Real estate plays an extremely large role in the estate planning process.  As mentioned in previous posts, your home (or other real estate holdings) often forms the bulk of your assets, and figures largely in the creation of your family’s estate plan.  But real estate can serve as far more than just the cornerstone of your estate plan, especially if you have property aside from your family home.

In the current downswing of the real estate market, many people are finding that holding on to unproductive property is becoming a financial hardship.  And yet they are reluctant to sell the property at a loss.  Enid Ablowitz, in her article Giving the Gift of Real Estate, has some excellent suggestions on how to get the most out of property that no longer serves your family or your business, including giving the property as a charitable donation, transferring the property into a charitable “lead” trust, and keeping the property in a retained life estate.

Ablowitz suggests in her article that unproductive property can be turned into an asset when used as a charitable gift.  In fact, Ablowitz writes, “When there is charitable intent, there are many scenarios where a gift of property can also be tax-wise.”

If you think you might like to look further into leveraging your property—for charitable purposes or otherwise—your estate planning attorney can help.  Our office can answer your questions about the tax advantages of making a charitable donation of property, or alternatively of keeping the property, but holding it in a separate protective entity such as an LLP or FLP.

When considering your estate, your property is likely your greatest asset.  Let our firm help you decide how to make the most of your property, whether you choose to leverage it now or keep it safe for the future.

The biggest enemy in estate planning is not the IRS, nor the state, nor conniving relatives. The biggest enemy is procrastination. We know we need to do an estate plan, but we say to ourselves, “I’ll do it next month” or “I’ll do it next year.”

We do this for a number of reasons, and it may help to understand those reasons as a means of getting past procrastination.

1. Denial of death is one of the strongest human defense mechanisms. Most of us associate estate planning with “death planning” (which it certainly is not), and who wants to think about that?
2. Expense. Estate planning is like elective surgery. You don’t have to do it. Of course, if you don’t make your own estate plan you’re stuck with the plan the IRS and the state have for you. But still you don’t have to. And who likes to spend money if they don’t have to?
3. Laziness. We know that if we do our estate plans, we’ll have to gather together documents, and fill out forms, and visit an attorney’s office. Who feels they have time for all that?
4. Not wanting to face family issues. Estate planning often touches on sensitive family matters: children who aren’t mature enough to handle an inheritance, untrustworthy in-laws, elderly persons who are losing mental capacity. Many people quite naturally don’t want deal with such emotional questions.

Of course, the problem with all evasive thinking is that the issue you are evading does not go away. When we avoid going to the dentist because we don’t enjoy it, it doesn’t mean we won’t get cavities. In fact, eventually, we will pay a much higher price, financially and physically, for our evasive thinking. But we continue to do it. Why? Because the long-term pain is far away in the future, and the procrastination pays immediate emotional benefits. Instead of visiting an estate planning attorney and paying for an estate plan, we can play golf and buy a new big screen TV.

It’s fun, maybe, but it’s not smart.

Call our office; we’ll help you get past procrastination, to reach the peace of mind that comes from knowing your plan is in place. We promise to make it as painless as possible.

We all like to be prepared in new situations, whether it be starting a new job or going to the first meeting of the gardening club.  Aside from making for a more comfortable experience, your time is valuable, and the more prepared you are, the more you can take away from an experience. A visit to the estate planning attorney is no exception. If you are going to spend your valuable time on a venture, wouldn’t you like to get the most out of it?

Every firm will be a bit different, but here are a few universal tips on how to be prepared and get the most out of your first visit to an estate planning attorney.

1. Bring your financial statements. A large part of what an estate planning attorney does is to help you protect your assets. In order to do this, she needs to know what assets there are and what your general financial situation is.  Having actual numbers, rather than vague ideas, is a huge help.
2. Know how the deed to your home is held. For most people, their home is their largest asset.  How title is held, and in what the state of ownership, will have a large part in deciding what your best course of action will be.
3. Have some preliminary thoughts about who you may to be your executor and health care agent. This may change once you know more about what these roles entail, but having one or two people as a starting point will speed the process considerably.
4. Bring contact information for financial advisors with whom you work on a regular basis. Having your attorney work directly with your financial advisors, if any, is integral to having an airtight estate plan and financial plan. Not to mention that it makes things much easier on you to not have to act as a go-between.
5. If you’re married, or planning with a partner, come to the meeting together. Planning as a couple really needs to be done as a couple. “I’ll have to talk it over with my partner” only means you’re likely to have to have the same meeting all over again. If you’ll both be signing documents, you both should be there for the initial meeting.
6. Bring a list of questions to ask the attorney. Even if you only have one or two, and you think they’re naïve, bring your list of questions.  Your questions tell an attorney a lot about what your goals are, and will help you get a good read on what the attorney is like as a person and professional.

On 08-08-08, at 8pm Beijing time, the XXIX Olympic Games were ushered in with a lavish opening ceremony. The list of events is filled with old favorites and some of the more modern additions, but upon perusal of the list it became clear that some events were missing from the roster.  Most noticeably, the Olympic Events in Estate Planning.  For your convenience, we will list the events (along with brief descriptions) here:

1. The Distance and Sprint Handshake: These opening events can be deceptively simple, but the medal invariably goes to the athlete who thinks strategically, weighing the benefits of the firm vs. the gentle grip and the quick vs. the confident and lengthy shake. (Extra points awarded by the judges for athletes who remember names.)
2. Conversational Tennis: Played with two teams of single or double players, one conversational “ball”, and a net (most recently taking the form of a desk).  First serve is traditionally awarded to the visiting team, who sends the ball over the net with a question. The home team (or attorney) returns the serve with an answer.  This game gets more interesting the longer it continues, especially when the teams will occasionally swap strategies, with the home team posing a question to the visitors!
3. Speed Signing: This event requires speed and agility, and depending on the length and intricacy of the estate plan, more than a little endurance!
4. Synchronized Signing: Similar to speed signing, but played in teams of two or more.  This is an intricately choreographed event requiring precise timing and the ability to virtually read your teammates’ minds. This event has the potential to quickly degrade into fountain pen fencing when attempted by amateurs.
5. Document Weight Lifting: This final event requires brute strength and a fine sense of balance to carry your entire completed estate plan over the finish line.

**Qualifying Event** Phone Dialing: Requires quick and flexible fingers, and no small amount of determination. 

**Completion of this event is required for participation in all other events.

When you pass away (after a long and happy life, of course) you hopefully have a current estate plan in place to provide for your heirs. However, even if you’ve executed the most intricate plan, there is a transition period after the death of a loved one which consists of gathering paperwork and information, paying final bills and expenses, and notifying friends and advisors. It is this transition period, which takes place exactly when your loved ones are experiencing the worst of the grief and shock, which can be the most difficult.

There is no way to eliminate this trying transition, but it is possible to make it a little bit easier.  The article Eight Steps to Make Life Easier for Your Heirs, online at Boston.com, gives some simple but effective steps to smooth the way for your loved ones after you’re gone.

Our firm is committed to helping you with the first step; keeping an updated Will (and other estate planning documents), but we know that the other steps mentioned in the article are just as important in helping your heirs immediately following your death.

Compiling information in a notebook is a key step.  Having to go through a deceased loved one’s drawers and files looking for bank statements or account numbers is not only time consuming, but can be emotionally draining as well. Keeping all of your essential numbers and documents in one clear place will save time and heartache when you’re gone.

Setting aside cash to pay last expenses is another simple step that can be a huge resource later on. This is especially true if you don’t have an agent or trustee poised to take over your financial affairs immediately upon your death.

The second to last step, keeping your home market-ready, can be a difficult one, but your heirs will thank you for it. Readying a home to be put on the market is difficult under the best of circumstances; trying to accomplish it in the middle of mourning a loved one can be overwhelming.

There is just no way to avoid the heartache of losing a loved one, but some of the chaos surrounding that transition period can be avoided. By following some of these steps now, you can help your children and family when they’ll need it most.

When you imagine leaving your hard earned money as an inheritance to your children or beneficiaries, chances are you imagine it supplementing their income, allowing them to have some of those “little extras”, saving them from having to struggle quite as hard as you did, helping them to take care of their family.  What you probably don’t imagine is that your legacy will allow your child to flit from job to job, never really having the incentive to settle down and become a contributing member of society.

You may think, “but I’ll be dead, what can I do about it?  I can’t control what my kids do with their inheritance.”  But the fact is that you can give your children an inheritance and incentive to contribute to their community.  Or perhaps you would rather give your kids incentive to go as far as they can with their education, or to follow their dreams and become entrepreneurs.  Whatever your goal for your children, the inheritance you leave for them can help you encourage them in that direction by leaving it to them in an incentive trust.

By creating an incentive trust you don’t take anything away from your heirs, you are still helping to provide for them.  The difference is that an incentive trust gives your heirs something to work for.  Working to build your fortune is something you can take pride in, something that brings you character and confidence; would you want to take that same opportunity from your children?  And creating an incentive trust doesn’t mean that you’re pulling strings from the grave, you can make your trust as lenient or strict as you want.

Whether you value education, entrepreneurship, charity or family, an incentive trust can help you pass those same values on to your heirs.  It allows you to provide for your beneficiaries’ characters as well as their financial well-being.

Do dating and estate planning go hand in hand?  They do if you are one of the lucky people finding romance late in life.

With people living longer than ever before—and staying healthy and active longer as well—there are more cases of people finding love a second (or third or fourth) time around.  This is cause for celebration for widows and widowers, but it has many of their children and grandchildren worried.  When mom remarries at the age of 80, what happens to the estate that she and dad built during their lives together?

Without a prenuptial agreement or estate plan, all of mom’s assets could end up going to her new husband, which he could then choose to leave to his children.  With so much at stake it’s no wonder that the children of elderly brides and grooms are responding with less than unadulterated joy.

Luckily, this is one problem with an easy solution: Involve your estate planning attorney before the marriage takes place.  Executing a pre-nuptial agreement can go a long way towards protecting your assets and your children’s inheritance.  Another option is to create a trust which leaves all of your assets to your children or grandchildren upon your death.

Talking about prenuptial agreements with your new fiancé can be an awkward conversation, especial for the older, more traditional generation.  Creating a trust early can alleviate much of that awkwardness.

Romance is still alive, even at 80 or 90 years old.  Unfortunately, so are the financial risks that come with any second marriage.  Call our office today.  Let us take care of the risks, and leave the romance to you.

On a scale of one to ten, how high would you rate your retirement angst? If you are a woman, you’re likely to rate your worry higher than men rate theirs, according to this new study by MIT AgeLab. This begs the question; are women just more inclined to worry, or are their fears justified?

The answer to that question would seem to be the latter.  According to Dr. Joseph Coughlin, a woman is “likely to outlive her male counterpart, remain active longer, and be responsible for caring for him and others.” What Dr. Coughlin seems to be saying is that women aren’t just worried about retirement, what they fear is actually a myriad of issues having to do with finances, health, caretaking, and social concerns, none of which can be separated from the others.

What this means is that there won’t be one simple solution for women to their retirement fears. Any “solution” will have to consist not only of a simple financial solution, but also of a plan to address issues such as:

• How to make up for a retirement income that is, on average, 58% of men’s.
• How to adjust if you end up caring for a family member in declining health.
• How to weather future inflation and changes in health care coverage.
• And what to do if your spouse passes away.

Women know that fear can be productive and motivate us to find solutions. Hopefully by naming this fear women will be inspired to take action to protect their futures.  Men can take action to help protect their wives and mothers as well.  It’s no exaggeration that women will live longer than men, and are likely to take on the burden of caring for aging family members.  Planning for these eventualities when you’re young, and planning with your spouse and family can ease the burden later on.

If women out-worry men on the subject of retirement, let their planning reflect that.  Nothing eases anxiety like preparation.  Don’t let your fears paralyze you, let them motivate you instead.

After much thought and soul-searching you have finally decided the time is right to create your estate plan. Congratulations! But wait, how do you find the right attorney to help you in this endeavor? Opening the phone book to “L” for Lawyer won’t yield the best results. You don’t want just any attorney, you want and experienced attorney who will answer your particular needs. Here are five steps to help you find that attorney:

1. Get a referral from a friend or other trusted advisor. A good friend is likely to have needs and preferences similar to your own, and a current advisor is already familiar with your financial situation. A referral from either of these sources is a good place to start looking, and more likely than any other source to provide you with an attorney who is compatible with your family.

2. Attend an estate planning seminar in your area. Many estate planning attorneys host complimentary public educational seminars. Attending one of these seminars is an ideal way to learn about the estate planning process, while getting a feel for the attorney in a low-pressure environment. If you “click” with the attorney, chances are you can make an appointment right then and there to meet further. If you don’t like the attorney, you walk away with more knowledge than you had before.

3. Research your attorney’s background. There are some wonderful websites out there to help you do this. Avvo (http://www.avvo.com/) shows ratings of attorneys by clients and peers, lists disciplinary sanctions if any, and gives a history of the attorney’s public contributions and areas of practice. Another resource is martindale.com, which lists an attorney’s experience and credentials, while also allowing you to do a side by side comparison.

4. Make an appointment to meet with and interview your attorney. Most law firms will make complimentary introductory appointments for new clients. These are short (15-30 minutes), but even a short appointment can be enough to give you a feel for whether a firm is right for you. In addition to interviewing the attorney, take note of the office and staff; are the surroundings comforting and friendly, does the staff seem happy and helpful? This is just as important as the education and experience of the attorney.

5. Ask about the price. Let’s face it, money matters. You may not want the same estate plan as the Rockefellers, but neither do you want a canned will that won’t hold up in court. Discuss price ranges with your attorney at your first interview. Don’t pay for more than you need, but be ready (and willing) to pay for quality work and service.

With these five steps you will be well on your way to finding the perfect attorney for your estate planning needs. Good luck and happy hunting!

Just about any estate planning attorney will tell you that the process of creating a plan is almost always initiated by one partner (usually the wife) with the other partner merely along for the ride.  It’s not always easy to get your other half on-board.

The fact is that estate planning is best done as a team.  It is very difficult to start the process with just one partner participating.  So if you are having trouble getting your spouse on the same page, here are a few suggestions to help get the wheels turning:

1. Inform your spouse that in fact you already have an estate plan—the one provided for you by the state in which you live.  And you can be sure the government didn’t have your convenience or wishes in mind; it often includes a lengthy probate process, and high fees and estate taxes.

2. Talk to some friends who have already created their estate plan.  They will be able to tell you that the process is relatively simple, and the questions that arise often lead to discussions that can strengthen your relationship. Clients almost always leave feeling that a huge weight has been lifted.

3. Come at it from a new perspective.  It sometimes helps to stop talking about what kind of planning you want to do, and talk instead about what kind of planning you would like your parents to do.  Considering the time and effort you have in store for you as a beneficiary can be a great motivator as a grantor.

4. Take your partner with you to talk to your attorney.  Chances are, even if he’s reluctant, your spouse has at least one question about estate planning, even if that question is “I don’t have any significant assets, why do I need an estate plan?”  A knowledgeable attorney is the best person to provide the answer.  And a really good attorney knows how to be informative without being pushy.

No one can force another person into something they aren’t ready for yet, but hopefully the suggestions above will help lay the groundwork for a happy and successful planning partnership.