For many people, they may spend more
time with their caregivers than with all of their children and grandchildren
combined. Naturally, this closeness of proximity can lead to personal closeness
sometimes. In those situations, patient
may come to view a caregiver as an extension of his/her family and wanted to
include a distribution to the caregiver in his/her estate plan.
If that caregiver is a non-relative, you
may decide you want to include him/her in your plan. If that caregiver is a
relative, such as a child or a grandchild, your plan may already include that
relative, but you might decide you want to honor your relationship with that
relative by giving him/her a larger portion of your wealth than your other
children/grandchildren.
In this, as with any non-traditional
estate plan objective, there are two things that are key: communication and
careful planning. In many families, it may be helpful to sit down with all of
your immediate family and explain your planning objectives and why they are
what they are. Remind your family of all the time and effort your caregiver has
expended and selflessness he/she has shown, and explain why it means so much to
you to honor that in your plan. The laws in some states have been changed to
make estate plan contents much easier for the challenger to win where the
beneficiary in dispute is a caregiver. (Illinois, for example, made changes to
its laws in 2015 that make it very easy for a relative to win a contest against
a caregiver if the distribution the caregiver was to receive amounted to more
than $20,000.)
Planning is also vital. If you are
planning to create an uneven distribution among relatives (such as favoring a
caregiver child/grandchild over other children/grandchildren,) or making a
distribution to a non-relative caregiver, there may be ways to increase your
odds of accomplishing your goals successfully. In some states, it may help you
to use a living trust in your estate plan. In most places, living trusts
generally offer more privacy than traditional wills and are generally harder to
contest successfully than wills. If you anticipate a challenge (even after
communicating with your loved ones,) this tool may be helpful to achieving your
goals.
In other states, though, other
techniques may be preferable. As noted above, some states (like Illinois in
2015) have altered their laws to make it somewhat difficult for a patient’s
plan to reward a caregiver to survive a plan contest. In states like that, your
estate planning attorney may have important advice on how to achieve your
desires. You may be able to reduce the odds of a successful challenge by
creating written documentation that establishes proof that you were competent
and that your plan represents your genuine desires, free of any duress, fraud
or undue influence. Alternately, your attorney may be able to suggest other
options, such as providing a gift to your caregiver during your lifetime, which
would avoid the pitfalls of these new laws (as they generally apply only to
death transfers...
In the end, this type of plan requires
many of the same things that most any plan does: clear communication, careful
planning and working with the right experienced estate planning attorney.
This article is published by the Legacy Assurance Plan and is intended for general informational purposes only. Some information may not apply to your situation. It does not, nor is it intended, to constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney regarding any specific questions about probate, living probate or other estate planning matters. Legacy Assurance Plan is an estate planning services-company and is not a lawyer or law firm and is not engaged in the practice of law. For more information about this and other estate planning matters visit our website at www.legacyassuranceplan.comwww.legacyassuranceplan.com.
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