Divorce’s Impact on Your Estate Plan

Posted by on Jan 29, 2018 in estate planning, Family Law, Trusts, Wills |

Divorce is a bummer (or maybe not, depending on your situation). It impacts almost every area of your life, and your estate plan is no different. While estate planning might not be high on your to-do list during the divorce process, you should still take some time to consider which documents need to be updated.

Divorce laws vary based on your state, but, overall, the legal principle is the same: it is the termination of the marital bond and restructuring or canceling of martial obligations. Both the pre- and post-divorce phases require action on your part when it comes to your estate plan.

Before the Divorce is Final

There are several documents you need to

update before the divorce is final. These include your living trust, living will, Power of Attorney, and will. You cannot assume that the completion of the divorce will immediately terminate your ex-spouse’s involvement in your estate plan. While that may be the case for the will, it’s not always so for the others.

  • Living trust. Your trust will be interpreted based on whether it is revocable or not. A trust that is revocable at the time of your death, provisions in the trust regarding your ex-spouse will be invalid. But, if your trust is irrevocable and you die with the trust still naming your ex-spouse as beneficiary, he or she is going to get all your things. The law cannot help you in this situation.
  • Living will. Your living will concerns healthcare directives and other related issues. If you fall ill and are incapacitated, who is your agent? If it is your ex-spouse, you may want to change that. If you feel comfortable with the person you’ve just divorced making critical life-or-death decisions about your medical care, then you should keep them as your agent. If not, make the change. It is not always clear whether a state’s laws will automatically excuse your ex-spouse from his or her duties in your living will.

 

  • Power of Attorney. Generally, depending on the state in which you live, if your spouse is your power of attorney and you divorce him or her, this grant of power will be revoked once the action for divorce is filed. However, the whole power of attorney is not revoked in its entirety. Your spouse may still be named as guardian, and that will not be revoked until the final decree.

 

  • Will. Depending on when you made your will, the final decree of divorce will generally revoke any provisions in the will concerning your ex-spouse. This only applies to your ex-spouse. Your ex-spouse’s kids are not kicked off the will, so if that’s something you want to do, you cannot count on the rule of law doing it for you.

Post-Divorce: What You Need to Do

So, you’ve made it, and the final decree has happened. Now what?

Well, in your estate plan, you will likely have some gaps to fill, including power of attorney, agent, beneficiaries, and other roles from which you have removed your ex-spouse. You will need to restructure and re-do your estate plan to make sure those critical positions are covered. Schedule an estate planning consultation today, regardless of whether you are pre- or post-divorce.

 

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Restructuring a Business for Asset Protection

Posted by on Jan 21, 2018 in asset protection, Business Plan |

Restructuring a Business for Asset Protection

          If you have a business, you know how hard you’ve worked to maintain it: all the late hours, countless phone calls, endless paperwork, and more. When you pass on, you’ll want to make sure that these assets you’ve worked so hard for are protected. Estate planning can help you do that.

Not only are regular assets (money, property, etc.) eligible for protection through estate planning, less conventional ones are as well. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can be protected via a trust, ensuring that everything you want protected—even something outside the traditional asset realm—is kept safe and secure.

What is a Trust?

A trust is pretty simple to understand. It’s essentially a three-party fiduciary relationship. You have your trustor (you, in this case), who transfers assets to a trustee for the benefit of the third party, known as a beneficiary. This transfer grants the trustee nominal ownership over assets. These same principles of a three-party relationship apply to your business assets. The trust is treated, by the IRS, as an entity.

When you pass on, your trustee will confer your assets to the beneficiary. You may be thinking, “How is this better than a will?” Many people, when they think of estate planning, automatically jump to the last living will and testament as the golden document to have. But actually, a living trust is more advantageous.

Trust vs. Will

A trust goes into effect the moment you create it, whereas a will only becomes effective after you die. You can use a trust to start transferring your property prior to death; you cannot do that with a will, so you have a little less control. Also, a trust will get you out of probate court. If you die with just a will, you have to go through probate, which is a long, tiring process where a court distributes your assets for you. This can tie up your family for years while a court ensures the validity of the will.

Lastly, a trust can be kept private, whereas a will is on the public record. While a trust doesn’t include the ability to make funeral arrangements and name your children’s guardian if they’re minors, it does let you save on taxes and make disability arrangements.

Crypto: The New Wave

Everyone’s talking about Bitcoin these days, and everyone seems to have an opinion about it. If you’re a Bitcoin investor, or an investor in other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash, and more, you’ve heard all the opinions, made up your mind, and, now, most likely just want to know how you can protect your coins via an estate plan.

As cryptocurrency jumps in popularity, more and more estate planners are encouraging clients to work their crypto into an estate plan. Cryptocurrency is, like your other assets, subject to distribution. Your crypto cannot be inherited, however, and, if you don’t include it in your estate plan, it will be as though it never existed. A trust is, as with your other assets, the best way to manage this property.

When deciding how to manage your cryptocurrency, make sure that your intended beneficiary is able to manage an entity like crypto, which is very volatile. You’ll also want to ensure that your directions are clear, including how to access your account to get the coins. This complicated, especially as cryptocurrency is relatively new, hence why an estate plan is best carried out under the guidance of a professional estate planner.

If you want to make sure that your business is protected after you pass on, a trust is the way to do it. Your assets will be protected, and you’ll be able to start the process before death, allowing you a measure of control and the ability to avoid probate.

 

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Start Anew, Update Your Estate Plan

Posted by on Jan 9, 2018 in estate planning, Family Law |

Start Anew, Update Your Estate Plan

There’s one New Year’s resolution you should definitely make and keep: updating your estate plan. With each year comes new considerations, and your estate plan should reflect these. You might be tempted to put off your estate plan updates, but you never know what will happen. It’s better to be safe than sorry, as the old saying goes.

Here are some examples of life changes and how you may want to update your estate plan to reflect them.

New Year, New Beneficiaries

Has there been a new baby in the family? Have you recently stumbled upon a new charity to which you want to donate? In order to do so, you will need to update your estate plan. This way, after you pass on, your assets will be transferred where you want them, including to the new beneficiary.

It’s important to get started on this now and updating your estate plan to reflect the new individual. People come and go in our lives, and you don’t want to miss your opportunity to include who you want in your postmortem plans.

Rethinking Guardianship

If you have minor children, you’ve likely included a guardianship instrument in your estate plan that designates who will be the legal guardian of your kids in the event of something happening to you. If you’re still happy with the legal guardian you’ve chosen, that’s great. However, if you are not, you don’t want to wait to have that switched.

Things happen, and if you have reason to doubt the competency of the guardian you’ve chosen for your kids, you do not want to take a chance and put off updating it. Worst case scenario, something happens and your kids are left with someone who cannot take care of them. If you have doubts about your chosen guardian, make sure to update your estate plan.

Family Feuding

Similarly, there may have been other developments in your family that warrant you rethinking your estate plan. Divorce is an example. You will want to make sure that the estate plan does not include your ex-spouse (or the ex-spouse of another family member), if you do not want it to. Also, if you feel like you want to disinherit someone, that is another reason to update your estate plan.

It is best to think of the estate plan as a living document. It reflects changes in your family; it is not stagnant, nor should it be treated as such. Families have their own feuds and fighting. An estate plan needs to keep up with the dynamics, if need be.

The Imminent Arrival of the 2018 Tax Code

The 2018 tax code is bringing some new changes with it. And by “some,” we mean a lot. Two of these changes have to do with the estate and gift taxes. By 2024, there will be no estate tax. But, for now, if your estate is under $22.4 million as a married couple, you get an exemption. And, since the estate tax is often unified with the gift tax, that further extends the exemption on money you can give away. This new update is another reason you will likely want to look at your estate plan.

New year, new updates! Consult your estate planner to make sure that your plans reflect any changes in your life during the past year.

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New Year, New Tax Bill

Posted by on Jan 9, 2018 in estate planning, Legal News, tax |

New Year, New Tax Bill

Unless you’ve been living somewhere with no internet and no cable for the past few months, you’ve probably heard about the new tax bill, which was recently passed by the Senate. It seems like everyone is debating it; and, from pundits to politicians, everyone has something to say, us included. In this article, however, we will be cutting through the vast melting pot of opinions to give you the information you need about how the tax code will affect important areas of your personal and business life.

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

The 2018 Tax Code: What’s Going On?

What is going on? That is the question on almost everyone’s mind. Well, when it comes to the estate and gift tax, the answer is: a lot.

In 2018, the estate tax is more of a concern than ever before. This tax hasn’t been talked about much until just recently, but its changes will affect many people. Here’s a rundown of how the 2018 tax code will affect your estate tax.

The Estate Tax

If you own an estate, you are probably familiar with the estate tax. The estate tax and income tax are not to be confused, as the former is paid on the transfer of assets from the decedent to heirs and beneficiaries, whereas the latter is the tax on the income that the decedent’s estate generates. Essentially, the estate tax is a tax on your right to transfer your property post-mortem.

In order to calculate this tax, the IRS takes an accounting of everything you own or have an interest in at the date you die. The tax has a high exemption amount, which means that really only the wealthiest top less-than-one-percent of Americans pay it. However, this tax is going to undergo some changes, thanks to the new bill.

First, you should know that in 2024, there will not even be an estate tax. In 2018, however, the estate tax is still live. There is an $11 million estate tax exemption per person ($22.4 million for a married couple). You may be thinking that you’re in the clear for the estate tax in 2018 if you have under that magic $22.4 million number. However, this depends on what year you die. In addition to this info, you should also know what a gift tax is, as that can further decrease the amount of taxes you pay.

The Gift Tax

The gift tax is pretty simple to understand. This tax is executed when there is a transfer of property after someone dies. This differs from the estate tax in that the transfer of property is not paid for, meaning that there is no consideration (money or something equivalent) received in exchange. It is, simply, a gift.

The gift tax exemption is often unified with the estate tax exemption. This means that you can give away up to $22.4 million in 2018 without being hit with any gift or estate tax. If the exemption grows to a larger amount, you can give more away. A piece of good news is that even if the exemption amount shrinks, you won’t lose the amount you’ve given because there is no penalty. So, the question becomes: are you taking advantage of all you can give away in 2018?

In your estate plan, you decide what to do with your assets. Consult an estate planner to make sure that you’re using these estate and gift exemptions to their full potential. There is a lot of opportunity to decrease the amount of taxes you pay, and with the upcoming tax bill, some big changes are on their way.

 

 

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