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If you have a sale of real estate or assets coming up that will result in you owing capital gains tax, you may want to give us a call to discuss whether to set up a Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT) first. Think of it this way: would you rather pay taxes and send your hard-earned money to the government, or use that same money to provide yourself with a lifetime of income and support your favorite charity at the same time?

CRTs offer a number of benefits to everyone involved. These trusts allow you to contribute to your most beloved charities, while also generating a valuable extra source of income for the beneficiaries, which can assist with retirement, paying off taxes, or be used for additional estate planning purposes. Such trusts aren’t for everyone, so call us to see if a CRT fits in with your planning goals.

How A CRT Works

A CRT is what’s called a “split-interest” trust, meaning it provides financial benefits to both the charity and the non-charitable beneficiary. The non-charitable beneficiary can be your spouse, child, another heir, or even you.

Here’s how these unique trusts work: when you set up a CRT, you name a trustee, an income beneficiary (or beneficiaries), and a charitable beneficiary. Then, you’ll contribute your appreciated asset to the CRT, and the trustee will sell, manage, and invest the asset(s) to produce income that’s paid to the non-charitable beneficiary.

Normally, the sale of these assets would generate capital gains taxes. But instead, you get a charitable deduction for the donation when you donate the assets to the CRT, and the CRT doesn’t pay capital gains tax upon sale of the appreciated assets. Sounds like a win/win, right?

After sale of the appreciated assets, the cash generated is invested by the trustee, and the non-charitable beneficiary receives income from the trust, which is paid out either annually, semiannually, quarterly, or monthly, depending on how the trust is set up. And if income is not paid out, it can accumulate in the trust and not be subject to income tax, further growing in value. Then, at the end of the non-charitable beneficiary’s life, whatever assets “remain” (hence the name “remainder” trust), pass to the charity or charities named in the trust.

The trustee can be yourself, a charity, another person, or even a third-party entity. Since the trustee (if it’s not you) is not only responsible for seeing that your wishes are properly carried out, but also for managing the trust assets in accordance with complex state and federal laws, it’s vital that the trustee you select has experience with financial management, and ideally, with trust administration.

You can use the following types of assets to fund a charitable remainder trust:

• Publicly traded securities
• Some types of closely held stock (Note that CRTs cannot hold S-Corp stock)
• Real estate
• Certain other complex assets

If you have assets you think might be useful for funding a CRT, contact us your Personal Family Lawyer® to see if a CRT might be a good fit for your estate planning goals.

Main Types of CRTs

There are two main types of charitable remainder trusts, both of which are based on your options for how the trust income is paid out.

Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts (CRATS): The beneficiary can receive an annual fixed payment using a Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust. With this option, the income payments from the trust will not change, regardless of the trust’s investment performance. With this type of trust, additional contributions to the trust are not allowed.

Charitable Remainder Unitrust Trusts (CRUTS): With a Charitable Remainder Unitrust, the beneficiary is paid a fixed percentage of the trust’s assets, and the payouts fluctuate depending on the trust’s investment performance and value. Unlike with CRATS, additional contributions can be made with this type of trust.

Tax Benefits Of CRTs

Since CRTs are used primarily to reduce taxes, they come with some significant tax breaks. As mentioned earlier, you can take a partial income tax deduction within the year the trust was created for the value of your donation. The partial tax deduction you receive is based on the trust’s type and term, the projected income payments to the charitable beneficiaries, and interest rates set by the IRS, which are determined based on the growth rate of trust assets.

That said, your deduction is limited to 30% of your adjusted gross income. And if the donation exceeds that limit, you can carry over any excess into subsequent tax returns for up to five years.

Again, profits from appreciated assets sold by the trustee aren’t subject to capital gains taxes while they’re in the trust. Plus, when the trust assets finally pass to the charity, that donation won’t be subject to estate taxes either. Such hefty tax breaks can seriously add up, so if you have the means to set such a trust up, they can be quite beneficial for all parties involved, so if you think such a trust might be right for you, definitely meet with us to discuss your options.

It’s important to note that the beneficiaries will pay income tax on income from the CRT at the time it’s distributed. Whether that tax is capital gains or ordinary income depends on where the income came from—distributions of principal are tax free.

Don’t Go It Alone

CRTs come with very specific and complex requirements surrounding their creation, operation, and the responsibilities of the trustee, so if you are considering setting up a CRT, it’s vital that you consult with a lawyer experienced with such trusts. To this end, if you have highly appreciated assets you’d like to sell while minimizing tax impact, maximizing income, and benefiting charity, call us so we can determine the best way to achieve your charitable objectives, while maximizing your tax-saving and other financial benefits. Contact us today to learn more.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. Are you ready to protect your loved ones and legacy? Check out my next presentation.

Following the death of a loved one, close family members are sometimes surprised to learn that they didn’t receive the inheritance they were expecting, and that the deceased instead left most of their estate to an individual they only recently met, who wasn’t even a relative. While it’s not always the case, in some situations this can mean your loved one was taken advantage of by a bad actor, who manipulated him or her into cutting out close family members from their plan and leaving assets to the bad actor instead.

This is called “undue influence,” and it’s not only unethical, it’s illegal and considered a form of elder abuse. Given the growing number of seniors, the prevalence of diminished capacity associated with aging, and the concentration of wealth among elderly Baby Boomers, we’re likely to see a serious surge in the number of cases involving undue influence in the coming years.

Undue influence can have a disastrous effect on your aging parents and other senior relatives’ estate planning. To this end, we encourage you and your family to be aware, educated, and empowered in knowing what risks are for your elderly loved ones—and for your future inheritance.

With this in mind, here we’ll discuss what constitutes undue influence, and list some common red flags to watch for that may indicate your loved one is being taken advantage of. From there, we’ll also explain how you can prevent such abuse with proactive communication and planning.

What Is Undue Influence?

Undue influence occurs when one individual uses their position of authority or advantage to coerce another individual into making decisions or performing an act that they otherwise would not. This often involves the leveraging of emotional ties or power dynamics, and it can take the form of deception, threats, harassment, isolation, or a number of other actions. The perpetrator is most often a family member, but it could also be a close friend, caregiver, professional advisor, business partner, or even someone the person just met.

In estate planning, undue influence typically occurs during the creation or revision of wills, trusts, or other estate planning documents. For example, a son may use threats and lies to pressure his elderly father to change his will or trust to grant him more inheritance, while reducing his siblings share of the estate.

To illustrate what undue influence looks like in real life, consider the following court case, which was included in an article from the American Bar Association analyzing how the definition of undue influence has evolved in California’s legal system.

Undue Influence Case Example

A daughter was living with her father who was in his 80s and in poor health. She convinced him to give her $8,000 per month because, “I’m taking care of you.” She would not allow the other children to visit, saying their father was too ill and weak to receive visitors. She also told her father, “Well, the other kids won’t help. They never visit. I’m the only one who cares about you. You’d end up in a nursing home if I wasn’t here.”

After the father died, the surviving family discovered that the daughter had induced her father to make a will leaving the family home to her as well as all his stocks and bank accounts. A will contest took place. A jury found that undue influence had taken place, but that the father would have wanted to leave something to his daughter. Eventually, it was determined that the assets should be split between the four children.

Identifying Undue Influence

Undue influence can be difficult to identify because it often takes place behind closed doors. And unless you are in frequent communication with a loved one about their estate planning, you may not even know they have changed their plan until they have passed away or become incapacitated. This can be especially challenging if you have elderly loved ones who live far away, leaving you unable to regularly visit them and with little knowledge of their daily lives and interactions with others.

To complicate matters further, not all influence is undue, and some influence is perfectly fine—the mere fact that someone was influenced by another individual to change their estate plan to increase their inheritance isn’t necessarily enough to throw their plan into question. Additionally, adults have the legal right to make their own decisions (even bad ones), and they can spend or give away their money in whatever manner they choose, provided they haven’t been deemed incapacitated.

Undue influence isn’t just about one person influencing another or merely expressing their opinion; it’s about a person in power manipulating someone who is vulnerable to the extent that they are unable to exercise their own free will. Although undue influence can be difficult to spot, there are some common warning signs.

Red Flags For Undue Influence

Some of the most common actions that are red flags that someone may be attempting to unduly influence your parents or other elderly loved ones include the following:

• Preventing communication between the victim and family members.
• Isolating the victim from family and friends.
• Withholding documents from family members.
• Encouraging the victim to make financial gifts or offer other benefits to people he or she only recently met.
• Naming recently-met connections as attorney-in-fact under a financial power of attorney or agent on medical power of attorney, or as a joint owner on financial accounts, real estate, and other assets.
• Giving financial or estate planning advice that is not in the victim’s best interests, but rather in the interests of the advisor.
• Excessive involvement of a recently-met connection with the victim’s estate planning efforts, such as help with creating or updating key estate planning documents.
• Significant inconsistencies between previous versions of the victim’s estate plan and the latest versions. This is especially true if the estate plan suddenly includes new beneficiaries or excludes previous ones.

Should you notice any of these behaviors or other signs that a loved one may be a victim of undue influence, it’s critical that you immediately take steps to investigate the situation, whether that means getting the proper authorities involved or confronting the abuser directly. Time is of the essence in such cases, so the earlier you step in the better.

There have been far too many cases where family members waited too long to take action, and by the time they did, the damage was already done: savings were depleted, family homes were sold, and in the worst cases, senior victims were placed in substandard nursing homes and assisted living facilities against their wishes.

Given these risks, it’s vital to get in front of the situation as early as possible, not only to prevent financial mismanagement and exploitation but also to ensure your loved ones’ overall health and safety.

Prevent Undue Influence With Proactive Communication & Planning

One of the most effective ways to prevent the possibility of undue influence is to be proactive when it comes to communicating with your parents and other elderly relatives about their estate planning goals and desires. By talking with your loved ones early and often about how they want their affairs handled, you can help reduce the chance for surprises down the road.

Additionally, your loved ones should always work with an experienced lawyer like us to create their estate plan. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we can support them to put in place a number of different estate planning vehicles, such as revocable living trusts and power of attorney documents, that would allow you or another trusted family member to intervene and help them in a time of crisis, without the need for court intervention.

To this end, we can support your aging parents and other senior family members develop a comprehensive incapacity plan, customized with the specific planning vehicles to match their unique needs, family dynamics, and life situation. Bring your parents or other relatives in to meet with us for a Family Wealth Planning Session to learn more about how this would work.

Of course, if you notice any red flags or other suspect behaviors, you should immediately contact us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to address the issue. While there’s no way to prevent age-related dementia and other forms of cognitive decline, make sure your parents and other senior relatives know that they can use estate planning to have control over how their lives and assets will be managed if it does occur.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. Are you ready to protect your loved ones and legacy? Check out my next presentation.

August is “National Make-A-Will Month,” and if you have already prepared your will, congratulations—too few Americans have taken this key first step in the estate planning process. In fact, only 33% of Americans have created their will, according to Caring.com’s 2022 Wills and Estate Planning Study.

Yet, while having a will is important—and all adults over age 18 should have this document in place—for all but a few people, creating a will is just one small part of an effective estate plan that works to keep your loved ones out of court and out of conflict. With this in mind, this series discusses exactly what having a will in place will—and will not—do for you and your loved ones in terms of estate planning.

Last week, in part one, we looked at the different things having a will in place allows you to do. Here, in part two, we detail all of the things that your will does not do, along with identifying the specific estate planning tools and strategies that you should have in place to make up for the potential blind spots that exist in an estate plan that consists of only a will.

If you have yet to create your will, or you haven’t reviewed your existing will recently, contact us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to get this vital first step in your estate planning handled right away.

What A Will Won’t Do

While a will is a necessary part of most estate plans, your will is typically a very small part of a comprehensive estate plan. To demonstrate, here are the things you should not expect your will to accomplish:

1. Keep your family out of court: Following your death, in order for assets in your will to be transferred to your beneficiaries, the will must pass through the court process known as probate. During probate, the court oversees the will’s administration, ensuring your assets are distributed according to your wishes, with automatic supervision to handle any disputes.

Like most court proceedings, probate can be time-consuming, costly, and open to the public. Moreover, during probate, there’s also the chance that one of your family members might contest your will, especially if you have disinherited someone or plan to leave significantly more money to one relative than the others. Even if those contests don’t succeed, such court fights will only increase the time, expense, and strife your family has to endure.

Bottom line: If your estate plan consists of a will alone, you are guaranteeing your family will have to go to court if you become incapacitated or when you die. Fortunately, it’s easy to ensure your loved ones can avoid probate using different types of trusts, so meet with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to spare your family this unnecessary ordeal.

2. Pass on certain types of assets: Since a will only covers assets solely owned in your name, there are several types of assets that your will has no effect on, including the following:

• Assets with a right of survivorship: Property held in joint tenancy, tenancy by the entirety, and community property with the right of survivorship, bypass your will. These types of assets automatically pass to the surviving co-owner(s) when you die.
• Assets with a designated beneficiary: When you die, assets with a designated beneficiary pass directly to the individual, organization, or institution you designated as beneficiary, without the need for any additional planning. Common assets with beneficiary designations include retirement accounts, IRAs, 401(k)s, and pensions; life insurance or annuity proceeds; payable-on-death bank accounts; and transfer-on-death property, such as bonds, stocks, vehicles, and real estate.
• Assets held in a trust: Assets held by a trust automatically pass to the named beneficiary upon your death or incapacity, so these assets cannot be passed in your will. This includes assets held by both revocable living trusts and irrevocable trusts.

3. Pass ownership of a pet and money for its care: Because animals are considered personal property under the law, you cannot name a pet as a beneficiary in your will. If you do, whatever money you leave it would go to your residuary beneficiary, who would have no obligation to care for your pet.

It’s also not a good idea to use your will to leave your pet and money for its care to a future caregiver. That’s because the person you name as beneficiary would have no legal obligation to use the funds to care for your pet. In fact, this person could legally keep all of the money and drop off your pet at a shelter.

The best way to ensure your pet gets the care it deserves following your death is by creating a pet trust. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we will help you set up, fund, and maintain such a trust, so your furry family member will be properly cared for when you’re gone.

4. Leave funds for the care of a person with special needs: There are a number of unique considerations that must be taken into account when planning for the care of an individual with special needs. In fact, you can easily disqualify someone with special needs for much-needed government benefits if you don’t use the proper planning strategies. For this reason, a will should never be used to pass on money for the care of a person with special needs.

If you want to provide for the care of your child or another loved one with special needs, you must create a special needs trust. However, such trusts are complicated, and the laws governing them can vary greatly between states.

Given such complexities, you should always work with an experienced estate planning lawyer like us to create a special needs trust. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we can make certain that upon your death, the individual would have the financial means they need to live a full life, without jeopardizing their access to government benefits.

5. Reduce estate taxes: If your family has significant wealth, you may wish to use estate planning to reduce your estate tax liability. However a will is useless for this purpose. To reduce or postpone your estate taxes, you will need to set up special types of trusts. If you are looking to reduce your estate tax liability, consult with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to discuss your options.

6. Protect you from incapacity: Because a will only goes into effect when you die, it offers no protection if you become incapacitated and are no longer able to make decisions about your financial, legal, and healthcare needs. If you do become incapacitated, your family will have to petition the court to appoint a guardian to handle your affairs, which can be costly, time-consuming, and traumatic for your loved ones.

And there’s always the possibility that the court could appoint a relative as a guardian that you’d never want making such critical decisions on your behalf. Or the court might select a professional guardian, putting a total stranger in control of your life, which leaves you open to potential fraud and abuse by crooked guardians.

However, using a trust, you can include provisions that appoint someone of your choosing—not the court’s—to handle your assets if you are unable to do so. When combined with a well-prepared medical power of attorney and living will, a trust can keep your family out of court and out of conflict in the event of your incapacity, while ensuring your wishes regarding your medical treatment and end-of-life care are carried out exactly as you intended.

Get Professional Support With Your Estate Planning

Although creating a will may seem fairly simple, you should always consult with an experienced estate planning lawyer like us to ensure the document is properly created, executed, and maintained. And as we’ve seen here, there are many scenarios in which a will won’t be the right estate planning solution, nor would a will keep your family and assets out of court.

Meet with us your Personal Family Lawyer® for a Family Wealth Planning Session, which is the first step in our Life & Legacy Planning process. During this process, we’ll walk you through an analysis of your assets, what’s most important to you, and what will happen to your loved ones when you die or if you become incapacitated. From there, we’ll work together to put in place the right combination of estate planning solutions to fit with your asset profile, family dynamics, budget, as well as your overall goals and desires.

As a Personal Family Lawyer® firm, we see estate planning as far more than simply planning for your death and passing on your “estate” and assets to your loved ones—it’s about planning for a life you love and a legacy worth leaving by the choices you make today—and this is why we call our services Life & Legacy Planning. Contact us today to schedule your visit to ensure that your loved ones will be protected and provided for no matter what happens to you.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. Are you ready to protect your loved ones and legacy? Check out my next presentation.

August is “National Make-A-Will Month,” and if you have already prepared your will, congratulations—too few Americans have taken this key first step in the estate planning process. In fact, only 33% of Americans have created their will, according to Caring.com’s 2022 Wills and Estate Planning Study.

Yet, while having a will is important—and all adults over age 18 should have this document in place—for all but a few people, creating a will is just one small part of an effective estate plan that works to keep your loved ones out of court and out of conflict. With this in mind, here we look at exactly what having a will in place will—and will not—do for you and your loved ones in terms of estate planning.

If you have yet to create your will, or you haven’t reviewed your existing will recently, contact us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to get this vital first step in your estate planning handled right away.

What A Will Does

A will is a legal document that outlines your final wishes in regards to how your assets are distributed to your surviving family members. Here are some of the things having a will in place allows you to do:

1. Choose how assets are divided upon your death: A will’s primary purpose is to allow you to designate how you want your assets divided among your surviving loved ones upon your death. If you die without a will, state law governs how your assets are distributed, which may or may not be in line with your wishes.

However, as we’ll discuss more below, a will only allows you to provide for the distribution of certain types of assets—namely, a will only covers assets owned solely in your name. Other types of assets, such as those with a beneficiary designation and assets co-owned by you with others, are not affected by your will.

2. Name an executor: In your will, you can name the person, or persons, you want to serve as your executor, sometimes called a “personal representative.” Following your death, your executor is responsible for wrapping up your final affairs. This includes numerous responsibilities, including filing your will with the local probate court, locating and managing all of your assets, paying off any debts you have outstanding, filing and paying your final income taxes, and finally, distributing your remaining assets to your named beneficiaries.

3. Name guardians for your minor children: If you are the parent of minor children, it is possible to name legal guardians for them in your will. However, naming guardians for your children in your will alone is seriously risky, and doing so may even leave your kids vulnerable to being taken into the care of strangers if something happens to you. And this is true even if you’ve worked with another lawyer to create your will, because most lawyers haven’t studied and been trained on what’s necessary for ensuring the well-being and care of minor children.

Fortunately, whether you’ve named guardians for your kids in your will or have yet to take any action at all, you’ve come to the right place. As your Personal Family Lawyer® firm, we have been trained by the author of the best-selling book, Wear Clean Underwear!: A Fast, Fun, Friendly, and Essential Guide to Legal Planning for Busy Parents, on legal planning for the unique needs of families with minor children.

As a result of this training, we offer a comprehensive system known as the Kids Protection Plan®, which is included with every estate plan we prepare for families with young children. While you should meet with us to put the full Kids Protection Plan® in place as soon as possible, protecting your children is such a critical and urgent issue, we’ve created a totally free website, where you can get your plan started right now.

⇒ If you’ve yet to take any action at all, visit this 100% FREE website, where you can take the first steps to create legal documents naming long-term guardians for your children to ensure that should anything happen to you prior to creating your estate plan, your kids would be cared for by the people you would want in the way you would want. Get started here now: https://lawmother.kidsprotectionplan.com/

After you’ve completed those initial actions, schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session with us, so we can put the full Kids Protection Plan® in place, and determine if there is anything else your family might need to ensure the well-being and care of your children.

⇒ If you have already named long-term guardians in your will—either on your own or with a lawyer—we can review your existing legal documents to see whether you have made any of the six common mistakes that could leave your kids at risk. From there, we will revise your plan to ensure your children are fully protected.

4. Serve as a backup for a living trust: Because it can be difficult to transfer the legal title to every single one of your assets into a revocable living trust before your death, most trusts are combined with what’s known as a “pour-over” will. This type of will serves as a backup to a living trust, so all assets not held by the trust upon your death are transferred, or “poured,” into your trust through the probate process.

A Small—But Important—First Step

As you can see here, having a will in place only gives you a limited amount of power over the distribution of certain assets, but that doesn’t mean you should go without one. Without a will, you would have no say in who inherits your assets when you die, and everything you own could even go to the state.

But worse than that, your surviving loved ones will be the ones who have to clean up the mess you’ve left behind. And they will have to handle all of this while grieving your death. Instead, you should see your will as an important first step in the estate planning process—one that works best when integrated with a variety of other legal vehicles, such as trusts, powers of attorney, and advance healthcare directives.

Next week, in part two, we’ll detail all of the things that your will does not do, and then we’ll outline the different estate planning tools that you should have in place to make up for these potential blind spots in your estate plan. Until then, if you need to get your estate planning started or you would like us to review your existing estate plan (even one created by another lawyer) to see if you are missing anything, contact us, your Personal Family Lawyer®.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. Are you ready to protect your loved ones and legacy? Check out my next presentation.

If you have started to save for your child or grandchild’s college education, it’s worth considering whether to use a 529 plan, an education savings account, or an irrevocable trust.

Last week, in part one of this series, we discussed 529 plans and education savings accounts, which are both popular options for saving for college education. One of the main reasons for their popularity is their tax-saving advantages. The money you contribute to a 529 account grows on a tax-deferred basis, and withdrawals are tax-free, provided they are used for qualified education expenses, such as tuition, room and board, and other education-related fees.

That said, one of the downsides of 529 plans is that they come with strict limits on how you can use the funds (for education-related expenses only), and they also have a limited range of options for how you can invest your funds, primarily in various mutual funds. For these reasons, 529 plans and ESAs aren’t always the best fit for some families looking to save for their loved ones’ education.

Education Trusts

As we noted in part one, one alternative way to save for your offspring’s higher education is by using an irrevocable trust. Although there isn’t any income tax deferral on income earned by the assets held by these trusts, it is possible to structure a trust, so your beneficiaries could qualify for financial aid that they may otherwise be ineligible for with a 529 plan. Depending on your situation, qualifying for financial aid may prove even more valuable than savings on the income taxes owed on income earned by the trust.

Here in part two, we’ll further discuss how these trusts work and why they may be an attractive alternative to 529 plans, if you are looking to save for your loved ones’ education—whether that education is college or some other form of learning.

The Benefits Of Education Trusts

In addition to the issue of qualifying for financial aid, another benefit of such trusts is that you can not only save for a single child’s or grandchild’s education, you can also structure your trust to provide a pool of funds for the education of all family members. Moreover, when creating the trust, “education” can be broadly defined to include any type of learning institution or organization, such as trade schools, educational workshops, community colleges, and private academies, to name just a few options.

Furthermore, you can provide that the trust can pay for alternative education, such as travel, retreats, business building programs, and other nontraditional educational experiences, which may prove even more valuable than college. Bottom line: when you set aside money to educate your family with an education trust, you get to decide exactly how your beneficiaries can use the funds by what is most in alignment with your family values. And as part of creating your education trust, we will work with you to create a written set of guidelines for the trustee, who will be the person making decisions regarding distributions to the beneficiaries.

Trust Creation Options

In terms of how the trust is set up, you can create an education trust that is built into your revocable living trust or will, and as such, it would not get registered and funded until your death. Or you can create an education trust that exists and is funded during and throughout your lifetime. In either case, the disbursements from the trust are designated for a beneficiary or a pool of beneficiaries’ education.

While you can stipulate how and when the funds are to be distributed inside the terms of the trust agreement itself, we would almost always provide the trustee with broad distribution authority and discretion (to maximize the asset protection benefits of the trust), and create a separate writing to provide guidelines on distributions, and then give a trusted person, or group of people, the right to remove and replace the trustee with someone else should your first choice not work out for any reason.

If a single trust is established for multiple beneficiaries, you can require the assets to be distributed in a number of ways. You can stipulate that the funds are divided equally among the beneficiaries, disburse the funds in a set amount, by percentage, or you can leave the decision as to how much each beneficiary receives to the trustee’s discretion.

Tax Implications

Education trusts typically aren’t set up as tax-saving vehicles, as is the case with a traditional 529 plan, which does provide tax savings. That said, as we noted earlier, 529 plans have much more restrictive rules for how their funds can be used. Moreover, you could save on taxes with a trust if it is drafted in a way that allows the trust’s income to be taxed at your beneficiary’s tax rate, which could be significantly lower than your personal tax rate.

If you establish an irrevocable trust for education purposes, make sure you consider all of the tax impacts on income earned by the trust. For example, the trust would be taxed on income not distributed by year’s end, but you can have the trust drafted to pay out all income to the beneficiary or include other provisions that cause the trust to be taxed to the beneficiary (even if income is retained).

That income would be taxed at trust tax rates, which could be higher than the beneficiary’s rate—and possibly even higher than your personal tax rate—so it’s important you are clear about whether income should be distributed before year’s end for each year the trust earns income.

If the education trust is irrevocable, meaning that the gift cannot be taken back, and the amount contributed each year is less than the annual gift tax exemption ($16,000 in 2022), then no gift-tax return is required to be filed. Conversely, if the gift to the trust exceeds that amount, then you will need to file a gift-tax return, reporting the gift and using up part of your lifetime exemption of $12.06 million if single and $24.12 million if married filing jointly.

Since there are so many variables involved and different ways to set up an education trust, it’s vital to reach out to us, your Personal Family Lawyer®, so we can walk you step-by-step through all of your options—and help you determine what’s best for your unique situation.

Potential Problems To Keep In Mind

One alternative to these plans (both 529 plans and education trusts) is to use money that has been saved for other purposes, such as funds you have saved for your retirement. However, it’s important to point out that using your retirement funds can affect your child’s eligibility for various need-based financial aid programs. To this end, retirement funds withdrawn to pay college expenses are reported on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as additional income.

Consequently, when using retirement funds, the expected family contribution used from FAFSA will be higher, which will therefore reduce your child’s chances of qualifying for financial assistance. Consult with us if you choose to tap into your retirement savings to fund college expenses, so we can ensure it’s done right and will have the maximum benefit for everyone involved.

Don’t Do-It-Yourself

To ensure you get the most benefit from your savings, don’t try to make these decisions on your own. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we will work with you to determine the best way to set aside financial resources for the people you love, whether that’s using a 529 plan, an education trust, or some other option. Contact us today to learn more.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. Are you ready to protect your loved ones and legacy? Check out my next presentation.

If you have started to save for your child or grandchild’s college education, it’s worth considering whether to use a 529 plan, an education savings account, or an Irrevocable Trust.

Here’s what we think you should consider as you decide:

First, consider whether you want your offspring to have broader options than just the traditional college experience.

Since the start of the pandemic, college enrollments have declined by over one million students over the past two years, and with college tuition getting more and more expensive, many students are considering alternatives to the traditional higher education path.

Gap years, travel, trade programs, and online training are replacing the traditional college education path for many, and if you want that to be an option for your children or grandchildren, you should be aware that the traditional college savings plans may not be the right fit for your family.

Instead, consider whether it may make more sense to create an educational trust for your family, in which all of your children and grandchildren can benefit. More on that below in the section on education trusts.

Second, consider the financial aid consequences of how you are saving for college.

If you think your child or grandchild may need or want to qualify for financial aid, beyond student loans, the way you save for their education may significantly impact their ability to qualify. If your offspring will need financial assistance to pay for their education, it’s vital that the way in which you choose to save will not negatively impact their qualification for such assistance.

Third, consider the income tax consequences of how you are saving for college.

When you set aside money, unless you are saving for retirement in a qualified retirement plan, the income earned on that money is subject to income taxes. However, with various types of college savings plans, you can defer or avoid income taxes altogether.

529 Plans & Education Savings Accounts (ESAs)

Since 1996, 529 plans, which are named for Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, have been one of the most popular options for covering college costs. Congress expanded these plans to cover K–12 education in 2017, and it also changed the program to pay up to $10,000 in student loan debt in 2019.

One reason 529 plans are so popular is due to their tax-saving advantages. The money you contribute to a 529 account grows on a tax-deferred basis, and withdrawals are tax-free, provided they are used for qualified education expenses, such as tuition, room and board, and other education-related fees. And many states also provide a tax deduction or credit for 529 contributions.

Another appealing feature of 529 plans is their relatively high contribution limits. There is no limit on how much you can contribute each year, although if you contribute more than $16,000 (the amount of the gift tax exemption limit in 2022), you can trigger federal gift taxes and the requirement to file a gift tax return. If you plan to make a contribution close to or above $16,000, contact us for guidance.

Finally, with many 529 plans, you can set up an automatic transfer to add money directly from your bank account to your 529 account. Plus, many 529 plans allow automatic contributions as low as $25 per month.

Before you automatically save for your offspring’s future education using a 529 plan, keep in mind that to avoid paying taxes, plus a 10% penalty, the money must be used for eligible expenses only. Eligible expenses include tuition and fees, room and board, books, as well as computers and other items if they are required for classwork.

If your child decides not to go to college, you will pay income taxes, plus the 10% penalty in order to withdraw the funds and use them for something else. The other downside to saving for your child’s education in a 529 plan is that your investment options may be significantly limited to only a small selection of mutual funds.

Education Trusts

While 529 plans are quite popular, there is another way to save for your child or grandchild’s education through the use of an irrevocable trust. While there isn’t any income tax deferral on income earned by the assets held by these trusts, it is possible to structure a trust, so your beneficiaries could qualify for financial aid that they may otherwise be ineligible for with a 529 plan. If qualifying for financial aid would be even more valuable than savings on the income taxes owed on income earned by the trust, contact us to discuss setting up an educational trust for your family.

Next week, in part two, we’ll go into more detail about educational trusts. For now, take into consideration what matters most to you when it comes to saving for college: tax savings, financial aid considerations, or a variety of investment and education options. Then, contact us if you’d like to consider the educational trust option as part of your legal and financial decisions for the people you love.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. Are you ready to protect your loved ones and legacy? Check out my next presentation.

You might think that only the super wealthy need to worry about asset protection planning. But the truth is that if you don’t have millions, you may be at even greater risk. For instance, if you are a multi-millionaire, a $50,000 judgment against you might not be that big of a deal. But for a family with a modest income, savings, and home, it could be devastating.

Furthermore, asset protection planning isn’t something you can put off until something happens. Once you are under threat of a lawsuit, it’s likely too late to protect your assets. Like all types of planning, to be effective, you must have your asset protection strategies in place well before something happens. And your asset protection plan isn’t a one-and-done deal: it must be regularly updated to accommodate changes to your assets, family dynamics, and the law.

While you should meet with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to determine the asset protection strategies that are best suited for your particular asset profile and family situation, here are four essential strategies to consider for safeguarding your family’s most valuable assets.

1. Invest In Insurance

Insurance is always the first line of defense when it comes to asset protection. Anyone can file a lawsuit against you at any time—and basically for any reason. And whether you are ultimately found at fault or not, defending yourself in court can be extremely costly.

The insurance coverage you purchase should not only pay damages if a lawsuit against you is successful, the policy should also cover the cost of hiring a lawyer to defend you in court, whether you win or lose your case. And because a large judgment could exceed your policies’ coverage limits, you should also seriously consider buying umbrella insurance.

Should your underlying insurance policy max out, an umbrella policy will help cover any remaining damages and legal expenses. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we will evaluate your current insurance policies and advise you about the types and amounts of insurance you should have for maximum protection of your assets.

2. Take Advantage Of Statutory Exemptions

Another way to protect your family’s assets is by taking full advantage of federal and state laws that make certain types of assets “exempt” from creditor claims and judgments. Depending on the state, the availability and amount of protection offered by these exemptions can vary.

For example, many states offer a homestead exemption, which protects a certain amount—or even the full value—of the equity you have in your primary residence from creditors. If your state provides a generous homestead exemption, paying down your mortgage could protect funds that would otherwise be vulnerable.

Similarly, federal and state laws also classify many retirement plans, such as 401(k)s and IRAs, as exempt assets. Additionally, some states offer significant, or complete, exemptions for life insurance policies and annuities, as well.

Even though such exemptions won’t offer you total protection, they can provide significant shelter for certain assets. Plus, using statutory exemptions is something that can be accomplished without investing anything—all that’s required is for you to understand how best to structure your investments to take advantage of these protections. Meet with us, your local Personal Family Lawyer® to learn what types and amounts of exemptions are available in your area, and how to make the best use of each one.

3. Use The Right Business Entity

Owning a business can be a major wealth-generating asset for your family, but it can also be a serious liability. In fact, without the proper protection, your personal assets are at serious risk if your company ever runs into trouble. For example, if your business is currently a sole proprietorship or general partnership, you are personally liable for any debts or lawsuits incurred by your business.

However, structuring your business as a limited liability company (LLC) or corporation is typically the best move for most small businesses. When properly set up and maintained, both entities create an impenetrable barrier between your personal assets and your business activities. Creditors, clients, and other potentially litigious individuals can go after assets owned by your company, but not your personal assets. Additionally, having the right business insurance in place can help shield your business assets from such claims.

If you own any kind of business, even just a side gig to earn extra income, you should consider setting up a protective entity to ensure any liabilities incurred by your company won’t affect your personal assets. We can help you select, put in place, and maintain the proper entity structure for your particular business operation. If you haven’t done this already, contact us right away to ensure your business doesn’t put your personal assets in jeopardy.

4. Put The Proper Estate Planning In Place

Although each of the above scenarios are mere possibilities, there is one certainty in life—death. It’s coming for all of us, and given this fact, your eventual death—or your potential incapacity from a serious accident or illness before you pass away—is the biggest risk to your family’s assets.

If you become incapacitated or die without proper estate planning in place, your assets and family will face a number of potentially tragic outcomes. Without the proper planning, your assets will get stuck in the court system, which could result in those assets passing to family members you would never want inheriting them, or if the assets eventually do pass to the loved ones you would want inheriting them, those assets could be seriously depleted or even lost. To this end, planning in advance for the inevitability of death is one of the greatest gifts you can give those you love most.

You work way too hard to leave your family’s assets at risk. If you’ve been putting off creating your estate plan—or if you haven’t updated your existing plan recently—now is the time to get it handled. As your Personal Family Lawyer® firm, we’ve made estate planning incredibly easy, and we start with a Family Wealth Planning Session, which is the first step in our Life & Legacy Planning process.

Life & Legacy Planning: Do Right By Those You Love Most

During this process, we’ll walk you through an analysis of your assets, what’s most important to you, and what will happen to your loved ones when you die or if you become incapacitated. From there, we’ll work together with you to put in place the right combination of estate planning solutions to fit with your unique asset profile, family dynamics, budget, as well as your overall goals and desires.

As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we aren’t like most estate planning firms—we see estate planning as far more than simply planning for your death and passing on your “estate” and assets to your loved ones—it’s about planning for a life you love and a legacy worth leaving by the choices you make today. And this is why we call our services Life & Legacy Planning. Contact us today to schedule your visit to ensure that your assets and loved ones are safeguarded from all potential threats.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. Are you ready to protect your loved ones and legacy? Check out my next presentation.

Despite the fact that it happens to every single one of us and is as every bit as natural as birth, very few among us are properly prepared for death—whether our own death or the death of a loved one.

Yet the pandemic might be changing this.

According to Census figures, the pandemic caused the U.S. death rate to spike by nearly 20% between 2019 and 2020, the largest increase in American mortality in 100 years. More than two years and 1 million deaths later, it’s more clear than ever that death is not only ever-present, but a central and inevitable part of all our lives.

Yet, some in the end-of-life industry believe the pandemic’s massive loss of life has also created an opportunity to transform the way we face death, grief, and all of the other issues that arise when we lose someone we love dearly. In fact, this sentiment is the mission of the new startup Empathy, an AI-based platform designed to help families navigate the logistical and emotional challenges following the death of a loved one.

“For far too many, COVID-19 has been a terrible reminder that death and loss are all around us,” notes Empathy CEO and co-founder Ron Gura in a recent company report. “But it also represents an opportunity to shift public perception, to bring a topic that has been for far too long shrouded in darkness into the light of day, where we can fully examine it and figure out how best to help those who have to shoulder its burdens.”

As anyone who has dealt with loss knows, when a loved one dies, those left behind face major challenges, not only emotional and logistical, but financial as well. Empathy was designed to help manage and streamline these responsibilities for grieving families. In addition to the app, in March 2022 Empathy released its first-ever Cost of Dying Report, which surveyed more than 2,000 Americans—each of whom had lost a loved one in the last five years—to get a clearer picture of dying’s true cost to families.

Last week, in part one of this series, we discussed some of the Cost Of Dying’s most notable findings and explained how proactive estate planning can dramatically reduce many of the financial, logistical, and emotional challenges for your loved ones following your death. Here in part two, we wrap up our summary of the report and outline more of the ways proactive planning can relieve the burden of your death for your family.

THE COST IN LOST TIME

On average, the report found that families spent 420 hours over 13 months completing all the tasks needed to settle a loved one’s estate after death. However, the time commitment shot up to 20 months for estates that required the court process of probate. Additionally, most respondents underestimated how long these tasks would take: 54% said it took longer than they expected, while 31% said it took much longer.

To give you some idea of what consumed families’ time most during these months, the report breaks down the responsibilities that respondents reported taking the longest as follows:

Most Time-Consuming Tasks

• The funeral: 55%
• Financial matters: 47%
• The will and probate: 45%
• Paying bills, debts, and taxes: 41%
• Dealing with the house or other property: 25%
• Finding service providers: 23%

Reducing The Time Burden For Your Family

With proper estate planning, you dramatically reduce the time your surviving loved ones will have to spend on many of these tasks. For example, by preplanning and prepaying your own funeral, you can greatly reduce what most families reported as the most time-consuming task.

For other tasks, such as dealing with probate and paying off estates with debt, you can use estate planning to totally eliminate the need for your family to deal with these issues. As we noted last week, you can save your family both the time and expense of probate by creating a revocable living trust. One other unnecessary task we see families spending a lot of time on is simply locating all of a loved one’s assets when they die.

This happens when you become incapacitated or die, and your family is unable to find—or simply overlooks—all of your wealth and property. And this occurs because most people fail to properly inventory their assets or keep that inventory regularly updated throughout their lifetime. Indeed, this is why there’s currently more than $58 billion of lost and unclaimed assets held by state and federal agencies in the U.S.

Keeping an updated inventory of all of your assets is so important, we offer this service for free to every one of our clients. Moreover, when you work with us, we will not only help you create a comprehensive asset inventory, we have systems in place to make sure your inventory stays consistently updated throughout your lifetime.

We’ve even created a unique (and totally FREE) tool called a Personal Resource Map to help you get the inventory process started right now on your own, without the need for a lawyer. Once you’ve done that, schedule a meeting with us, as your local Personal Family Lawyer®, to incorporate your inventory with your other estate planning strategies.

THE TOLL ON THE MIND & BODY

The seemingly endless number of tasks and responsibilities grieving families must deal with can be both confusing and stressful. And since most of us have never handled such processes before, you face a surreal learning curve that only adds to your emotional burden.

To this end, more than 30% of respondents said they simply didn’t know what to do during the period immediately following a loved one’s death, and for those under age 45, that number rose to 43%. Not surprisingly, estates with debt typically caused more stress to those who had to manage them, and lower-income families were considerably more likely than those with higher incomes to report feeling lost during the process.

Such stress can even result in debilitating emotional and physical symptoms. As evidence of this fact, more than 57% of respondents reported suffering at least one clinical symptom of stress, while the average person suffered three or more. The most common symptoms induced by grief-related stress include the following:

Clinical Symptoms Experienced

• Stress headaches: 30%
• Stress-related fatigue: 42%
• Panic attacks: 17.5%
• Memory impairment: 16%

A Lack Of Communication Compounds Stress

Our society is so separated from the dying and grieving process that just talking about it is often considered taboo. Sadly, this only makes things that much more difficult when we finally face death’s inevitable reality.

“Bereavement is emotionally and physically taxing,” writes BJ Miller, MD, Empathy’s Compassion Advisor, in the report’s section on dying’s mental cost. “It’s hard on your body, it’s hard on your mind, it’s hard on your life. By not talking about it openly, we have made it much harder than it needs to be.”

One positive part of this situation is that when those enduring loss are properly educated and informed about what to expect and how to best deal with these responsibilities, things do get easier for them.

“The good news is that when we give them the guidance they need, when we fill that knowledge gap, the bereaved tend to feel a lot better,” says Miller.

Don’t Leave Your Family In The Dark

One easy way you can make dealing with your own eventual death far easier for your loved ones is by working with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®. We will support you to have intimate discussions about planning for death and incapacity with your family. When done right, such proactive communication and planning can put your life and relationships into a much clearer focus and offer you peace of mind, knowing that the people you love most will be protected and provided for no matter what happens to you.

Furthermore, we take the time to get to know your family members and include them in the planning process. In this way, everyone affected by your plan is well-aware of what your latest planning strategies are and why you made the choices you did, along with knowing exactly what they need to do if something happens to you. And by getting to know your family over time, when something does happen, your lawyer will be there for the people you love, with an underlying relationship and trust already established.

A New Kind Of Estate Planning

As the pandemic has made abundantly clear, death is unavoidable—and it can strike at any time. However, you can make your eventual death far easier for the people you love by creating a proper estate plan. Moreover, facing life’s greatest fear head-on and planning for it will allow you to enjoy your current life even more. In fact, our clients often report a huge sense of relief after meeting with us, and they frequently say they wish they’d created their Life & Legacy Plan sooner.

In the end, by working with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®, you’ll discover that the estate planning process isn’t something morbid or depressing. When done right, estate planning is about far more than just planning for your death and passing on your “estate” and assets to your loved ones—it’s about planning for a life you love and a legacy worth leaving by the choices you make today—and this is why we call our services Life & Legacy Planning.

With this in mind, if you’ve been avoiding preparing for death, you could be missing out on an incredible opportunity for yourself, while leaving behind a potential nightmare for your family. If you’re ready to start truly living your life and make things as easy as possible for your family, meet with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to properly plan for the inevitability of death in service to more life. Contact us today for an appointment.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. Are you ready to protect your loved ones and legacy? Check out my next presentation.

Despite the fact that it happens to every single one of us and is as every bit as natural as birth, very few among us are properly prepared for death—whether our own death or the death of a loved one.

Yet the pandemic might be changing this.

According to Census figures, the pandemic caused the U.S. death rate to spike by nearly 20% between 2019 and 2020, the largest increase in American mortality in 100 years. More than two years and 1 million deaths later, it’s more clear than ever that death is not only ever-present, but a central and inevitable part of all our lives.

Yet, in what may be one of its few positive outcomes, some in the end-of-life industry believe that the pandemic’s massive loss of life has created an opportunity to transform the way we face death, grief, and all of the other issues that arise when we lose someone we love dearly. In fact, this sentiment is the mission of the new startup Empathy, an AI-based platform designed to help families navigate the logistical and emotional challenges following the death of a loved one.

“For far too many, COVID-19 has been a terrible reminder that death and loss are all around us,” notes Empathy CEO and co-founder Ron Gura in a recent company report. “But it also represents an opportunity to shift public perception, to bring a topic that has been for far too long shrouded in darkness into the light of day, where we can fully examine it and figure out how best to help those who have to shoulder its burdens.”

As anyone who has personally dealt with loss knows, when a loved one dies, those left behind face major challenges, not only emotional and logistical, but financial as well. Empathy was designed to help manage and streamline these responsibilities for grieving families—and in the process, “change the way the world deals with loss.”

A Digital Assistant For Grieving Families

Empathy provides users with digital tools that offer step-by-step instructions detailing all of the administrative, legal, and financial tasks you need to manage in order to finalize a loved one’s affairs and settle their estate. To help users prioritize their work and avoid burnout, the Empathy app flags the most time-sensitive tasks.

In addition to the technology, Empathy also offers human-centered support in the form of live Care Specialists, who can be contacted via the app. The Care Specialists support you by answering questions, helping you locate services and providers, and even handling certain tasks for you if needed, such as calling funeral homes, contacting life insurance companies to speed up policy payouts, and helping executors file court petitions.

Determining Dying’s True Cost

To further shed light on just how vastly unprepared most of us are when dealing with death, in March 2022 Empathy released its first-ever Cost of Dying Report. In partnership with Goldman Sachs, Empathy’s report surveyed more than 2,000 Americans—each of whom had lost a loved one in the last five years—to get a clearer picture of dying’s true cost to families—and as Gura says, “bust open the taboo that has for too long kept it out of the public consciousness.”

The report looked not only at the financial burden dying brings, but it also examined the cost “in time, in stress, in harmed productivity, and in strained interpersonal bonds.” Paired with the results of the research, the Cost of Dying includes a collection of insights from the study’s advisors, partners, and experts in the bereavement field.

These contributors seek to clarify what we can learn from the study’s numbers and explain how we can use the figures to rethink how to best serve the bereaved, “as individuals, as organizations, and as a society.” While you can read the full report, which can be accessed for free on Empathy’s website, the following are some of the study’s most notable findings, along with corresponding insights from some of the report’s contributors.

THE FINANCIAL COST

Following a loved one’s death, the total bill—including the funeral and hiring all of the other professional support—cost families an average of $12,702. The average cost of a funeral was $7,267, and according to the National Funeral Directors Association, that cost has risen 7.6% in the last 5 years.

On top of the funeral, families paid an average of $5,846 to hire additional professionals, such as lawyers, financial advisors, and realtors. The bill charged for these services include the following individual costs:

Professional Services

• $3,910 lawyer fees
• $4,461 real estate professionals
• $2,456 accountants
• $1,637 therapists or social workers

Notably, the $3,910 in lawyer’s fees was nearly double for estates that required the court process of probate, which was the case for one-third of families surveyed. When you include lawyers, court costs, and all of the other related fees, the total cost to complete probate for families averaged $16,800.

Fortunately, by working with us, your local Personal Family Lawyer®, your family can avoid the time, expense, and emotional burden associated with probate. For example, by placing assets in a properly created and maintained revocable living trust, assets held by the trust will pass to your loved ones without the need for probate or any court intervention following your death or incapacity.

But that’s not the only way proactive planning can help your loved ones following your death. Using our Life & Legacy Planning Process, you can achieve a variety of other goals, including asset protection, avoiding family conflict, funding long-term care, estate tax mitigation, as well as family legacy creation and preservation, to name just a few. Sit down with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®, for a Family Wealth Planning Session to find the most effective and affordable planning solutions for you and your family based on your family dynamics, assets, as well as your overall goals and desires.

Paying The Final Bill

So how did families pay for all of these expenses? Only 1 in 7 families had any of the costs associated with their loved ones’ death paid in advance or were able to use payable-on-death funds. Additionally, more than 50% of families had to deal with estates that included debt. To foot the bill for these expenses, 36.1% of respondents used their own savings or investments, while 42.4% used their checking accounts or credit cards.

For most families, the financial costs associated with loss were exacerbated by a lack of information about exactly how much money they should expect to spend, notes internal medicine physician Shoshana Ungerleider, MD, in the report’s section on death’s financial cost. Compounding that stress, Ungerleider says, was the families’ fear of making a mistake that will make their financial burden even worse.

“A majority of families find themselves unprepared for and under-informed about the real financial costs of death, with few available resources for finding out,” writes Ungerleider. “They can spend months or years terrified that a wrong move will wipe out their inheritance or even their own savings.”

As an example of what such a mistake might look like, Ungerleider notes that a lack of proper estate planning can lead to the deceased’s home being seized after death “to pay off expenses incurred through Medicaid, even if the family member who was their primary caregiver is still living in the home.”

This is another area where thoughtful estate planning can be invaluable. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we offer planning strategies that can help you and/or your senior parents qualify for Medicaid and other benefits, without putting the family home or other assets at risk. Moreover, we will serve as both you and your family’s trusted advisor at all times, so you never have to worry about anyone impacted by your plan being under-informed about death’s many responsibilities.

Next week, in part two of this series, we will discuss more of the Cost Of Dying’s most notable findings and detail other ways you can dramatically reduce the financial, logistical, and emotional burden for your loved one’s upon your death using our Life & Legacy Planning Process. Until then, if you are ready to create or update your estate plan, contact us, your Personal Family Lawyer® today.

This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.

Proper estate planning can keep your family out of conflict, out of court, and out of the public eye. Are you ready to protect your loved ones and legacy? Check out my next presentation.