Creating an End-of-Life Checklist – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Spend the energy, effort, and time now to consider your wishes, collect information and, most importantly, get everything down on paper, says In Maricopa’s recent article entitled “Make an end-of-life checklist.”

The article says that a list of all your assets and critical personal information is a guarantee that nothing is forgotten, missed, or lost. Estate planning attorneys can assist you and guide you through the process.

Admittedly, it is an unpleasant subject and a topic that you do not want to discuss, and it can be a final gift to your family and loved ones.

When you work with an experienced estate planning attorney, you can add any specific instructions you want to make that are not already a part of your will or other estate planning documentation. Make certain that you appoint an executor, one you trust, who will carry out your wishes.

Have ready for your attorney all of your vital, personal information. This should include your name, birthday, and Social Security number, as well as the location of key documents and items, birth certificate, marriage license, military discharge paperwork (if applicable), and your will, powers of attorney, medical directives, ID cards, medical insurance cards, house and car keys and details about your burial plot.

In addition, you need to let your family now about the sources of your income. This type of information should include specifics about pensions, retirement accounts, 401(k), or you 403(b) plan.

Be sure to include company and contact, as well as the account number, date of payment, document location, and when/how received.

You also need to include all medicine and medical equipment used and the location of these items.

And then double check the locations of the following items: bank documents, titles and deeds, credit cards, tax returns, trust and power of attorney, mortgage and loan, personal documents, types of insurance – life, health, auto, home, etc. It is wise to add account numbers and contact information.

Another area you may want to consider is creating a list of online passwords, in printed form, in a secure place for your family or loved ones to use to access and monitor accounts.

Be sure to keep your End-of-Life Checklist in a secure place, such as a safe or safety deposit box because it has sensitive and private information. Tell your executor where it is located.

Reference: In Maricopa (Feb. 14, 2020) “Make an end-of-life checklist”

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How Long Do You Have to Settle an Estate? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

The beneficiaries of an estate are recently eager to receive their inheritance. In a common scenario, a trust was left instead of an actual will. All the parties received their respective shares, except for the two brothers and a sister who is the executor. The trust instructed the brothers to divide the estate property in half for each of them. The sister was to get $15,000.

However, one of the brothers lives in the home.

As you may know, the administrator or executor of an estate has the job of collecting the decedent’s assets, paying debts, making distributions to the beneficiaries and finally closing the estate in an expeditious manner.

nj.com’s recent article entitled “How long does it take to pay out a family trust?” tries to sort out what the siblings need to do to settle the estate. The key factor in this scenario is the wording of the trust.

There are situations in which a trust is used as a substitute for a will. In that case, a person’s assets are placed in trust. The trustee pays all the liabilities and administers the assets in the trust in accordance with the instructions of the trust during the individual’s life and after her death.

Even when trusts are used as will substitutes, they are not always designed to be closed with distribution to happen immediately after the debts are paid, as in the case of the estate. The terms of the trust dictate the trustee’s duties as to the distribution of trust assets.

If you are a beneficiary of a trust and think that the trustee is breaching his fiduciary duties, you should inform the trustee of the nature of the suspected breach. If nothing is done to remedy this, you may ask the court for help.

One option is that you can request the court to order the trustee to take actions, which you state in your complaint filed with the probate court. Another option is to request that the court direct the trustee to stop taking specific actions that you detail in your complaint.

A third choice is to ask the court to remove the trustee due to breach of fiduciary duties that you set forth in your complaint filed with the court.

However, such court intervention can be expensive. Another thing to consider is that the trustee may petition the court to have his legal fees paid from the trust funds—which will deplete the money in the trust. Because of this, it is usually best to attempt and resolve these issues before getting the court involved.

Reference: nj.com (Feb. 12, 2020) “How long does it take to pay out a family trust?”

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Grants and Financial Resources for Single Moms – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Melissa Horton, the author of the article, “Help for Single Moms: Find Grants and Financial Resources Today” offers financial aid or assistance to single mothers. The information offered in this brief article represents more than just a guide; it shows the progress made collectively as a society to offer aid to a disproportionately underserved part of our population. Ms. Horton reports that 22million of our youth population is reliant solely on 15million single mothers to provide.

The article helps children and their mothers seek relief from financial burdens, and assistance educational costs for both parent and child. These programs will lift those affected negatively through circumstance to a higher quality of life and hope for opportunity.

Reference: LendEDU (Jan. 28, 2020) “Help for Single Moms: Find Grants and Financial Resources Today”

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Planning for Long-Term Care Before It’s Too Late – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Starting to plan for elder care should happen when you are in your 50s or 60s. By the time you are 70, it may be too late. With the national median annual cost of a private room in a nursing facility coming in at more than $100,000, not having a plan can become one of the most expensive mistakes of your financial life. The article “Four steps you can take to safeguard your retirement savings from this risk” from CNBC says that even if care is provided in your own home, the annual median national cost of in-home skilled nursing is $87.50 per visit.

There are fewer and fewer insurance companies that offer long-term care insurance policies, and even with a policy, there are many out-of-pocket costs that also have to be paid. People often fail to prepare for the indirect cost of caregiving, which primarily impacts women who are taking care of older, infirm male spouses and aging parents.

More than 34 million Americans provided unpaid care to older adults in 2015, with an economic value of $522 billion per year.

That is not including the stress of caring for loved ones, watching them decline and needing increasingly more help from other sources.

The best time to start planning for the later years is around age 60. That is when most people have experienced their parent’s aging and understand that planning and conversations with loved ones need to take place.

Living Transitions. Do you want to remain at home as long as is practicable, or would you rather move to a continuing care retirement community? If you are planning on aging in place in your home, what changes will need to be made to your home to ensure that you can live there safely? How will you protect yourself from loneliness, if you plan on staying at home?

Driving Transitions. Knowing when to turn in your car keys is a big issue for seniors. How will you get around, if and when you are no longer able to drive safely? What transportation alternatives are there in your community?

Financial Caretaking. Cognitive decline can start as early as age 53, leading people to make mistakes that cost them dearly. Forgetting to pay bills, paying some bills twice, or forgetting accounts, are signs that you may need some help with your financial affairs. Simplify things by having one checking, one savings account and three credit cards: one for public use, one for automatic bill-paying and a third for online purchases.

Healthcare Transitions. If you do not already have an advance directive, you need to have one created, as part of your overall estate plan. This provides an opportunity for you to state how you want to receive care, if you are not able to communicate your wishes. Not having this document may mean that you are kept alive on a respirator, when your preference is to be allowed to die naturally. You will also need a Health Care Power of Attorney, a person you name to make medical decisions on your behalf when you cannot do so. This person does not have to be a spouse or an adult child—sometimes it is best to have a trusted friend who you will be sure will follow your directions. Make sure this person is willing to serve, even when your documented wishes may be challenged.

Reference: CNBC (Jan. 31, 2020) “Four steps you can take to safeguard your retirement savings from this risk”

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What Should I Know about the Secure Act of 2019 and IRAs? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

New federal rules for IRAs will significantly add to the tax burden for some heirs by telescoping the permitted period for withdrawals. But this pain can be greatly reduced by converting regular IRAs to Roth IRAs before bequeathing them, explains CNBC’s recent article entitled “Here is a way to beat the tax burden for IRA heirs.”

Before the new legislation, all heirs could enjoy their entire life expectancy to take withdrawals from inherited IRAs. As a result, they were able to stretch out these accounts, and the tax on withdrawals, over decades. That is why they were given the nickname “stretch IRAs.”

But this changed in December of 2019 when Congress passed the Secure Act of 2019. The bill preserves the lifelong stretch period for surviving spouses, minor children, the chronically ill, and other individuals who are not more than 10 years younger than their benefactors (this group would include most siblings). However, for other heirs—including adult children—the new rules restrict the stretch period to a single decade. Beginning with the IRA bequests from benefactors who die in 2020, heirs must now take out all of the funds from these accounts within 10 years and pay ordinary income tax on each withdrawal.

With this accumulated wealth to heirs, adult children will also be saddled with a huge tax burden. This means more of a need for estate planning to address this. Without estate-planning expertise, these beneficiaries will likely withdraw 10% of the IRA’s assets every year for 10 years to lessen the tax impact.

A wise solution for some is to convert their regular IRA into a Roth IRA. Unlike regular IRAs, contributions to Roth IRAs are made solely with post-tax money. Though unlike regular IRAs, Roth IRAs carry no income tax on withdrawals, the Secure Act means they will now be required to drain the account within 10 years of inheritance.

Note that as you get near retirement, converting to a Roth has a few other advantages. Holders of regular IRAs must begin taking annual required minimum distributions (RMDS) at age 72 (before the new legislation in December, this age was 70½).

However, if you plan to keep working or are retiring with sufficient income from other resources, you may not decide to take withdrawals. Rather, you may want to allow these assets in your account grow intact rather than gradually weaning them for withdrawal. Converting to a Roth allows you to do this.

Depending on your situation, a Roth conversion might be a wise option if—not only to lessen your heirs’ tax burden but also to sustain the growth of your retirement nest egg.

Ask your estate planning attorney about a Roth IRA conversion and how it fits into your estate plan.

Reference: CNBC (Feb. 12, 2020) “Here’s a way to beat the tax burden for IRA heirs”

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A Millennial’s Guide for Investing – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Bankrate recently created a guide to investing for Millennials. The Millennial Generation is not only concerned about the ability to retire when they choose, but also outliving their retirement savings.

Many millennials carry a great weight of debt, most of which tends to be student loan debt. The large debt ratio of this generation plays a major role in why they are unable or afraid to invest. It is important to keep in mind that avoiding riskier investments will not help build your retirement faster.

Bankrate reports in their recent article  “Time on your side: A guide to millennial investing” why it is so beneficial for millennials to invest early on. The article also provides a guide on how to go about investing, even if you think this is not in your current budget.

According to Bankrate, before making your investment you should evaluate how much you are able to invest. Here are a few steps to follow:

Calculate your total debt: First, figure out how much income you have coming in monthly and how much money is coming out. Some things to consider are rent or a house payment, monthly loan payments, monthly credit card payments, and factor in other debts or payments that must be made monthly. Paying off even a small credit card can help alleviate some debt and provide you with money to put towards your investment.

Determine your financial risk level: Keep in mind that there will always be ups and downs in the stock market. With this being said, if you have a short-term goal that you have been saving for, you may want to start by investing conservatively.

Educate yourself on stark market basics: Bonds, brokerage account, ETFs or exchange-traded funds, mutual funds, and stocks are all terms that you should educate yourself on. The article published by Bankrate is a good starting point for these investing terms.

One thing to keep in mind is the importance of staying up to date on financial news. General stock market news can be found on any major news source. Before you get started with your investing, determine your short-term and long-term goals.

Reference: Bankrate (February 20, 2020) “Time on your side: A guide to millennial investing”

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What Happens If I Don’t Have an Estate Plan? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

It is so much better to have a will than not to. With a will, you can direct your assets to those whom you wish to receive a legacy, rather than the default rules of the State. This is according to a recent article in the Houston Chronicle’s entitled “Elder Law: Will you plan now or pay later?”

You should also designate an independent executor. You may want to have an estate planning attorney create a special trust to provide for family members who are disabled, along with trusts for minors and even adult children.

Here are three major items about which you may not have considered that may require changes to your estate plan or motivate you to get one. Years ago, the amount a person could leave to beneficiaries (the tax-free exemption equivalent) was much lower. You were also required to either use it or lose it.

For example, back in 1987 when the exemption equivalent was $600,000 per taxpayer, a couple had to create a by-pass trust to protect the first $600,000 upon the first to die to take advantage of the exemption. The exemption is $11.58 million in 2020, and the “portability” law has changed the “use it or lose it” requirement. There may still be good reasons to use a forced by-pass trust in your will, but in some cases, it may be time to get rid of it.

Next, think about implementing planning to have some control over your assets after you die.

You could have a heart attack, a stroke, or an unfortunate accident. These types of events can happen quickly with no warning. You were healthy and then suddenly a sickness or injury leaves you severely disabled. You should plan in the event this happen to you.

Why would a person not take the opportunity to prepare documents such as powers of attorney for property, powers of attorney for health care, living wills and medical privacy documents?

It is good to know that becoming the subject of a court supervised guardianship proceeding is a matter of public record for everyone to see. There is also the unnecessary expense and frustration of a guardianship that could have been avoided, if you would have taken the time to prepare the appropriate documents with an estate planning or elder law attorney.

Why would you want to procrastinate making a will and then die suddenly without ever taking the time to make your will? Without a valid will, your family will have to pay more for a costly probate proceeding.

Reference: Houston Chronicle (Jan. 16, 2020) “Elder Law: Will you plan now or pay later?”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

What Exactly Is the Estate Tax? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

In the U.S., we treat the estate tax and gift tax as a single tax system with unified limits and tax rates—but it is not very well understood by many people. The Motley Fool’s recent article entitled “What Is the Estate Tax in the United States?” gives us an overview of the U.S. estate and gift tax, including what assets are included, tax rates and exemptions in 2020.

The U.S. estate tax only impacts the wealthiest households. Let us look at why that is the case. Americans can exempt a certain amount of assets from their taxable estate—the lifetime exemption. This amount is modified every year to keep pace with inflation and according to policy modifications. This year, the lifetime exemption is $11.58 million per person. Therefore, if you are married, you and your spouse can collectively exclude twice this amount from taxation ($23.16 million). To say it another way, if you are single and die in 2020 with assets worth a total of $13 million, just $1.42 million of your estate would be taxable.

However, most Americans don’t have more than $11.58 million worth of assets when they pass away. This is why the estate tax only impacts the wealthiest households in the country. It is estimated that less than 0.1% of all estates are taxable. Therefore, 99.9% of us do not owe any federal estate taxes whatsoever at death. You should also be aware that the lifetime exemption includes taxable gifts as well. If you give $1 million to your children, for example, that counts toward your lifetime exemption. As a result, the amount of assets that could be excluded from estate taxes would be then decreased by this amount at your death.

You do not have to pay any estate or gift tax until after your death, or until you have used up your entire lifetime exemption. However, if you give any major gifts throughout the year, you might have to file a gift tax return with the IRS to monitor your giving. There is also an annual gift exclusion that lets you give up to $15,000 in gifts each year without touching your lifetime exemption. There are two key points to remember:

  • The exclusion amount is per recipient. Therefore, you can give $15,000 to as many people as you want every year, and they do not even need to be a relative; and
  • The exclusion is per donor. This means that you and your spouse (if applicable) can give $15,000 apiece to as many people as you want. If you give $30,000 to your child to help her buy their first home and you’re married, you can consider half of the gift from each spouse.

The annual gift exclusion is an effective way for you to reduce or even eliminate estate tax liability. The estate tax rate is effectively 40% on all taxable estate assets.

Finally, the following kinds of assets aren’t considered part of your taxable estate:

  • Anything left to a surviving spouse, called “the unlimited marital deduction”;
  • Any amount of money or property you leave to a charity;
  • Gifts you have given that are less than the annual exclusion for the year in which they were given; and
  • Some types of trust assets.

Reference: The Motley Fool (Jan. 25, 2020) “What Is the Estate Tax in the United States?”

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Estate Planning Checklist, Especially for Procrastinators – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Many people do not think of themselves as having an “estate.” However, a house, car, savings account, life insurance, and all the possessions you own are an estate. If, after years of procrastinating, you finally did the right thing and had an estate plan created with an experienced estate planning attorney, is there anything else you need to do? Yes, says Federal News Network in the article “Good at putting things off? Here’s the last checklist you’ll ever need!”

Where should you keep your estate planning documents? These documents need to be kept in a secure location that is known to the people who will need access to them. A will might be kept at home in a fire and waterproof safe, or at your attorney’s office. Each estate planning attorney has his or her own process and can make recommendations. A will placed in a safe deposit box may create huge headaches, if the box is sealed upon death. Remember that people will need easy access to some documents, like a Do Not Resuscitate, or Medical Health Care Proxy, so they could be stored somewhere in the home where they can be grabbed in an emergency.

Who should have a copy of my estate plan? This is a personal preference. Some people give a copy to all heirs and their executor. Others prefer to keep it private. It is essential that the person who will be your executor knows where your will is and can get access to it quickly.

Update beneficiary designations. Many assets are governed not by the will, but by the beneficiary designations on the accounts. That may include retirement accounts, annuities, IRAs, life insurance, and possibly bank accounts and investment accounts. Check them every few years, especially if there have been divorces, marriages and new members added to the family.

Review how your assets are titled. If there are assets owned as “joint with right of survivorship,” they will not pass through probate and will become owned by the joint owner upon death. Sometimes this works well for large accounts, but sometimes it backfires. Talk with your estate planning lawyer.

How long does my estate plan last? An estate plan does not have an expiration date.

When should I amend my estate plan? Anytime there is a large change in the law, as has recently occurred with the passage of the SECURE Act, the estate plan should be reviewed. The SECURE Act has changed the rules about IRA distributions for heirs. Anyone with a sizable IRA should review their plan.

Any time there is a large event in your life, is another time when your estate plan should be reviewed. Those events include a death, birth, marriage, or divorce. If the person you had named as your executor or who had been given Power of Attorney or Health Care Proxy is no longer in your life or is no longer trusted, you also want to review and change these documents.

Reference: Federal News Network (Feb. 5, 2020) “Good at putting things off? Here’s the last checklist you’ll ever need!”

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Am I Better Off Investing Earlier in My IRA? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Remember that you are able to make an IRA contribution for a given year anytime between January 1 and the tax-filing deadline of the following year (usually April 15). That means that you can make a 2020 IRA contribution between Jan’ 1, 2020, and April 15, 2021. However, do not wait. Why not?

Vanguard’s recent article entitled “IRA contributions: The earlier, the better” notes that you invest to earn money, and the amount of money you earn depends primarily on three factors—two you can control.

  1. Investment performance. There is no way to control investment performance and all investing involves risk. The main cause of risk is market movement, which impacts your investment earnings.
  2. The amount you invest. You earn your money with compounding, when your investment earnings make their own earnings. If you contribute more, you have more money to generate earnings. That means you have more earnings to generate additional earnings. You can control the amount you invest, provided you keep within the annual IRA contribution limit.
  3. Your investment timing. If you wait until April to make an IRA contribution, you have missed 15 months of compounding, so if you have the financial flexibility to decide when you contribute to your IRA, do it ASAP.

As an illustration, let us imagine that you invest $5,500 in your IRA each year for 30 years, and your average annual return is 4%. In Situation A, you make a lump-sum investment every January, and your end balance is $323,967. That includes $158,967 in earnings. In Situation B, you make a lump-sum investment every April and your end balance is $308,467. That includes $143,467 in earnings, which is $15,500 less than you would earn in the first scenario. In each situation, you are contributing a total of $165,000 to your IRA over the span of 30 years.

This illustration shows some what-if scenarios that are not always possible to do in real life. For instance, you may not be able to invest the same amount each year or have to skip a few years. However, you should make small steps toward saving 12%–15% of your gross income (including employer contributions) every year. If you do not have the financial flexibility to make a lump-sum investment in your IRA—in January or April (or in any other month as a matter of fact), try to set up recurring automatic bank transfers. If you make bi-weekly contributions over the course of 30 years (for a total contribution of $165,000) and earn a 4% average annual return, the end balance is smaller than Situation A but larger than Situation B.

However, remember that you can’t contribute more than you’ve earned for the year.

Reference: Vanguard (Jan. 21, 2020) “IRA contributions: The earlier, the better”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys