative can be found to take them. But because the babysitter doesn’t have the legal authority to care for the children — even temporarily — the police have no choice but to call Child Protective Services. These authorities will take your children into custody until they can locate and/or appoint the proper guardian.

This is the case even if you have friends or family living nearby who are willing and even offer to care for the children. If you haven’t left proper legal documentation, the authorities have no option but to call Child Protective Services. You must give the authorities a legal basis for keeping your children with the friends or family you designate.

Estate PlanningStephen PennerApril 5, 2023Guardianships, Kids Protection Plan®

Three Critical Considerations For How to Save For Your Child's (or Grandchild's) College Education - Part 1

Since 1996, 529 plans, which are named for Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, have been one of the most popular options for covering college costs. Congress expanded these plans to cover K–12 education in 2017, and it also changed the program to pay up to $10,000 in student loan debt in 2019.

One reason 529 plans are so popular is due to their tax-saving advantages. The money you contribute to a 529 account grows on a tax-deferred basis, and withdrawals are tax-free, provided they are used for qualified education expenses, such as tuition, room and board, and other education-related fees. And many states also provide a tax deduction or credit for 529 contributions.

Another appealing feature of 529 plans is their relatively high contribution limits. There is no limit on how much you can contribute each year, although if you contribute more than $17,000 (the amount of the gift tax exemption limit in 2023), you can trigger federal gift taxes and the requirement to file a gift tax return. If you plan to make a contribution close to or above $17,000, contact us for guidance.

One of the Greatest Gifts to Your Family Is Your Plan for Incapacity

When it comes to estate planning, most people automatically think about taking legal steps to ensure the right people inherit their stuff when they die. Although that is not wrong, it also leaves out a very important piece of planning for life, and perhaps the most critical part of legal planning.

Planning that’s focused solely on who gets what when you die is ignoring the fact that death isn’t the only thing you must prepare for. Rather, consider that at some point before your eventual death, you could be incapacitated by accident or illness.

Like death, each of us is at constant risk of experiencing a devastating accident or disease that renders us incapable of caring for ourselves or our loved ones. But unlike death, which is by definition a final outcome, incapacity comes with an uncertain outcome and timeframe. And yet, statistically, over 80% of us will be incapacitated at some period during our lifetimes.

How To Pass On Family Heirlooms & Keepsakes Without Causing A Family Feud

When creating an estate plan, people are often most concerned with passing on the “big things” like real estate, bank accounts, and vehicles. Yet these possessions very often aren’t the items that have the most meaning for the loved ones we leave behind.

Smaller items, like family heirlooms and keepsakes, which may not have a high dollar value, frequently have the most sentimental value for our family members. But for a number of reasons, these personal possessions are often not specifically accounted for in wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents.

However, it’s critical that you don’t overlook this type of property in your estate plan, as the distribution of such items can become a source of intense conflict and strife for those you leave behind. In fact, if you don’t properly address family heirlooms and keepsakes in your estate plan, it can lead to long-lasting disagreements that can tear your family apart.

Three Reasons Why Single Folks With No Children Need An Estate Plan

These days, more and more young people are delaying — if not totally foregoing — a life that involves marriage and parenting. The lack of jobs, crushing student debt, multiple recessions, and the pandemic have pushed many young people into a life path that has left little room for settling down with a partner and getting married — and even less room for having children.

For other young adults, staying single and childless for now is simply a matter of choice. Regardless of the reason, as more young adults opt for growing older without marriage or children, the number of single childless households is likely to steadily increase in the coming years. But, while such a life may not be permanent, these are not years to forgo the responsibility of legal and financial planning.

While most adults don’t take estate planning as seriously as they should, if you are single with no children, you might think that there’s really no need for you to worry about creating an estate plan. But this is a huge mistake. In fact, it can be even MORE important to have an estate plan if you are single and childless.

Estate Planning Before You Travel: Why It's Critically Important

Vacations can be the perfect opportunity to relax, disconnect from work and responsibilities, and enjoy the company of your spouse, kids or friends. But before you head off on your next getaway, there’s something else you should consider doing that might not sound quite as fun — creating an estate plan. While it may not sound like the most thrilling way to spend a day, here are some reasons why you need to think about your estate plans before you travel.

Four Essential Strategies for Protecting Your Family's Assets

You might think that only the super wealthy need to worry about asset protection planning. But the truth is that if you don’t have millions, you may be at even greater risk. For instance, if you are a multi-millionaire, a $50,000 judgment against you might not be that big of a deal. But for a family with a modest income, savings, and home, it could be devastating.

Furthermore, asset protection planning isn’t something you can put off until something happens. Once you are under threat of a lawsuit, it’s likely too late to protect your assets. Like all types of planning, to be effective, you must have your asset protection strategies in place well before something happens. And your asset protection plan isn’t a one-and-done deal: it must be regularly updated to accommodate changes to your assets, family dynamics, and the law.

While you should meet with our Personal Family Lawyer® to determine the asset protection strategies that are best suited for your particular asset profile and family situation, here are four essential strategies to consider for safeguarding your family’s most valuable assets.

Key Milestones for Planning Your Retirement

Retirement is not just the time in life when you will be doing nothing. It is not even a period that you can choose to skip because you plan to keep working. Many individuals work full-time during their retirement years, but they still take advantage of tax and financial opportunities because of their age. Indeed, the wise and prudent adult views retirement as the last 3-4 decades of their life. It is a period where the statistical probability of injury, health problems, and illness is high, even for healthy and physically active adults. It is a period where the statistical probability of your wanting to access savings in order to provide for and help those whom you love most is practically certain.

Even if you continue working, it is also a period where those who you love will likely have days, weeks, or months where they will need you to take time off work to be there for them. Planning for retirement, even while you are in your college years, is the practice of a good and responsible family member and friend. But the road to retirement is a long one, and as with any journey, it helps to have a few key milestones along the way to help gauge your progress. While your individual retirement plan and goals will be unique to your income, family situation, and desired lifestyle, most Americans share a number of common retirement milestones.

10 Common Estate Planning Mistakes Your Family Can't Afford to Make - Part 2

Part of creating any family involves, for every responsible adult, creating a financial plan and a legal plan. Whether your family is new or old, maintaining stability and security are a part of how you protect those you love most. Everyone needs to manage their finances well. And everyone needs an estate plan that avoids the most common pitfalls made by those who are not well informed.

Estate planning is definitely not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Even if you think your particular situation is simple, that turns out to almost never be the case. To demonstrate just how complicated estate planning can be, last week in part one, we highlighted the first five of 10 of the most common estate-planning mistakes, and here we wrap up the list with the remaining five mistakes.

Estate PlanningStephen PennerMarch 20, 2023Beneficiary Designations, Trusts, Guardianships, Trustees

How Creating A Life & Legacy Plan With Us Creates And Preserves Your Family's Legacy

When you think about loved ones who’ve passed away, you probably don’t think very much—or even at all—about the “things” they’ve left you. And when they do leave something behind, what you likely cherish most about the object are the memories and feelings the item evokes, not the thing itself.

For the founder and CEO of New Law Business Model, Ali Katz, the most treasured memento her late father left her wasn’t even something he intended to be special — it was just a random voicemail on her cellphone. And the message wasn’t meant to be anything sentimental.

His message simply said, “Lex, it’s your dad. Call me back.”

Following his death, Ali loved listening to that message to hear her father’s voice. Of all the assets he left behind, that tiny voicemail was what she cherished most.

Until one day, she went to listen to the message and discovered it had been erased — and her father’s voice was lost to her forever. She still recalls that day as one of her worst ever. Yet like most painful events, it taught her an important lesson.

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