Arizona Wills & Trusts Blog

Tips For Picking A Guardian For Your Minor Children

Wall Street Journal: Naming a guardian for a young child in a will can be one of the most important things a parent does. It can also be one of the hardest—in fact, many people don't make a will because they can't face the job.

“This is where I have people cry in meetings most,” says Margaret Sager, a partner at the law firm Heckscher Teillon Terrill & Sager, P.C. in West Conshohocken, Pa.

But estate-planning professionals say as hard as the question is, it's also crucial to answer it. Otherwise, it leaves the fate of an orphaned child entirely up to a stranger—a judge. Although judges formally appoint guardians in all cases, they almost always choose the person named in the will.

Still, many parents drag their feet for fear of picking the wrong person. Advisers say they often have to help clients get past emotional blocks in order to move forward with their estate plans.

The paralysis that settles in “is not rational,” says Liza Weiman Hanks, a lawyer at Finch Montgomery Wright LLP in Palo Alto, Calif. and author of an estate-planning guide for families.

Ms. Hanks says she herself wasn't immune—it took her three years to change her will after realizing that the friend she had originally designated to be the guardian of her two minor children was no longer a suitable choice.

So what's the best way to get parents moving? Some advisers say they start by asking clients to consider the following:

1. It's just for now.

A guardian isn't forever, or even for a set period of time. If you decide later that the person you designated isn't […]

On the Net2016-12-13T20:33:37-08:00December 16th, 2011|Guardianship|

Must Have Documents: Healthcare Directives

Los Angeles Times: “I could show you case after case,” said Dr. Neil S. Wenger. “I could bet you million-to-1 odds these patients would not want to be in this situation.”

He was talking about patients in critical condition who are “attached to machines, being kept alive” in hospitals, many of them suffering.

A common reason for that, said Wenger, director of UCLA's Health System Ethics Center, is that fewer than one-third of us make our healthcare wishes known in advance of critical illness or injury. So if we end up comatose after an accident, or with severe memory loss in old age, we're kept alive, regardless of the cost and regardless of what our wishes might be or how grim the prognosis.

It's understandable. Nobody wants to think in advance about life ending. In our satisfied state of denial, we want to believe medical advances will keep us healthy until we die in our sleep at a ripe old age. But death doesn't always come on our terms, and failing to face up to other possibilities can put crushing burdens on loved ones — not to mention that soaring end-of-life medical costs are at the center of the national budget crisis.

“We use healthcare resources far out of proportion to any other country on the planet,” said Wenger, who researches elder care for the Rand Corp. “We need to have a conversation about where society wants to put its resources [and we] might decide there are certain kinds of life extension that are not as important to us as educating kids and having adequate infrastructure.”

Of course, none of us individually can solve all of these societal […]

On the Net2016-12-13T20:33:37-08:00December 16th, 2011|Healthcare Directives|

Feuds Over Bob Marley’s Legacy Continue

Probate Lawyer Blog: While being widely loved for spreading reggae music throughout the world, Bob Marley stood for more than just music. His songs promoted freedom for poor and oppressed people throughout the world, social equality, and justice. Marley even won the 1978 United Nations Medal of Peace.

Sadly, events surrounding his estate have been anything but consistent with his musical legacy. 2011 marked the 30-year anniversary of the day Marley died of cancer, at the age of 36, on May 11, 1981. In those 30 years, his estate has seen far too many court fights, lawsuits and money-grabs to count. And that legacy of fighting over money doesn’t seem likely to end any time soon.

Just last week, a corporation owned by his widow, Rita Marley, and his nine children, sued Richard Booker and two corporations he owned. Who is Richard Booker? Bob Marley’s half-brother. Among other Jamaica-based business ventures, Booker operates musical festivals and a company which gives tours of the village where Marley was born and is now buried.

These lyrics from Marley’s song, Guiltiness, from the famed Exodus album are particularly appropriate:

These are the big fish

Who always try to eat down the small fish,

Just the small fish.

I tell you what: they would do anything

To materialize their every wish.

Indeed, fish are at the heart of this legal dispute. One of the primary targets is Booker’s effort to trademark the term “Mama Marley” for use in marketing a series of good and services. What goods and services? The lawsuit identifies them as being, “fish; fish and chips; fish cakes; fish croquettes; fish fillets; fish mousse; fish […]

On the Net2016-12-13T20:33:37-08:00December 16th, 2011|Estate Fights, Rich & Famous, Wills|

MLK, Jr. Died Without A Will – Family Fighting Continues

Probate Lawyer Blog: There is no doubt about the greatness of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Unfortunately, his estate planning wasn’t so great. In fact, King made a mistake that too many people make everyday in our country … he procrastinated with his legal planning and died without a will.

In large part because of this, his legacy has been marred by fighting among his children over the handling of his estate, including claims of secrecy, mismanagement and misappropriating assets. Years ago, MLK’s heirs formed a corporation to manage King’s estate, but then they fought over control over the corporation. You can read Trial & Heirs’ coverage of the lawsuit between the King children here. Luckily, the heirs were able to reach a settlement and ended that round of fighting.

But, that doesn’t mean the court battles have ended. The corporation which operates the estate turned its attention to a television anchor in Southern Mississippi, named Howard Nelson Ballou. The Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc., sued Ballou and claimed he has possession of historic documents relating to King.

These include handwritten letters from King, transcripts of speeches he delivered, statements and newsletters he authored, a handwritten letter by Rosa Parks, and similar writings of great importance to King’s efforts in the 1950′s civil rights movement.

Ballou’s parents had been close friends with King and his wife, Coretta Scott King. Ballou’s father was King’s fraternity brother, and his mother had been King’s personal secretary in the 1950′s. She helped him research, type and edit his speeches, answered his mail and made his travel arrangements. She says that, through her relationship with King, he gave her the documents.

On the Net2016-12-13T20:33:37-08:00December 16th, 2011|Estate Fights, Rich & Famous, Wills|

Year-End Giving Tips From The IRS

IRS.gov: Individuals and businesses making contributions to charity should keep in mind several important tax law provisions that have taken effect in recent years. Some of these changes include the following:

Special Charitable Contributions for Certain IRA Owners

This provision, currently scheduled to expire at the end of 2011, offers older owners of individual retirement accounts (IRAs) a different way to give to charity. An IRA owner, age 70½ or over, can directly transfer tax-free up to $100,000 per year to an eligible charity. This option, created in 2006, is available for distributions from IRAs, regardless of whether the owners itemize their deductions. Distributions from employer-sponsored retirement plans, including SIMPLE IRAs and simplified employee pension (SEP) plans, are not eligible.

To qualify, the funds must be contributed directly by the IRA trustee to the eligible charity. Amounts so transferred are not taxable and no deduction is available for the transfer.

Not all charities are eligible. For example, donor-advised funds and supporting organizations are not eligible recipients.

Amounts transferred to a charity from an IRA are counted in determining whether the owner has met the IRA’s required minimum distribution. Where individuals have made nondeductible contributions to their traditional IRAs, a special rule treats transferred amounts as coming first from taxable funds, instead of proportionately from taxable and nontaxable funds, as would be the case with regular distributions. See Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), for more information on qualified charitable distributions.

Rules for Clothing and Household Items

To be deductible, clothing and household items donated to charity generally must be in good used condition or better. A clothing or household item for which a taxpayer claims a […]

On the Net2016-12-13T20:33:37-08:00December 16th, 2011|Giving to Charity|

Designating The Right Beneficiary Is Critical

Times-Herald Record: In elder law estate planning, we often think of trusts, wills, powers of attorney, health-care proxies and living wills as documents and tools to express our wishes in the event of disability or death.

One other very important facet of planning is the “beneficiary designation,” a contractual document that directs where an asset goes when you pass away. Most commonly, we see beneficiary designations for life insurance policies, annuities and IRAs and other qualified plans. A proper plan includes careful decision-making regarding the beneficiary, with broad-ranging effects on keeping assets in the bloodline and protecting assets from creditors and nursing home costs.

Inheritance trusts

Inheritance trusts are an increasingly popular way to keeps assets in the bloodline and protect your inheritance to your children from the children's creditors, including divorcing spouses. However, if your assets are held substantially in qualified plans, the contingent beneficiary designation on those accounts should be changed to the children's inheritance trusts, rather than to the children as individuals.

When the first spouse dies, the asset passes to the surviving spouse, and when the second spouse passes away, the assets go to the inheritance trusts. In this way, the children can only leave the qualified plan to your grandchildren or your other children. On the other hand, if you name your children as individuals as the contingent beneficiaries, your children can pass your hard-earned money to a spouse or other non-blood beneficiary.

Read the rest of this article here.

On the Net2011-12-16T13:20:58-08:00December 16th, 2011|Beneficiaries|

Questions You Should Ask Your Estate Planning Attorney

US News & World Report: Because you've worked hard to create a secure and comfortable lifestyle for your family, you'll want to ensure that you have a sound financial plan that includes trust and estate planning. With some forethought, you may be able to minimize gift and estate taxes and preserve more of your assets for those you care about.

A qualified financial professional and tax professional can help ensure you are minimizing taxes and maximizing gains for your heirs. You can bring this four-part checklist to your initial meeting to discuss how to make your plan comprehensive and up-to-date.

Part 1: Communicating your wishes

•Do you have a will?

•Are you comfortable with the executor(s) and trustee(s) you have selected?

•Have you executed a living will or healthcare proxy?

•Have you considered a living trust to avoid probate?

•If you have a living trust, have you titled your assets in the name of the trust?

Part 2: Protecting your family

•Does your will name a guardian for your children if both you and your spouse are deceased?

•If you want to limit your spouse's flexibility regarding the inheritance, have you created a Q-TIP trust?

•Are you sure you have the right amount and type of life insurance for survivor income, loan repayment, capital needs, and all estate settlement expenses?

•Have you considered an irrevocable life insurance trust to exclude the insurance proceeds from being taxed as part of your estate?

•Have you considered creating trusts for family gift giving?

Read the rest of this article here.

On the Net2017-10-07T11:14:46-07:00December 16th, 2011|Estate Planning, Estate Tax, Healthcare Directives, Powers of Attorney, Trusts, Wills|

No Better Holiday Gift Than Asset Protection!

Law Firm Newswire: It might not be something your children can pull out from under the tree and unwrap this holiday season, but the gift they may appreciate the most is the gift of asset protection.

“With family as the focus of so much attention during the holidays, it’s a natural time to consider their financial security,” said Brandon estate planning attorney Reginald Osenton. “No matter what age your children are, the time is never wrong to plan for the future.”

Even though most people tell their loved ones how they want their estate managed when they are gone, the only way to ensure it is done correctly is to put it in writing. “We put together plans for families so that when the time comes, everybody is taken care of exactly the way you want,” Osenton said.

A properly drafted estate plan with a qualified attorney will save your family money in the long run in future taxes, legal fees and other costs. It can truly be a holiday gift that will pay for itself.

Too many families are consumed by unnecessary stress and tension when it is time to divide an estate. Careful planning can eliminate all of the finger-pointing and he said, she said. “I have seen families fight over the smallest things. And it all could have been avoided if it had been planned out before hand,” Osenton said.

While a detailed will is the cornerstone of a good estate plan, health care issues can be handled before they arise as well. A power of attorney and a health care surrogate designation will let you determine now who will be making the decisions if […]

On the Net2011-12-16T13:15:11-08:00December 16th, 2011|Estate Planning, Estate Tax|

5 Big Estate Planning Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make

Forbers: Applying Murphy’s Law, “If anything can go wrong, it will,” to estate planning is crucial because in this case when something does go wrong, it goes very wrong and you aren’t around to fix it. Murphy’s Law at first glance appears to be overly pessimistic but the original intention of Capt. Edward A. Murphy wasn’t to depress anyone; it was to have a successful outcome. Edward Murphy was an engineer who was involved in the U.S. Army Air Force Aero Medical Laboratory’s project MX-981. Project MX-981 was designed to test the effects of deceleration forces of high magnitude on the human body. When a technician wired all of the strain gauges backwards, Capt. Murphy was heard muttering his famous phrase and the rest is history. Since they assumed mistakes were being made and things would go wrong, the attention to detail was heightened and the inevitable errors were caught. When asked during a press conference how it was that nobody had been severely injured during the tests, Dr. John Stapp credited Murphy’s Law, indicating that it was important to consider all the possible things that could go wrong before conducting a test, and then counteracting them.

A few years ago, I was going to give a financial education workshop to a group of petroleum engineers near Bakersfield, California and I happened to meet someone on the airplane who regularly presented to engineers. He gave me some advice to challenge them to find something wrong in the workshop—a statistic or a calculation with an incorrect formula, something like that. First of all, my flight companion mentioned, they are doing that anyways, but when they don’t find something, credibility instantly increases, and if […]

On the Net2016-12-13T20:33:38-08:00December 16th, 2011|Beneficiaries, Common Problems, Estate Planning, Healthcare Directives, Wills|

A New Solution To Address The National Debt: Leave Your Home To Uncle Sam

AZCentral: A South Florida man willed his historic house worth $1 million to the U.S. government to help eliminate the country's growing debt.

The Miami Herald reports that Uncle Sam put the Coral Gables house up for auction Saturday. The winning bid was $1.175 million.

The house belonged to James H. Davidson Jr. who lived there from his teenage years until he died last December at 87. He also left $1 million to the government.

On the Net2011-12-12T15:44:58-08:00December 12th, 2011|Odd Requests, Wills|

A Gift from Congress: Gift Up To $10 Million Tax-Free

Wealth Strategies Journal: “For a limited time, married taxpayers can make lifetime gifts of assets worth up to $10 million without paying federal gift taxes or other transfer taxes. The exemption for gift taxes, estate taxes, and generation skipping transfer (GST) taxes was fixed at $5 million per taxpayer when Congress extended the Bush-era tax cuts through 2012. Married couples can now give away up to $10 million and single people can give away up to $5 million without incurring gift or GST taxes, as adjusted for prior taxable gifts, which is a pretty powerful planning opportunity.

On the Net2017-10-07T11:14:46-07:00December 3rd, 2011|Estate Planning|

Understanding the Impact in 2012 & 2013 of Federal Estate Tax Laws

Estate planning attorneys Cecil Smith and Carol Gonnella have written an informative article about the coming impact of federal estate tax laws next year and the year after. The article starts:

“The estate tax laws are in a state of flux, and no one is sure what Congress will do in the near future. This article is about the laws today, and the importance of planning now rather than waiting until Congress may … or may not … act. It addresses tax liability in a broad sense, and does not take into account the impact of state death taxes, if any, or the implementation of advanced estate planning strategies such as LLCs, QPRTs, BERTs, ILITs, GRATs, Charitable Gifts, etc, to not only creditor protect assets during life, but to reduce or eliminate the estate tax bite upon death. . . . There are three ways to reduce (or even eliminate) federal estate taxes just by using Internal Revenue Code exclusions and/or exemptions that are available to everyone

The Unlimited Marital Deduction . . . .

The Basic Exclusion Amount . . . .

Portability . . . . “

On the Net2017-10-07T11:14:45-07:00December 1st, 2011|Estate Planning, Estate Tax|

Copper Heiress Signed Two Wills – One Leaves Relatives Nothing

Fox News: A newly publicized will by an heiress to a Montana copper mining fortune leaves most of her $400 million estate to her family, while a will signed just weeks later left nothing to relatives.

The childless Huguette Clark died in May at age 104 — a last breath of New York's Gilded Age that produced the Rockefellers, Astors and Vanderbilts.

Her relatives brought the new will to light on Monday: They filed court papers asking a Surrogate's Court judge to involve them in proceedings about how her money was spent — and by whom — while she was alive.

Clark's relatives accuse her co-executors, attorney Wallace Bock and accountant Irving Kamsler, of plundering her fortune. The two were among the few who for years had access to the reclusive Clark in her Manhattan hospital room. Clark had left her 42-room Manhattan home — the largest residence on Fifth Avenue — decades earlier, choosing to live undisturbed at the hospital.

A court-ordered accounting of the Paris-born heiress' finances as overseen by Bock and Kamsler in the last 15 years of her life is “a chilling report of the mishandling, misappropriation and mismanagement” of her assets, the relatives' lawyer, John R. Morken, wrote in papers filed Monday.

While Clark was confined to a hospital room, her spending amounted to about $1 million each month, Morken said, citing the figures.

Monday's filing included a will signed in March 2005, about six weeks before another will that Bock and Kamsler filed shortly after Clark's death.

On the Net2011-11-29T13:08:47-08:00November 29th, 2011|Estate Fights, Rich & Famous, Wills|

Celebrity Estate Planning Conversations for Thanksgiving 2011

The Probate Lawyer Blog: What family won’t be talking about Kim Kardashian and Michael Jackson at their Thanksgiving dinner? Dishing celebrity dirt is as natural as turkey and pumpkin pie. But did you ever think that celebrity gossip could actually help your family?

We use celebrity stories to turn the often-awkward conversation about estate planning into something fun and entertaining. Let’s face it … no one really likes to think about planning for what happens after they pass away. But, it’s the family left behind that pays the price when the proper planning isn’t done.

A great way to get the dialogue flowing, and to turn an awkward conversation into something fun and engaging, is with celebrity stories. What better time to do this than when the family is gathered together for Thanksgiving?

Here is Part 1 (out of 2) to our Trial & Heirs’ Top 5 Celebrity-Based Estate Planning Conversation Starters for Thanksgiving 2011:

1. Kim Kardashian

Seventy-two days of marriage. Wow that was fast! Did she even finish writing her thank-you notes from the wedding?

Let’s assume for a moment that the happy couple thought, after saying their wedding vows, that they’d spend the rest of their lives together. Well, even if they didn’t feel quite that strongly about one another, this still marked a significant life event. This means, the lovebirds should have updated their estate planning documents.

On the Net2016-12-13T20:33:38-08:00November 21st, 2011|Estate Fights, Estate Planning, Rich & Famous|

Baby Boomers Aren’t Estate Planning

ABA Journal: The Associated Press has a story out discussing how most boomers don’t have living wills. They also are light in other estate planning areas. Estate of Denial® is often the first in line willing to point out probate abuse that occurs via the use of instruments like wills, trusts, guardianships and powers of attorney. Living wills and healthcare proxies can bring their complications as well. That said, we also would never want our message to be misconstrued as being against proper estate planning.

Though the current probate system is highly problematic, the answer lies in fixing it, not in the avoidance of action. “The fix” is no easy task, but it is critical if America wants to continue on an ideological path similar to that which has served us well for centuries, a path which respects founding values like property rights, individual liberty and the rule of law.

In the meantime, our recent column, Can Texans (or anyone) protect themselves from probate abuse?, asked “what can people do to protect themselves, their assets and their heirs?” And our answer was a disconcerting “not a whole lot.”

On the Net2011-11-28T11:47:58-08:00November 21st, 2011|Estate Planning, Healthcare Directives, Trusts, Wills|

Common Estate Planning Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Online Athens: I want to highlight some of the most common estate planning mistakes I think people routinely make (knowing that I can’t possibly cover them all in one column). You will notice that I’m not going to discuss the estate tax beyond saying that very few people are subject to it and that it can be effectively managed by an attorney and financial planner with expertise.

In my experience, No. 1 and No. 3 are the root causes of the other issues.

1. Failure to plan: I am constantly surprised to see how many people do not have basic estate planning documents in place. The statistics consistently say more than 50 percent of Americans do not have a will, so if you happen to have one, the odds are that one of your neighbors does not.

Estate planning is another one of those areas in financial planning that plays to our desire to procrastinate. The only immediate payoff we have to getting the core documents in place is to quiet that inner voice that constantly says, “I need to take care of this.”

With proper planning, many negative consequences such as not passing your assets as you wish, strained family relationships and even a lawsuit can be avoided.

Simply stated, dying without a will is easy, but picking up the pieces afterward is not. On the other hand, getting a basic will in place should not be complicated.

On the Net2020-03-23T07:40:15-07:00November 15th, 2011|Beneficiaries, Common Problems, Estate Planning, Healthcare Directives, Powers of Attorney, Trusts, Wills|

Grandparents: Don’t Make These 3 Common Mistakes

Reno Gazette-Journal: It's so tempting to want to give the grandchildren everything and put their wants and needs first.

However, one of the common money mistakes grandparents make is to put spending on grandkids ahead of their own retirement security.

Here are three money missteps grandparents make and ways to avoid them:

1. Excessively spoiling grandchildren

Financial advisers and estate planners have all kinds of stories about retirees who insist on spending significant amounts of their savings on grandchildren. Too often they fail to recognize the severity of the risk it poses for their own retirement security.

On the Net2016-12-13T20:33:38-08:00November 15th, 2011|Estate Planning|

Estate Planning Task List

T. Rowe Price: This basic “to do” list organizes some of the topics and action steps you'll want to consider. These steps should help you prepare for an informed discussion with your estate planning attorney.

1. Consider putting in place a durable power of attorney, an advance health care directive and organ donor papers.

2. Write down, in your own words, how you want your assets to be distributed after your death. Review all contracts and beneficiary designations you have in force today and confer with your estate planning attorney to see if they will actually accomplish what you intend and offer the appropriate level of control and flexibility. Make sure to update your will/trust periodically.

3. Make sure your plan leaves adequate sources of income for your beneficiaries. Consider purchasing life insurance to account for the loss of your income to any financial dependents.

On the Net2011-11-28T11:51:05-08:00November 15th, 2011|Estate Planning|

Scottsdale Estate Planning Attorneys