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December 3, 2017

Financial Mistakes Made Now Could Significantly Impact Your Estate Plan

Estate planning is sometimes thought of as something older, more established individuals engage in when they have kids to worry about and significant assets to protect. While it is never too early to start thinking about comprehensive estate planning, it is also important to be aware of and avoid some very common financial mistakes that can occur at any age and end up significantly impacting your estate plan and the assets you are able to leave behind to your heirs. Recently, The Huffington Post ran an article discussing some of these common financial missteps. Some of them are included below, and being aware of them can help make sure you understand their significance and can take steps to avoid them. This is not an exhaustive list, but an experienced estate planning attorney can work with you in making sure that your finances are moving in the right direction in order to support the estate planning objectives you have set for yourself.

Breaking Your Budget

Vacations and treating yourself are fine ways to enjoy your hard-earned money. However, it is important to make sure you incorporate these things are part of a well-balanced budget so that you don’t completely drain your savings and find yourself in need of resources that are no longer there. Creating a safety net for emergencies is a good way to make sure you can handle unexpected expenses that could appear out of the blue. You may be hit with medical bills, a family emergency, car repairs, or even loss of a job. Planning ahead will help you navigate these obstacles much more successfully.

November 25, 2017

Charitable Giving and Estate Planning

by Ettinger Law Firm

For both practical and philanthropic reasons, charitable giving can be an important part of your estate planning strategy. However, it is important to approach charitable giving in estate planning in a responsible manner to make sure that you are getting the most out of it while being sure your objectives for charitable giving are being met.

Keep Tax Consequences in Mind

Tax consequences can play a significant role in our decisions to give to charity on a yearly basis, so it is no surprised that they play a significant role in our decision as to how to distribute assets to charity on death. Donations to qualified charities are tax deductible up to 50 percent of your adjusted gross income, which means that giving a little extra to charity could help you and your family save on taxes when it comes to inheritances.

October 11, 2017

Roth IRAs and Your Heirs’ Taxes

by Ettinger Law Firm

One of the primary purposes of responsible, comprehensive estate planning is to make sure that you are able to distribute as much of your estate as possible to your chosen heirs. After all, you worked hard for a lifetime to build your estate and most people engage in estate planning to make sure as much of their estate survives as possible. A recent article from The Motley Fool reminds us of the role Roth IRAs can play in making sure that the inheritances you leave to your heirs do not fall victim to unexpected taxes. This is especially true in today’s world where there is a great deal of uncertainty as to the direction of our nation’s tax system.

Roth IRA Basics

A Roth IRA is an individual retirement plan that allows you to put a certain amount of money into it each year. The money you contribute to a Roth IRA will already be taxed. That means that qualified withdrawals from the Roth IRA will be tax free when you start to take them. Roth IRAs might even provide a tax credit for some of your contributions depending on a number of factors regarding your individual circumstances and financial situation. The earlier you make the choice to start a Roth IRA, the better as a Roth IRA must be active for at least five years prior to your death in order to escape federal income taxes.

October 9, 2017

Estate Planning Concerns for Same-Sex Couples

by Ettinger Law Firm

When the United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, it opened up a lot of doors that had been closed to many people in society. However, it also created a significant amount of new legal concerns for same-sex couples. With marriage, a host of new questions and responsibilities have arisen. Not the least of those concerns is responsible, comprehensive estate planning. While comprehensive estate planning is crucial for all individuals regardless of their marital status or sexual orientation, it is an extremely important consideration for same-sex couples that may not have had an estate plan in place.

Potential Issues

An article from the Cleveland Jewish News points out that same-sex couples – especially unmarried same-sex couples – could still face a host of legal hurdles when it comes to the death of one person in the relationship. These concerns could include issues involving health care and power of attorney, which make it extremely important for unmarried couples to make sure documents addressing these concerns are in place should they be needed. Without these documents, there may be laws in place prohibiting an unmarried same-sex partner from making important financial and health-related decisions if an individual becomes incapacitated or otherwise unable to make such decisions on their own.

October 2, 2017

Estate Planning and Prenuptial Agreements

by Ettinger Law Firm

Once a tool for wealthy families to protect their assets when heirs got married, prenuptial agreements are now much more common in our society. Typically, such agreements cover property rights and other aspects of asset retention – but they can also set forth provisions for how each spouse will handle drafting their respective Wills. Since prenuptial agreements are increasingly more common today, it is important to understand how they could affect your estate plan. The following information can provide some insight into how prenuptial agreements might impact your estate planning goals.

Prenuptial Agreements and Priority

While you may think that your Last Will and Testament will take priority over other documents as long as it is executed in accordance with the law, that is not necessarily true. In fact, a prenuptial agreement is likely to take priority over your Will depending on the circumstances within the agreement and how it was drafted. Typically, the only way to avoid this would be for an individual to prove that a prenuptial agreement was signed under duress or that the agreement itself was designed in a way that encouraged divorce and exclusion from assets.

September 30, 2017

Potential Issues with Joint Bank Accounts

by Ettinger Law Firm

There are a number of reasons that people create joint bank accounts. Perhaps you and your spouse want to share a bank account to help simplify your marital finances. You may use joint bank accounts to help teach your children the importance of budgeting and financial planning. You may even need to have access to someone else’s bank account if they are incapacitated or cannot make purchases on their own. Whatever the reason for having a joint bank account, they are not without potential issues when it comes to your estate plan.

Vulnerability

Adding a person as an owner of a bank account inherently makes the account itself more vulnerable. In addition to the potential issues raised below, the more people you add as owners of a joint account the more likely you are to fall victim to theft – including identity theft. By adding individuals to the account, you will increase the risk of lost or stolen cards and/or checkbooks. Additionally, if the person you add to the account is not financially responsible, you risk losing the assets in that account because of poor financial planning.

September 28, 2017

Estate Planning and Identity Theft

by Ettinger Law Firm

In today’s day and age, identity theft is all too common a problem. In fact, the news is often filled with horror stories related to identity theft. Identity theft is a serious problem that can wreak havoc on your life, and it can also have a significant impact on your estate plan. The following information can help you start to understand the potential effects of identity theft on your estate plan.

Access to Private Information

Wills, powers of attorney, healthcare proxies, and other estate planning documents contain very personal information. Not only do some documents have your social security number, but they could also contain other sensitive financial information, too. It is extremely important to safeguard these documents to prevent such information from slipping into the wrong hands. For instance, if someone were to gain access to this type of personal information they could potentially open up credit cards in the name of the deceased individual or even file a final tax return in their name before heirs have a chance to do so.

September 26, 2017

Benefits of an Irrevocable Trust

by Ettinger Law Firm

There are two main types of trusts: revocable and irrevocable. Basically, each trust is self-explanatory on the surface. For the most part, you have unfettered ability to revoke or amend a revocable trust. In contrast, it is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to revoke or even amend an irrevocable trust. On the surface, it appears – and is true – that a revocable trust provides the creator of such trust with greater flexibility in modifying that trust to meet their comprehensive estate planning goals. However, irrevocable trusts still play an important role in estate planning and it is important to understand their benefits to make an informed choice about the type of trust that might be right for you.

Avoiding Probate

While most trusts will avoid probate, irrevocable trusts established during your lifetime will definitely be able to avoid probate. This will ultimately save you and your loved ones time and money by allowing a trust to take effect immediately as it has been designed to do. Your loved ones will be able to access an irrevocable trust according to its structure without having to wait for the courts to approve a Will or other documents related to probate of the deceased person’s estate.

September 23, 2017

Recognizing a Fraudulent Will: Part Two

by Ettinger Law Firm

In the second part of our two-part series on recognizing fraudulent Wills, we will continue to explore various characteristics of a Last Will and Testament that might indicate it is fraudulent. While some of the factors in the first part of this series might be a little more obvious, the information below may help you understand some less common but still observable aspects of a Will that could indicate it has been tampered with.

Wills Disproportionately Benefitting Religious Organizations or Charities

Especially in cases where a deceased person was not active in a religious organization or was only minimally active, this type of provision in a Will could indicate that something is amiss. Sadly, many elderly people can be easily influenced by unscrupulous individuals that want to use assets for their own benefit or to benefit something they find to be particularly important. Sometimes this comes at the hand of the religious organization itself, and sometimes it comes as a result of the influence of an individual with close ties to the religious organization in question. This is also true for large distributions to charities a deceased person would not normally have given money to or did not have a record of supporting during his or her lifetime.

September 21, 2017

Recognizing a Fraudulent Will: Part One

by Ettinger Law Firm

Unfortunately, there are many unscrupulous people in the world that will go to great lengths to take advantage of certain situations. This is true when it comes to a person’s Last Will and Testament. While you might never contemplate changing a person’s Will to suit your needs, that does not mean other individuals will not try. Unfortunately, this can sometimes include members of your own family. While there are a variety of steps an individual can take to cover their tracks if they have interfered in the Will of a deceased person, there are some common warning signs that might help you detect if a Will has been forged or not. The following information may provide you with some insight in what to look for.

Wills Not Signed in Presence of a Lawyer

If a Will was not signed in the presence of an experienced estate planning attorney, there is a good chance the Will could be fake. In fact, if the Will was not signed in the presence of the deceased person’s estate planning or family attorney but was signed in front of a different attorney with little or no relationship to the deceased, there could be foul play involved. Estate planning is often an intimate, complicated process. It is important for individuals to be comfortable with their estate planning attorney, and utilizing outside legal services – especially legal services that have a relationship with potential beneficiaries – could mean a Will is not proper.