Estate Planning Must Haves for Parents - Even If You Have Legal Documents
A comprehensive estate plan — which we prefer to see as a Life and Legacy Plan — can protect what matters most to you. For many, this means everything you own and everyone you love.
Obviously, this includes providing for the care of your children as an essential piece of your peace of mind. But many parents struggle with including such provisions as naming a legal guardian for their child in their plan. Even the fictional parents in the popular television sitcom Modern Family struggled with this issue in a specific episode. While Jay and his new and much younger wife Gloria agonized and argued about who they should name as a legal guardian for their children, their children were left at risk that if something happened to Jay and Gloria before they decided and properly named guardians in a legal document, a judge would make the decision for them. Not ideal, under any circumstances.
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Money Talk: How Much Will You Share With Your Children (and When)?
In many families, money still is not a typical dinner table discussion, but we think it should be. Surprisingly, this is especially true when it comes to affluent parents. And, we hope to change it because one of the most important things you can do is talk to your kids (and your parents) about money.
According to the Spectrem Millionaire Corner, a market research group, only 17% of affluent parents said they would disclose their income or net worth to their kids by the time they turned 18. A nearly equal amount, 18% said they would never disclose these numbers to their kids. 32% of the rich parents surveyed by Spectrem said “it’s none of their business” when asked why they would not talk to their kids about money.
But, that’s just faulty thinking, wouldn’t you agree?! We hope so! But, if not, read on …
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Why You Need a Trust - Even If You Aren't Rich
When you hear the words, “trust fund,” do you conjure up images of stately mansions and party yachts? A trust fund — or trust — is actually a great estate planning tool for many people with a wide range of incomes who want to accomplish a specific purpose with their money.
Simply put, a trust is just a vehicle used to transfer assets, and trusts are especially useful for parents of minor children as well as those who wish to spare their beneficiaries the hassle of going to Court in the event of their incapacity or death.
And why would you want to keep your family out of court (known as avoiding probate)?
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Three Unique Ways to Handle the Guilt Inherent to Being a Parent
If you’re a parent, you may have many reasons for feeling guilt. Many of those reasons may be good ones. Being a parent means holding an obligation, and in the grand scheme of themes, it’s a sacred one. So, if you feel guilt for not measuring up to the standards that you ought to be measuring up to as a parent, you are definitely not alone.
Currently, the burden is on you to provide for your child’s full-time care, your child’s education, and your child’s formation as a healthy human being. These are multiple full-time jobs, and in our current culture, these are jobs that many parents do alone without the cultural, familial, and institutional supports that used to exist for families with children.
If you are like most parents, you were probably struggling with guilt even before the corona virus shutdowns began in early 2020. Even now, you simply cannot make it to every award ceremony or recital, and you likely do not have as much time to play with your kids or help them with their homework as you’d like.
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How Do Trusts Help You Save on Taxes?
Many people come to us curious (or confused) about trusts and taxes. So today’s article is going to sort it out and clarify things for you.
There are two major types of trusts, and each has different tax consequences.
INCOME TAXES
Revocable trusts, which are the far more commonly used trusts, have no immediate tax consequences whatsoever. A revocable trust has your social security number as its tax identifier, and is not a separate entity from you for tax purposes. It is a separate entity from you for purposes of probate, meaning if you become incapacitated or die your Trustee can take over without a court order, keeping your family out of court. But, until your death, it’s treated as invisible from a tax perspective. At the time of your death, if your revocable trust provides for the creation of irrevocable trusts, then the tax implications will shift.
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Learning to Flourish, Even in the Next Financial Crisis
Maybe you, like many of us, have been raised to think that the safest way to live in the working world is to have a good career and a steady paycheck. But historically, recent financial crises have been challenging that framework for many people. Even if you had a steady job, and even if you still have one, by now you’ve learned how easy it is for that security to disappear overnight.
A recession can reveal all of our negative thoughts and internal monologues about money. A sad, yet common, attitude is for us to see money as a scarce resource, and income as something that’s outside of our control. Thinking or talking about money can trigger feelings of guilt and shame in many people.
It doesn’t have to be that way. The truth is, money is a tool that you can access and multiply, independent of anyone else’s permission. And even if you do have anxieties that keep you from seeing how money can be a positive part of your life, that can change.
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Estate Planning 101: Wills vs. Trusts
Wills and trusts are two of the most commonly used estate planning documents, and they form the foundation of most estate plans. While both documents are legal vehicles designed to distribute your assets to your loved ones upon your death, the way in which they work is quite different.
From when they take effect and the property they cover to how they are administered, wills and trusts have some key differences that you need to consider when creating your estate plan. That said, when comparing the two documents, you won’t necessarily be choosing between one or the other — most plans include both.
In fact, a will is a foundational part of nearly every person’s estate plan. Yet, you may want to combine your will with a living trust to avoid the blind spots inherent in plans that rely solely on a will. As you’ll learn below, the biggest of these blind spots is the fact that if your estate plan only consists of a will, you are guaranteeing your family has to go to court if you become incapacitated or when you die.
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Don't Forget To Protect Your Furry Family Members: Estate Planning for Your Pets
It’s sad but true that many pets end up in shelters after their owner dies or becomes incapacitated. In fact, the Humane Society estimates that between 100,000 to 500,000 pets are placed in shelters each year for exactly this reason, and a large number of these animals are ultimately euthanized.
The law considers pets to be nothing more than personal property, just like cars, furniture, and electronic devices. So unless you take the proper steps to include your pet in your estate plan, your beloved companion could end up in a shelter or worse following your death or incapacity.
In light of this cold reality, here we’ll detail how you can use estate planning to ensure your pets receive the best possible care when you’re no longer able to care for them yourself. Consult with our Personal Family Lawyer® to put the proper legal documents in place to provide for your furry friend’s future care.
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Should You (Or Your Parents) Be In the Stock Market Now?
If you or your parents have a retirement account (or any investment accounts for that matter), now is the time to get connected to how those accounts are invested. While you may have outsourced all of this to a broker in the past, you can no longer afford to allow your investments to be made without your clear understanding of exactly what you are investing in, how, and whether your investments align with your plans for the future.
A colleague shared a story that hit home with us, and it may for you as well.
After our colleague’s grandmother died, her grandmother’s retirement and investment accounts went directly to her mom, due to the estate planning they had set up. No court process. No intervention. No conflict. Great!
But our colleague’s mom then never looked at the investments in those accounts. She just let them stay as they were for four years, until finally, her daughters convinced her to look.
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Why Every Adult Needs An Advance Health Care Directive
When it comes to estate planning and wills, you have a variety of options for legal documents. The most common of these options is a “last will and testament,” which is also known simply as a “will.” But you may have also heard people talk about a “living will” or “advance health care directive” and wonder what that is, and whether you need a living will in addition to a regular last will and testament.
Both terms describe important legal documents used in estate planning, but their purpose and function differ significantly. In this article, we will review some of the most critical things you need to know about living wills and why having a living will is essential to every adult’s estate plan. And it may be that a living will is even more important than a last will and testament.
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