Klitzman Law Group, PLLC

How Important Is a Health Care Power of Attorney?

“It is your right to keep your health information private, but is that always what is in your best interests?”

Health care decisions are often the most personal and private decisions a person can make. Information about your health can be very sensitive and if revealed to the wrong person, cause embarrassment, job loss and harm to your reputation. The HIPAA law (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) was created to provide restrictive protection of medical care. A recent article from The Sentinel titled “Elder Care: The power of an informed healthcare agent” explains how this law makes it more important than ever to have a Healthcare Power of Attorney (POA) in place.

If you think you’re too young or healthy to need a health care POA, think again. If a sharp decline in health occurs, your dignity and care may fare far better with a POA than without, for several reasons. For one, if done in advance, you are the one who chooses who your health care advocate will be.

You may not think an estate planning lawyer’s office is the place to go to deal with important health care decisions. However, this is an important part of your estate plan. Planning for incapacity is as much a part of estate planning as is planning for asset distribution postmortem.

What would happen if you were still alive but not able to understand what is happening around you or unable to speak for yourself? Who would you want making critical medical decisions on your part? Your estate plan includes a Health Care Power of Attorney, which authorizes a person of your choice to be your advocate and authorize or refuse medical treatment, based on the wishes you express in this important document.

Giving someone you trust the power to make health care decisions for you has to be done while you still have capacity. Once you are incapacitated by a medical emergency, even if you have some limited ability to express your wishes, you are not legally permitted to sign this document.

A Health Care Power of Attorney is valuable even without a sudden decline in health or a serious diagnosis. Even in routine medical situations, there are benefits to naming a health care agent. Let’s say you go in for a routine colonoscopy, which is a common procedure for anyone over age 50. Several polyps are discovered and someone has to authorize the doctor’s taking them out. If you have a Health Care Power of Attorney and your agent is waiting nearby, they can authorize the removal. If not, and if the doctor has not asked for prior consent to remove the polyps, then you’d have to wait for a post-procedure meeting with the doctor and then undergo the entire procedure all over again.

Ideally, more than one person should be named as your health care agent. If the primary person is not reachable and an emergency occurs, someone else will be able to step up and help as needed.

Your estate planning attorney should also prepare a Living Will to provide guidance on end-of-life medical decisions. This includes whether you want to be resuscitated, how much medical treatment you would want in case of severe and irreversible brain damage and what life-extending procedures you’d want if you are dying from an end-stage medical condition.

Your estate planning attorney will help guide you through these decisions, since they are ultimately yours to make. However, the idea of having them in place before they are needed puts you in charge of what will happen when you can’t speak for yourself. It’s not easy to consider, but better done than left undone.

Reference: The Sentinel (Sep. 23, 2022) “Elder Care: The power of an informed healthcare agent”

What Happens when You Inherit a Retirement Account?

“There’s almost always a reckoning when the government proffers a tax break. So it is with individual retirement accounts (IRA)s, 401(k)s and similar accounts that investors fund with pre-tax earnings.”

The SECURE Act of 2019 reset the game for IRAs and other tax deferred retirement accounts, says a recent article from Financial Advisor titled “IRAs, Taxes and Inheritance: Planning Becomes a Family Affair.” Prior to SECURE, investors paid ordinary income tax rates on withdrawals, whether they were voluntary or Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from these accounts, except for Roths. When individuals stopped working and their income dropped, so did the tax rate on their withdrawals. All was well.

Then the SECURE Act came along, with good intentions. The time period for payouts of IRAs and similar accounts after the death of the account owner changed. Non-spouse beneficiaries now have only 10 years to empty out the accounts, setting themselves up for potentially huge tax bills, possibly when their own incomes are at peak levels. What can be done?

Heirs of individual investors or couples with hefty IRAs and investment accounts are most likely to face consequences of the new tax regulations for RMDs and inheritances from the SECURE Act.

A widowed spouse faces the lower of either their own or the partner’s RMD rate—it’s tied to birth years. However, there is a pitfall: the widowed spouse files a single tax return, which cuts available deductions in half and changes tax brackets. Single or married, consider accelerating IRA withdrawals as soon as taxable income lowers early in retirement. Taking withdrawals from IRAs at this time voluntarily often means the ability to defer and as a result, optimize Social Security benefits to age 70.

For non-spousal beneficiaries of inherited IRAs, there’s no way around that 10-year rule. Their tax rates will depend on income, whether they file single or joint and any deductions available. If a beneficiary dies while the account still owns the assets, those assets may be subject to estate taxes, which are high.

Here’s where tax planning is could help. IRA owners may try to “equalize” inheritances among heirs with tax consequences in mind. For instance, a lower earning child could be the IRA beneficiary, while a higher earning child could receive assets from a brokerage account or Roth IRAs. Alternatively, an IRA owner could establish trusts or make charitable bequests to empty the IRAs before they become part of the estate.

Your estate planning attorney will help you create a road map for distributing IRA and other tax deferred assets based on the tax and timing for beneficiaries or what you want to fund after you pass.

Another strategy, if you don’t expect to exhaust your IRA assets in your lifetime, is to systematically withdraw money early in retirement to fund Roth IRAs, known as a Roth conversion. The advantage is simple: inherited Roth IRAs need to be drawn down in ten years, but the money isn’t taxable to beneficiaries.

Decumulation planning is complicated to do. However, your estate planning attorney will help evaluate your unique situation and create the optimal income sourcing plan for your family based on their assets, including taxable and tax-advantaged accounts, Social Security benefits, pensions, life insurance and annuities.

Reference: Financial Advisor (Sep. 29, 2022) “IRAs, Taxes and Inheritance: Planning Becomes a Family Affair”

Estate Planning Considerations for Minor Children

“When preparing estate planning documents, certain beneficiaries may need more protection than others. One particular class of beneficiaries that needs to be intentionally considered is minor children.”

Creating an estate plan with minor children in mind has a host of variables quite different than one where all heirs are adults. If the intention is for the minor children to be beneficiaries, or if there is a remote chance a minor child might become an unintended beneficiary, different provisions will be needed. A recent article titled “Children need special attention in estate planning” from The News-Enterprise explains how these situations might be addressed.

Does the person creating the will—aka, the testator—want property to be distributed to a minor child? If so, how is the distribution is to occur, tax consequences and safeguards need to be put into place. Much depends upon the relationship of the testator to the minor child. An older individual may want to leave specific dollar bequests for minor children or great-grandchildren, while people with younger children generally leave their entire estate in fractional shares to their own minor children as primary beneficiaries.

While minor children and grandchildren beneficiaries are excluded from inheritance taxes in certain states, great- grandchildren are not. Your estate planning attorney will be able to provide details on who is subject to inheritance, federal and state estate taxes. This needs to be part of your estate plan.

If minor children are the intended beneficiaries of a fractional share of the estate in its entirety, distributions may be held in a common trust or divided into separate share for each minor child. A common trust is used to hold all property to benefit all of the children, until the youngest child reaches a determined age. When this occurs, the trust is split into separate shares according to the trust directions, when each share is managed for the individual beneficiary.

Instructions to the trustee as to how much of the income and principal each beneficiary is to receive and when, at what age or intervals each beneficiary may exercise full control over the assets and what purposes the trust property is intended for until the beneficiary reaches a certain age are details which need to be clearly explained in the trust.

Trusts for minor children are often specifically to be used for health, education, maintenance, or support needs of the beneficiary, within the discretion of the trustee. This has to be outlined in the trust document.

Even if the intention is not to make minor children beneficiaries, care must be taken to include provisions if they are family members. The will or trust must be clear on how property passed to minor child beneficiaries is to be distributed. This may be done through a requirement to put distributions into a trust or may leave a list of options for the executor.

Testators need to keep in mind the public nature of probate. Whatever is left to a minor child will be a matter of public record, which could make the child vulnerable to scammers or predatory family members. Consider using a revocable living trust as an alternative to safeguard the child and the assets.

Regardless of whether a will or trust is used, there should be a person named to act as the child’s guardian and their conservator or trustee, who manages their finances. The money manager does not have to be a parent or relative but must be a trustworthy person.

Review your specific situation with your estate planning attorney to create a plan to protect your minor children, ensuing their financial and lifestyle stability.

Reference: The News-Enterprise (Sep. 10, 2022) “Children need special attention in estate planning”

Top 10 Success Tips for Estate Planning

“Estate planning is one of the most important steps you can take for yourself and your loved ones.”

Unless you’ve done the planning, assets may not be distributed according to your wishes and loved ones may not be taken care of after your death. These are just two reasons to make sure you have an estate plan, according to the recent article titled “Estate Planning 101: 10 Tips for Success” from the Maryland Reporter.

Create a list of your assets. This should include all of your property, real estate, liquid assets, investments and personal possessions. With this list, consider what you would like to happen to each item after your death. If you have many assets, this process will take longer—consider this a good thing. Don’t neglect digital assets. The goal of a careful detailed list is to avoid any room for interpretation—or misinterpretation—by the courts or by heirs.

Meet with an estate planning attorney to create wills and trusts. These documents dictate how your assets are distributed after your death. Without them, the laws of your state may be used to distribute assets. You also need a will to name an executor, the person responsible for carrying out your instructions.

Your will is also used to name a guardian, the person who will raise your children if they are orphaned minors.

Who is the named beneficiary on your life insurance policy? This is the person who will receive the death benefit from your policy upon your death. Will this person be the guardian of your minor children? Do you prefer to have the proceeds from the policy used to fund a trust for the benefit of your children? These are important decisions to be made and memorialized in your estate plan.

Make your wishes crystal clear. Legal documents are often challenged if they are not prepared by an experienced estate planning attorney or if they are vaguely worded. You want to be sure there are no ambiguities in your will or trust documents. Consider the use of “if, then” statements. For example, “If my husband predeceases me, then I leave my house to my children.”

Consider creating a letter of intent or instruction to supplement your will and trusts. Use this document to give more detailed information about your wishes, from funeral arrangements to who you want to receive a specific item. Note this document is not legally binding, but it may avoid confusion and can be used to support the instructions in your will.

Trusts may be more important than you think in estate planning. Trusts allow you to take assets out of your probate estate and have these assets managed by a trustee of your choice, who distributes assets directly to beneficiaries. You don’t have to have millions to benefit from a trust.

List your debts. This is not as much fun as listing assets, but still important for your executor and heirs. Mortgage payments, car payments, credit cards and personal loans are to be paid first out of estate accounts before funds can be distributed to heirs. Having this information will make your executor’s tasks easier.

Plan for digital assets. If you want your social media accounts to be deleted or emails available to a designated person after you die, you’ll need to start with a list of the accounts, usernames, passwords, whether the platform allows you to designate another person to have access to your accounts and how you want your digital assets handled after death. This plan should be in place in case of incapacity as well.

How will estate taxes be paid? Without tax planning properly done, your legacy could shrink considerably. In addition to federal estate taxes, some states have state estate taxes and inheritance taxes. Talk with your estate planning attorney to find out what your estate tax obligations will be and how to plan strategically to pay the taxes.

Plan for Long Term Care. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that about 70% of Americans will need some type of long-term care during their lifetimes. Some options are private LTC insurance, government programs and self-funding.

The more planning done in advance, the more likely your loved ones will know what to do if you become incapacitated and know what you wanted when you die.

Resource: Maryland Reporter (Sep. 27, 2022) “Estate Planning 101: 10 Tips for Success”

How Does an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust Work?

“Life insurance is often a cornerstone of a comprehensive estate plan, particularly when an estate consists of largely illiquid assets.”

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs) are a common planning tool. However, buying the policy at the wrong time, leaving out Crummey withdrawal rights and ignoring administrative costs are commonly made mistakes. Being aware of these snares is important to make the ILIT effective, says a recent article titled “Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts in Estate Planning: Common Pitfalls” from Think Advisor.

Purchasing a new policy outside of the ILIT is a commonly made error. If you purchase a new life insurance policy and then transfer it to the ILIT, the death benefit will be included in your estate for estate tax purposes if you die within three years of the transfer. This undoes any estate tax advantages of the insurance policy and the trust.

IRS Section 2035 causes estate tax inclusion for anyone who transfers or otherwise gives up power over a life insurance policy within three years of death. However, there are ways to address this. If you first establish and fund the ILIT first, so the ILIT is the entity purchasing the policy directly, the death benefit is excluded from your estate regardless of how long you live after the purchase date.

Another error concerns the “Crummy Protocol.” Unless or until the premiums on a life insurance policy are fully paid or are self-sustaining through a draw on the cash surrender value, the insured must make gifts to the ILIT to pay for the premiums. People often like to use their annual gift tax exclusion to make contributions. However, to qualify the gifts for the annual gift tax exclusion, the beneficiaries of the ILIT must have the right to withdraw certain amounts transferred into the ILIT.

Failing to include the required withdrawal rights may eliminate the ability to offset gifts by the annual exclusion right. Even if the ILIT includes Crummey withdrawal rights, you won’t be able to take advantage of the annual gift tax exclusion if the beneficiaries are not informed of their withdrawal rights each time an eligible contribution is made to the ILIT.

Your estate planning attorney will advise you as to how this occurs from a procedural perspective. You’ll want them to review it before it is signed to confirm it includes Crummey withdrawal rights and to help you establish procedures for providing the requisite notice and waiting the required period each time a gift is made.

Lastly, ILITs often have limited assets since they may only be funded with the insurance policy and the amount needed to pay the premiums. Therefore, if the ILIT has any administrative expenses, like accounting, legal or trustee funds, there may be insufficient assets in the ILIT to pay them.

If you pay the expenses directly, they will be considered as making a gift for gift tax purposes, because you will be deemed to have first transferred to the ILIT any amounts paid on its behalf. Avoid this issue by funding your ILIT with the necessary money to pay premiums and administrative costs. If the class of beneficiaries holding Crummey withdrawal rights is broad enough, this may be done solely through annual exclusion gifts.

Reference: Think Advisor (Sep. 29, 2022) “Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts in Estate Planning: Common Pitfalls”

How Important Is a Health Care Power of Attorney?

“It is your right to keep your health information private, but is that always what is in your best interests?”

Health care decisions are often the most personal and private decisions a person can make. Information about your health can be very sensitive and if revealed to the wrong person, cause embarrassment, job loss and harm to your reputation. The HIPAA law (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) was created to provide restrictive protection of medical care. A recent article from The Sentinel titled “Elder Care: The power of an informed healthcare agent” explains how this law makes it more important than ever to have a Healthcare Power of Attorney (POA) in place.

If you think you’re too young or healthy to need a health care POA, think again. If a sharp decline in health occurs, your dignity and care may fare far better with a POA than without, for several reasons. For one, if done in advance, you are the one who chooses who your health care advocate will be.

You may not think an estate planning lawyer’s office is the place to go to deal with important health care decisions. However, this is an important part of your estate plan. Planning for incapacity is as much a part of estate planning as is planning for asset distribution postmortem.

What would happen if you were still alive but not able to understand what is happening around you or unable to speak for yourself? Who would you want making critical medical decisions on your part? Your estate plan includes a Health Care Power of Attorney, which authorizes a person of your choice to be your advocate and authorize or refuse medical treatment, based on the wishes you express in this important document.

Giving someone you trust the power to make health care decisions for you has to be done while you still have capacity. Once you are incapacitated by a medical emergency, even if you have some limited ability to express your wishes, you are not legally permitted to sign this document.

A Health Care Power of Attorney is valuable even without a sudden decline in health or a serious diagnosis. Even in routine medical situations, there are benefits to naming a health care agent. Let’s say you go in for a routine colonoscopy, which is a common procedure for anyone over age 50. Several polyps are discovered and someone has to authorize the doctor’s taking them out. If you have a Health Care Power of Attorney and your agent is waiting nearby, they can authorize the removal. If not, and if the doctor has not asked for prior consent to remove the polyps, then you’d have to wait for a post-procedure meeting with the doctor and then undergo the entire procedure all over again.

Ideally, more than one person should be named as your health care agent. If the primary person is not reachable and an emergency occurs, someone else will be able to step up and help as needed.

Your estate planning attorney should also prepare a Living Will to provide guidance on end-of-life medical decisions. This includes whether you want to be resuscitated, how much medical treatment you would want in case of severe and irreversible brain damage and what life-extending procedures you’d want if you are dying from an end-stage medical condition.

Your estate planning attorney will help guide you through these decisions, since they are ultimately yours to make. However, the idea of having them in place before they are needed puts you in charge of what will happen when you can’t speak for yourself. It’s not easy to consider, but better done than left undone.

Reference: The Sentinel (Sep. 23, 2022) “Elder Care: The power of an informed healthcare agent”

What Happens when You Inherit a Retirement Account?

“There’s almost always a reckoning when the government proffers a tax break. So it is with individual retirement accounts (IRA)s, 401(k)s and similar accounts that investors fund with pre-tax earnings.”

The SECURE Act of 2019 reset the game for IRAs and other tax deferred retirement accounts, says a recent article from Financial Advisor titled “IRAs, Taxes and Inheritance: Planning Becomes a Family Affair.” Prior to SECURE, investors paid ordinary income tax rates on withdrawals, whether they were voluntary or Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from these accounts, except for Roths. When individuals stopped working and their income dropped, so did the tax rate on their withdrawals. All was well.

Then the SECURE Act came along, with good intentions. The time period for payouts of IRAs and similar accounts after the death of the account owner changed. Non-spouse beneficiaries now have only 10 years to empty out the accounts, setting themselves up for potentially huge tax bills, possibly when their own incomes are at peak levels. What can be done?

Heirs of individual investors or couples with hefty IRAs and investment accounts are most likely to face consequences of the new tax regulations for RMDs and inheritances from the SECURE Act.

A widowed spouse faces the lower of either their own or the partner’s RMD rate—it’s tied to birth years. However, there is a pitfall: the widowed spouse files a single tax return, which cuts available deductions in half and changes tax brackets. Single or married, consider accelerating IRA withdrawals as soon as taxable income lowers early in retirement. Taking withdrawals from IRAs at this time voluntarily often means the ability to defer and as a result, optimize Social Security benefits to age 70.

For non-spousal beneficiaries of inherited IRAs, there’s no way around that 10-year rule. Their tax rates will depend on income, whether they file single or joint and any deductions available. If a beneficiary dies while the account still owns the assets, those assets may be subject to estate taxes, which are high.

Here’s where tax planning is could help. IRA owners may try to “equalize” inheritances among heirs with tax consequences in mind. For instance, a lower earning child could be the IRA beneficiary, while a higher earning child could receive assets from a brokerage account or Roth IRAs. Alternatively, an IRA owner could establish trusts or make charitable bequests to empty the IRAs before they become part of the estate.

Your estate planning attorney will help you create a road map for distributing IRA and other tax deferred assets based on the tax and timing for beneficiaries or what you want to fund after you pass.

Another strategy, if you don’t expect to exhaust your IRA assets in your lifetime, is to systematically withdraw money early in retirement to fund Roth IRAs, known as a Roth conversion. The advantage is simple: inherited Roth IRAs need to be drawn down in ten years, but the money isn’t taxable to beneficiaries.

Decumulation planning is complicated to do. However, your estate planning attorney will help evaluate your unique situation and create the optimal income sourcing plan for your family based on their assets, including taxable and tax-advantaged accounts, Social Security benefits, pensions, life insurance and annuities.

Reference: Financial Advisor (Sep. 29, 2022) “IRAs, Taxes and Inheritance: Planning Becomes a Family Affair”

Estate Plans Can Protect against Exploitation

“According to experts, despite increased phishing emails and robocalls, it is far more common for financial exploitation to be committed by people who know the victim, such as relatives, caregivers, neighbors, or ‘friends.’”

Financial exploitation is far more common than most people think, especially of the elderly. There are several types of individuals more at risk for exploitation, according to a recent article from mondaq titled “How An Estate Plan Can Protect Against Financial Exploitation.” These include someone with a cognitive impairment, in poor physical health, who is isolated or has a learning disability.

Exploiters share common characteristics as well. They are often people with mental health illness, substance abusers or those who are financially dependent on the person they are exploiting.

There are warning signs of financial abuse, including:

• Changes in patterns of spending, transfers, or withdrawals from accounts
• Isolation from friends and family
• Unexplainable financial activity
• An inability to pay for routine bills and expenses
• Sudden changes to estate planning documents, beneficiary designations, or the addition of joint owners to accounts or property titles

One way to avoid financial exploitation is with an estate plan prepared in advance with an eye to protection. Instead of relying on a durable power of attorney, a funded revocable trust may provide more robust protection. A revocable trust-based plan includes safeguards like co-trustees and a requirement for independent party consent to any trustee change or amendment.

A support system is also important to protect a person if someone is attempting to exploit them. Estate planning attorneys team up with financial advisors, CPAs and other professionals to create a plan to avoid or end elder abuse. Other steps to be taken include:

• Consolidating accounts with a trusted financial advisor, so all assets are easily observed
• Have a family member or trusted person receive copies of account statements
• Consider a credit freeze to avoid any possibility of being coerced into opening new credit card accounts or taking out loans.
• Establishing a budget and sharing information with advisors and a trusted person, so any spending anomalies are easy flagged.

Elder financial abuse is an all-too common occurrence but taking proactive steps to safeguard the vulnerable family member is a good strategy to deter or thwart anyone intent on taking advantage of a loved one.

Reference: mondaq (Sep. 23, 2022) “How An Estate Plan Can Protect Against Financial Exploitation.”

What Is the Purpose of a Guardian?

“A frequent concern for those with aging loved ones is the future need for guardianship. Unfortunately, the concept of guardianship can be confusing and overwhelming.”

The most frequently asked questions about guardianship concern when it’s needed, how the process works and is there a way to avoid it. The idea of guardianship may feel troubling if you’ve never known anyone who needed a guardian, says a recent article “Guardian process can be lengthy, difficult” from The News-Enterprise.

Simply put, guardianship is a court proceeding restricting or removing the right of a person to manage their own financial, legal and medical affairs.

Guardianship is not exclusive to elderly individuals, as it is often used to protect adults and older children with disabilities. Guardianship is mainly needed when the person is unable to manage their own finances, incapable of understanding the scope and consequences of making their own medical decisions or is at risk of exploitation due to diminished capacity.

The process for obtaining guardianship for another person is complicated and takes at least several months before a guardianship order is entered into the legal record.

The first step is for the person who seeks guardianship for another person to file a petition with the District Court in the county where the impaired person lives. The person who files the petition is known as the petitioner and the person who needs the guardianship is known as the respondent. The petitioner is usually a family member but may also be a concerned person or an institution, like a nursing facility.

The petition is often paired with a request for emergency guardianship pending a trial. If the court doesn’t order the emergency order immediately, a short trial may be needed to get an emergency order. The court then sets a trial date and issues an order for an evaluation.

Different states have different requirements, which is why the help of an experienced estate planning attorney is needed. In some states, reports from three independent team members are needed: a healthcare professional, which is typically the respondent’s primary care physician; a mental health professional and a social worker, often from Adult Protective Services.

Each person from the team must conduct an independent evaluation and submit a separate report to the court with their findings and a recommendation. In some states, the guardianship moves to a trial, while in other states the trial is held in front of a judge.

If the guardianship is granted, by trial or by the judge, a guardian is appointed to make decisions for the person and a conservator is named. The conservator is in charge of the person’s finances. Both the guardian and conservator are required to file reports with the court concerning their actions on behalf of the respondent throughout the duration of their roles.

How can guardianship be avoided? It’s far simpler and less costly for the family to work with an estate planning attorney to have Durable Powers of Attorney and Health Care Power of Attorney documents created in advance of any incapacity. Paired with fully funded revocable living trusts, the family can have complete control over their loved one without court intervention.

These documents cannot be prepared after a person is incapacitated, so a pro-active approach must be taken long before they are needed.

Reference: The News-Enterprise (Sep. 24, 2022) “Guardian process can be lengthy, difficult”

Why Do You Need an Estate Plan?

“Thinking about life after your death can be uncomfortable. However, it's one of the most important things you can do.”

Everyone benefits from having an estate plan. If you own property, investments, or anything of value, you need an estate plan. If you have family or dependents, you need an estate plan. Estate planning directs how assets are directed, if you become incapacitated or when you die.

The checklist for creating an estate plan includes a will, powers of attorney and assigning beneficiary account designations. Using an estate planning lawyer ensures that your plan meets all legal requirements, according to the article “What is estate planning? A strategy to safeguard your family and your finances, and ensure your plans for them get carried out as you wish” from Business Insider.

In this usage, “estate” means the things you own. An estate plan inventories everything, including your home, cars, bank accounts, life insurance policies, retirement accounts and personal possessions. It outlines in writing exactly what you want to happen with your property. It also directs who you want to handle your affairs during life and after death and who you want to inherit your assets.

Why does estate planning matter? If you die without a will, your assets may get tied up in probate, where the court oversees the distribution of your estate according to your state’s laws. Without a will and the tax planning part of estate planning, your estate may shrink and your heirs receive less.

The will is just the start of a comprehensive estate plan. It details where you want your assets to go and names an executor who will oversee your estate. If you have minor children, the will is where you name a guardian to raise your children.

A durable power of attorney designates a person to act on your behalf for legal and financial matters if you become incapacitated. Without it, family members will not be able to file tax returns, collect government benefits, manage investments and handle any financial transactions. They’ll need to go to court and have a judge appoint someone to manage these and other tasks. It’s far easier and less expensive to have this document in place than to get the courts involved.

A health care power of attorney is your opportunity to name someone to make medical decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated. This includes choosing doctors, deciding what tests to run and whether you want to have surgery or certain treatments.

You’ll want a living will to ensure your wishes for end-of-life decisions are followed. A living will also relieves your loved one of the enormous burden of determining “what Mom would have wanted” if you become terminally ill, enter the late stages of dementia, are seriously injured, in a coma, or near the end of your life. What extreme measures do you want to be taken to prolong your life? What would you not want to be done to maintain your life?

Beneficiary designations are the forms to be completed when you open a retirement account or purchase a life insurance policy. Beneficiary designations override any instructions for these accounts set out in your will, so its very important to review and update them regularly.

Trusts are used to take assets out of your probate estate. A trust is created by an estate planning attorney and upon death, assets are distributed according to the directions of the trust. If you own a lot of assets, trusts are a useful tool to avoid estate and inheritance taxes.

Digital asset protection trusts are a way to legally transfer domain names, social media accounts and other digital assets to heirs upon your death. Emails, text messages, cloud-based storage accounts, websites and social media accounts all need to be inventoried and a plan needs to be in place to protect these assets.

Reference: Business Insider (Sep. 22, 2022) “What is estate planning? A strategy to safeguard your family and your finances, and ensure your plans for them get carried out as you wish”