Tag Archives: trust

Probate – More public than ever!

Ancestry.com just announced that they’ve made a new addition to their site. When you search for someone, you will not only see facts about their life but may see a copy of their will and probate records. Ancestry claims that “probate records often document family relationships over multiple generations. Wills can also give insights into your ancestor’s lifestyle and personality: J.P. Morgan left large bequests to his librarians; Louisa May Alcott asked that her papers be burned.”

Do you want everyone to see the details of your estate? If not, you should think about meeting with an attorney and preparing a trust. That way, everything will be confidential.

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

Why you need a living will & healthcare power of attorney

Most people don’t like to think about what will happen if they’re in an accident or come down with a catastrophic illness. They don’t decide who they want to speak for them if they are unable to communicate their wishes themselves. They don’t tell anyone what kind of care they want….or don’t want. Once they are hurt or incapacitated, it may be too late.

These are three reasons why you need a living will and a healthcare power of attorney:

1) You name the person you want to speak for you when you can’t. It should be someone you trust to make decisions on your behalf and to carry out your wishes.

2) You decide whether you want heroic measures performed to prolong your life if there’s no chance of recovery.

3) You outline the type of treatment you want to receive.

If you don’t have these documents, a relative you don’t know very well and don’t trust or possibly the courts will speak for you and decide what will happen.

For example, they may decide to put you on life support and prolong your life even though there is no chance of recovery and you may not have wanted heroic measures. They may choose to perform a surgical procedure that you don’t want or they may decide to do something that is against your religious beliefs.

A living will enables you to describe the kind of care you want.

A healthcare power of attorney (It may be called something else in your state or it may be combined with a living will) allows you to name the person you want to be your healthcare agent who can speak for you when you can’t.

Unfortunately, a life threatening accident or a catastrophic illness can occur at any time. There’s no age that is exempt. Think of Terri Schiavo. She was a 26 year-old that had a tragic fall, went into a coma and remained alive, hooked up to a feeding tube, in a vegetative state for more than 15 years because her husband and her parents couldn’t agree on her treatment and she hadn’t legally stated her wishes.

Don’t let others decide for you. If you don’t have a living will and a healthcare power of attorney, get them drawn up right away so your wishes will be carried out and you will be able to speak for yourself….even when you really can’t.

For more information on this important subject, go to www.diesmart.com.

Three reasons a joint or POD account may not be a good idea!

You may have thought that setting up a joint or a pay on death (POD) account or property with one of your children would be a good idea. By titling the account or property in both of your names, your child would avoid probate and could easily gain access to the asset. However good it sounds, it may end up creating problems.

Here are three things that may happen.

1) If you have more than one child and only list one child’s name, when you die that child will inherit the entire asset. The other children will receive nothing. If the inheriting child decides to be nice and share with his or her siblings, those siblings will probably have to pay additional taxes on what they are given.

2) If you have a joint account with one of your children and that child gets divorced or a lien is placed on his property, the asset you own jointly may be seized in any settlement.

3) If you name a child on a POD account and that child is still a minor when you die, a court-supervised guardianship will need to be set up until his 18th birthday. At that time, the child will receive whatever is in the account.

Before you make decisions about whether to title any of your accounts jointly with one of your children, you might want to speak with an attorney.

For more information about this and other important topics, go to www.diesmart.com.

Bobbi Kristina had no will – what happens now?

Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina, died on Sunday, 7/26/2015. She was only 22 years old and probably had no plans to die so young. She had done nothing to prepare for death and had no will.

When Whitney Houston died in 2012, she left her entire estate to her daughter. That estate was worth more than $20 million. Because of her grandmother’s fear that Bobbi wouldn’t be able to handle so much money at such a young age, she challenged the will and a court ruled that the money could be given to Bobbi in increments. Although the bulk of her inheritance was not supposed to be given to her until her 30^th birthday, she had received approximately $2 million when she turned 21.

Her father is her next of kin and so, according to the law, will inherit the money she had already received. However, since he was divorced from her mother, I’m sure Whitney Houston would not have wanted any of her money to go to him. The balance will probably go to Whitney’s mother, Cissy, who is 81 and her two brothers, Michael 53 and Gary 57 since they are Whitney’s closest living relatives.

Because of the number of people who would like to receive some of these millions, this case will probably go through a long court process before anything is definitively settled.

Is this what Bobbi Kristina would have wanted? We’ll never know.

Have you written a will, designating what you want to happen to your estate when you die? Do you want the law to make the decision for you? You could die suddenly at age 22 from what may or may not be an accident like Bobbi Kristina or at 90 or 95 from a heart attack or lingering illness. If the answer to either of these questions is no, you should draft a will immediately and name those people who you want to receive your assets as well as things meaningful to family members like your mother’s jewelry and your dad’s artwork.

You can find a form for a simple will on the web or, for a more sizeable estate, can meet with an attorney to have one drafted soon. Otherwise, in addition to the law deciding for you, it will make things harder for your surviving heirs.

For more information, go to www.diesmart.com.

Bitcoins – Is cybercash real?

You bet it is. In fact, the Australian government recently announced that pension applicants must declare their cyber currency such as Bitcoin. “By including Bitcoin and other digital currencies on one of its standard forms”, the Australian government is recognizing that these are definitely a form of wealth. Many countries are still wrestling with where digital currency fits but Australia has accepted it as part of mainstream finance. If you have cybercash, make sure you are considering it in your estate planning and are not letting it get lost in the confusion about what to do with digital assets. It’s real money and you should treat it as such.
For more information about estate planning, go to www.diesmart.com.