Michigan Estate Planning Blog

Do You Need a Revocable or an Irrevocable Trust?

 

It’s not always obvious which type of trust is the best for an individual, says a recent article titled “Which is Best for Me: A Revocable or Irrevocable Trust?” from Westchester & Fairfield County Business Journals.

In a revocable living trust (RLT), the creator of the trust, known as the “grantor,” benefits from the trust and can be the sole Trustee. While living, the grantor/trustee has full control of the real estate property, bank accounts or investments placed in the trust. The grantor can also amend, modify and revoke the trust.

The goal of a revocable trust is mainly to avoid probate at death. Probate is the process of admitting your last will and testament in the court in the county where you lived to have your last will deemed legally valid. This is also when the court appoints the executor named in your last will. The executor then has access to the estate’s assets to pay bills and distribute funds to beneficiaries as named in the last will.

Probate can take six months to several years to complete, depending upon the complexity of the estate and the jurisdiction. Once the estate is probated, your estate is part of the public record.

A revocable living trust and the transfer of assets into the trust can accomplish everything a last will can. However, distribution of assets at the time of death remains private and the court is not involved. Distribution of assets takes place according to the instructions in the trust.

By comparison, irrevocable trusts are not easily revoked or changed. Most irrevocable trusts are used as a planning tool to transfer assets for the benefit of another person without making an outright gift, or for purposes of Medicaid or estate tax planning. An Irrevocable Medicaid Asset Protection Trust is used to allow an individual to protect their life savings and home from the cost of long-term care, while allowing the trust’s creator to continue to live in their home and benefit from income generated by assets transferred into the irrevocable trust.

The transfer of assets to a Medicaid Asset Protection trust starts a five-year penalty period for Nursing Home Medicaid and a two-and-a-half-year penalty period for Home Care Medicaid for applications filed after March 1, 2024. After the penalty (or “look back”) periods expire, the funds held by the trust are protected and are not considered countable assets for Medicaid.

An irrevocable trust can also be used to transfer assets for the benefit of a loved one, friend, child, or grandchild. Assets are not controlled by the beneficiaries but can be used by the trustee for the beneficiary’s health, education, maintenance and support.

Trusts are used to reduce the size of the taxable estate, to plan for the well-being of loved ones, and to protect the individual and couple if long-term care is needed. Speak with an estate planning attorney about which trust is best for your unique situation.

Reference: Westchester & Fairfield County Business Journals (Jan. 26, 2023) “Which is Best for Me: A Revocable or Irrevocable Trust?”

Should I Ask Mom and Pop about Their Finances?

 

Adult children should know about their parents’ finances in case of any emergency. They should also know critical information in case of death. NASDAQ’s recent article entitled “9 Questions to Ask Aging Parents About Their Finances” acknowledges that speaking to aging parents about their finances isn’t easy. However, to start this process, the article gives us nine important topics you may want to discuss with your parents:
Do You Have a Financial Plan (and is it enough)? See if your parents have a financial plan. Some parents will have a solid financial plan that will let them to live comfortably into their 80s or 90s. On the other hand, you may discover they’re living on a fixed budget and money is tight. If you see that you’ll need to help them financially now or in the future, start planning ASAP. Any decision to provide them with financial support will likely have an effect on your own financial plan.
Do You Have an Accessible List of All Your Accounts? Ask your parents to draft a list of their financial assets and those named as beneficiaries of those accounts and keep it in a safe place. They should also put together important contacts, such as clergy, CPA, estate planning attorney, physician, etc.
Where’s Your Will, and Who’s the Executor? See where your parents keep their wills and estate documents. Some estate planning attorneys retain an original copy. If your parents don’t have a will, encourage them to see an estate attorney. An item that’s not commonly listed in the will, that you may want to ask about, is if your parents have prepaid for a burial plot or memorial arrangements.
Do You Have Life Insurance Policies that I Should Know About? See if your parents have any active life insurance policies. Get the details of the policies and the policy numbers. If your parents are still working, they may also have life insurance through an employer.
Are There Any Special Bequests to Family and Friends? Family heirlooms and special personal property may be a part of your parents’ estate plan. A sibling may have claimed your dad’s coin collection. Knowing your parents’ intentions and wishes for their keepsakes will make things much easier when they pass. Moreover, having conversations about family heirlooms now can help prevent any hard feelings later. Some people make up a list for their personal bequests and reference it in their wills.
Who Have You Named as Your Financial Power of Attorney? This document lets your parents name a primary and secondary person to make financial decisions on their behalf, if they become incapacitated. If you’re the one named as the person to make financial decisions, find out where all of your parents’ financial assets are held. You should also get information about their Medicare policy, any pensions and their Social Security benefits. It even helps to know their utility companies in case you need to pay these bills and must prove power of attorney.

Do You Have a Living Will? They should each have an advance health care directive or living will and health care power of attorney. These documents designate who has authority to make medical decisions on their behalf, if they became incapacitated or terminally ill. This also includes your parents’ preferences for life-sustaining treatment, including a “Do Not Resuscitate” clause, as well as their preferences on organ donation.
Have You Had Trouble Balancing Your Checkbook Lately or Forgotten to Pay Bills? Have a discussion about key financial decisions with your parents while they are in good health. This will let you make a plan, if they show signs of memory loss. The signs of memory loss include forgetting appointments, making occasional errors while managing household finances, or getting confused about the day of the week.
Do You Have a Long-Term Care Policy? To claim benefits of long-term care insurance, a person typically needs to be unable to perform two out of six common “activities of daily living” (bathing, dressing, toileting, eating, transferring and continence) or have a severe cognitive disorder. If your parents have a policy, access it and review its core benefits, in case you need to help them file a claim.
Discussing your parents’ financial and estate plans isn’t fun, but it will help give both you and your parents some peace of mind to know that they will be provided for, and things will be taken care of in their absence.
Reference: NASDAQ (Aug. 27, 2021) “9 Questions to Ask Aging Parents About Their Finances”

New Study Shows Special Needs Expenses Skyrocket

A new study in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics reports that the total lifetime cost of supporting an individual with an ASD is $1.4 million in the U.S.—with an added intellectual disability, the total rises to $2.4 million. Reuters recently reported on this study and its findings in an article titled "Raising an Autistic Child: Coping With the Costs." These costs typically include an ongoing mix of special education programs, medical care, and lost wages as many parents of autistic children reduce their work hours or even quit their jobs to help their child full-time. The organization Autism Speaks estimates that it now takes roughly $60,000 annually to support someone with an ASD. Such costs can be so prohibitive that many affected families will move to states that offer a better collection of services. The original article advises parents not to automatically think they must drop out of the workforce to manage their child’s case full-time. It is the natural human instinct to want to do so. No one knows a child and his or her needs like a parent, and navigating the morass of city, state and federal services can be a full-time job. However, if a parent drops out of the workforce, just as out-of-pocket expenses start to mount up, it can become very challenging financially. The article urges families to take a long-term view of caregiving. In some situations it might be more advantageous for mom to stay in the workforce, and then hire additional support to provide case-management services. An attorney well-versed in special needs issues can be an indispensable aid in this area.

Reference:  Reuters (June 24, 2014)"Raising an Autistic Child: Coping With the Costs"

For more information, see www.jerryreiflawyer.com

Long-Term Care Insurance – Protection From Living Too Long Saginaw, MI

Planning for the golden years is about a lot of things, many of them being important “finally I get to …” moments. However, before you tackle that “bucket list,” be sure to nail down some important financial considerations. For example, how would you pay for long-term care if needed? Increasingly, one of the most important considerations is planning for the possibility and costs of long-term care. It is becoming the cornerstone of new later-in-life financial plans for many retiring and retired Americans. MarketWatch recently surveyed this concern in a article titled “Long-term care planning [is] too vital to ignore.” You see, the math is fairly simple. People are living longer and, therefore, so are their financial needs later-in-life. Meanwhile, healthcare is still disastrously expensive, especially at that life stage. As a result, if you only plan for your retirement and for your estate, but not also for your later-in-life and potentially long-term care needs, then you find yourself in financial jeopardy later. You could have more life left at the end of your money, to be blunt. As the title of the original article notes, including long-term care planning as part of your retirement planning is simply “too vital to ignore.”

Reference: MarketWatch (July 15, 2013) “Long-term care planning too vital to ignore”

For more information, see  www.jerryreiflawyer.com

 

Long-Term Care Insurance – Protection From Living Too Long Saginaw, MI

Planning for the golden years is about a lot of things, many of them being important “finally I get to …” moments. However, before you tackle that “bucket list,” be sure to nail down some important financial considerations. For example, how would you pay for long-term care if needed? Increasingly, one of the most important considerations is planning for the possibility and costs of long-term care. It is becoming the cornerstone of new later-in-life financial plans for many retiring and retired Americans. MarketWatch recently surveyed this concern in a article titled “Long-term care planning [is] too vital to ignore.” You see, the math is fairly simple. People are living longer and, therefore, so are their financial needs later-in-life. Meanwhile, healthcare is still disastrously expensive, especially at that life stage. As a result, if you only plan for your retirement and for your estate, but not also for your later-in-life and potentially long-term care needs, then you find yourself in financial jeopardy later. You could have more life left at the end of your money, to be blunt. As the title of the original article notes, including long-term care planning as part of your retirement planning is simply “too vital to ignore.”

Reference: MarketWatch (July 15, 2013) “Long-term care planning too vital to ignore”

For more information, see www.jerryreiflawyer.com

 

I Am Betting on the Wife Saginaw, MI

In a sense, buying insurance is always about playing the odds. Traditionally, when the husband was the primary breadwinner, life insurance was taken out on his life. The tables are reversed, however, when it comes to long-term care insurance. What if a married couple can only afford coverage for one spouse? ElderLawAnswers.com recently took up this topic and weighed in on this question: “Which Spouse Should Get Long-Term Care Insurance Coverage?” In brief, women tend to live longer and therefore require more care. While it is far from a sure thing, a married couple might be best served by providing long-term care insurance for the wife who also is most likely to be the surviving spouse. Granted, the facts of relative longevity are quite familiar to insurance companies these days and women often require higher premiums, so the cost-benefit analysis begins. Then again, many more companies are working to offer coverage options to work for both spouses. You can find a great deal of options, if you just look around the market. On the other hand, statistics do peak volumes.

Reference: ElderLawAnswers.com (modified June 11, 2013) “Which Spouse Should Get Long-Term Care Insurance Coverage?”

For more information, see www.jerryreiflawyer.com