Monday, January 09, 2012 Happy 2012! Make Getting Your Affairs in Order Your Goal for the New Year
Each year, I make a list of goals that I want to accomplish for the year. Some years, the goals have a theme – unfortunately, the theme is almost always the same: lose weight, exercise more. . .
This year, I’m challenging you to make one of your New Year’s goals to get your estate planning affairs in order. This is one goal that is easy to accomplish – I promise!
Here are 5 easy steps you can take to accomplish this goal.
1. Get educated about estate planning. Attend an estate planning workshop or two. Estate planning attorneys like me are always giving seminars and workshops to educate people about estate planning. Yes, these workshops help attorneys attract clients, but the goal of these workshops is really to educate people about the basics of estate planning so clients can have meaningful conversations and can make thoughtful decisions about their own estates.
2. Review your old documents. Do you have a will or trust? Advanced Directives or Healthcare Powers of Attorney and Living Wills? Do you have a Durable Financial Power of Attorney? How old are your documents? If your wills name guardians for your children who are now 30 years old, your documents are definitely out of date. Did you name an executor who is now dead or is your ex-wife named as your executor? Probably time to revise your will.
What about your health care documents? If they were done in Georgia before 2007, you may want to update them to the Advance Health Care Directive that went into effect in 2007. Who have you named to make healthcare decisions for you? Is that person still the right person to make decisions for you?
3. Look at the ownership of all of your accounts. How is your bank account titled? Title indicates who owns the account. Are you the sole owner or is it a joint account? Who is the joint owner and is this someone who should be a joint owner of your account? Here’s a link to a blog I wrote last year about the pros and cons of joint ownership of accounts: http://bit.ly/xm8W5o.
4. Check the beneficiary designations of your accounts. The beneficiary is the person who would receive the proceeds of the account at your death. Is the beneficiary your estate? If so, why did you make your estate the beneficiary? Having your estate as the beneficiary pretty much ensures that your estate will have to be probated. Is your beneficiary under the age of 18 or someone with special needs? It may not be the best thing to give someone under the age of 18 a large inheritance. Although the court will put protections in place for those under 18, those protections can be expensive and once the beneficiary has their 18th birthday, the money is all theirs – to spend however they wish. Yikes!
If the beneficiary has special needs, a gift may mean they lose governmental benefits.
Distributions from IRA’s and 401(k)’s have income tax consequences, so have you considered how your beneficiary designations will affect the tax liability of your beneficiaries?
5. Make an appointment with an estate planning lawyer, a CPA and your financial advisor. A good, comprehensive plan involves a group of professionals who can guide and counsel you in making decisions about your estate.
Will you accept thechallenge to make getting your New Years Goal getting your affairs in order?
Here's to a great new year!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 Holiday Traditions: Really Check in With Your Neighbors and Relatives
On Friday night, we gathered with neighbors old and new to celebrate a cherished tradition – our annual progressive dinner. Traditionally, we begin the year. We find out about the new babies, weddings and graduations to come. We learn what colleges the children will attend, and where soon-to-be college graduates will start their careers. We also check in on aging neighbors to find out about their health scares, their difficulties, the loss of their loved ones. After moving from house to house for salads, and main courses, we end up with more wine and sweet treats to reminisce about dinners past. How many have we had? No one can remember. But by the end of the evening, we’re looking forward to next year’s dinner, and assigning tasks to make it happen.
Continuing this tradition is important to my family and my neighborhood because it allows us to connect with our neighbors, to get to know them when times are good so that we can help each other when times are not so good. Without our traditional yearly gathering, we might not realize when our neighbors need our help.
In my practice, I see many people who see their aging or ill family members and friends at the holidays and realize that all is not well. Sometimes, all has not been well for so long that those family members are now in crisis.
If you are visiting family members who are aging or ill, take the time to talk with them to find out about their health. Are they seeing a doctor? What medications are they taking? How do they keep track of their medications on a daily basis? Ask them if they have a healthcare proxy or advance directive for healthcare? Who will make healthcare decisions for them if they are not able?
Although it can be difficult to have a conversation with parents about their finances, ask them if they have appointed someone to make financial decisions for them if they are not able. Look around the house and see if there are stacks of unopened bills. Find out if they have long-term care insurance. Ask where their important financial and legal documents can be found. If they haven’t appointed anyone to make decisions for them, urge them to do that while they still can.
If your aging family members are still driving, ride with them to see if they are still able to drive safely. Are they stopping at the stop signs? Do they forget to look before making a turn? Do they still remember how to get to places they have been to many times before or do they forget where they are going? If they are having trouble driving, would a driving school help? Or, can you help them find transportation so they won’t need to drive anymore?
With married couples, try to talk with each one alone. Sometimes couples get so good at covering for each other, you don’t realize that one of them might be suffering from dementia. If one of the couple is ailing, find out how the well spouse is coping. Is he or she eating and sleeping right? Is he or she getting help in the home so he or she can get out to see friends, or just get some time to rest and recharge?
Look in the refrigerator, freezer and cupboard. Is the food in the refrigerator or cupboards moldy or out of date? Are they going to the grocery store on a regular basis? If you suspect that they are not eating right, is there a meals-on-wheels program that they might qualify for?
I hope that you will enjoy holiday traditions with family, friends, and neighbors this year. Will you take time to talk with your family and friends to see whether they might need help in the coming year?
Happy Holidays!
Patti Elrod-Hill
Monday, October 24, 2011 Naming Guardians for Minor Children
Phew! I’ve reached that point in life where I can relax – not much, but a little- because both of my children are adults and, for the most part, out of the nest. Until just a couple of years ago, I broke out in a sweat every time I had to go out of town on business by myself. Not only did I worry about whether my kids would get fed, get their homework done and make it to soccer practice on time, but I also worried about what would happen to them if I had an accident and didn’t make it home.
If you have minor children, children under the age of 18, I’m sure you worry about that, too. If you are not around, who will feed them, help them with their homework and get them to soccer practice?
Choosing someone to care for your children is difficult. No one will care for and love your children the way you do, and, as far as I know, we can’t clone you. However, if you don’t choose someone to raise your children if you’re not there, the probate court will have to make that choice and the court may not choose someone that you would like to raise your children.
The only way to nominate a guardian in Georgia is in a will. However, many people put off doing their estate plan because this choice is so difficult. Here are a few tips for choosing guardians for your children.
First, make a list of everyone you would trust to take care of your children. When making this list, don’t restrict yourself to the obvious choices. Remember that if you choose no one, your children could end up in foster care. If you had the choice of this person or foster care, would you choose this person? If so, put them on the list.
Most people limit their list to family members – parents and siblings- but think about your extended family. Maybe your aunts, cousins, nieces or nephews would be good choices. Try to think about whether their philosophy about raising children is similar to yours.
Second, would any of these people truly love your children? Would they raise the children with the religious, social, and moral values that you would like?
Third, look at the personality. Are they affectionate? Good role models?
Fourth, be practical. Would raising children hamper their lifestyle? If a couple divorced, or one died, would you choose either one of them?
Fifth, look for someone who’s good, not necessarily perfect. Remember, as we discussed above, you cannot be cloned.
Sixth, talk to everyone you are thinking of naming. Make sure they are willing to serve, and explain what will be required of them. Let them know that they should tell you now if they do not want to be nominated as a guardian of your children.
Finally, above all, make sure that you are the one that makes the choice – not the court.
In the next blog post, we’ll talk about writing letters of instruction for guardians.
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