Total Counsel Law Group

How Should Couples Begin the Estate Planning Process?

“Let’s face it: mortality is hard to think about and death is impossible to plan for. What is doable, however, is getting affairs and assets in order to prevent loved ones from inheriting a headache and legal fees in the event of an incident.”

About 17% of adults don’t think they need a will, believing that estate planning is only for the very wealthy. However, no matter how few assets it seems someone owns, completing a few documents can make a huge difference in the future.

valuewalk.com’s recent article, “Couples: Here’s How To Start The Estate Planning Process” notes that although estate planning can seem overwhelming, taking inventory of assets is a terrific place to start.

Make a list of all your belongings of $100 or more in value, both inside and outside of the home. After that, think about how these assets should be divided among family, friends, churches or charities.

Drafting a will may be the most critical step in the estate planning process. A will serves as the directions for how assets are to be distributed, which can avoid unpleasant disputes.

A will can simplify the distribution of assets at your death, and it also provides instructions to your family and heirs.

A will can also set out directions for childcare, pet care, or any additional instructions or specifications.

Without a will in place, your assets will be distributed according to state law, rather than according to your wishes. Creating a will keeps the state from making decisions about how your estate is divvied up—decisions you may not have intended.

Once you have your assets and beneficiaries set, see an experienced estate planning attorney and have your will drafted immediately. Hey, life is unpredictable.

Another important part of the process is to have a discussion with everyone involved to prevent any legal or familial disputes regarding the estate.

Failure to start the estate planning process can lead to family fighting, misappropriated assets, court litigation and unneeded expenses. Get going!

Reference: valuewalk.com (July 22, 2019) “Couples: Here’s How To Start The Estate Planning Process”

What Do The Letters Mean After My Financial Advisor’s Name?

“Professional designations provide a standardized way for financial advisors to convey their expertise and ability to contribute to your financial well-being.”

Finding a financial advisor can be a confusing process, especially since there are different standards of care that financial professionals provide, Forbes explains in the article “What Designations Should Your Financial Advisor Have?”

To make matters more confusing, in addition to the designations, there’s a wide range of job titles used to show their expertise. Titles are unregulated and can’t be treated as verifiable proof of someone’s credibility or authority to serve your financial needs. Instead, look at the professional designations. These (letters behind the advisor’s name) are a more standardized way for these professionals to convey their expertise. However, not all letter combinations require the same degree of knowledge and training. Most financial professionals have some combination of letters on his or her business card. Here are three of the most meaningful designations (listed alphabetically) for financial advisors offering comprehensive wealth management services.

1. Certified Financial Planner (CFP®). This designation is the most comprehensive designation for financial planning. This certification requires participants to complete a series of financial planning courses and pass a two-day board exam. The course covers general principles of financial planning, education planning, insurance planning, investment planning, tax planning, retirement savings and income planning and estate planning. The CFP Board also mandates that its participants have three years of professional experience related to the financial planning process or two years of apprenticeship experience that meets additional requirements.
2. Certified Public Accountant (CPA). These financial professionals have highly-sophisticated backgrounds in taxes and accounting. Before taking the CPA exam, candidates must successfully complete a minimum of 150 semester hours of relevant course work. The CPA exam covers auditing and attestation, financial accounting and reporting, regulation and business environment concepts.
3. Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Many financial professionals think that this designation is the toughest credential to earn. CFA candidates must pass three exams, which requires roughly 900 hours of study. The tests have a passing rate of only 44%. The graduate-level curriculum for CFA candidates concentrates on investment and market topics, such as portfolio management, economics, financial analysis, quantitative methods and corporate finance. Before being permitted to use the designation, these candidates must complete four years of professional work experience in investment decision-making.

All three of these designations require substantial financial knowledge, continuing education and adherence to a strict code of ethics.

Reference: Forbes (January 29, 2019) “What Designations Should Your Financial Advisor Have?”

You Can’t Take It with You, but Dying Isn’t Cheap

“Funerals cost $6,000 and up, but planning can help you cut the big expenses.”

No one likes to talk about death, because it's considered taboo. But one subject even more taboo is money, contends gobankingrates.com. According to its article, “7 Money Secrets about Dying That No One Wants to Talk About,” if you don't talk or plan for dying, your death could cost your family a considerable amount of money. Read on to consider some valuable money secrets about death and how to be prepared.

Funerals Can Be Darn Expensive. Funerals homes charge about $6,000 for funeral services, and you'll pay an additional $2,000 for burial, $1,000 for a grave marker or $2,000 for a headstone. That adds up to $10,000 or more. Your family could also spend even more, if you don't put your final wishes in writing and discuss them with your family. The high cost of a funeral you didn’t want, could put your family in debt.

Look at Less Expensive Funeral Options. It’s hard to be sensible and objective when you're dealing with the emotional stress of a loved one's death.  However, there are differences in prices. You can find this information online. Do some comparison shopping for your family and tell them which funeral home you prefer.

A Funeral Package Deal Isn’t Always a Great Deal. A funeral home might offer a package, but you may not want or need everything that's in it. Look at your options because funeral home pricing is dependent on the services provided. You can also buy the grave marker, headstone or casket online directly from wholesalers or distributors, which can cut costs.

A Traditional Funeral Isn’t the Only Option. Don’t feel pressured into having a traditional funeral for yourself or your loved one, especially if you can't afford it. The difference between a full traditional burial and a cremation can be $7,000, with the additional services required.

Prepaid Funeral Policies. Funeral homes and insurance companies offer prepaid funeral policies. This sounds like a good way to save your family money on your funeral costs, but you can spend more on premiums than the policy will pay at your time of death.

When you don't plan or you plan improperly, your family will pay the price. While you are at it, spend the money to have an experienced estate planning attorney draft a will so that it conforms to your state's laws.

For more information, please visit our website at www.totalcounselor.com

Reference: gobankingrates.com (March 14, 2017) “7 Money Secrets about Dying That No One Wants to Talk About”

Retirement Is the Most Expensive Thing That You’ll Ever Pay For

“Retirement is the most expensive purchase most people will make, yet many Americans are underfunding their retirement…”

A new study from Merrill Lynch and Age Wave, part of a four-year, 50,000-respondent investigation into the changing lifescape of retirement, reports that retirement has the highest average price tag when stacked up against life’s other biggest expenses.

A recent article in Credit Union Times, “Retirement Is ‘Life’s Most Expensive Purchase,” notes that the financial support millennials receive from their parents can siphon off retirement funds.

The average cost of retirement is over $700,000. That’s about 2.5 times that of the average home.  The average cost of a home is $278,300.

Even with this staggering price tag, the Merrill Lynch and Age Wave report says 81% of Americans don’t know how much they’ll need for their retirement. What’s more, many younger people today think they’ll need to personally fund a greater portion of their retirement, relying less on their employers or the government. Millennials believe that 65% of their retirement income will come from personal sources. Longevity is increasing, and more individuals will be personally funding lengthier retirements. They will be much longer retirements than their parents or grandparents.

Some experts recommend that you look at retirement as purchasing something in your future, so that it alters the dynamic of how you plan. In other words, you’re trying to accumulate the assets and the ability to purchase a fantastic future.

The study examines the reasons why people aren’t saving more. It discovered that people have a variety of reasons for not saving for retirement.  However, the most frequently mentioned in the study are not having enough money left after paying basic expenses (41%) and paying down debt (38%).

The study also found that there is a significant “intention-action gap” in how Americans are saving for retirement. It looks like Americans know they should be saving more, but they’re not doing it.

People have good intentions, but the study found that there’s a big difference between intentions and actions. Americans, on average, said they think they should be saving about 25% of their disposable income each year.  However, they are saving just one-fourth of that. They’re actually saving 5.5% of their disposable personal income. The savings rate has inched up from a low of 3% during the recent recession. Nevertheless, it’s still less than half the peak rate of 13% in the early 1970s, the study says.

For more information, please visit our website at www.totalcounselor.com

Reference: Credit Union Times (February 17, 2017) “Retirement Is ‘Life’s Most Expensive Purchase’”

If it is So Important, Why Doesn't Everyone Make a Will?

“Understanding what happens to you when you die may help you understand the intricacies of your estate and make planning both simpler and more effective.”

No one likes to plan for his or her death, but it’ll happen to all of us, says The Reading Eagle Business Weekly in the article “Make a will, plan for distribution of assets.”

You can pass your wealth to anyone you want, but state and/or federal taxes may be due on these transfers. The rules are also complex, and if you die without a will, the state laws of intestacy may say who gets your wealth.

Most folks make the mistake of signing their wills and life insurance policies, then putting them in files and forgetting about them. These documents and your intentions will become out-of-date. It’s not uncommon for a decedent to have been divorced for five years when they die, but the ex-spouse still inherits all of his or her assets. Why? Because the ex’s name is still in the will or is listed as the beneficiary of the life insurance policy. This happens more frequently than you might think.

Probate?

Probate versus non-probate assets is one of the most misunderstood concepts in estate planning. Probate is the process that deals with proving a will's validity by filing it in court. The will names an executor who is responsible for fulfilling its terms. The estate assets are identified and valued, then given to the individuals named in the will.

There are also non-probate assets that are transferred by operation of law. They specifically include accounts with beneficiary designations like IRAs, 401(k)s, pensions, retirement accounts, life insurance, annuities and transfer-on-death accounts. These non-probate assets supersede what’s written in the will. The beneficiary designations control them.

Do you have a will? When was the last time you reviewed it?

You should hire an experienced estate planning attorney to help structure an estate plan for both your will and beneficiary designations to allow for the efficient transfer of your assets.

For more information on estate planning, visit our website here.

Reference: Reading (PA) Eagle Business Weekly (January 17, 2017) “Make a will, plan for distribution of assets.”

What if You Die Intestate?

“If someone dies `intestate,’ meaning `without a will,’ then certain individuals have the right to qualify as administrator of the estate. The law is very rigid with respect to who can qualify.”

If your parents don’t have wills, how do you convince them that they need them?

Education is key, says NJ 101.5 in “Talking to your parents about a will.” Some parents fail to realize the consequences of not having a will—like if you don’t have a will, you lose the right to choose who will serve as executor (the person in charge of the estate).

In the absence of a will, the “administrator” appointed by the court needs to be bonded, which can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. With a will, you can have a clause that waives the bond requirement. One great reason for Mom and Dad to have a will right there!

A place for information on this topic is your area’s probate court, typically located in the county seat. Plus, many good introductory brochures can be found online on their website. This information might be enough to convince your parents how important it is to have wills.

Another possible concern with some parents is that of keeping their personal and financial matters private. If so, they can create trusts to dispose of their assets. Remember that a will is a public document. While most wills don’t have specific asset information, the will itself is open to the public, and anyone can obtain a copy. A trust is always private unless there is a court action involving the trust. The trust agreement isn’t automatically a public record, even in that case.

If your parents create a trust with the help of a qualified trust attorney, and they transfer their assets to a trust during their lifetime, the trust controls what happens to those assets upon their incapacity and death.

These are some good options to discuss with Mom and Dad. No matter what they decide, it’s better to have a plan in place. Otherwise, ignoring these issues may mean costly and stressful family disputes, which can be avoided with proper planning.

For more information about Estate planning, please visit our website here.

Reference: NJ 101.5 (November 1, 2016) “Talking to your parents about a will”

NFLers Huddle Up: Make a Game Plan for Possible Dementia

“This one’s for you, Peyton Manning, and you, DeAngelo Williams, and you, Jadeveon Clowney, and all NFL players and alumni: Do yourselves a favor and pay attention to the Sam Huff case.”

A recent Washington Post article, entitled “Today’s NFL players should look hard at Sam Huff’s case; they could be next,” says you should prepare for a time when you might become incapacitated as a result of your career. Fail to make proper plans and a judge could end up determining where you live.

The NFL estimates that a player has about a 30% chance of contracting Alzheimer’s or dementia. Players receive literature from the NFL Players Association about concussions and advice from agents and lawyers about estate-planning, but they rarely see the real picture of how people will treat you with a stigmatizing brain disease.

You need to make a game plan, or a judge will decide if you’ve been abused, neglected or exploited. Enter Sam Huff, who’s a Hall of Fame linebacker who was very successful after football. He was a VP at Marriott and enjoyed thoroughbred horse breeding. He lived on his horse farm in Middleburg, Va., for 30 years with his partner, Carol Holden, until 2012 when dementia was diagnosed.

Huff’s daughter, Catherine, is seeking legal power to make all of Huff’s life and health-care decisions for him. Carol filed an emergency petition seeking to return him to his home and to her guardianship. There’s a court hearing scheduled.

Can you believe that of the 1,600 players in the NFL each season, more than 500 will contract some form of dementia. Here's a suggested blueprint for how to protect yourself, which may be just as important as wearing a helmet in action.

Here is some advice from the article whether you played on Sunday or caught the games on television:

Find a lawyer with experience in estate planning for Alzheimer’s and heed his or her advice. You need a specialist because Alzheimer’s planning requires a very thorough interdisciplinary legal knowledge, as well as insight into medical and criminal scenarios. An attorney experienced with dementia issues can educate you on why you shouldn’t give your child or spouse durable power of attorney without some type of neutral oversight.

Don’t create family problems. Appoint an independent third party “protector.” This can be a valued friend who has sound judgment and can monitor the conduct of the trustee over your trust and the attorney in fact under your financial power of attorney. This is a pretty new idea, but it helps to address potential financial abuse. A protector can make sure that any actions are in your best interests.

Declare legally that if there’s any change to your estate plan after your diagnosis, there needs to be a medical evaluation to ensure it’s your decision. Changes can be manipulations, especially if your power-of-attorney is also a beneficiary.

Legally provide that a geriatric care social worker be employed to facilitate your care. All of the agencies, facilities, and services create confusion and frustration for family members trying to help. But a geriatric care expert has the knowledge, social service resources, and experience to take care of living arrangements and quality care, which can ease the strain on the family.

Determine your wishes and provide for them. If you really want to live at home, look into how to do so with dementia and set aside the money. You might decide you want to live in a facility. Be sure you state in your estate plan that the location has a good nurse-to-patient ratio and specifically trained Alzheimer’s care.

While Huff’s situation shows there’s no such thing as a foolproof solution, you can start by working with a credible dementia-knowledgeable attorney.

For more information on Estate Planning and Retirement please visit our website here

Reference: Washington Post (Sept. 15, 2016) “Today’s NFL players should look hard at Sam Huff’s case; they could be next”

NFLers Huddle Up: Make a Game Plan for Possible Dementia

“This one’s for you, Peyton Manning, and you, DeAngelo Williams, and you, Jadeveon Clowney, and all NFL players and alumni: Do yourselves a favor and pay attention to the Sam Huff case.”

A recent Washington Post article, entitled “Today’s NFL players should look hard at Sam Huff’s case; they could be next,” says you should prepare for a time when you might become incapacitated as a result of your career. Fail to make proper plans and a judge could end up determining where you live.

The NFL estimates that a player has about a 30% chance of contracting Alzheimer’s or dementia. Players receive literature from the NFL Players Association about concussions and advice from agents and lawyers about estate-planning, but they rarely see the real picture of how people will treat you with a stigmatizing brain disease.

You need to make a game plan, or a judge will decide if you’ve been abused, neglected or exploited. Enter Sam Huff, who’s a Hall of Fame linebacker who was very successful after football. He was a VP at Marriott and enjoyed thoroughbred horse breeding. He lived on his horse farm in Middleburg, Va., for 30 years with his partner, Carol Holden, until 2012 when dementia was diagnosed.

Huff’s daughter, Catherine, is seeking legal power to make all of Huff’s life and health-care decisions for him. Carol filed an emergency petition seeking to return him to his home and to her guardianship. There’s a court hearing scheduled.

Can you believe that of the 1,600 players in the NFL each season, more than 500 will contract some form of dementia. Here's a suggested blueprint for how to protect yourself, which may be just as important as wearing a helmet in action.

Here is some advice from the article whether you played on Sunday or caught the games on television:

Find a lawyer with experience in estate planning for Alzheimer’s and heed his or her advice. You need a specialist because Alzheimer’s planning requires a very thorough interdisciplinary legal knowledge, as well as insight into medical and criminal scenarios. An attorney experienced with dementia issues can educate you on why you shouldn’t give your child or spouse durable power of attorney without some type of neutral oversight.

Don’t create family problems. Appoint an independent third party “protector.” This can be a valued friend who has sound judgment and can monitor the conduct of the trustee over your trust and the attorney in fact under your financial power of attorney. This is a pretty new idea, but it helps to address potential financial abuse. A protector can make sure that any actions are in your best interests.

Declare legally that if there’s any change to your estate plan after your diagnosis, there needs to be a medical evaluation to ensure it’s your decision. Changes can be manipulations, especially if your power-of-attorney is also a beneficiary.

Legally provide that a geriatric care social worker be employed to facilitate your care. All of the agencies, facilities, and services create confusion and frustration for family members trying to help. But a geriatric care expert has the knowledge, social service resources, and experience to take care of living arrangements and quality care, which can ease the strain on the family.

Determine your wishes and provide for them. If you really want to live at home, look into how to do so with dementia and set aside the money. You might decide you want to live in a facility. Be sure you state in your estate plan that the location has a good nurse-to-patient ratio and specifically trained Alzheimer’s care.

While Huff’s situation shows there’s no such thing as a foolproof solution, you can start by working with a credible dementia-knowledgeable attorney.

For more information on Dementia and Estate Planning please visit our website here

Reference: Washington Post (Sept. 15, 2016) “Today’s NFL players should look hard at Sam Huff’s case; they could be next”