We plan for vacations, we plan for retirement, but sometimes the most important thing to plan for is the one you don’t know is coming.

Very few of us expect to have an extended stay in the hospital, but this shouldn’t stop you from planning for one, says Laura T. Coffey in her article, Be prepared for a hospital stay, on MSNBC.

An unexpected stay in the hospital can be a crushing blow to your family if you don’t have some provisions in place.  Those provisions include knowing the status of your healthcare insurance, appointing trusted people as primary contacts in case of emergency, and yes, keeping your estate plan current.

An estate plan does more than provide for your family upon your death, it also protects your family—and you—in case of an unexpected hospital stay.  Numbers 4, 5, 6 and 9 of Coffey’s article underline this point by mentioning instruments or people that are an essential part of any estate plan.  The following is a list of three important healthcare documents your attorney can help you prepare:

1. An Advanced Healthcare Directive (or Healthcare Power of Attorney) sets out your wishes for your healthcare and nominates the people you would like to act as agents if you cannot enforce those wishes yourself.

2. The HIPAA Authorization ensures that the people you love and trust will have access to your healthcare status.

3. A Durable Power of Attorney ensures that your agents will have the ability to keep your financial affairs in order while you are unable to care for them yourself.

With a little forethought and planning, you can significantly lessen the damage an unexpected hospital stay can have on your family and your finances.  Don’t let fate catch you by surprise; expect the best, but plan for the worst.

Business partners often end up with strong friendships, but is it possible for friends to succeed as business partners?  It would seem to be a natural evolution; you know each other, you like each other, enjoy spending time together, work well together.  But the transition from friends to partners may not be as easy as you think, according to this article by Kelly K. Spors in The Wall Street Journal.

One might very well wonder why not.  What could possibly hinder two seemingly compatible people from successfully running a business?  The fact of the matter is that the qualities that make a wonderful friendship don’t necessarily make for a wonderful partnership.  The things we admire in our friends are often the things we lack in ourselves—the wild and irresponsible compliment to our sedate and rational selves (or vice versa).  But bring that delightful and wild friend into a business partnership and who will end up shouldering the burden of responsibility?

Some partnerships fail not because the two partners are incompatible, but because they are so compatible that they take their knowledge of each other for granted and neglect to talk about key issues in the business.  In such cases it is possible to know each other too well.

Does this mean that friends simply cannot become business partners?  Not at all!  With the right planning and preparation it is possible to have a successful partnership and a wonderful friendship.

What is the right planning?  Kelly K. Spores mentions three things in particular.  First, know yourself and your partner, even to the extent that you take personality tests and go on a business retreat together.  Second, draft a detailed business plan and partnership agreement.  This is where a third party (such as your trusted attorney) can be helpful. And third, have a good exit strategy.  A good exit strategy can save your friendship even if your partnership doesn’t work out.

“Good fences make good neighbors”, wrote Robert Frost; and good plans make good partners.

Most of us have “To Do” lists filled with tasks like ‘pay the bills’ or ‘wash the car’, but how many of those lists evoke a feeling of heavy obligation rather than pleasant anticipation? If you were to take your list of “Things to Do” and add onto the end of it “Before I Die”, would that change your list?

The movie “The Bucket List” addresses this question. How would having such a list change the way we live our lives?

If you don’t have your own list of “Things To Do Before I Die” a recent series of books seeks to help you make one. The series includes such books as “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”, “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die” and the book recently reviewed in the New York Times by William Grimes “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die”.

In a world where it’s easy to get caught up in the demands of the every day, a “bucket list” of things to do before you die can give you perspective, and keep you focused on what’s really important. Make your own “To Do” list one that will bring you a sense of pleasant anticipation at the dawn of each day, and of happy contentment when you turn the final page.

You’re an educated person. You have a degree, you’ve held a job, had responsibilities and a family. You’ve always done the smart thing and made what you hope are the right decisions, and you’d like to continue doing the smart thing. So when an “expert” hands you a flyer and tells you that for a couple thousand dollars they can create a living trust to save your family tens of thousands of dollars, of course you will consider it. After all, you’ve heard about living trusts and how beneficial they are. Even this blog, over and over again, has touted the wisdom of creating a trust.

The problem is that not all trusts are created equal. And unfortunately, not all “experts” are what they say they are.

The website of consumer affairs warns about the recent onslaught of fraudulent annuity scams and “trust mills”. These are people who pass themselves off as “legal experts”, but who often have no legal training at all, let alone a law degree. They use fear tactics and misleading information to scare people (most often the elderly) into creating unsound trusts and estate planning documents.

Living Trusts are a useful tool, and can provide most families with a valuable layer of protection—when created correctly, by an attorney with a background in estate planning law, who has met with you and is familiar with your unique situation. Trusts created by trust mills are often boilerplate packages that may not even comply with your state law or with the needs of your family.

You wouldn’t go into surgery without being sure of the qualifications of your doctor, why would you be any less cautious with your finances? Don’t create an estate plan until you’re sure of the qualifications of your attorney. After all, it’s the smart thing to do.

If you have heard me speak anytime in the past two years, you have heard me say that the greatest threat that you face to your life savings is the ever rising cost of nursing home care. Currently, the average cost of care in a nursing home is about $6000.00 per month. Of course you aren’t going to a nursing home, but chances are someone you love will. In fact, about 50% of the population spends time in a nursing home sometime during their life. If that loved one runs out of money to pay for their own care in a nursing home, and if they don’t have long term care insurance, they are out of options. They must apply for Medicaid, the federally funded program that pays for nursing home care after someone runs out of money to pay for nursing care themselves.

After I speak with people about this threat I often hear, “Even if I spend all my other assets, my house is protected, so I really have nothing to worry about.” In some respects, the house is protected, at least while you are alive. The rules that govern Medicaid eligibility allow a person who needs nursing home care to keep their house as long as they have “the intent to return home.” In Medicaid-speak that means that Medicaid will not take your home while you are alive.

However, the organization that administers Medicaid keeps a running tally of the amount that they have spent on a person’s care after they qualify for the program. Additionally, Medicaid has the right to put a lien on that person’s house while they are still alive so Medicaid can guarantee it gets paid when the home sells or the owner dies. After the owner passes away, Medicaid can either foreclose on the lien or initiate estate recovery of the money they spent that person’s care, either way, Medicaid will be entitled to take back out of the equity in the house everything they’ve spent.

On top of all of this, Medicaid has a cap on how much a home can be worth before someone will even qualify for the program, so those that are fortunate to have bought a house in the right neighborhood may not qualify for Medicaid because their house is worth to much.

So while Medicaid will say that the house is protected, they aren’t quite telling the whole story. We don’t want you to be both out of money and out of options, that’s why a meeting with us can help you discern how and when to plan for the nursing home spend down. We employ sound legal strategies to make sure that allow you to keep your home not just while you are alive, but for your children and grandchildren as well.

Have you ever watched a group of children divvying up a stash of sweets?  The process can be the most civilized thing you will ever witness, or it can resemble a pack of wild dogs descending on a fresh kill.  The process of distributing the personal effects of a deceased family member can fall within the same spectrum.  Sadly, even the most cultured of adults can turn into children again when objects of emotional significance are involved.

Many people side-step this issue by creating a personal property memorandum to dispose of their property after their death, but what happens when no such document has been created?  One inventive company has come up with a solution: eDivvyUp.

An online program similar to eBay, eDivvyUp provides families with an option other than the provoking first-come-first-served method of distributing the personal effects of a loved one.  With eDivvyUp each family member (or close friend of the deceased) is allotted a number of points which they then use to “bid” on items.

As strange a notion as it seems at first glance, eDivvyUp could be a lifesaver for the right family.  At a time when face to face confrontation can lead to hurt feelings that last for years, some families may prefer this more removed method.  And for families who have settled on opposite ends of the country (or in other countries) eDivvyUp offers a way for even far-flung siblings and cousins to have a voice in the distribution of Grandma’s estate.

Whether you are dealing with heirlooms that have been passed down through the generations, or objects of less historical significance, such as Grandma’s cookbook or Dad’s collection of power tools, eDivvyUp could be a viable option for your family.

They say that opposites attract, which means that you and your spouse probably have varied interests and talents that complement each other and make it easier to share household tasks; one of you cooks and the other cleans, one of you does the outdoor chores and the other the indoor chores.  Chances are good that one of you has a better head for numbers and handles most of the financial chores as well.

This arrangement is one that works out very well in the everyday scheme of things, but can be disastrous if something were to happen to the “financial expert” of the family, as this article by Beth Brophy in Kiplinger.com illustrates.

One of Brophy’s suggested solutions is to have an information binder, in which all of the family financial information is kept, including any estate planning documents.  Although many people tend to think of an estate plan as something to be hidden away until the death of one spouse, estate planning and financial documents actually go hand in hand.

If you have an estate plan you most likely have a trust of one kind or another to ensure that your assets transfer cleanly to your spouse or children upon your death.  You also should have a financial power of attorney giving your agents or successor trustees the power to care for your financial matters in the event that you become incapacitated and are unable to make financial decisions on your own.

If something were to happen to the “financial expert” in the family, the trust and power of attorney are essential documents that would be needed immediately by your spouse or agents.  Keeping these documents in one easily accessible place, along with bank statements, records of investment accounts, and the name and contact information of your financial planner and estate planning attorney, is essential.

Change is in the air for same-sex partnerships in California.  The CA Supreme Court ruled yesterday to recognize gay marriage, a ruling that is meeting with mixed but strong reactions throughout the state—and the country.

The overall significance of this ruling has yet to be seen.  California was one of the few states sympathetic to gay partnership, according to the LA Times, and had already “passed one of the strongest domestic partnership laws in the country, giving registered same-sex couples most of the rights of married people.”  The opinion of the court, however, was that the domestic partnership law was not enough. “Giving a different name, such as ‘domestic partnership,’ to the official family relationship of same-sex couples imposes appreciable harm both on the couples and their children.”

The ruling could presage change in other states across the country.  Although recognition of marriage is a state issue, and other states would not be required to recognize same-sex marriages performed in California, Pennsylvania constitutional law Professor Kermit Roosevelt predicts that more states will eventually follow California’s example.

Under the circumstances, it would be wise for same sex couples to consult their estate planning attorney if and when the change becomes law.  Regardless of how the court ruling plays out in the months to come, the priority of every family is going to be protecting and providing for the ones they love.

There are times when everybody needs a little motivation to plan for the future, but when you live in a situation that is outside the norm it’s even more important to think ahead.  A little motivation to plan for retirement is exactly what many same-sex couples need, according to this study published in Cornell News, at Cornell University.

When Cornell researchers Steven Mock, Catherine Taylor, and Ritch Savin-Williams analyzed data from interviews with men and women in same-sex relationships they found that gay and lesbian couples have a slightly greater tendency than straight couples to put off planning for retirement, and that the amount of retirement planning a couple will do is directly proportional to how happy they are in their relationship.

It’s not surprising that the more satisfied a couple is the more willing they are to look to the future, but the fact is that same-sex couples will have challenges enough in their futures, and can’t afford not to plan.  The authors of the Cornell study note that “Nearly all state and federal legislation assumes gay and lesbian life partners to be individuals and not economically interdependent as married couples are assumed to be. This lack of recognition of same-sex couples has repercussions in terms of retirement and financial planning.”

This means that same-sex couples not only have to be diligent about their individual financial and retirement planning, but also about planning together.  Because same-sex couples will not have the same tax status, or options for transfer of property upon death as traditionally married couples, it is essential that they make provisions for their partner with their estate and retirement plans.

“It would be a tragedy of immense proportions if same-sex couples who have been together for decades discover at the end of their life that they have few resources to enjoy their retirement and their last years of life,” notes Ritch Savin-Williams in the article mentioned above.  But it is a tragedy that can be easily averted.  With a little research, and with help from a savvy attorney and financial planner, same-sex couples can enjoy their golden years in style; healthy, wealthy, wise—and together.

Can you imagine your beloved partner being gravely injured, and you unable to be at his or her bedside?  For most of us this is unthinkable, but this is exactly what happened to Brett Conrad and Patrick Atkins, a gay couple of 25 years, when Patrick suffered a stroke in 2005 and was placed in the care of his highly religious parents.

This is not an isolated occurrence.  You may consider your partnership to be the same as that of a traditionally married couple, but unfortunately the law does not agree.  In the absence of a traditional marriage license, the law will often give priority to biological relatives.

The good news is that you don’t have to accept the estate plan that the laws of your state have created for you.  By creating your own estate plan (with a knowledgeable attorney) you can outline exactly who would make health care decisions for you, and how your property would be distributed should something happen to you.  And you have the added benefit of avoiding probate and court proceedings at the same time. Your particular estate plan will depend on the laws of the state in which you live, so contact your estate planning attorney about the details.

It may be only logical to you that the person with whom you share a house, bank accounts, and a gym membership be the one to take care of you and your finances in time of tragedy, but the law doesn’t always see it that way.  There are too many examples of unmarried partners who have put off creating the proper estate planning documents, and end up being kept from each other during an illness, or with their jointly acquired assets passing to biological relatives instead of to the other partner.  Don’t wait until it’s too late, talk to your estate planning attorney and take the right precautions today.