Immediate Benefits of Estate Planning

Many people think that estate planning only has benefits far in the future.

That is wrong.

Here are some of the immediate benefits:

The satisfaction of a job well done.

You will learn how much equity you have, how much cash is coming in, and how much cash is going out each and every month.  Just like a business, you will have a cash flow analysis and a balance sheet.

Your unease of what may happen in the future will evaporate.  You will know that plans have been made.

You are being proactive, not reactive.  You have the right to know what will happen and the order it will happen in.  You should know who will be in charge of the finances and medical decisions.

You make sure your values will continue and are known to your family now.  If you don’t then your family may regret that you never shared family stories, history, and values.

Estate planning can open up new lines of communication for a family that you didn’t even know existed.  Just the process of creating a plan makes families communicate in new ways about new things.

You have the freedom to express yourself and make sure your views and values are expressed.

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Shorter Posts

After looking back on past posts, they are really long and hard to read.  They take too much time out of a busy person’s day.

In the future, I will break things up into series, keeping each one to no more than a 5 minute read.

-G-

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Blocking brain inflammation ‘halts Alzheimer’s disease’ – BBC News

Star Wars Characters Reimagined As Winnie The Pooh And Friends

Florida based illustrator and artist James Hance just combined Star Wars with Winnie the Pooh. Titled “Wookie the Chew,” Hance’s illustrations reimagine Chewbacca as Pooh Bear and Eeyore as an Imperial Walker, along other crossovers.

But that’s not all. Hance has also just released an audio book of the story! Be sure to check out his website to see more of his work, or Etsy, where you can buy some of these unique, “Wookie the Chew” prints.

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Keeping your estate plan up-to-date

You need to have the Adobe Flash Player to view this content. Please click here to continue. Attorney Misty Watson of the Danna McKitrick law firm stopped by Fox 2 today to give people vital information in planning their estate in case of emergency. Many people wait until the last minute to update documents such as their will, or not at all. When updating your documents, you should consider not only the property and assets that are being distributed, but also the people involved. Carefully consider beneficiaries as well as people with whom you have entrusted other responsibilities. These responsibilities include the executor of your will, trustee of a trust, power of attorney and guardian of your children. Below are possible events and circumstances that may require changes in your will or other estate planning documents: Marriage Divorce New baby/child Family member gets a diagnosis Death of a family member or beneficiary Change of guardians Reasons to do your estate plan in 2016: Substantial savings for probate fees Control of who makes decisions on your behalf Naming guardian for children A will is the only place you can name a legal guardian Reduce future taxes Recognized charities important to you (tax benefit as well)

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Disrupting Alzheimer’s And Us

The 2016 International Consumer Electronics Show is underway in Las Vegas, and tens of thousands have gathered to gawk at the latest gadgets and speculate about the wild possibilities of futuristic technologies. But while throngs of youngsters compare notes on smell-based alarm clocks and video conferencing for their pets, the most interesting stuff is happening at the Venetian, where the Digital Health Summit is taking place. Of the many provocative panels – on genomics, maternal health, big data – one stood out in particular. It was called “Disrupting Dementia,” and it asked the tech-savvy CES audience to help join the fight against Alzheimer’s. According to the panel, the first wave of technologies that have been designed to help those with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers have flopped. Technologies haven’t yet understood the real problems that people confront when they are on their Alzheimer’s journeys, and so they are of limited use. This panel tried to teach the pain-points of Alzheimer’s to the tech audience so they could understand the problems that need solving. The panel collected an impressive group of thought leaders, with Dr. Jeff Cummings from the Cleveland Clinic, Professor Alex Mihailidis from the University of Toronto, and Terry Bradwell from AARP. It was also moderated by Andrew Wright from Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, who oversees their Digital Medicines. As the next step of this critical work, the organizers of the panel announced a pitch session at 2016’s Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, where tech entrepreneurs will be able to present their […]

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Money Matters: Estate planning advice for couple worried about taxes

Q. We have a POD clause on our savings and checking accounts and a TOD on our brokerage accounts. We did this to make funds immediately available to our two children upon our death. Now we are wondering what the tax consequences of this action might be. (Will they be subject to a gift tax for amounts over $14,000 or will the amounts be added to the estate total, etc.) We didn’t check per stirpes because we weren’t sure what that meant. If we want to gift some money now to our children how much can we gift without presenting them with a tax liability? Hope you can help us sort through this. A. Just so other readers know what we are talking about, the forms you are referring to allow the assets in the accounts to pass to the named beneficiaries and these designations take precedence over any estate plans established by will or trust. A POD, or payable on death, form is used for accounts held at financial institutions such savings and CDs. For brokerage accounts you would use a TOD, or transfer on death, form. The assets transferred via a POD or TOD are usually non-probate transfers. If your accounts are held jointly, the named beneficiaries are entitled to the assets upon the death of the last surviving account holder. These are very useful forms but you need to be careful that they fit into your overall estate plan. A discussion about how these forms impact […]

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