Category: Estate Planning

Thinking ahead about your future requires careful and complex consideration of a variety of issues. A recent study by Unum shows that many adults find their finances daunting and therefore, forget to take action steps that can help to protect them or their loved ones.

According to this study, around 38% of adults in the United States state that their ability to manage their finances is very poor, poor or average. Another 40% stated that they did not know if they had a life insurance policy or openly acknowledge that they didn’t have one in place.

Given that a top cause of anxiety for many of these survey respondents was thinking about what would happen to their family members should they die unexpectedly; it can be very overwhelming to approach this process on your own.

Scheduling a consultation with an estate planning attorney, however, can help give you clarity on the action steps that are most important to take when thinking about protecting your future and the future of your loved ones.

An estate planning lawyer can help to remove some of the mystique or confusion around the process and give you powerful tools for next steps. Ignoring your opportunities to plan can set you up for failure in the future if something were to happen to you. Knowing the people you can turn to and count on in a time of need is critical; having the estate planning documents to support that is vital as well.

Every so often it’s helpful to sit down and review your existing estate planning documents. Ideally you will have stored a copy of these with your estate planning lawyer and also have copies for yourself. Regular review of your existing estate plans can help you to determine when you need to incorporate additional planning goals.

The five key documents that should at least be considered in your conversation with an experienced estate planning lawyer include a durable power of attorney, a will, an advanced medical directive, a letter of instruction, and a living revocable trust.

A durable power of attorney assists you if you become mentally or physically incompetent to handle financial matters. A will is a desirable cornerstone of your estate plan if you are over age 18. Advanced medical directives give instructions about medical treatment you would want if you are unable to speak for yourself and a letter of instruction as a non-legal and informal document that is used to express your preferences and thoughts in conjunction with other estate planning tools. Finally, a revocable living trust could be something you discuss with your estate planning lawyer.

Once you become incompetent, pass away, or resign, a successor trustee will be there to administer aspects of the trust. Schedule a consultation with an attorney today so that you can learn whether or not these estate planning documents are necessary for you.       

If you don’t have any children and are currently not married, there’s a good chance you think you don’t need life insurance. If your first thought was that life insurance can help your family members pay for funeral expenses and you’re not concerned about that, you might have skipped the application and verification process for life insurance.

You’ll still want to consider life insurance, however, for plenty of other reasons, like funding your children’s education or the payment of debts. Regardless of your individual situation, there are plenty of reasons you might have avoided life insurance but should now consider it. Research from a national financial organization shows that less than 60 percent of people in the U.S. have life insurance and that many of those who do have a policy don’t have enough coverage to protect them and their loved ones.

Considering life insurance as part of the bigger financial picture can help you navigate complexities with your estate. Some of the ways that you can use estate planning include providing money to the people you love, using a universal life policy as additional retirement income, getting access to money if you get sick depending on your policy’s riders, protecting your company, and leave a legacy.

Providing a standard of living for you and your loved ones is a common goal for plenty of Americans. Having a way to support your family members gives you peace of mind and ensures that they have one less thing to worry about in the wake of your passing. Life insurance policies are paid through a claims department after your family has provided the proper documentation. This means that they can focus on other aspects of managing your estate, particularly for your executor or personal representative.

If you want to support yourself with a universal policy and also verify that your loved ones have a plan for the future, set aside time to speak with an experienced NJ estate planning lawyer today.

I’ve been told in the past that it’s easy for me to discuss Estate Planning, Elder Law and Financial Planning with my loved ones because I do it for a living. “You don’t even need to leave your ‘comfort zone’ to discuss it.” So I am now leaving my comfort zone and putting my money where my mouth is. I left my ‘safe space’ a year ago, and now I am doing it again by sharing a video of it with you and the world (explanation below.)

I get it. Telling someone important to you that:

• they need to take care of their health care documents because you want to know their wishes,
• their tax situation needs to be reviewed because you think they might be paying too much,
• or you want to know how to pay for their long term-care, can be very difficult and awkward.

You know what’s even more awkward? Trying to have a conversation with a sibling about Mom’s care when you don’t know what Mom wanted. Or finding out that you will have to use most of your assets for your spouses care. Or realizing your adult children never named a guardian for your grandchild because you never asked if they had completed their Plan? I don’t have to tell you which has the more tragic outcome: having an uncomfortable conversation now, or waiting for event to happen and regretting never having had the conversation.

So here’s where I am putting it out there and showing you my awkwardness, but first a quick background: Last summer we went a cruise with about 50 family members. It was fantastic. I’ve always enjoyed singing, but I’ve never done it outside of a small group of extremely close friends. But I decided one night, to sign myself up for karaoke. It was to be in front of a room of strangers or the family members. I’d have to face my family for the rest of my life, and I would have to stand & perform in front of strangers, but I did it. You can probably sense my discomfort in the video, I was still shaking for a half-hour after doing it. But I am happy I did it. If for no other reason than to prove a point today.

Now I’m sharing the video with you (and everybody else on my mailing list.) But then it’s your turn. But you don’t have to do it alone: we can help you with the potentially uncomfortable dialogue about your or a loved one’s planning. Just reply to this email & we’ll make it happen. Click below to schedule your free call with me. 

And in case you know anyone from “American Idol” or “The Voice” – feel free to forward it to them & let them know they can schedule a call with me too 😉

Have a great day,

Neel

As you grow older and are concerned about the future of a child with disability, the future can seem overwhelming or even daunting. Thankfully, sitting down with an experienced and knowledgeable estate planning lawyer gives you the chance to ask important questions and to articulate a plan that is aligned with your individual needs.

Start by creating a letter of intent. This is a formal letter of instruction that includes details for your friends and family members if you become unable to act due to a disability yourself or pass away.

Details about your online financial accounts and passwords in addition to any personal details that someone might need to step into your life to care for your loved one with disability should be included. This can include strategies used for calming, daily routines, medications, therapist and other important contact information.

Scheduling a consultation with an experienced estate planning lawyer will help you to understand the vision of what you want your loved one’s future to look like. It can be well worth it to sit down with a dedicated lawyer who is familiar with the specific issues of estate planning.

Putting together an estate plan with a special needs trust enables you to distribute property and funds in a way that does not interrupt or completely block the government funding that your loved might rely on for support. It is important to consider all the various aspects of planning ahead for your loved one’s future and enabling someone else to step in and take quick action if need be.       

A significant legal battle could hold more information for others approaching the estate planning process. The last will and testament of Jeffery Epstein was dated August 8th, just a couple of days before he was found dead in his jail cell.

Over $577 million in total assets, including collectibles and fine arts are expected to be inside his estate and the estate shares information about the creation of a trust to hold that property. When managing anyone’s estate, expenses and debts are typically paid first, followed by spousal transfers and charitable transfers once appropriate estate taxes have been paid. This particular estate is likely to be embattled in litigation for a long period of time to come given that creditors will be first in line.

This includes any plaintiffs who received a judgment in their favor against the estate will be eligible to get paid prior to any property passing through to the heirs. Creditors have to be satisfied first before any meaningful assets can be moved to a remainder person. Five different properties were included inside the will of Jeffery Epstein across Paris, the Virgin Islands, New Mexico and Florida.

Depending on whether or not his estate qualifies for the state level tax, this could lead to considerable revenue for New York. If you are concerned as you approach the estate planning process and want to consider steps in asset protection planning that could add a layer of risk mitigation in the future, schedule a consultation with a trusted attorney today.       

We all know in the back of our minds that at some point in our lives we might have to sort through a loved one’s estate. And yet there’s no way to prepare for the emotional onslaught that you might experience in dealing with grief. That process can be overwhelming and can make it that much harder to navigate probate and other administration tasks. If you’re the executor, you need to be prepared for all the necessary tasks that unfold in managing an estate.

The executor’s role is mostly financial and it begins with cataloguing all the assets in the estate. From there, the executor must pay off debts and taxes and then distribute the remaining amount to beneficiaries and heirs.

However, plenty of in-family executors will feel obligated to do more. If the estate of the person who passed away was substantial and complicated, it can be helpful to hire a professional executor to help with the tasks. Any families in which there’s the potential for infighting could be the perfect option for using a professional executor. If your role as the executor in a loved one’s estate puts you smack in the middle of conflict.

If the estate is indeed complicated, some parts of it might pass through probate whereas others, like assets inside a trust, don’t. Knowing the difference and keeping a general tally of the progress across different projects is important, especially for accounting purposes. An expert hired from the outside can help you keep an accurate inventory and prepare for probate, if necessary.

The support of an outside professional executor, such as a lawyer or corporation, can streamline the process for you. As a loved one, you have enough to worry about. While you want efficient management of the estate, this should not come at your personal expense during your time of grief.

Many well-known career fields are often associated with important asset protection planning. From lawyers to doctors and others with substantial wealth, it’s important to think about how asset protection planning should expand into the world of entrepreneurship.

It’s never been easier to start and scale a business. Every day there are new stories of people doing it from the comfort of their own home, building digital companies and scaling them to six and then seven figures.

Along the way, this entrepreneur might begin to translate some of those business achievements into other assets, like home and cars. But if these steps are undertaken without also considering the importance of asset protection, all it takes is one lawsuit to damage the assets you worked so hard to generate.

If you have a long-term view of your business, then asset protection planning is another important step you take to secure your growth in the company and ensure that the assets you’ve accumulated are used to support you and your beneficiaries.

Another key aspect of being an entrepreneur is having the documentation in place to protect you if you were to become disabled. A sudden disability can derail your company completely if you don’t have a plan in place and a way to allow someone else to make those key decisions for you.

The bottom line is that business owners and their companies cannot afford to be exposed to vulnerabilities like lawsuits or the sudden stop of company operations due to an accident or disability. Using estate and asset protection planning tools empowers the entrepreneur and the key staff members at the company with options should the need arise.

If your company is growing at a fast pace but you don’t have the documentation or asset protection tools like trusts in place, sitting down with the right asset protection planning lawyer is one of the most important things you can do to protect your interests and your future.

The baby boomer generation is bringing to light some of the most common challenges with long-term care and future planning. Since it’s expected that many people passing their retirement age might have to continue to work for financial reasons and then also need some form of health support like a nursing home or assisted living, studies show that plenty of older adults have no plan at all.

It’s not a problem of limited facilities: in response to the trends in long term care, plenty of facilities and organizations have been created to help the elderly with their daily lives. But the costs associated with these facilities are out of reach for a broad portion of the population.

According to a recent report in Health Affairs, by 2029 there might be as many as 14.4 million seniors with middle-income status. More than half of them will have some type of mobility limitation, and one out of every five will require some sort of high-level functional support. Even though these statistics show that it’s likely plenty of this population will need either assisted living or long-term care housing, about half of them won’t have the resources to pay for it.

The housing market targeting seniors has experienced major growth and changes in the past few decades, no doubt in response to the baby boomer generation requiring more older age support. In total, around two million senior tap into the residence options provided by senior living and a good majority have functional dependence issues, high chronic illness rates, and complex medical concerns.

Without tools like long-term care insurance, which is expensive, a market with its own challenge like spiking premiums, and is best purchased years or decades before the care is needed, plenty of seniors will be exposed to challenges in paying for the care they need. Between those who have substantial resources and/or long-term care and those who easily qualify for Medicaid, there are plenty of seniors in between who have no access to care without planning.

Talking to an estate planning lawyer gives you care options and helps you map out a path to qualify for Medicaid in the future should the need arise.

Not all assets belong in a trust, and knowing the difference can help you make the right choice for your assets. The easiest way to figure out whether or not a trust can help you is to sit down with your lawyer and make a list of all the assets you own.

There are several types of assets commonly transferred into trusts. These include: life insurance policies, antiques and collectibles, business interests, investments and money market accounts, deposits inside credit unions and banks, realy property, and stocks.

The trust is only formally set up when you take these assets and transfer them into the ownership of the trust itself. It is at this point that these assets are truly owned by the trust and under the management of the trustee you have chosen.

Since trusts offer a lot of benefits, using one is a common way to ensure you’ve considered all your estate planning issues across the board. Benefits include passing on your assets without having them go through probate, putting aside certain assets for the care of someone in your family with special needs, establishing requirements for beneficiaries to meet before assets will be distributed, and creating a plan for managing your business or personal assets.

With many trust tools out there, it’s important to be well-informed. Not all trusts are created equal. Deciding what’s right for you and your intentions might look different from your neighbor or coworkers. Sitting down with an attorney in New Jersey who has experience in estate planning and using trusts will give you a better perspective on how to best leverage these tools.

Planning ahead for potential incapacitation, Medicaid use, and estate planning all feel inherently personal. In fact, they hit so close to home that plenty of people never even begin the process of estate planning.

But for those who do, the planning is often the first and last step they take. A study recently found that most heirs have no idea what their loved ones intend to do with assets. Among those who said they hadn’t told their family members about estate plans, 10 percent reported that it wasn’t anyone else’s business what they chose to do with their assets.

But holding your cards close to your chest like this could backfire in the heat of the moment. Various old copies of wills, verbal agreements to give a certain loved one a treasured piece of art, and sibling rivalry can all lead to additional confusion and even decimation of the assets you’ve worked so hard to build over your life.

In total, at least sixty-four percent of people stated in the study that they’d never talked with their family members about estate planning. Most of those respondents shared that their estates and assets would be divided equally among their heirs, whereas others used different criteria to decide who would get what.

Most families take the top-down approach, with the person who holds most of the assets being the sole decisionmaker when it comes to what happens to those items and the money. If you intend to keep your estate as private as possible, consider sharing your plans and key documents with your estate planning attorney so that someone in the know has access to this information during a crisis, such as if something happens to you unexpectedly. Talking to an attorney can provide you with further information on tools to use and how often to update your material.

You might have heard the term pour-over will while discussing the possibility of a revocable living trust with your estate planning lawyer. A living trust is often used in conjunction with a pour-over will.

The essence of how this works is that all property that passes through your will at the time of your death is transferred into a trust and is then distributed to trust beneficiaries that you named while you are still alive. Many people might be curious about whether or not there are advantages to using a pour-over will.

What’s the reason for having a will that does nothing except transfer property into your trust? The answer is that your estate planning attorney might recommend that it’s a good idea to have all of your assets protected by the terms of only one document and that is your trust document.

There are three major advantages to using this pour-over will. First of all, trusts are private unlike a will. Secondly, you won’t transfer everything you own into your living trust, but the pour-over will gives you a sense of completeness because it takes care of assets that you don’t get around to transferring into the trust prior to your death.

Finally, the last advantage of a pour-over will is simplicity. It makes it extremely clear as to who receives what and, therefore, makes that process simpler for your trustee and executor, who are responsible for wrapping up your estate after you pass away.        

A power of attorney document is instrumental in outlining who is eligible to step in and manage your finances if you become unable to do so. Unfortunately, far too many people make mistakes in the process of creating a financial power of attorney. While this document doesn’t need to be difficult or complicated to make, it is critical that you do it properly with the help of an experienced estate planning lawyer.

There are six major mistakes that can be made in your financial power of attorney, many of which can be completely avoided by sitting down and working with an estate planning lawyer who has extensive experience in the creation of these documents. These common mistakes include:

• Not giving authority over all types of your property. You might want to provide a comprehensive list or specify which type of property they are eligible to make decisions about.
• Not enabling your financial institutions to work with you in advance. Make sure that you have filled out the paperwork to the specifications of these banks or credit unions.
• Making your agent the joint owner of your bank account.
• Not knowing when you need to give additional authority to your agent.
• Not understanding the duties of the agent.
• Not using the power of attorney when you should have.

All of these mistakes can be avoided through your discussion with an experienced and knowledgeable estate planning lawyer.        

You might have heard the term pour-over will while discussing the possibility of a revocable living trust with your estate planning lawyer. A living trust is often used in conjunction with a pour-over will. The essence of how this works is that all property that passes through your will at the time of your death is transferred into a trust and is then distributed to trust beneficiaries that you named while you are still alive.

Many people might be curious about whether or not there are advantages to using a pour-over will. What’s the reason of having a will that does nothing except transfer property into your trust? The answer is that your estate planning attorney might recommend that it’s a good idea to have all of your assets protected by the terms of only one document and that is your trust document.

There are three major advantages to using this pour-over will. First of all, trusts are private unlike a will. Secondly, you won’t transfer everything you own into your living trust, but the pour-over will gives you a sense of completeness because it takes care of assets that you don’t get around to transferring into the trust prior to your death. Finally, the last advantage of a pour-over will is simplicity. It makes it extremely clear as to who receives what and, therefore, makes that process simpler for your trustee and executor, who are responsible for wrapping up your estate after you pass away.        

It’s been said that your estate plan is only as good as the agents associated with it. It’s important, for example, to have conversations around the family’s intentions, especially between spouses.

Wives and husbands should both be involved in creating final documents to help avoid unnecessary or unforeseen complications during the most challenging of times for your family. It’s important for you and your spouse to be comfortable with other professional advisors in your life, including an attorney, an accountant, and a financial advisor.

Many spouses might stop here, tempted to keep the details of their estate plan to themselves. However, the communication of the estate plan to any involved children is critical. It’s all too easy in our American culture to put off these discussions due to the potential for conflict. However, taking necessary steps to discuss your intentions with your family members can make things easier if you were to become incapacitated, or if you or your partner were to pass away unexpectedly.

It is important to overcome your short-term hesitations about having conversations on your estate plan for the more long-term benefit of having a clear plan in place that minimizes the potential for disputes.

Every family has their own distinctive dynamics, but providing a deeper understanding of your intent and the estate planning steps you’ve already taken can make things easier for your family members during what will otherwise be a challenging time as they attempt to negotiate the financial and legal steps of caring for you during a time of incapacitation or assisting with family through your recent passing.

Nearly half of all Americans have no estate plan at all, so you’re to be commended if you’re ahead of that curve. But once you’ve dotted all the I’s and crossed all the t’s, it’s time to make sure you’ve secured these documents so that you or a trusted advisor can access them in the event of an emergency.

Your estate planning attorney might be able to help you store your documents, but have a conversation about this first to ensure you know what’s happening to your materials. Most law firms today use fireproof, locked file cabinets. Sometimes an offsite storage facility might also be used if your law firm is located in a big city.

Although most people still want their attorney to hold on to the original documents, this does not mean this is your only option. Some lawyers have turned to providing clients with the originals due to security or storage space concerns. Most people might consider a safe deposit box as the first place to put something like your powers of attorney and will, but the ability to get into such a box is limited. If something happens to you, another person will have to get court authority in order to access the box. And most likely your loved ones can’t get that court authority because the documents to show their rights are in the box.

A fireproof safe is a great way to protect your key documents and ensure that you know where they are at all times. The safe is the right place to keep the originals and you can store other copies elsewhere. Go back to review your documents on a regular basis and make sure to update any originals in the safe as well as where you’ve stored copies if you make big changes or replace a document entirely.

Whether you’re married, single, or remarried, you’ve got to have an eye towards your own future as a female. Estate planning, financial planning, and asset protection planning are all part of your retirement strategy and connect with how you’ll support yourself in your golden years.

Many women have to look decades beyond their retirement when it comes to their plans given data on longevity and forecasts about the expense of long-term care.

A recent study incorporating insights from high net worth earners found that women ranked themselves highly on their ability to perform a range of financial tasks but diverged from men when it came to their top two current financial goals. Executive women reported that their top goal was to know that they were prepared for the worst and planning for retirement. However, male executives said that providing for future generations and taking care of their dependents financially were two of their top three financial goals.

Plenty of women today recognize that they might live longer than their male partner, or that they could be affected by the phenomenon of grey divorce which would significantly impact their retirement planning goals. Furthermore, women might be recognizing the possibility of needing long term care support which can be quite expensive and can decimate an otherwise carefully crafted retirement plan. If you want to look ahead into the future to prepare yourself for your estate and the possibility of long-term care, schedule a consultation with an experienced estate planning lawyer today.     

Heading off into your financial future without a clear plan and goals is like setting sail without charting your course first. It’s one of the biggest reasons why people feel anxiety over their finances; lack of a plan.

A recent study completed by the Financial Planning Association shows that more than 60% of respondents in a recent study indicated very high levels of negative stress in their life. Furthermore, more than 20% of people who participated in the study said that their stress levels have increased over the course of the past year and more than 30% said that their stress levels have jumped over the last five years.

Prioritizing financial goals and establishing a plan for debt management are some of the most important things that you can do to experience feelings of financial security and lower your stress levels. The study found that nearly three quarters of survey respondents who said they felt clear about their overall financial goals have lower stress levels.

One way to evaluate your current expenses are to assign time frames to your goals, such as short term, medium and long term. Your financial goals can also include looking ahead to the future to establish goals for estate, asset or even business succession planning. A consultation with an experienced attorney can go a long way in helping you to clarify what you intend to accomplish with your financial goals.       

The law enables you to use tools such as trusts and wills to accomplish your goals and provide for the people you care about either during your life or after you pass away. While these are definitely protective tools to begin with, there are unfortunately many people who see themselves as opportunists who use these tools to try to take advantage of others, especially seniors who might be experiencing cognitive decline.

The targets of these kind of schemes are often those people who have significant assets who are vulnerable due to memory issues, advanced age concerns, illness, or family isolations. Family members who might have been expecting an inheritance from a loved one could even be surprised that they are cut out of the will entirely or received much less than they anticipated because another party has exerted undue influence on your loved one.

If a person has received a substantial benefit from a trust or a will and had a confidential relationship with a person who created it and is also active in procuring this gift, this could lead to a presumption of undue influence. This could be a formal fiduciary relationship or an informal trust relationship in which the influencer exerts his or her impact to get the person to include them in the will to make a gift or update their trust such that the influencer is the beneficiary. Being knowledgeable about undue influence and how it can potentially impact your estate is important.   

Many people are already familiar with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that made significant changes to tax planning. However, the gift tax and estate tax exemption should be something that you’re familiar with so that you can leverage these to your advantage. It’s important to understand that the 2017 tax reform pushed up the maximum exemption to what is essentially double the previous amount.

However, with regards to your tax and estate planning, this change is not permanent. By 2026 the exemption will drop down to 2017 levels unless Congress decides to make changes prior to this time. Other plans to reevaluate the exemption level have been put on pause for this moment but it is very likely that Congress will at least reconsider the issue in the near future.

If you already have a taxable estate, it is important that you do not just file this information away. Instead you should begin to take action immediately. For planning of this scope and size, it is critical to work with a team of knowledgeable professionals to assist you with your tax and estate planning concerns.

A certified public accountant, a financial advisor, and an estate attorney are just a handful of the people who can help you understand how you might be currently affected by estate planning and tax planning concerns and how future issues could require you to update your plan all over again. Schedule a consultation to sit down with a knowledgeable attorney today so that you can figure out what makes the most sense for you personally.