estate planning newsletter
Our 2012 newsletter focuses on practical issues you or loved ones may face and (for once) includes no long article about taxes. Your preferences concerning end of life care are the most personal part of your planning, so we’ve included an article about some planning tools you may consider. Individuals considering serving as trustees or wrestling with choosing trustees should enjoy the article written from the first person perspective of a novice trustee. Our work with our firm’s robust family law practice led to a useful article on estate planning and divorce.
Our discussion of taxes is brief, but important: 2012 is the final year for the high $5M lifetime estate, gift and generation-skipping tax exclusions. This is a “one-time offer” from Uncle Sam: the tax exemptions drop to $1M in 2013 under the current law, unless Congress changes the law again. The high exemptions and the expectation that asset values will increase present a unique opportunity for clients to make large wealth transfers to their families and reduce their future taxable estates. If you are considering significant wealth transfers, please talk to us soon. We expect the end of 2013 will be very busy for our team.
AHCDs, DNR Orders, Living Wills, POLSTs, ……
What does it all mean?
We routinely recommend that each estate planning client complete an Advance Health Care Directive (AHCD), appointing an agent to make health care decisions for the client if he is unable to make those decisions himself. Beyond providing the form and having a brief discussion with the client about the choice of agent, the key decisions to be made on the form, and who should receive copies of the AHCD, we do not spend much time discussing that aspect of the estate plan. In light of increasing public attention to health care matters, especially issues relating to end-of-life care, we want to expand on that discussion by providing an update about AHCDs and telling you more about ways to ensure that your wishes about your care are implemented.
Read the article . . .
Responsibilities of a Trustee.
We represent trustees who are administering a trust after the death of the person who established the trust or administering irrevocable trusts such as a life insurance trusts or an education trusts.
Read the article . . .
Divorce? Don’t forget about your estate plan.
The plans you and your spouse made for distribution of your assets at death may change when you become single, and your estate plan must change with them. Revoking a trust created during marriage and creating a new estate plan, remembering to change the beneficiaries of your life and disability insurance plans after your divorce is finalized, and revoking your Advance Health Care Directive and Durable Power of Attorney and executing new ones are essential estate planning actions you should consider when preparing for a divorce or during the divorce proceedings.
Read the article . . .