Salines-Mondello Law Firm, PC

Estate Planning, Simplified

“While no one likes to think about the end of life, those who do, and those who spend just a small amount of time preparing properly, can help ensure their families continue to embrace and share all of the tremendous memories they created together.”

Estate planning attorneys hear it all the time: “My children will have to figure it out,” “Everything will go to my spouse, right?” and “It’s just not a priority right now.” But then we read about famous people who don’t plan, and the family court battles that go on for years. Regular families also have this happen. We just don’t read about it.

A useful article from The Mercury titled “Estate planning basics and an estate attorney meeting preparation” reviews the basics of estate planning and explains how following the advice of an experienced estate planning attorney can protect families from the financial and emotional pain of an estate battle.

Estate planning is not just concerned with passing property and assets along to heirs. Estate planning also concerns itself with planning for incapacity, or the inability to act or speak on one’s own behalf. This is what happens when someone becomes too ill or is injured, although we usually think of incapacity as having to do with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia.

Lacking an estate plan, all the assets you have worked to accumulate are subject to being distributed by a court-ordered executor, who likely doesn’t know you or your family. Having an estate plan in place protects you and your family.

Living Will or Advanced Directive. A living will provides directions from a patient to their doctor, concerning their wishes regarding life support. This alleviates the family from having to make a painful and permanent decision. They will know what their loved one wanted.

Springing Durable Power of Attorney. This document will allow someone you choose to make financial and legal decisions on your behalf, if you are not able to. Some attorneys prefer to use the Durable Power of Attorney, rather than the Springing POA, since the Springing event may need a physician to state that the individual has become incapacitated, and it may require the court becoming involved. Powers of attorney can be drafted to be very limited in nature (i.e., to let one single task be accomplished), or very broad, allowing the POA to handle everything on your behalf.

Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. This lets a person you name make health care decisions for you, if you are not able to do so. The decision-making power is limited to health care only.

Should Your Health Care POA and Your Financial/Legal POA be the Same Person? Deciding who to give these powers to can be difficult. Is the person you are considering equally skilled with health care, as they are with finances? Someone who is very emotional may not be able to make health care decisions, although they may be good with money. Think carefully about your decision. Just remember it’s better that you make this decision, rather than leaving it for the court to decide.

Last Will and Testament: This is the document people think of when they think about estate planning. It is a document that allows the person to transfer specific property, after they die in the way they want. It also allows the person to name a guardian for any minor children and an executor who will be in charge of administering the estate. It is far better that you name a guardian and an executor, than having the court select someone to take on these roles.

The estate planning process will be smoother, if you spend some time speaking with your spouse and family members to discuss some of the key decisions discussed above. Talk with your loved ones about your thoughts on death and what you’d like to have happen. Think about what kind of legacy you want to leave.

Estate battles often leave families estranged during a time when they need each other most. Spend the time and resources creating an estate plan with a qualified estate planning attorney. Leaving your family intact and loving may be the best legacy of all.

Reference: The Mercury (Oct. 27, 2019) “Estate planning basics and an estate attorney meeting preparation”

 

Preparing for Alzheimer’s

“People should have a minimum of a valid will, a durable power of attorney and a healthcare power of attorney. These three documents can provide for your wishes, either upon becoming incapacitated or your passing.”

Once there has been a diagnosis of dementia, there are a number of issues that families need to address, including legal issues. The best way to approach this task, says being patient in the article “Alzheimer’s and the Law” is to meet with an estate planning attorney who can guide the family in planning for the future, and creating the needed documents.

The conversation will start with who should be named to two different kinds of power of attorney. One is for the durable power of attorney, which will give the named person the ability to manage any business decisions, sign contracts and deal with insurance companies. This document will need to be inclusive, so the agent can act for the person who is going to be incapacitated.

Next, there will need to be a healthcare power of attorney. It should be complemented by a living will, which states what kind of lifesaving measures you would want, if you were to be declared terminally ill. The healthcare power of attorney also allows a person to be named to make medical decisions, if the person with dementia can no longer make good decisions on their own behalf.

As long as the doctor has not yet declared the person incapacitated, they can sign the power of attorney for financial and health care. If the person has been declared incapacitated, then the family will need to go to court for a guardianship proceeding, so the court can declare who will be in charge of the person with dementia.

Some families prefer to have one person in charge of the loved one’s financial affairs and a second person to be their healthcare power of attorney. If there is a family member who is good with money and business, that person will do a better job than someone whose heart is in the right place but doesn’t manage money well. A nervous or easily excitable family member may also not be the best choice for healthcare power of attorney, especially if important decisions need to be made in a crisis situation.

Make sure that the people who are being considered for these tasks live near enough, so they can be available when needed. A child who lives on the other side of the country may want to be the decision maker, but if they are too far away, it will create more problems than it solves.

Before naming anyone to the power of attorney roles, speak with them about the situation, and be clear about what they will be expected to do. Clarify the difference between the two roles, and that of the executor. The executor is the person who is in charge of the person’s estate after they pass. They do not have an active role, while the person is living.

People generally don’t like to think about times when they may not enjoy good health, but this is a situation where waiting to address the issue can become extremely costly. A skilled estate planning attorney who works with families with dementia will understand the situation. They can be a valuable resource of information about other related services that will become needed over time.

Reference: being patient (August 22, 2019) “Alzheimer’s and the Law”

 

Why You—and Everyone—Needs an Estate Plan

“What's going to happen to your assets after you die? Your parents die? Your spouse dies? It's a conversation that's uncomfortable to have, but one that's extremely important.”

At its essence, estate planning is any decision you make concerning your property if you die, or if you become incapacitated. There are a number of things to keep in mind when creating an estate plan, says KTUU in the article “Estate planning dos and don’ts.”

The first task is not what most people think. It’s very basic: making a list of all of your assets and how they are titled. Remember, the estate plan is dealing with the distribution of your assets—so you have to first know what those assets are. If you are old enough to have lived through the sale of several different financial institutions, do you know where your accounts are? Not everyone does!

Next, you need to be clear on how the assets are titled. If they are joint with a spouse, Payable on Death (POD) or Transfer on Death (TOD), jointly with a child, or owned by a trust, they may be treated differently in your estate plan, than if you owned them outright.

Roughly fifty percent of all adults don’t make a plan for their estate. That becomes a huge headache for their loved ones. If you don’t have an estate plan, your property will be distributed according to the laws of your state. What you do or don’t want to have happen to your property won’t matter, and in some instances, your family may be passed over for a long-lost sibling. It’s a risk.

In addition, if you don’t have an estate plan, chances are you haven’t done any tax planning. Some states have inheritance taxes, others have estate taxes, and some have both. Even if your estate’s value doesn’t come anywhere close to the very high federal estate tax level ($11.4 million per person for 2019), your heirs could inherit far less, if state and inheritance taxes take a bite out of the assets.

For a blended family, there are a number of rules in different states that divide your assets. In Alaska, for instance, if some of the children of one spouse are not the children of the other spouse, there is a statutory formula that depends on how many children there are and which of them are living. Different percentages of money are awarded to the children, which becomes complicated.

Another reason to have an estate plan has to do with incapacity. This is perhaps harder to discuss than death for some families. Estate planning includes preparing for what the individual would want to happen, if they were injured or too sick to convey their wishes to others. Decisions about health care treatments and end-of-life care are documented with a Living Will (sometimes called an Advanced Care Directive), so your loved ones are not left wondering what you would have wanted and hoping that they got it right.

One last point about an estate plan: be sure to check beneficiary designations while you are doing your estate plan. If you own retirement accounts, life insurance policies, or other assets with named beneficiaries, the assets will pass directly to the named beneficiary, regardless of the instructions in your will. If you opened an IRA when you had one child and have had other children since then, make sure to include all of those children and the proportion of their shares. There may be tax implications, if only one child receives the assets, and there may also be family fights if assets are not distributed equally.

Reference: KTUU (August 14, 2019) “Estate planning dos and don’ts”

Living Trusts and Living Wills are Good Options for Estate Plan

Medical Advance Directives can direct how you want your health care provided.

There are important legal documents such as a Medical Advance Directive that involve health care and should be considered for your estate plan, according to The Villager in “About the Law.”

The Medical Advance Directive often refers to a Living Will, but the category also includes medical durable powers of attorney, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) directives, Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders, Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment (MOST) and other directives regarding your medical care in the event you have a medical crisis, a terminal medical condition and just before or after your passing.

In some states, a Living Will is known as an Advanced Directive for Medical/Surgical Treatment. This document tells medical professionals how you want to be treated, if you are suffering from a terminal condition that is neither curable nor reversible, or if you are in a coma, also known as a “persistent vegetative state” and cannot speak for yourself. It’s referred to more commonly as a Living Will and is signed with the same type of formality as a Last Will and Testament. Like your will, it must be signed in front of two witnesses and it must be notarized.

The Living Will is used for two situations. One is a terminal condition, where the use of life-saving procedures will only postpone death, but not promote any healing that would lead to a recovery. The second is in a persistent vegetative state, which must be determined by medical professionals. There are three choices for the family: one is to forgo life-sustaining treatment and let the person die. The second is to accept life-sustaining treatment, but only for a limited period of time. Often this is to allow family members to gather to say their farewells. The third is to continue life-sustaining treatment.

A person may express their wishes for their care and also give permission to certain persons to talk with their doctor. This is made necessary, due to the HIPAA act. Otherwise, the doctor would legally not be permitted to discuss the patient’s care with unauthorized people.

As long as you are able to make your own medical decisions, you can determine what treatments to receive, or which treatments you do not wish to receive. The goal of the Living Will is to allow you to express your wishes, if you have lost the ability to communicate.

Other estate planning documents that you’ll need are a will, to distribute your property, a financial or general power of attorney, so that someone you name can make decisions and take actions on your financial affairs and, depending upon your situation, a trust.

Because the laws governing living wills and estate planning are set by your state, it is a good idea to speak with an estate planning attorney in your community.  

Reference: The Village (July 3, 2019) “About the Law”

 

How to Prepare the Right Information for Loved Ones

Do you really want them to conduct a frantic search for your papers?

We all face the chance of becoming ill later in life and it is a certainty that we will all pass away. Therefore, perhaps it would be best to prepare some important information for your loved ones, according to Catching Health in “Getting your affairs in order.”

Start with the concept of incapacity, which is an important part of estate planning. Who would you want to speak on your behalf? Would that person be the same one you would want to make important financial decisions, pay bills and handle your personal affairs? Does your family know what your wishes are, or do you know what your parent’s wishes are?

Financial Power of Attorney. Someone needs to be able to pay your bills and handle financial matters. That person is named in a Financial Power of Attorney, and they become your agent. Without an agent, your family will have to go to court and get a conservatorship. This takes time and money. It also brings in court involvement into your life and adds another layer of stress and expense.

It’s important to name someone who you trust implicitly and whose financial savvy you trust. Talk with the person you have in mind first and make sure they are comfortable taking on this responsibility. There may be other family members who will not agree with your decisions, or your agent’s decisions. They’ll have to be able to stick to the course in the face of disagreements.

Medical Power of Attorney. The Medical Power of Attorney is used when end-of-life care decisions must be made. This is usually when someone is in a persistent vegetative state, has a terminal illness or is in an irreversible coma. Be cautious: sometimes people want to appoint all their children to make health care decisions. When there are disputes, the doctor ends up having to make the decision. The doctor does not want to be a mediator. One person needs to be the spokesperson for you.

Health Care Directive or Living Will. The name of these documents and what they serve to accomplish does vary from state to state, so speak with an estate planning attorney in your state to determine exactly what it is that you need.

Health Care Proxy. This is the health care agent who makes medical decisions on your behalf, when you can no longer do so. In Maine, that’s a health care advance directive. The document should be given to the named person for easy access. It should also be given to doctors and medical providers.

DNR, or Do Not Resuscitate Order. This is a document that says that if your heart has stopped working or if you stop breathing, not to bring you back to life. When an ambulance arrives and the EMT asked for this document, it’s because they need to know what your wishes are. Some folks put them on the fridge or in a folder where an aide or family member can find them easily. If you are in cardiac arrest and the DNR is with a family member who is driving from another state to get to you, the EMT is bound by law to revive you. You need to have that on hand, if that is your wish.

How Much Should You Tell Your Kids? While it’s really up to you as to how much you want to share with your kids, the more they know, the more they can help in an emergency. Some seniors bring their kids with them to the estate planning attorney’s office, but some prefer to keep everything under wraps. At the very least, the children need to know where the important documents are, and have contact information for the estate planning attorney, the accountant and the financial advisor. Many people create a binder with all their important documents, so there are no delays caused in healthcare decisions.

An estate planning attorney can advise you on creating an estate plan that fits your unique circumstances and will be helpful to your loved ones.

Reference: Catching Health (May 28, 2019) “Getting your affairs in order.”

A Health Care Directive Can Become Real Important, Real Fast

What happens if you suddenly cannot make your own decisions?

A health care directive can become very important, if you should find yourself incapacitated. That is why it is part of a comprehensive estate plan, according to the McPherson Sentinel in “Advance health care directives important to all adults.”

Documenting your wishes about future health care lets a cognitively healthy person express their wishes with a clear perspective. Unfortunately, only one in four American adults has their advance health care directive in place. Many wait to begin the planning process, until they are in their 50s or 60s. The problem is, life doesn’t have a plan. At any time in life, tragedy can strike. A serious illness or an accident can occur, and leave the family wondering what the person would have wanted.

The most common advance directives including a durable power of attorney for health care, living will, and pre-hospital do not resuscitate directive, known also as a “DNR.”

The durable power of attorney for health care allows you to name a person to make medical decisions for you, in the event you cannot. They are also referred to as a “medical power of attorney” or “health care agent.”

This is different than a durable power of attorney, which gives a person the right to act as another person’s agent and conduct all business and financial matters on their behalf.

It’s very important that the people you name to fulfill these roles are told that they have been named. They need to fully understand what your wishes are, what kinds of treatments are and are not acceptable for you, your preferences for doctors and where you would like the treatment to take place.

The person selected will need to be trustworthy and have the ability and willingness to communicate your wishes, even if family members don’t agree with your choices. They will need to follow your wishes, even if they are not the same as their own.

Keep family dynamics in mind. If a younger sibling is selected to be your health care agent and they have been dominated throughout their life by an older sibling, will your wishes be honored, or will they become the subject of an extended argument?

A living will is a document that details the type of care you want to receive at the end of life. It explains your wishes about accepting life-sustaining procedures, like being placed on a ventilator, receiving artificial nutrition and hydration, if at least two physicians deem your condition to be terminal.

These documents should be prepared for you as part of your overall estate plan, with the guidance of an estate planning attorney. Be aware that the laws vary from state to state, so you’ll want to work with an attorney who knows your state’s laws. If you relocate to another state, you will need to have your estate plan updated to ensure that it is still valid.

Reference: McPherson Sentinel (April 17, 2019) “Advance health care directives important to all adults”

 

Have a Farm? Have a Family Business? Do You Have the Right Documents?

Times can get tough for your family, if you don’t have your documents.

 

If you are a farmer, a business owner or actually just an adult, there are a some crucial documents that you need to protect yourself and your loved ones, according to Ag Week in “Five documents every farmer should have.”

While there are five crucial documents everyone needs, according to an AARP report, six of 10 seniors don’t have a will, the number of farmers who have an estate plan is even fewer and advance care directives are even farther down on the list. That is not good for families.

Farm and ranch families often find themselves facing complicated issues about how the land should be divided among the next generation, and whether the next generation will continue to maintain the ranch or farm. This is something that estate planning addresses.

Many people think of the will as the estate plan. However, it’s only part of the plan. The will says who will inherit property, including assets and debts, and who will be responsible for carrying out your directions. That person is the executor, who acts as your agent when you have died.

While there are online wills available, it is recommended that farm and ranch families work with an estate planning attorney. They are encouraged to meet with a few, until they find one who they are comfortable with and they believe has the experience that suits the family’s situation. The attorney will help with how property is titled and how to handle the tax implications. These are both important parts of an estate plan.

Every adult needs an advance health care directive, the legal document that specifies the medical procedures that they want to maintain life, if there is a health crisis. An advance directive usually involves a living will, and names a person as health care power of attorney to make health care decisions, when you are unable to do so for yourself.

The living will is used to specify the types of medical procedures you do or do not wish to have performed to keep you alive. Medical professionals or first responders often do not have access to this document and must follow their legal and ethical requirement to maintain life, in any way possible. Make sure this document is readily available and that other family members know where it is located.

Provide a copy of the living will and durable power of attorney to your doctors and the institutions that usually provide your care. The power of attorney should specify who has primary responsibility to make these decisions and at least one alternate.

Talk with your physicians about your feelings and wishes for these documents. They may also benefit from having the person you have named as your power of attorney with you at the time of the conversation. That way everyone is clear about what your wishes are.

A power of attorney is given to an individual, your agent, who can make financial decisions on your behalf, if you are incapacitated. They can write checks, make deposits and have access to your safe deposit box. There will be forms to fill out, so don’t delay having them created and properly executed.

While it is not legally enforceable, write a letter of intention to accompany your will. Give a copy of your letter to your executor, and possibly to a trusted family member. This way, you can make sure they know:

• Where important documents, including life insurance policies, savings accounts, loans, leases, titles to property and other legal documents are located.
• Instructions for the care of minor children. Your will should name a guardian, but any information you can share about your children will be helpful.
• Instructions of what you want to happen to the family land.

Reference: Ag Week (April 5, 2019) “Five documents every farmer should have”

 

Some Issues Often Overlooked in an Estate Plan

Check through the list of issues others have overlooked in estate planning. Avoid those mistakes.

Creating an estate plan is always a good idea. However, it is also a good idea to take a look at some commonly overlooked issues that can derail your plan, according to the National Law Review in “So You Think You’re Done with Your Estate Plan…”

The checklist:

Beneficiary Designations. These assets generally do not pass through the will, so the beneficiary named receives the asset, whether it’s proceeds from a life insurance policy or the entire contents of your investment accounts. These forms must be prepared and filed with the account custodian or the insurance company, so beneficiaries are properly identified. If you have not looked at these designations for more than a few years, it’s time to look at them again to make sure the ones you originally selected are still the ones you wish to receive your assets.

Trust Funding and Form of Ownership of Assets. You can easily wreck your entire plan by failing to fund trusts or retitle assets. If you’ve executed a Revocable Trust with probate avoidance in mind, for instance, and then fail to fund the trust, your beneficiaries will need to probate your assets. Assets owned jointly with rights of survivorship will not pass according to your will. If your estate plan was done with taxes in mind, you could put the entire plan at risk.

Talking with Family and Trusted Professionals. Having a plan no one in the family knows about, can lead to an estate disaster. Speak with family members so they know you have an estate plan and who they should be in touch with when the time comes. Your accountant and/or financial advisor should also be brought into the discussion.

Accessibility of Estate Plan and Related Information. If your documents are locked up in a safe deposit box or an encrypted file or secure portal, no one will be able to access them. Your estate planning attorney will be able to advise you, as to the best way to ensure that paper and electronic documents are available to family and fiduciaries when needed. The same holds true for burial and health care instructions. Prepare a list with the contact information of your estate planning attorney, basic information about your assets and other information that will be needed by family and fiduciaries.

Keeping Up with Change. Tax laws change and lives change. If you have been divorced, had a serious illness, or any major change to your assets, you’ll need to speak with your estate planning attorney to see if any of those changes need to be incorporated into your estate plan.

An estate planning attorney can advise you in creating an estate plan that fits your unique circumstances and can help you avoid some of those common mistakes.

Reference: National Law Review (Oct. 18, 2018) “So You Think You’re Done with Your Estate Plan…”

What Medical Care Is Acceptable at End of Life?

What are your thoughts on this difficult subject?

End-of-life circumstances are not always known in advance, so it is important to prepare for emergency solutions and what life-saving measures are acceptable. Aare family members prepared to make those decisions, or would you prefer to plan for those in advance? All of these questions are best answered in advance, according to The Herald-Mail titled “It’s never too early to prepare for the end of life.”

Spare your loved ones from the agony of making decisions, based on what they think you might have wanted by planning in advance for what is, without question, unpleasant to consider. Nevertheless, in today’s era of medical technologies, such scenarios are quite possible. Let’s start with the advance directive.

Advance directives are legal documents that include both a living will and medical power of attorney. The living will allows you to document your specific preferences for medical care at the end of life. These range from aggressive intervention that saves your life, to palliative comfort care that gives medication to alleviate pain and suffering. There is a wide range between the two, so the more specific you can be, the better your loved ones will know what you want.

A medical power of attorney lets you designate a trusted person—spouse, friend or adult child—to make decisions for medical care, if you cannot do so. This is also known as a health care surrogate or proxy.

Here’s what happens when no advance planning has occurred. A critical medical situation arises, and family members are contacted. Without having had a discussion about the person’s wishes, typically an aging parent, siblings don’t know what to do. If they do know what to do, but there is no legal document attesting to their parent’s wishes or if the legal document is not physically present, the medical provider is bound by their own determination of the situation and their professional code of ethics.

That action may not be what you would have wanted. However, your family or trusted friends do not have the right to make decisions, if legal documents are not in place. The solution is relatively simple: plan in advance.

First, give serious thought to what you would want to occur. Make a list of questions to discuss with your primary health care physician.

Second, have a conversation with family members and friends about your wishes, and discuss with them their role in such situations. Are they willing to carry out your wishes and to take on this responsibility?

Third, meet with your estate planning attorney and prepare the necessary documents.

Reference: The Herald-Mail (Oct. 8, 2018) “It’s never too early to prepare for the end of life”

Protecting Loved Ones from Facing Tough Choices

An advanced directive can give you as well as your loved ones peace of mind.

Do you want your preferences known, even if you are lack the capacity to communicate them? Then you need to create an advanced directive, according to the Valley News in “Advance Directives Provide Clear Guidance for Care.”

The two components that make up an advance directive are a durable power of attorney and a treatment preferences section.

The durable power of attorney for health care allows you to appoint someone to make medical decisions, if you lack the capacity to make those decisions for yourself.

The treatment preference, which is sometimes referred to as a living will, lets you specify what kind of treatment you would want in a difficult circumstance. Treatment and care preferences usually focus on what you would want at the end of life or if you were in a permanently unconscious state. There are other preferences that can be expressed, including pain control, blood transfusions, mental health care and spiritual care. Another preference: who should—and should not—be involved in discussions about treatment.

Most people want to express their wishes to avoid aggressive measures being taken to extend their lives, when the end result will be suffering and a delay of their passing. Others chose to avoid the financial burdens that may or may not result in any kind of change in their health or the quality of their life.

Some have these documents prepared to make it clear that they want to spend their final months, weeks or days at home with loved ones with care only to relieve pain or care, so they can be conscious and able to speak with those around them.

Advance directives are a blessing to loved ones, since they do not have to make hard choices in a crisis situation. They know what their aging parent or spouses wishes.

It’s important to choose the person you want to be responsible for your care well in advance. Make sure it’s someone you trust, who knows you well and will be able to make hard decisions in a highly emotional time. They’ll also have to be able to communicate with your doctors and family members.

An estate planning attorney can advise you in creating an estate plan that fits your unique circumstances and can include an advanced directive.

Reference: Valley News (Sep. 1, 2018) “Advance Directives Provide Clear Guidance for Care”