Michigan Estate Planning Blog

The Team Behind a Successful Estate Plan

 

 

Most advisors stick with their areas of knowledge. The estate planning attorney drafts the necessary documents, your CPA files tax returns and the investment advisor fine tunes assets. However, coordinating these professional silos is critical to ensuring your estate plan works, says a recent article from Forbes, “Your Estate Plan Must Be Coordinated To Work.”

Communication needs to extend past advisors to key loved ones and people you name in roles, such as agents, trustees and executors. Many people find these discussions awkward. However, preparing heirs and fiduciaries for their roles and setting expectations is a crucial step to avoid issues during transition periods. Some of the most significant estate planning problems arise when the baton is passed, such as if you fall and become incapacitated. You need to be sure your agents know what is expected of them and when they will be called upon to perform their respective tasks.

Coordinating advisor actions will save time and expense in the long run. Your estate planning attorney, CPA, trust officer, wealth advisor and insurance broker should know what each other is doing on your behalf. Many people shy away from doing this because of concerns about cost. However, not doing it can lead to much larger expenses.

You want to foster coordination and collaboration, in a controlled and cost-effective manner. One way to do this is to have advisors prepare a summary of key points, facts and decisions following your meetings, so you can circulate it to other advisors. This way they all know what is being done and can share their knowledge and experience if they think something is wrong or won’t work as planned.

One example of what can happen when advisors are not coordinated is paying bills from incorrect accounts. For instance, if you incur legal fees for the estate plan but pay them from a trust account or business entity, a creditor could argue this is a personal benefit from a trust you are not a beneficiary of, or you’ve violated the business purpose of an entity, which could expose all trust or entity assets.

Your estate planning attorney should know how your assets are titled, which are owned jointly, or other designations used to avoid the terms of your will and/or any trusts. Beneficiary designations, wills and titles must be planned and coordinated to avoid derailing your estate plan.

If you die and an asset is owned in your name only, the asset will go through probate and be distributed according to the terms of your will. If you are incapacitated, your agent, under your financial Power of Attorney, must act concerning the asset to help pay bills.

Many people opt to have assets held in a joint name so that on death, the asset will pass to the named joint owner without going through the will and probate. If the person named as the joint owner is not the same as the POA, you may have created a logistical nightmare. How will the POA pay bills if the joint owner does not cooperate?

Coordinating professional advisers is as important as coordinating family members. There are many different agents and positions to be appointed. People often sign a financial POA with their estate planning attorney, and no one looks closely at any conflicting appointments.

The same kind of issues occur with health care agents. There are several different health care documents, and you’ll want to coordinate them to eliminate the possibility of conflicting appointments. The key to achieving this is diligence, communication and follow-up.

Reference: Forbes (Oct. 31, 2023) “Your Estate Plan Must Be Coordinated To Work”

 

What Three Things Do People Overlook on Estate Planning Benefits?

An estate plan is important for everyone. Without a legally enforceable estate plan, a court may apply state laws and decide how your assets will be distributed and who will raise your minor children. In addition to allowing you to direct the wrap-up of your affairs after you are gone, an estate plan can also help you reduce taxes, expedite settling your estate and reduce conflict in your family.

Yahoo Finance’s recent article, “3 Overlooked Benefits of Estate Planning,” explains that planning your estate entails making arrangements to ensure that your wishes are carried out after your death.

While some think estate planning is only for those with mansions and millions in the bank, this isn’t true. Instead, even those with modest assets can benefit from having a defined estate plan.

Remember that the estate planning process isn’t about how much you have—it’s about making sure what you do have ends up where you want it. It may also decide who will be responsible for raising any minor children who survive you.

Your estate plan can also affect taxes, the time it takes to settle your estate, your end-of-life medical care and the odds that your family will fight over it.

Deciding who gets what is the big question of many estate plans. Your estate consists of the assets, property and personal items you own at your death. This may include real estate, bank accounts, life insurance, stocks and investments, retirement accounts, and personal property like collectibles, vehicles, art and jewelry.

The documents in estate plans include a last will and testament, a living will, financial and medical powers of attorney and documents establishing various trusts.

Start your estate plan today with the help of an experienced estate planning attorney and review it periodically to accommodate marriages, divorces and births. The process often includes reviewing your property and wishes, drafting a will, naming an executor, assigning healthcare and financial proxies and settling other matters, like funeral arrangements.

Reference: Yahoo Finance (April 24, 2023) “3 Overlooked Benefits of Estate Planning”

 

When Home Is Where The Healthcare Is, How Good Is The Care?

Receiving medical care in old age or securing it for a loved one is a difficult and often expensive choice to navigate. There are many options, paths and plans, to be sure. In the end, however, the choice can easily come down to finding that care at home or in a facility. How does the quality of care compare? Specifically, how good is the care at home? The answer seems to range from “we don’t know” to an unhelpful “it depends.” With so many people receiving care at home, either by default or by design, it is an important option to understand. A recent article in Forbes, titled “We All Want To Live At Home In Old Age, But Know Nothing About the Quality of Care We'll Get There,” to a look under the hood on this subject. The problem is a knowledge-vacuum. There are many levels of oversight for skilled nursing homes or other care facilities. On the other hand, there are few levels for care received in the home. In-home care may be delivered by a loved one, but it may also be delivered by a paid aide through Medicare home-based long-term services or some other program. There has been large expansion in the kinds of services available, but most of us have a hard time figuring out the quality of care available. Be sure to consult an experienced elder law attorney who is “plugged into” the network of care providers.

Reference: Forbes (March 19, 2014) “We All Want To Live At Home In Old Age, But Know Nothing About the Quality of Care We'll Get There”

For more information, see www.jerryreiflawyer.com

Income, Not Assets, Determine Obamacare Subsidies Saginaw, MI

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, is now just beginning to take effect. If you have not heard, there still are many questions to ask and problems to resolve. The states have their own part to play under the ACA (and may delay putting certain changes into effect until 2015). Closer to home, there is still the matter of how it affects you, the individual, and how you and your family can plan for your health insurance under the law. Kaiser Health News provided some important insights as part of a Q&A entitled, importantly, “Income -- Not Assets -- Will Determine Subsidies In Online Insurance Marketplaces.” Indeed, the perennial problem many retirees and elderly Americans face is having more assets “on paper” than they do in terms of spendable income. That only makes sense because you planned to have a nest egg sustain your retirement. Now that you have that nest egg, you draw from it only what you need. As far as ACA is concerned, it is important to know that ACA requires health insurance and will soften the blow with subsidized insurances (when purchased via a health insurance exchange). The government subsidies are not based on your assets, but only on your income. As a result, anything you earn from the stocks you own, for example, is still income. However, assets in IRAs or plain old bank accounts will not count against you in terms of insurance. In other words, the nest egg is not meant to be threatened by the health insurance requirement.

Reference: Kaiser Health News (July 2, 2013) “Income -- Not Assets -- Will Determine Subsidies In Online Insurance Marketplaces”

For more information, see www.jerryreiflawyer.com

 

How to Choose Your Medicare Part D Plan Saginaw Michigan

An important deadline is approaching – enrollment for Medicare Part D plans is underway and there are only a couple weeks left to pick the plan that suits you. Your selection needs to be made by December 7th. Just make sure you choose wisely as there are big changes happening to many popular plans. Here is a sobering statistic pulled by a posting over at the New Old Age blog on the New York Times: “only 5.2 percent of Medicare Part D beneficiaries manage to choose the most economical plan” (see “Part D, Part 2”). And why would that be? The market shifts greatly from year to year and providers frequently hide the gritty details with broad promises, but it’s those very details that determine your day-to-day life and much of your finances. For a short list of things to watch for and a broader view on comparing plans it may be helpful to review another article, “Avoid A Costly Medicare Part D Mistake Right Now” through Forbes. The big things to watch? 1. Increased monthly premium. 2. Increased deductible amount. 3. Changes in what drugs the plans cover and how well they cover them. 4. Changes in the medications you take. 5. Your plan may no longer be offered. In this case if you do nothing you will be enrolled in another plan that may not be the best suited for you. As you ponder over which plan is best for your needs, remember that enrollment ends December 7th.

References: Forbes (November 8, 2012) “Avoid A Costly Medicare Part D Mistake Right Now

The New York Times – The New Old Age Blog (November 1, 2012) “Part D, Part 2”

For more information see www.jerryreiflawyer.com

Married Couples and Long-Term Care Logistics

Marriage is a unique economic and legal institution. Indeed, when it works out, marriage also means a happy lifetime of living with another. Of course, because life lasts longer and health wanes differently between persons, those unique economic and legal parts to marriage can translate into difficult times later in life. Against the backdrop of the in sickness portion of the vows, one difficulty that arises was addressed recently in a Wall Street Journal article titled Long-Term Care and Couples: Who Pays?. That difficulty is the phenomenon of the “well spouse,” the “ill spouse,” and Medicaid. Practically speaking, if one spouse becomes chronically sick and needs long-term care, will the other spouse be driven into poverty? Marital assets, whether owned by the husband or the wife, are part of the equation when it comes to determining Medicaid eligibility. Medicaid is the joint federal/state government program to provide means-tested health care assistance to those who qualify. With both federal and state coffers bleeding red ink (with a few state exceptions), Medicaid money is tight, especially in terms of long-term care coverage -- whether married or single. As the Wall Street Journal article notes, however, some states are treating the “well spouses” more generously than others regarding how much wealth they may retain while the “sick spouses” are receiving taxpayer support through Medicaid. I recommend reading the original article. Also, consider purchasing long-term care insurance so Medicaid does not become part of your future. In any event, a consultation with a qualified Elder Law Attorney would be prudent to evaluate your options.

Reference: The Wall Street Journal (April 2, 2012) “Long-Term Care and Couples: Who Pays?”