Category Archives: Estate Planning

Trade Like A Man, Save Like A Woman

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How will you be planning for your retirement? According to CNBC your gender could play a bigger role than you think in your retirement plan. While of course not everyone will adhere to gross generalizations, studies have shown that men and women do have a tendency to take a different approach to saving and investing for retirement. Which way is the right way?  Well, as John Ameriks points out in the article, “It’s not a matter of one gender being right and the other wrong… You just need to be aware of the differences when you’re making investing decisions.”

The differences may not be as surprising as you think.  Here are some of the things CNBC had to say about how men and women invest and save:

  • Men tend to be overconfident about their investing and retirement planning skills.
  • Women generally prefer less risky investments.
  • Men don’t plan for a long retirement.
  • Women save more over time.

Considering the fact that our society still tends to view the stock market as “a man’s game”, and one with which women aren’t quite as comfortable, it makes sense that a man would be more confident with frequent buying and selling, while a woman might tend to go for the safer investment requiring less action and attention over the long haul. But lack of attention doesn’t necessarily mean lack of awareness.  Women tend to worry more than men about security in their Golden Years.  The article posits that this is because many men don’t expect to live much past 80, but another possibility is that men have more confidence in their ability to earn a living at any time in their lives; whereas women (who are often the ones to leave the job market in order to care for family) are more afraid of having to depend on an outside source for their livelihood.

Part of planning for your retirement is planning for your estate.  Whether you are a man or a woman, adventurous or conservative, a trader or a saver—your retirement plan and your estate plan need to be in line with each other.  Our office can help ensure that your retirement and estate plans are compatible… both right now and decades down the line.

Robin Hood Lives On: Tax Breaks to Help Your Family

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It may seem like you just can’t catch a break when it comes to paying taxes, but according to this article in the Wall Street Journal there are a few little known tax breaks that could end up saving your family money.  Some are new—so new, in fact, that it is still before the Senate—such as the tax exemption for employer provided cell phones and smart phones; and some—like the tax free income homeowners can earn if they rent out their home for 14 days or fewer during a year—have been around for a few years.

Of particular interest to our clients is the gift tax exclusion (another lesser known tax break that has been around for a few years.) As stated in the article, “Anyone may give anyone else up to [$13,000] per year in cash or property, free of gift tax. One partner of a married couple can double the gift and the exemption. So a couple with three married children and six grandchildren could give away over $300,000 a year, tax-free.”

We say that this gift tax exclusion may be of particular interest to our clients because if you are looking for a way to lower your estate tax, or anticipate applying for government medical services in the next few years, giving gifts to loved ones right now may help you achieve your goal—if you go about it the right way.

Contact our office for more information on how any of these “Robin Hood” tax saving techniques may help your family this year.

Take Action in the Face of Estate Tax Uncertainty

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If you’ve been reading our blog regularly then you know that the 2010 estate tax repeal has caused no end of confusion and uncertainty; not only for those who have been dealing with probate and trust administration since the tax was first repealed, but also for those who are trying to think ahead and do the right thing for their spouses and children.  Many people have come to the erroneous conclusion that they have no choice but to stand by and wait until the Washington politicians make up their minds about whether or not to restore the estate tax retroactively—but we’re here to tell you that you don’t have to wait to protect your assets and your family.

Forbes.com recently published an article entitled How to Protect Your Family From Estate Tax Uncertainty.  This article suggests that there are a number of steps you can take right now to protect your heirs and your assets, even if you don’t know what changes lawmakers may enact tomorrow or 2 months from now. Their suggestions include everything from working with your estate planning attorney on contingency plans to account for anomalies such as no estate tax or minimum exemptions, to common sense action items such as taking the time now to track your cost basis for assets (to help your executor and heirs determine the change in value for tax purposes.)  The Forbes article also suggests that some people may want to plan to save by giving—taking advantage of the gift tax exemption amounts.

There are always steps you can take to ensure that your estate plan is up to date, our firm can be your compass and your guide; we can help your family prepare for whatever the future may have in store.

Recent Deaths Bring Home the Consequences of No Estate Tax in 2010

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There was too much confusion to be much rejoicing when the estate tax was repealed for a year on January 1st, 2010. Although the words “no estate tax” may sound good, nobody really expected the state of affairs would last. Most experts believed that Congress would never actually let it happen in the first place; then when ’09 became ’10 without any action on the estate tax repeal that the George W. Bush administration had put into place experts warned people not to get too comfortable, that a retroactive estate tax would likely be implemented.

Well, we’re 4 months into 2010 and there is still no retroactive estate tax—but there is also still no rejoicing. This is because the lack of estate tax has actually created more problems than it has solved for the wealthy and affluent. According to this article in Financial Advisor Magazine the recent deaths of Texas billionaire Dan Duncan and Taco Bell founder Glen W. Bell, Jr. have only made it clear to tax attorneys that “lawsuits of various kinds will blossom in the estate-tax vacuum. The more money left on the table when the wealthy die, the more likely heirs are to fight for years over who should inherit.”

And you don’t have to be a billionaire to feel the consequences of the lack of tax. This article in Bloomberg Businessweek explains that those who think they’re catching a break on the estate tax could instead “…wind up paying stiff capital-gains taxes on inheritances. That’s because of the disappearance of what’s known as the “step-up” in basis, which allowed assets to be revalued for tax purposes at the time of death.”

But even this is preferable to finding yourself unintentionally disinherited by standard estate tax clauses included in older wills and trusts, a scenario that is more likely to happen than you may think if your spouse or parent hasn’t had their estate plan reviewed yet this year.

What is the bottom line? Every silver lining has a dark cloud, and you want to take every precaution possible to keep your heirs safe from the storm during this “gap year” in the estate tax.

Family Feuds: Your Estate Plan Can Save Your Kids’ Relationship

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Parents want to think the best of their children, but the fact is that many adult children lose their perspective in the wake of the death of a parent and end up permanently damaging their sibling relationships.  When mom or dad dies the hurt and emotion takes over; insecurities come out, deep-seated rivalries make themselves known, and logic goes out the window. What all of this can lead to is years and years of brothers and sisters taking each other to court, spending thousands of dollars of your estate fighting over mementos and heirlooms, and lifetime relationships in shatters. . . Unless you have an estate plan.

A recent article by Scripps Howard News Service explains that the best way to prevent this from happening to your children is by creating a good estate plan. A good estate plan can be a great comfort to your children, and can save them thousands of dollars in probate and legal fees; and most importantly, a good estate plan is very clear about your intentions for your assets, leaving no room for court battles or ugly disagreements. But getting that good estate plan takes time and forethought—and the help of a professional.

A good estate plan takes into account the relationships and personalities of your heirs, as well as your own wishes.  If one of your children has a problem with substance abuse, or if two of your children had a fight 10 years ago and still don’t speak, those things are considered in the creation of the plan.  A good estate plan deals with small items and family heirlooms with emotional value, as well as real property and valuable liquid assets. A good estate plan is created with the idea of creating the best future for your heirs; it doesn’t leave the difficult decisions to be made by others when you’re gone.

If you would like to know more about how to smooth the way for your children and grandchildren, contact our office.  We can help you create not just a good estate plan for your situation, but the best future for your family.

Your Family Is One-Of-A-Kind; Your Estate Plan Should Be As Well

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According to statistics the average U.S. family size is 3.2 members.  The median age of a man upon his first marriage is 28.1, the median age of a woman is 25.9.  Also according to statistics, approximately 60% of couples own their home, 70.7% of mothers with children under the age of 18 go back to work, and 6% of men are likely to be unemployed.

Do these statistics accurately portray your family?

“Average,” “median,” and “approximately” may be fine for statistics, but it’s certainly not what you want from your estate plan.  Your estate plan should represent your family; your hopes for the future as well as your current needs.  This may include a nomination of guardian and education trust for young children, it may include a special needs trust for your disabled adult child, or it may include incentive trusts for unambitious heirs. Alternatively, you may find that you need none of these, and that a will and simple ancillary documents will serve you just fine.

Whatever your family’s needs may be, you want them to be met by a keen, compassionate, and knowledgeable attorney; someone who will meet you face to face and listen to your concerns with an open mind, not a machine which will spit out a standard document based on numbers and averages. Estate planning may be a business, but it’s also an art, and as such it takes a real person to help create the plan that will provide for you and your family now and in the years to come. The members of our firm have our own families, we understand that you want the best for your family, and we want to help.

Sharing Your Passion With The People Who Matter

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What is your passion?

Do you love reading and collecting books?  Are you a rabid coin or stamp collector?  Do you find peace and tranquility out tending your garden?

Whatever it is that you love to do in your “off time”, you can bet the people closest to you know it.  These are the people who give you that antique seed cabinet that you would never buy for yourself; it’s the person who finds the Ted Williams baseball card for a steal at an estate sale and presents it to you for your birthday; or the friend who happily goes with you to the antique car show because he knows hobbies are better when you have someone to share them with. These are the friendships that last a lifetime, the people who sometimes seem to know you better than you know yourself; and yet oddly, these friendships are often forgotten when people create their wills and divvy up their estates.

Many people go to their estate planner with their descendents and their financial assets foremost in their minds, and that is as it should be; but your estate plan can be more than a just a way to distribute property to the next generation, it can also be an opportunity to say thank you to the people who have touched your life by sharing with them the accoutrements and paraphernalia of your hobbies and passions.

You can express how much you appreciate your best chess opponent by leaving her your favorite chess board; or you can encourage the interest of your young philatelist nephew by bequeathing to him your extensive stamp collection; all you need is an estate plan which includes some kind of personal property memorandum.  A personal property memorandum is not a difficult legal document to create—in fact, it will often be a very informal document—but it does require some forethought to ensure that your formal will or trust recognizes and refers to the memorandum.

Our office can help you create an estate plan that not only ensures the protection of your heirs and property, it also helps you leave a meaningful ‘thank you’ to the people who matter most.

Real Estate Investments Bring Real Long-Term Value to Families

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If there is one way to be sure money stays in the family and grows over time it is through real estate. Despite the year-to-year ups and downs of the real estate market, the value of real property continues to grow over the long term.

Real estate is often considered a comparatively easy way to maintain and grow wealth because it doesn’t require the kind of daily attention—or stress!—that a business demands. Depending on the type of property, real estate typically requires duties that are annual or month-to-month, such as maintaining the physical structures, paying property taxes, making insurance payments, getting updates from property managers, and the like.

What real estate investors might be slow to realize is that property ownership carries with it significant liability risks. Unless the precautionary measures are taken, one small misstep can result in the loss of all your real estate holdings. Imagine it, one person slips and falls in front of one of your properties, and suddenly ALL of your holdings are at risk.

Preventing this kind of mess is not as difficult as you might think—for example, putting each of your properties in its own separate legal entity is one technique that can be used to protect all of your properties (and yourself) from lawsuits. Our firm can help you with this and other asset protection techniques.

We know how important it is to keep your family and your finances safe, and we are dedicated to helping you achieve that security. Call our office and let us tell you how we can put our expertise to use for your benefit.

Questions to Ask When Choosing a Guardian for Your Child

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Choosing a guardian for your children is one of the most difficult things you may ever have to do as a parent, and if you have a special needs child the task is even more difficult.  From parenting style to living situation to your gut feeling about this person’s ability to love your child as well as you do—there are endless things to consider before you ask the big question.

In honor of Autism Awareness Month, MassMutual has published a list of 10 questions for parents to ask themselves when choosing a guardian for their child with autism or special needs.

Although the list is supposed to be for parents of children with special needs, the questions are a helpful road map for any parent, not just parents of special needs children.  MassMutual’s ten questions cover issues such as considering how close the person you are considering as guardian currently lives to your child, whether he or she is financially able to assume the responsibility of guardian, and whether you should name a second or third person or couple as backup guardians. These are important questions that all parents should ask themselves before choosing a guardian.

Having children means always planning ahead and thinking about the future, even as you try to live in the present and appreciate the small moments in every day. Nominating a guardian for your children makes it that much easier to focus on the here and now, because in the back of your mind you’ll know that your children will be protected if something happens to you. Let our firm help you achieve that peace of mind.

One More BIG Reason to Have a Health Care Directive

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Do you have a health care directive?  If not, the Los Angeles Times has just given you one more reason to create one: Advance directives for end-of-life care result in preferred treatment.

That’s right, according to the recent article; those people who have recorded their wishes for end-of-life treatment have their wishes followed by agents and doctors over 80% of the time.  According to a health and retirement study done between the years of 2000 and 2006, “researchers found that of the 398 incapacitated people who had used a living will to request limited care at the end of life, almost 83% received it…” and “…Of the 417 incapacitated people who had requested comfort care in a living will, 97% received it.”

Those are huge percentages, especially when you consider how easy it is to create a health care directive or living will.

There is no down side to recording your wishes and nominating a trusted agent to help ensure those wishes are followed—it brings you peace mind, it brings comfort to your family members, and our office can help you execute one quickly and easily.  Knowing all this, as well as the fact that studies now show how truly effective they are in getting you the treatment you desire… there’s really no reason to delay any longer.  Call our office for more information.