by Thomas D. Begley, Jr., CELA

It is always difficult to move from one state to another, but when a family member has disabilities there are a number of considerations that should be addressed as early as possible.

• Health Care. Establish a “safety net” well in advance. Research the doctors, therapists and other service providers available in the new location and reach out to local advocacy organizations for referrals. Be sure your medical insurance serves the area to which you are moving. Otherwise, it may be necessary to obtain other medical insurance. Most medical insurance policies have geographic limitations.

• Special Education. If a child is receiving special education, it may be necessary to negotiate a new Individual Education Plan (IEP) and/or a 504 Plan prior to moving in order to avoid an interruption in services. The existing IEP should be forwarded to the new school district as a starting point.

• Guardianship does not automatically transfer from one state to the other. If the new home state has not signed a reciprocity agreement with the state you are leaving, transferring guardianship can be complex. Legal counsel in the state you are leaving and the state to which you are moving should be consulted to coordinate the process.

• SSI/SSDI. Simply supply the Social Security Administration with the new address on a timely basis and there should be no interruption in payments.

• SNAP (Food Stamps). SNAP is a federal program, but each state has variations. Verify the new state’s guidelines.

• Social Service Agencies. Do research and identify local providers of day care, in-home services, social programs, career assistance, and other supports.

• Estate Planning Documents. Review and update, if necessary, Wills, Special Needs Trusts, Living Trusts, Living Wills, and Powers of Attorney. Confirm that beneficiary designations are still correct.

• Motor Vehicle. Apply for a handicap vehicle permit, if required.

Estate planning lawyers in Michigan use all kinds of strategies to help protect their clients’ assets and to find ways to provide for future generations. Sometimes this is about planning for your own retirement, and other times it might include purchasing a life insurance plan, or some other proactive means of preparation. Brighton wills and trusts lawyers are responsible for helping to utilize wills and trusts to allow heirs to benefit from an estate as much as possible.

The Benefits of Living Trusts

Trusts are a great tool for protecting an estate because they provide tax benefits, privacy, and the ability to minimize drawn-out and potentially expensive probate proceedings. A wills and trusts lawyer can help you create the trust, which actually becomes its own legal entity that “owns” any assets you transfer to it. There are many trust options available, so it’s best to really go through the options with a wills and trust lawyer in Brighton, Michigan in order to determine what makes the most sense for you and your family.

Use a Will to Name Guardians

A will, on the other hand, can provide different types of protection. This is the place where you will want to name guardians for minor children or those with disabilities and to express your wishes for what should happen to your property after you pass away. Even if you have a will, your estate will still need to go through the probate process, which usually starts by establishing that the will itself is valid. The best way to move forward will be to work with a wills and trusts lawyer to develop both a will and one or more trusts. In fact, the will itself can even be used to establish a trust upon your death. Yes, that is a lot of choices, but a Brighton wills and trusts lawyer will be able to simplify the entire process for you and offer expert advice on strategizing for the future.

Brighton wills and trusts lawyer

As an aside, wills and trusts are not the only important things you will want to discuss with your Michigan estate planning lawyer. Your estate plan should also include documents such as powers of attorney, medical directives to ensure that your choices for helpers are known should you become incapacitate or disabled. Again, a good Brighton wills and trusts lawyer is a great resource for getting things underway.

The post A Primer from Your Brighton Wills and Trust Lawyer appeared first on The Elder Care Firm.

Estate planning lawyers in Michigan use all kinds of strategies to help protect their clients’ assets and to find ways to provide for future generations. Sometimes this is about planning for your own retirement, and other times it might include purchasing a life insurance plan, or some other proactive means of preparation. Brighton wills and trusts lawyers are responsible for helping to utilize wills and trusts to allow heirs to benefit from an estate as much as possible.

The Benefits of Living Trusts

Trusts are a great tool for protecting an estate because they provide tax benefits, privacy, and the ability to minimize drawn-out and potentially expensive probate proceedings. A wills and trusts lawyer can help you create the trust, which actually becomes its own legal entity that “owns” any assets you transfer to it. There are many trust options available, so it’s best to really go through the options with a wills and trust lawyer in Brighton, Michigan in order to determine what makes the most sense for you and your family.

Use a Will to Name Guardians

A will, on the other hand, can provide different types of protection. This is the place where you will want to name guardians for minor children or those with disabilities and to express your wishes for what should happen to your property after you pass away. Even if you have a will, your estate will still need to go through the probate process, which usually starts by establishing that the will itself is valid. The best way to move forward will be to work with a wills and trusts lawyer to develop both a will and one or more trusts. In fact, the will itself can even be used to establish a trust upon your death. Yes, that is a lot of choices, but a Brighton wills and trusts lawyer will be able to simplify the entire process for you and offer expert advice on strategizing for the future.

Brighton wills and trusts lawyer

As an aside, wills and trusts are not the only important things you will want to discuss with your Michigan estate planning lawyer. Your estate plan should also include documents such as powers of attorney, medical directives to ensure that your choices for helpers are known should you become incapacitate or disabled. Again, a good Brighton wills and trusts lawyer is a great resource for getting things underway.

The post A Primer from Your Brighton Wills and Trust Lawyer appeared first on The Elder Care Firm.

Don’t die ‘intestate’ (without a will)!

Retirees often don’t understand the importance of estate planning, especially if they think their financial resources are too minimal to warrant it.

No doubt, if you do have a will, you have included specific instructions on how to distribute your assets and personal belongings. For sure, a will is a critical component to your estate, and most preferable to dying without one. The latter example is called dying intestate, and for Michigan residents, the assets are passed on to your closest relatives; this, as per the state’s “intestate succession” laws.

Obviously, without a will you will not be able to allocate assets, or your belongings to specific family members.

Estate planning is more than just having a will…

But estate planning is more than creating a viable will: it may save your beneficiaries from oodles of taxes by sheltering some of your financial assets. Indeed, it becomes the road map for looking ahead to future cash flows, asset values and withdrawal plans.

Power of attorney

A key component to most any financial plan is the creation of a power-of-attorney (POA). Mistakenly, some might think they are handing over financial decisions to an attorney, once a determination is made that you are mentally incompetent to handle your own affairs.

That is simply not so.

This document exists to give one adult the okay to take care of another adult’s finances, for example. No surprise, but Michigan law requires a written document, one that is signed voluntarily.

So, when you take that trip to Antarctica, you can have your most favorite, and trusted, nephew pay your bills, or make other financial decisions to keep you afloat while you’re gone.

More importantly, the adult who gives the ‘ok’ for another adult to handle their finances must be competent when they sign the document (“And you’re going where?”)

The ‘POA’ is not a health care directive.

A common misperception is that this document allows the signer to make your health care decisions for you when you are unable to perform such duties. Not so.

So, does that mean you should have a ‘Living Will,’ (LW), or advanced healthcare directive?

Michigan does not recognize a LW, or advanced directive, but the law does say it is okay for you to designate a patient advocate as a member of your “health care team.”

Understanding federal estate tax limits

It’s important to approach the estate planning process diligently, beginning with an understanding of the current federal and state exemption limits. For example, in 2015 the new federal estate tax limits pushes the amount an individual can give their heirs without owing federal estate tax to $5.43 million.

Because a retiree’s investment portfolio may include quite a collection of mutual funds, stocks, Treasury bills, etc, it’s imperative to update current beneficiaries. For example, make sure your IRAs, 401(k)s and insurance policies have the correct name and addresses of the beneficiaries.

Living Trusts

Another term for the living trust is the  inter vivos trust—it’s Latin for ‘between the living.’

Specifically, it describes a trust set up by you, the grantor, during your lifetime. And the person, or business, who is ‘holding’ your property, and financial assets, is called the trustee. Again, don’t mistake this trust as a healthcare directive, which Michigan does not recognize—remember to bring in a patient advocate to carry out your healthcare wishes.

Learn more about the intricacies of estate planning, and how important it is to have an experienced hand guiding you through the whole process. Contact us to make an appointment.

The post Estate planning covers more than just creating a ‘will.’ appeared first on Estate Planning Lawyers | Elder Law Attorneys | Brighton | Novi | Livonia Elder Law Attorneys.

The “Why”  Of Estate Planning

Before you drop thousands of dollars in developing a revocable living trust based plan, it’s important to think about why you’re doing the planning in the first place.  Oftentimes, it is about protection.  Protecting beneficiaries and loved ones from not only their poor financial mismanagement, but also protecting against the outside environment (law suits, creditor actions, divorces, etc).

Incentives in Living Trusts

A great way to pass the values of one generation to the next is through the use of incentives in the trust.  An incentive is designed to encourage or discourage certain behaviors in the beneficiaries by using distributions of trust income or principal as a tool to try to exert control over the beneficiary.  Basically, these are inheritances that have strings attached to receiving the inheritance.

Many Michigan families use incentives as a way to pass values and try to shape character of the beneficiaries.

For example, including a provision that gives a bonus to a beneficiary if they graduate college within 4 years.

Examples of Incentive Trust Purposes

There are a variety of ways to use incentive trust language inside of living trusts in Michigan.  Here are a few examples.

Education

The use of incentive trust language is commonly used for educational purposes.  The idea is to provide additional support to those heirs who wish to pursue advanced degrees, finish college in a certain period of time, or push beneficiaries into certain fields of study.  Incentive language could even be used to reward outstanding achievement or scholarship.

Moral and Family Values

Another use of incentives in revocable living trusts revolve around passing down family values by providing income or support payments to heirs who choose to follow a certain lifestyle.  For example, staying at home with children.  There could also be additional bonuses based on the number of children or if a family adopts children.

On the flip side, there could be a removal or less benefits for those beneficiaries who fail to meet certainly requirements.  An example of this would be with holding benefits from those heirs who might be convicted of a crime or fail a drug test.

Business or Career Choices

Some of our business owner clients want to reward the entrepreneurial spirit by using incentives in revocable living trusts to help their beneficiaries start up or commit to carrying on the family business.  The incentives in the trust could be tailored to encourage or discourage career choices and offer financial support to beneficiaries who opt to follow paths that are personally and socially rewarding, but might not be as financially lucrative.

Charitable or Religious Choices

Some clients wish to reward their beneficiaries who make certain religious or charitable choices.  By building incentives into revocable living trusts, beneficiaries can receive extra support for dues or other costs associated with religious participation, missionary work or charitable work.  Another example would be matching funds for heirs’ contributions to favored charitable, religious or non-profit organizations.

Things to Remember about Incentive Trusts

There are a few things to keep in mind if you plan to include incentive language inside of a revocable living trust in Michigan.

By placing incentive’s in the trust you are limiting some of the flexibility that the trustee has in making discretionary distributions.  To much structure does not allow the trustee the flexibility if life throws an unforeseen curveball.

In building in incentives in a revocable living trust it is important to follow a few guidelines.  First, keep the planning clear and concise with the goals of the incentives.  Next, make sure there is clear and measurable criteria.  Third, be careful who you choose as a trustee to administer the trust.  Last, try to build in flexibility into the document.

Contact a Michigan Certified Elder Law Attorney to Set up an Incentive Trust

Give our law firm a call if you’re a Michigan resident looking to build in incentives in your revocable living trust.

The post Michigan Incentive Trusts | How to Pass Values to the Next Generation appeared first on Estate Planning Lawyers | Elder Law Attorneys | Brighton | Novi | Livonia Elder Law Attorneys.