Category Archives: Estate Planning

Estate Planning Facts. Last Will and Testaments versus Living Trusts. Estate Taxes. Gift Taxes. Inherited IRAs. Guardians for minor children. Pet Trusts. Funeral Agents. Avoiding Probate. Get Your Affairs In Order.

When is online estate planning a good idea?

First of all, what is estate planning? It’s the process people follow to protect their estate and their family in case of their incapacitation or death. It includes such things as writing a will, naming a guardian for an surviving minors in the family, creating trust accounts, naming an executor for the estate and setting up a durable power of attorney.

Traditional estate planning can be quite expensive and many people can’t afford it so they are turning to an online option – the virtual legal service. For example, a traditionally written will can cost between $500 and $1,000 to prepare. An online version can be done for an average of $60, a much more affordable choice.

Here are three questions to ask yourself before you decide whether the online option is a good choice for you.

Do I have a simple situation?
If you don’t have any minor children and your estate is relatively small, you probably could use an online service such as Rocket Lawyer.
How big is my estate?
If you have assets and insurance in excess of the current estate tax exemption ($5.45 million per individual in 2016) the online option probably is not for you. You would do better to work with an estate planning professional who will help you evaluate the ways you can leave money to your beneficiaries while minimizing estate taxes. This could include setting up a trust that would minimize taxes and avoid probate.
Do I need expert legal advice?
Even with a small estate, you may have special circumstances that require expert legal advice. For example, if you are part of a blended family, own property outside of your state or have a disabled family member, online planning may not be for you. You may need to speak with an attorney to discuss your specific needs and to work with that expert to create a plan that meets your needs.Although online estate planning is a good choice for many, make sure you consider your current situation, the size of your estate and your other circumstances. Then decide whether hiring an estate planning attorney is the best option for you or whether you can comfortably go the online route.

For more information about estate planning, check out our website www.diesmart.com.

Facebook declared people prematurely dead. Were you one of them?

On Thursday, 11/11, Facebook had a bug. It was one that managed to modify user profiles and declare those users dead. Even Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, appeared dead on the site.

Despite being very much alive, users found their accounts switched to a “memorialized account,” reserved for the deceased, with the word “remembering” posted beside their name.

A statement reading: “We hope people who love Mark will find comfort in the things others share to remember and celebrate his life,” appeared on Mark Zuckerberg’s profile before being corrected.

Facebook provides a form to request the memorialization of accounts of the deceased. It requires documentation of a death, presumably to prevent people from triggering errant notices. If this option is selected, their profile will continue to exist, but only as a memorial. A logon is no longer available but people can post memorial messages to the deceased.

Many people woke up Thursday to find that their accounts had been memorialized and Facebook thought they were dead. I imagine that could be very scary for someone who’s still alive. The bug has now been fixed

To learn more about memorialization and what to do about other online accounts when someone dies, go to www.diesmart.com.

Do I Really Need a Will?

Yes, you do. A will is a legal document which ensures that your property is transferred according to your wishes after your death.

If you don’t have a will, here are five things that can happen. We found this list at nerdwallet.com.

Spendthrift heirs – If you have heirs who aren’t equipped to handle a large sum of money, receiving it may cause damage. Perhaps these heirs are bad at handling money or, maybe, they’re drug or alcohol addicts.
Unexpected or contested heirs – There may be confusion about who the beneficiaries really are. Sonny Bono, musician and politician, died without a will. His ex-wife, Cher, and a man who said he was Bono’s son tried to claim part of his estate, which his wife, Mary, contested in court. Prince’s estate is another classic example. Many people came out of the woodwork claiming to be relatives, entitled to a piece of his assets.
Property (and probate) in multiple states – If you own property in more than one state, your estate will have to go thru the probate process more than one. Probate is a costly and timely process, even if you just go through it once. Image if you own property in four states and your heirs have to hire four attorneys and go through the whole process four times.
Fabricated wills – If you don’t have a real will in place, it’s possible for someone to create a fake one – especially if your estate is large. A famous case involved the estate of tycoon Howard Hughes. When he died, several supposed wills surfaced, and his estate spent millions of dollars defending against the false documents.
Beneficiaries don’t like the court appointed executor – If there’s no will, the probate court will appoint one. It may likely be an experienced attorney but not necessarily one the family knows. It may take a great deal of time for this person to take inventory, appraise assets and distribute the estate. If you have a will and name a family member as executor, that person will usually do a much faster job, possibly because that person is also a beneficiary.

If you don’t have a will, you should prepare one now. Otherwise, your assets may not be distributed the way you want them to and a lot of extra money will go to attorneys and the probate court and not to your heirs.

For more information about wills, trusts and other estate planning documents, go to www.diesmart.com.

Do celebrities make money after they die?

In one word “yes”. Following is the article recently released by Forbes that lists the highest paid celebrities who died this year.

While the Pearly Gates seemed to welcome an unusual amount of celebrities in the past year (David Bowie, Prince and Arnold Palmer, to name just three), the long-departed King of Pop had the time of his afterlife.

The March sale of Michael Jackson’s half of the Sony/ATV music publishing catalog, famous for its library of Beatles tunes, for $750 million puts him at the top of our annual ranking of the top-earning dead celebrities, an ironic finish given that many critics and even advisors once derided the catalog as a badly overpriced investment. Jackson’s total pretax payday of $825 million ranks as the biggest annual haul by any celeb dead or alive.

“He was always doing stuff that was the best, the greatest, the biggest,” says Jeff Jampol, who manages the estates of Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and others. “That was a big fight when he wanted to buy that catalog … it turned out to be one of the greatest investments ever.”

In 1985, Jackson paid $47.5 million ($140 million in 2016 dollars) to buy the Beatles-packed ATV publishing catalog. Ten years later, Sony paid him $115 million to form a 50/50 joint venture, then purchased his remaining half in March. In all, the sales (and accompanying distributions) gave Jackson’s estate, which is overseen by lawyer John Branca and music exec John McClain, a 30% annualized return on investment.

Peanuts creator Charles Schulz claims the second spot with $48 million. The cartoonist died of colon cancer 16 years ago, but lives on through the franchise—and its licensing revenue, boosted by last year’s well-received 3-D Peanuts movie. Golf legend Arnold Palmer rounds out the top three with earnings of $40 million, most of which was accumulated in the mortal realm, as he passed away just days before our cutoff.

Our set of 13 Halloween-spooky estimates are for pretax income from October 1, 2015, through October 1, 2016, before deducting expenses for agents, managers and lawyers. Sources include Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen BookScan, PollstarPro, IMDB and interviews with estate experts.

Michael Jackson: The King Of Pop–and celeb earnings–dead or alive (Photo: Mike Powell /Allsport).

Recently deceased superstars Prince and David Bowie also rank high on the list. The Purple One passed away while still at the top of his touring game (grossing nearly $2 million per show) and sold more than 2.5 million albums over the past year, more than any other dead musician. Bowie, meanwhile, released his final album, Blackstar, just two days before his death; the ensuing sales spike helped him outsell Jackson and Elvis Presley (No. 4, $27 million) in the last year.

Presley’s total represents a 50% drop from last year’s figure (a change in how we accounted for Graceland ticket sales, not plummeting demand, accounts for the change). The King of Rock n’ Roll still moved more than 1 million albums on the year—most of them physical, not digital—remarkable for someone who’s been gone for nearly 40 years.

As for Jackson, the Sony/ATV payday gives him the last laugh over doubters. But a decade ago, he already knew what a good deal he’d made, as detailed in my book Michael Jackson, Inc. On a 2007 conference call, the King of Pop reminded Sony/ATV chief Marty Bandier of the acumen that had earned him a nine-figure return on paper by that point.

“See,” he told Bandier. “I told you I knew the music publishing business.”

13. Elizabeth Taylor ($8 million)
12. Steve McQueen ($9 million)
11. David Bowie ($10.5 million)
10. Bettie Page ($11 million)
9. Albert Einstein ($11.5 million)
8. John Lennon ($12 million)
7. Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel ($20 million)
6. Bob Marley ($21 million)
5. Prince ($25 million)
4. Elvis Presley ($27 million)
3. Arnold Palmer ($40 million)
2. Charles Schulz ($48 million)
1. Michael Jackson ($825 million)

You may not be a celebrity and you may not have an estate worth millions of dollars but you still need to do some planning for what you want to have happen to the assets you do have. For more information about this topic, check our our website www.diesmart.com.

6 ways to foil hackers, phishers and pushy marketers

I’ve written a lot in the past about identity theft and the importance of protecting your online accounts. These six points were contained in an email from my mortgage broker and I think they definitely are worth repeating.

1. Update software. The latest computer, smartphone and apps software is the most secure. Update now and choose ‘Update Automatically’ in Settings. Update your WiFi router on its app or Web setup page.

2. Strengthen passwords. Make them long strings of random upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. Use a different one for every site. Turn on two-factor authentication for Apple ID, Google, Facebook (‘login approvals’), Microsoft, Twitter (‘login verification’) and banks. Use a password manager to sync devices.

3. Encrypt data. Makes it hard for someone to access information if they get your device. Encrypt with a password or fingerprint screen lock, or turn on ‘encryption’ in Settings. Use Disk Utility on external drives.

4. Privatize browsers. Select ‘clear browsing data.’ (This deletes passwords which shouldn’t be saved on sites anyway.) Activate ‘Do Not Track’ in Settings. Block trackers with an extension (Ghostery, Disconnect, EFF’s Privacy Badger). Opt out of ad tracking at http://www.aboutads.info/choices/

5. Check apps. Find out which ones access locations and data and turn off if not used. Check Settings for Privacy permissions. Check Google and Facebook security. Delete Facebook apps you don’t want.

6. Think! Don’t click on email links or attachments you don’t expect. Make online payments only on secure “https” sites. Double-check public hotspot names, or use a VPN—HotSpot Shield (Windows, Android), Cloak (iPhone, Mac). Use PayPal on unfamiliar sites. Don’t pay online with debit cards or put account info in emails.

For more information about protecting your digital assets, go to www.diesmart.com.