Estate planning resolutions for the new year

The new year is here. If you need a little help setting resolutions for 2019, consider the following estate planning goals for inspiration.

1. Create an estate plan or update your current plan

The first estate planning resolution you should add to your list for 2019 is to create a plan. From naming a legal guardian for your children to leaving instructions for medical emergencies, estate planning provides numerous benefits. You can reap these benefits with the creation of a few documents. If you already have an estate plan in place, the new year is the perfect time to review it. Sit down and consider any big life changes that have happened in the last year. Have you gotten married or divorced? Had children or a growth in assets? Has someone listed in your estate plan died? These are all important questions to ask so necessary updates can be made.

2. Add to your documents

Legacy planning was a buzz world in the estate planning industry in 2018 and for good reason. Many people want to have a lasting impact on their family. Legacy planning enables them to do that so future generations remember what mattered to those who’ve passed away. Adding documents, such as an ethical will, to your estate plan is an easy way to integrate legacy planning into estate planning.

3. Communicate with loved ones

It’s one thing to create estate planning documents. It’s another to talk to your loved ones about them. Death and finances are difficult topics to broach. Both happen to make up large components of the estate planning process. Open and honest communication with family members is important, however. Talking through your decision making process can prevent conflicts down the road when you’re gone. You’lll also be able to convey your expectations for passing assets and work through issues now. Make 2019 the year you establish open communication and transparency.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help you with your estate planning, Medicaid planning and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law, click here.

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The Benefits of Double Checking Beneficiaries

The internet is filled with articles on avoiding estate planning mistakes. At Boyum Law Firm, one specific mistake we recommend clients look out for is not updating or using beneficiary designations correctly. Read on to learn more about designating beneficiaries and how to avoid common beneficiary designation mistakes.

What is a beneficiary designation?

A beneficiary designation is an asset-distributing estate planning tool commonly used for retirement accounts and life insurance policies. When an individual designates a beneficiary on their account or policy, they’re naming the person who will receive the asset when they die.

Who is a beneficiary?

A beneficiary is anyone you choose to designate on an account. Often times, people name a spouse, children, friends, trusts or charities as their beneficiary. You can have multiple beneficiaries on your accounts and can even choose what percentage each person receives. People often list a primary beneficiary and secondary beneficiary. If the primary beneficiary dies first or cannot be located, the secondary receives the asset.

Where do beneficiary designations go wrong?

When it comes to estate planning, people generally make two types of beneficiary designation mistakes. The first common mistake is not updating accounts containing a beneficiary designation following a major life event. For example, let’s say a husband originally listed his wife as the sole beneficiary on his retirement account. The couple divorces ten years down the road. Now, the husband wants his children to inherit the asset when he dies. He never gets around to officially making the beneficiary change on his document, so in the end, his ex wife still inherits the funds in his account.

The second common beneficiary designation mistake people make is not being aware of the difference between listing a beneficiary on an account and listing an heir for an asset in their last will and testament. When it comes to distributing assets following an individual’s death, their beneficiary designations always trump what their last will says. This means that if a woman leaves her life insurance policy to her son in her last will but has listed her daughter as the sole beneficiary on her policy, her daughter receives the asset.

Routinely checking beneficiary designations can easily prevents these two common estate planning mistakes. Doing so will save your heirs from potential fights and grant you peace of mind.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help you with your estate planning, Medicaid planning and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law, click here.

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How To Talk To Key Members Of Your Estate Plan

A key component of estate planning involves naming individuals to stand in for you in the case of a medical emergency or death. We’ve written extensively on how to choose a legal guardian for minor children and what to look for in a personal representative, but how do you ask your ideal candidates if they’re willing to take on a role in your plan? Read on to find out.

How to start the conversation

The first step is to start the conversation. It can be difficult to ask someone to take on a task as daunting as serving as your children’s legal guardian in the event something happens to you. It’s not necessarily any easier asking them to fill a smaller, short-term role, such as serving as your personal representative when you die. So how do you start these difficult conversations? To begin, try to broach the subject during a normal conversation in a calm atmosphere. You could bring it up with a phrase as simple as: “We met with a lawyer the other day to talk about estate planning.” Or, “I’ve been trying to get my estate plan in order.”

How to ask the question

Once you have the conversation started, you need to ask the actual question. First, let your chosen individual know what role you’re asking them to fill. For example, “We’d like to ask you to be our children’s legal guardian in the event something happens to us.” Or, “I’d like to ask you to serve as the personal representative of my estate.” Let your candidate know why you think they’d be a good fit for the job. Give them time to ask questions of their own. Then, move on to the next step.

Talk about the responsibilities

Your ideal candidate needs to be aware of the responsibilities they’d be accepting when taking on a role in your estate plan. Different roles require the completion of different tasks. For example, your durable power of attorney would make financial decisions on your behalf in the event you become incapacitated while your medical power of attorney would be responsible for making your medical decisions. Each individual you’re naming needs to know exactly what they’d be handling when the time comes so they can decide if they’re up to the challenge.

Accept their response, whatever it may be

Ideally, your candidate says yes to accepting the responsibility you’ve asked of them. They may not, however. Be prepared for a no and be willing to accept their response. You have nothing to lose by asking them to fill a role and everything to gain. This is because asking your candidate if they’re willing to accept a role in your estate plan enables you to come up with a back up plan in the event they say no. That way, no one is surprised. You can rest assured the person chosen for the job is up to the challenge, so when the time comes, your documents and selected individuals do their jobs as planned.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help you with your estate planning, Medicaid planning, and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law, click here.

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5 Reasons To Update Your Estate Plan

Estate planning, like grocery shopping or doing a load of laundry, is a task that’s never completely checked off your to-do list. In fact, routinely updating your estate planning documents ensures your plan best protects you and your loved ones. Your estate plan doesn’t need weekly updates, but a few big life changes create a need for an updated plan. Read on to discover five reasons to update your documents.

1. You’ve married or divorced

Changes in marital status are one reason you should update your estate plan. Odds are you’d like to include your new spouse in your estate plan if you’ve gotten married. On a similar note, you probably don’t want to keep an ex-spouse listed as a beneficiary on any accounts or as your power of attorney. In both cases, updating your documents is the key to avoiding an estate planning disaster.

2. Your family has grown

Welcoming a new addition to the family is an exciting time. You always want to be around for your children, but do you have a plan in place in case the unexpected happens? Updating your last will and testament and naming a legal guardian ensures your children will always be well taken care of, even if you’re not around. For tips on how to choose a legal guardian, check out our blog post here.

3. Your personal representative or powers of attorney have died

From powers of attorney to a legal guardian for minor children to your personal representative, a large part of estate planning involves naming trusted individuals in your documents. These trusted individuals are responsible for completing a specific task in the event you’re incapacitated or die. If the person you’ve chosen for one of these tasks has died or is no longer willing to fill the role when needed, it’s time to pick a new person.

4. Your financial situation has changed

Maybe you’ve opened a new retirement account and need to add a beneficiary. Or your assets have grown through the years and you’re now interested in creating a trust. Regardless of the reasoning, changes in your financial situation or a great reason to update your estate plan.

5. It’s been three to five years since you’ve last updated your estate plan

Even if you don’t have a specific reason or desire to update your estate plan, it’s best to go through your documents every three to five years. That way, you can ensure your plan is up-to-date and can catch any minor changes or complications. It never hurts to double check things, after all, especially if that thing is as important as your estate planning documents.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help you with your estate planning, Medicaid planning, and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law, click here.

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Aretha Franklin Died Without a Will. What Happens Next?

Prince. Amy Winehouse. Bob Marley. What do these famous musicians have in common? None of them created a last will and testament before they died. A few weeks ago, Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, became the latest star to die without a will. So, what happens to her estate next? Read on to find out.

Why create a last will and testament?

First, to understand the process that Franklin’s estate will go through, it’s important to understand why every one should create a last will and testament. A last will and testament is a legal document used to complete a variety of estate planning tasks when you die, including:

• Distributing assets
• Naming a legal guardian for minor children
• Naming a personal representative

This legal document is a key component of a solid estate plan because it enables you to lay out in advance how you’d like your assets distributed. Other estate planning documents, such as a trust, can be a better choice for distributing assets in the event privacy is a concern. However, at the very least, every one should create a last will, regardless of their marital status or income level.

What happens if you don’t create a last will?

If you die without creating a will, you have died intestate. This means that the intestate succession laws of the state in which you lived will determine how your assets are distributed. In other words, if you die without a will, the state assumes it knows how you would’ve wanted your assets distributed. Assets subject to a state’s succession laws are items that would’ve needed to pass through probate. Succession is determined based on the living relatives of the deceased.

In Franklin’s case…

In Franklin’s case, her estate is subject to the intestate laws of Michigan. Her estate, which is estimated to have a net worth of $80 million, will be split equally between her four sons. While this sounds fair, it might not have been what Franklin actually wanted. If she had created a will before she died, she could’ve split her assets out equally or unequally, left specific items to specific people, and potentially protected the privacy of her loved ones by creating additional documents, such as a trust.

To learn more about the benefits of creating a last will and testament, check out our blog post here.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help you with your estate planning, Medicaid planning, and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law, click here.

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3 Reasons To Hire A Probate Attorney

When a loved one passes away, they leave behind many loose ends, such as bills and assets. The person responsible for tying up the loose ends of the deceased is their personal representative. Serving as someone’s personal representative is a daunting task, but you don’t have to go through it alone. In fact, you can and should hire a probate attorney to guide you through the probate process. Here’s why:

1. Probate is complicated.

When you serve as a loved one’s personal representative, you’re responsible for shepherding their estate through the probate process. This means that you’re responsible for a variety of tasks, including filing forms, settling debts, and distributing assets to heirs. All of these tasks need to be done in a specific order and within so many days. Most people without a law degree know little about the probate process, which makes completing complicated, required tasks difficult. By hiring a probate attorney for guidance, you can make sure all tasks are completed on time.

2. A probate attorney can lessen your stress.

Between keeping track of assets and paying off debts, probate is a stressful process. Hiring a probate attorney can lessen your stress because you can rely on them to help you through the process. Your probate attorney will provide answers to all of your questions and will help you file all necessary documents. The probate process is much less stressful when you’re not responsible for wading through all of the paperwork and tasks alone.

3. A probate attorney can help keep the peace.

The death of a loved ones is stressful and unfortunately, fights within families or between heirs are not uncommon during the probate process. A probate attorney can help you keep the peace by stepping in and explaining inheritances to heirs. As a professional and individual outside the family and friend group of the heirs, your probate attorney can serve as a level-headed peace keeper so that you can do your job as a personal representative without worrying about hurting other people’s feelings or becoming an easy target for angry individuals.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help you with your estate planning, Medicaid planning, and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law, click here.

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Estate Planning: Is It Always Necessary?

Estate planning is an important task everyone should check off their to-do list for a number of reasons. Creating legal documents is one way to protect you and your loved ones from harm in the event of a medical emergency, for example. It’s easy to question, however, whether or not a daunting task like estate planning deserves a spot on your to-do list. After all, if you aren’t worried about redistributing assets or don’t have children to plan for, do you really need to create a plan? The answer is yes, everyone should create a plan. Here’s why:

Estate planning is about more than redistributing wealth

One common misconception about estate planning is that only the wealthy need a plan. This misconception stems from the belief that estate planning is all about redistributing wealth. You can and should use your plan as a wealth redistribution tool, but it’s capable of doing much more. For example, estate plans protect people and their loved ones from the unpredictable. To do this, your estate plan should include power of attorney documents (POA) and a living will. These documents protect you in the event of a medical emergency by giving a chosen individual the power to make medical and financial decisions on your behalf as well as stating your wishes in relation to life sustaining care. With documents like these in place, your estate plan can properly take care of you in life and after death, no wealth redistribution planning required.

That’s not to say redistributing wealth through your plan isn’t something to consider

While estate plans are capable of doing more than redistributing wealth, their wealth redistribution benefits shouldn’t be overlooked. Creating a last will and testament is the simplest way to redistribute wealth using your plan. In your last will, you list your assets and include who’d you like to receive them. Individuals with more complex inheritnace needs have other options, including a number of trusts. Trusts come in different forms to fit different needs. Your attorney should work with you to determine the type that best fits your situation. The key benefit trusts provide is their ability to avoid the probate process. By avoiding probate, which is the process used to settle an individual’s estate when they die, trusts keep information about who received what for an inheritance private.

You may not have specific privacy concerns that would cause you to need a trust, but creating estate planning documents, like a trust, enables you to dictate how your assets are distributed when you die. This is because without a last will, your assets are divided using the intestate laws of the state in which you live. To learn more about Nebraska’s intestate laws, click here.

There’s more to plan for than children in an estate plan

Another common estate planning misconception is that if you don’t have children, you don’t need a plan. People with children who are minors use their last will to name a legal guardian. A legal guardian is someone who steps in to care for minor children if something happens to their parents(s)/guardian(s). However, estate plans do more than name a legal guardian. For example, plans name the aforementioned POAs and a personal representative. A personal representative is the individual responsible for settling a person’s estate when they die. You ensure the best person has the job by creating a last will and naming a person yourself. If you don’t create a plan and select a personal representative, a judge will name one for you after you die. That individual may not have been the best person for the job.

How can Boyum Law Firm help you?

Boyum Law Firm can help you with your estate planning, Medicaid planning, and probate law needs. To contact Boyum Law, click here.

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