Mark Twain was right. He passed away one day after the comet’s closest approach to earth. A month later, his last will and testament was admitted by a Connecticut probate court appointing three friends as executor trustees to administer his estate. According to the article “Who will advocate for your estate?” appearing in 83 degrees, his estate plan choices turned out to be a terrible mistake.
As parent’s age, it becomes more important for their children or another trusted adult to start helping them with their finances and their legal documents, especially an estate plan. In “Six tips for managing an elderly parent’s finances,” ABC7 On Your Side presents the important tasks that need to be done.
A family has set up their estate plan. Two sons are already in the farming business and are thriving. Their daughter will receive the proceeds from a second-to-die life insurance policy and their considerable savings. The amounts are not equal in amount, but they are an equitable inheritance, and it seems like the couple has done its homework.
However, asks an article in The Courier, “The will is done, you’re sitting pretty—but are you?”
When you buy, sell, or transfer ownership of a property to another, you need to be aware of what type of deed a property has, and what type of deed to use when you transfer your interest in a property to someone else.
The phrase “sandwich generation” is used to describe people who are caring for their parents and their children at the same time. The number of people who fall into this category is growing, according to an article from The Motley Fool, “How to Help Your Parents Retire Without Derailing Your Own Retirement.” A survey found that about 16% of Americans are currently caring for an elderly relative, and this number is expected to double within the next five years.
What’s worse, very few people are planning for this situation.
There are some people who sign their will once in their life and never change it. They may have executed their estate plan late in life, or after they were diagnosed with a serious disease. However, even if your family life and finances are pretty basic, there are still changes in the law that you may need to incorporate into your estate plan. Some of the people that you named in your will could also have died or moved away.
Once there has been a diagnosis of dementia, there are a number of issues that families need to address, including legal issues. The best way to approach this task, says being patient in the article “Alzheimer’s and the Law” is to meet with an estate planning attorney who can guide the family in planning for the future, and creating the needed documents.
A recent study by Ameriprise Financial found that more than one-third of adult children say they haven’t had a conversation about their parents’ long-term financial goals. Even though discussing this delicate topic may seem uncomfortable, addressing it now can help avoid challenges and uncertainty in the future. To that end, the Ameriprise Family Wealth Checkup study found that those who talk about money matters, feel more confident about their financial future.
If you’re like most people, you opened that IRA many years ago. You may not have any idea who you named as your beneficiary. If you have a copy in your files, there’s something you need to do, says The Mercury News in the article “No beneficiary designation for an IRA? Here’s what can happen.” It’s time to dig into your records and take a look.
Here’s a scenario that happens often. A man receives an inheritance, and he decides to use it to purchase the family home outright. His wife has signed a quitclaim deed to put the property into her husband’s trust. The understanding was that if the husband died before the wife, she would be permitted to stay in the home until her own death. The problem, says The Washington Post in this recent article “Make sure you and your spouse are on same page on who will inherit your home,” is that the husband never signed the living trust.
