Klitzman Law Group, PLLC

Do Not Leave Your Health Care Decisions Up to Others

If you do not plan ahead for what might happen to you if you are ever incapacitated, then your family will have to make health care decisions for you. That can cause them a lot of stress.

Your family members most likely want what is best for you. If anything happens to you, they will try to assist you. However, it can be extremely difficult to know how other people might react to certain things.

For example, if you are in an accident and decisions need to be made about your medical care, your family might not have a good idea what decisions you would make. That can create problems for them, as they try to decide on what care you should receive, as the Sentinel Source recently discussed in "Planning ahead for health decisions benefits everyone."

There is a better way. Make your wishes known in advance and ensure that they are legally enforceable. With a living will, you can set out what procedures doctors should and should not perform, if you are incapacitated with no chance of survival. A health care power of attorney can be used to appoint one or more persons to make medical decisions for you, if you are unable to express your wishes.

Both documents are routinely prepared by estate planning attorneys for their clients. Visit one to get them created and signed. This will make things easier for your family.

Reference: Sentinel Source (April 18, 2018) "Planning ahead for health decisions benefits everyone."

Suggested Key Words: Estate Planning Attorney, Living Will, Health Care Power of Attorney

The Inheritance Scam

Sometimes estate attorneys do contact people unexpectedly to inform them that they might have inherited something.  However, you should be aware of scammers.

It would be great to receive a letter in the mail or a phone call, informing you that you have received a valuable inheritance from someone who recently passed away and who was a distant relation of yours that you did not know about. This does happen.

In popular culture, it is known as the long-lost uncle. When it happens in real life, someone administering the estate will contact heirs and let them know. This always comes as a very welcome surprise for the heirs. However, this rare occurrence is also the subject of a very common scam that might be increasing, as the Gazette Extra reported in "Police warn of IRS, inheritance scams."

The scam is not a sophisticated one. It usually consists of someone receiving a letter in the mail informing them of an inheritance, but with a catch. To make sure the person receiving the letter is the appropriate heir, the “heir” is required to provide some personal details and send cash back to help facilitate the process.

This should raise alarm bells, but people want the inheritance so badly to be legitimate, that they are often taken in by the scam. They not only lose the cash they sent, but they are often then the victims of identity theft. How? It is because they have given the scammers too many personal details.

An estate attorney might someday contact you about an inheritance. That attorney will never ask you for money up front to tell you about any inheritance that you might receive. If you have any questions about whether an inheritance might be legitimate, you can contact the court directly.

Reference: Gazette Extra (April 19, 2018) "Police warn of IRS, inheritance scams."

Suggested Key Words: Inheritance, Estate Attorney

Changing Plans

It is important to change plans, when things change that make your previous plans bad.

Imagine that you own a business. You have carefully surveyed the business environment and made plans to expand into a new product area: widgets. You have written up all the necessary documentation and spoken to investors about obtaining the capital needed for this new venture. You have started looking for a site for a new widget factory.

All the plans are in place. However, before you can implement your plans, things change. The law might change, and the new requirements will make selling widgets less profitable.  There could also a recession and fewer people will want to purchase widgets.

The specific change does not matter. What matters is that something has changed and you, as a smart business owner, now need to rethink whether you want to follow through on your previous plans and get into the business of selling widgets.

All this decision-making is obvious in a business context. It should just as obvious in an estate planning context. You need to change plans when the environment changes, as the Herald News points out in "Revisiting Your Plan."

Like the business environment, the estate planning environment is constantly changing. There are laws that could possibly have an impact on your estate change. Your goals and life circumstances also change. It would be as ridiculous to not change your estate plan when these changes happen, as it would be to not change a business plan when the business environment changes.

Make sure that you keep in contact with an estate planning attorney, who can let you know if anything has changed in a way that should necessitate changing your estate plan.

Reference: Herald News (April 22, 2018) "Revisiting Your Plan."

Suggested Key Words: Estate Planning

Be Careful with Beneficiary Designations

Disposing of assets through beneficiary designations is popular today and seemingly easy to do.  However, there are reasons to be careful when doing it.

It is possible and common today to dispose of many assets at death simply by filling out a beneficiary designation form. These assets will pass upon your death, to whomever is the designated beneficiary without becoming a part of the probate process.

This can be an easy way to quickly distribute many financial assets to heirs. However, the apparent ease of doing this, masks how complicated it can actually be as Wealth Management discussed in "Designating a Beneficiary -- Not as Easy as it Looks."

The problem is that the financial institution holding the account wants it to be as simple as possible for it to find and distribute assets to the designated beneficiary. Ideally the account will pass to one individual who is clearly identified and whose locating information is available on the designation form. However, this is often far from ideal for the account holder who might want the assets in the account to be divided between multiple beneficiaries, whose locations might change over time. There are some other problems, such as potential tax differences between different types of beneficiaries.

The best thing you can do when designating beneficiaries, is to do so with the advice of an estate planning attorney to make sure that any designations fit with an overall estate plan. You should also make sure the financial institution understands and accepts the designations you want to make.

Reference: Wealth Management (April 23, 2018) "Designating a Beneficiary -- Not as Easy as it Looks."

Suggested Key Words: Estate Planning

 

Cryptocurrency Estate Planning

The increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies creates challenges for planning how those assets will be handled, after the owner passes away.

Most of the news about cryptocurrency in the last few months, has been about how volatile and risky it can be as an investment. However, there are many people who are making a lot of money off of the many different forms of cryptocurrency now available.

The very nature of how these currencies are held by their owners, creates issues in estate planning. Why? Proof of ownership is nothing more than possession of a digital key. Anyone who has the key, can access the cryptocurrency.

This obviously means that it is not a good idea to write the key down in a will that could be made public during the probate process. However, there are other problems as the New Jersey Law Journal reports in "Estate Planning in the Age of Cryptocurrency."

One of the biggest issues is taxation. Despite having "currency" in its name, cryptocurrencies are not treated as currency for tax purposes. They are instead treated as property. This has important implications for how these assets should be treated in an estate plan, to minimize any taxes that must be paid by the estate or potential heirs.

Another issue is how the cryptocurrency should be transferred. Owners need to decide whether it should be given to heirs as cryptocurrency or whether it should be sold and given to heirs at its cash value.

Consulting experienced financial and legal counsel is essential, when navigating these largely uncharted waters.

Reference: New Jersey Law Journal (April 23, 2018) "Estate Planning in the Age of Cryptocurrency."

Suggested Key Words: Estate Planning

 

Should Felons Be Guardians?

Many states are grappling with their guardianship statutes, so that they can do a better job of preventing elder abuse. One question that has come up in Pennsylvania, is whether felons should be barred from serving as guardians for the incapacitated.

The U.S. has an elder abuse problem, with an increase in reports.

As many state legislators seek ways to curb this growing problem, they are having to come to terms with the fact that the very people the legal system has in place to protect the elderly, are often the source of the abuse themselves: guardians.

Many states have guardianship laws that are ineffective at protecting the elderly from the abuse. Therefore, state legislatures are debating guardianship laws in an attempt to make them better. One such state is Pennsylvania, as the Reading Eagle reports in "Bill would require background checks for guardianship."

One issue that has caused controversy in Pennsylvania is a proposal that would bar felons from becoming guardians. While that might seem like an obviously good thing at first glance, opponents of the idea point out that it would apply to people who committed felonies in the distant past without further legal problems.

Whatever your opinion is when it comes to felons serving as guardians, it is good that legislatures are discussing the issue of updating guardianship laws to better protect seniors from abuse.

Reference: Reading Eagle (April 14, 2018) "Bill would require background checks for guardianship."

Suggested Key Words: Elder Law, Elder Abuse, Guardians

How Estate Plans Can Go Awry

Many different things can happen that will make your current estate plan less than ideal.  However, some things happen more often than others.

Estate plans do not always work as intended. There can be many different reasons, such as relatives fighting over an estate. However, sometimes estate plans do not work for reasons that should be easy to avoid.

The basic problem? People do not think about changing their estate plans when they probably should, as was recently discussed by Wicked Local Dedham in "Five things that can derail your estate plan."

Typical problems include:

• The law has a lot to say about spousal inheritances. In most states, if there is no other legal agreement between spouses, a surviving spouse gets half of the deceased spouse's estate. If spouses divorce, the ex-spouse is automatically written out of a will. A change in marital status can, therefore, make a current estate plan useless.
• If someone who was supposed to inherit a large portion of your estate passes away, it will have an impact on your current estate plan.
• If an heir or beneficiary develops problems, your current plan may not distribute the inheritance as you would have intended.
• You can get a trust but if you do not fund the plan, it will not work as you intended. It might not even work at all.
• If you move to another state, your old estate plan might not be as effective because of a difference in the laws between the two states.

Reference: Wicked Local Dedham (April 15, 2018) "Five things that can derail your estate plan."

Suggested Key Words: Estate Planning

Planning to Stay at Home in Your Senior Years

Seniors normally prefer to live at home, as long as they can stay out of a facility. It is important to carefully plan for that.

There are very few people who actually look forward to living in a nursing home or an assisted living facility. Most seniors would much rather continue to live in their own homes and take care of themselves, for as long as they possibly can.

The good news is that more people can live at home and for longer than ever before. However, to be successful and stay at home, seniors need to make the appropriate plans, as a doctor recently wrote in The Roanoke Times "Staying at home as we age."

Before deciding to stay at home, it is important to have a discussion with your doctor about your health and future prospects. Listen to what the doctor has to say, so you can make an appropriate decision about what is best for you. After you have done that, you need to get your legal affairs in order. It is important to have your estate plan and end-of-life care plans done, while you are still able to make them.

Go to an estate planning attorney to discuss your options. Finally, make sure your home is a safe place for an elderly person to live in. There are people who specialize in assessing the suitability of homes for the elderly.

If you have any questions about living at home as an elderly person and what you need to do, it would be helpful to speak with an elder law attorney.

Reference: The Roanoke Times (April 17, 2018) "Staying at home as we age."

Suggested Key Words: Elder Law, Elder Issues, Estate Planning

Medicare Advantage and Nursing Homes

A recent study suggests that Medicare Advantage enrollees are more likely to go to lower quality nursing homes, than people enrolled in traditional Medicare.

Not all nursing homes are equal. Some have much higher rates of re-hospitalization than others or just do a generally better job at providing good outcomes for residents. The reasons for the differences in the quality of care that nursing homes provide are not always clear. Nevertheless, figuring out those reasons is of such vital importance to families, that the federal government keeps track of these things and makes them publicly available.

They are also important as a matter of public policy. Recently, some researchers looked at the quality of care that traditional Medicare enrollees receive versus Medicare Advantage enrollees as ElderLawAnswers discusses in "Are Medicare Advantage Plans Steering Enrollees to Lower-Quality Nursing Homes?"

It turns out that Medicare Advantage enrollees, on average, enter nursing homes that score worse on quality control metrics than traditional Medicare enrollees. The study did not examine the reasons for the discrepancies. However, it is important that this study be pursued, so policy makers can make sure that all seniors receive high quality care.

Medicare Advantage enrollees should do their own investigation into nursing homes, before deciding upon one. If they cannot do so, their families need to do it for them.

Reference: Elder Law Answers (April 16, 2018) "Are Medicare Advantage Plans Steering Enrollees to Lower-Quality Nursing Homes?"

Suggested Key Words: Elder Law, Medicare

Estate Planning for Business

If you own your own business and plan for it to survive after you, it is important that you have an estate plan that allows that to happen.

In the U.S., people often put off estate planning for as long as possible. This includes people who make plans for many other things. There is just something about estate planning and contemplating their own deaths, that people want to put off.

A business owner makes a lot of plans for the business, including how to manage it and expand it. This is true, regardless of the age of the business person. If something happens to the business owner, however, their age doesn’t matter. When the owner passes away, something must be done with the business.

If plans are not made beforehand, the business is likely to close. Therefore, business owners need to have estate plans as the Savannah Morning News discusses in "Thinking the unthinkable: Businesses require estate planning."

There should always be a plan in place for what will happen, if a business owner passes away at any time. Plans need to be made regarding who will own the business, as well as who will manage it, if the proposed owner is too young or not interested. This is just good business planning and good estate planning.

Your business is important to you, so make sure you have a business succession plan and an estate plan in place that protects the business, in case something happens to you.

Reference: Savannah Morning News (April 11, 2018) "Thinking the unthinkable: Businesses require estate planning."

Suggested Key Words: Estate Planning