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.

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.

Quality novels or biographies about the aging or care taking process are not nearly as difficult to find as they may once have been.  A search on Amazon.com yields a number of books about care giving, living with Alzheimer’s or dementia, and saying goodbye to elderly parents. Many Baby Boomers have found themselves taking on unanticipated roles as their parents grow older, not knowing the best way to care for them (or in some cases say goodbye), and many of them have chosen to share their experiences through publication.

One of the most highly rated memoirs to be found is Mothering Mother by Carol D. O’Dell. (A preview of which can be found here.) Other highly rated memoirs include Dancing with Rose by Lauren Kessler, and Still Alice by Lisa Genova. All of these books serve not only to relate the experience of caring for a loved one, but also to reach out to others who are caring for their parents, and feel alone in doing so.

As we age, and as we watch those we love age, we need many different kinds of support.  Having a knowledgeable attorney to answer legal questions is only part of the equation, a role our firm is honored to serve.  But we know that emotional support is needed as well, and a community of others who have been through it before, and can offer sympathy and encouragement. We hope that the books listed above can help.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Parents know how much their children may have to give up in order to care for their needs.  In fact, we know that many parents allow their children to care for them only reluctantly.  And these parents, while they want to be fair to all their children, also want to do something extra for the child who has taken on the greatest share of caretaking.

It’s not always easy to know the best way to do this, or even if there is a way to do it.  Many grown children are reluctant to talk with their parent about the possibility of that parent’s death.  And even more of those children are uncomfortable discussing the idea that they might want (or need) financial reimbursement for caring for someone they love so much.  Alternatively, perhaps you as the parent are the one who is uncomfortable discussing monetary issues with your children.

However, if it is your wish to in some way provide for your caretaker child, the above mentioned article has a few excellent options to help you do so.  The suggestions include:

• Executing a Caregiver Agreement
• Providing for your child in your estate plan
• Taking out a Life Insurance policy
• Using one of a few options to transfer your home to your child

Any of these options is a viable way to help provide for a child who is currently helping to provide for you. But each option requires the help of a knowledgeable professional.  Call our office today to find out more about your options.

The increase will help workers deal with soaring energy and food costs, as described by Christopher Rugaber of the Associated Press, but many entrepreneurs are wondering if the increase will adversely affect their businesses.  In fact, according to an article by Angus Loten in Inc.com (published last year when the increase was first approved by the House of Representatives), most small business owners will not be hit by the increase, because they already pay their employees more than the state or federal minimums.

There is a web of interconnectedness in small businesses that is more readily apparent than in large corporations, which means that small business owners often can’t help but see and react to the financial well-being of their employees.  Loten, in his article, quotes Mark McCurry, the president of a small Atlanta-based delivery service as wondering “how you could pay anyone less than [the minimum wage] in good conscience?”

This seems to be the prevailing opinion of small business-owners across the country, who, according to Inc.com, generally pay employees more than minimum wage anyway, and 70% of whom reported that “raising the federal minimum wage would have little impact on their labor costs.”

Small business owners are struggling just as much as the next person with the current record inflation levels, but in an intimate work environment where the boss works side by side with employees, it’s difficult not to see how everyone is affected by the ups and downs of our recent economy. Perhaps it is for this very reason that these same small business owners are ahead of the minimum wage curve, providing for their employees and giving themselves some breathing room in the process.

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.