Guardianship Abuse | How you can Protect Yourself

Summary: Courts, legislatures and attorneys general are continuing to come face-to-face with the ongoing scourge that is the misuse of guardianship legal proceedings in order to abuse seniors. While this abuse can often involve the loss of a senior's personal autonomy, it also often involves financial abuse, as well. There are certain things seniors can do to protect themselves, especially when it comes to estate planning. But taking pro-active steps to to put a complete estate plan into place, you can better protect yourself from the possibility of someone using the legal system against in order to seize control of your wealth.   

Another state is taking on the monumental task of trying to reform its system of adult guardianship and conservatorship. In this case, that state, as reported by the Associated Press in October 2016, is Nevada. That pursuit of reform came on the heels of a 15-month study into the system, which revealed far too many stories of "'abuse, fear and distrust' in the program." The state's Attorney General, who also promised to attack the problem, promised to do what his office could to prevent guardians from swindling the people they were supposed to be protecting.

The "flash point" that helped trigger this action was series of newspaper reports in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which exposed a considerable amount of this abuse that was going on. "Some of the cases were just horrible to read," Barbara Buckley, the executive director of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, told the newspaper. "Individuals in this situation are being stripped of their civil liberties, the right to run their life as they see fit, without anyone speaking to them or advocating on their behalf."

Other states have discovered similar problems and have sought to put reforms into place to stop this abuse. One of the earliest sources splotlighting this problem of guardianship abuse was a book entitled, "The Retirement Nightmare," by Diane G. Armstrong. Originally published, in 2000, Armstrong's book sounded the alarm regarding how this previously relatively little-known part of the legal system was being abused to strip away seniors' rights and wealth.

In her book, Armstrong outlined several vital, and easy, steps people can take to reduce or eliminate their risk of being the subject of an unwanted and unneeded guardianship proceeding. Although the author published her book 16 years ago, her advice when it comes to estate planning is just as useful today as it was in 2000. First, Armstrong recommends "working with the right attorney." This of course, is key. An attorney experienced in the law of estate planning can give a full picture of the legal options available to you for your estate and make helpful recommendations regarding what estate planning tools will (or won't) help you achieve your planning objectives.

In her second and third points, Armstrong highlights executing the proper legal documents to carry out your planning goals. These documents, which make up a complete estate plan, include a will, a power of attorney for financial decisions, a power of attorney for healthcare decisions, a living will. Depending on your situation, you plan may also include a revocable living trust.

A living trust is often best-known for its potential benefits when it comes to avoiding probate. But a living trust may also offer a degree of protection when it comes to an involuntary guardianship, as well. Sometimes, people go to court asking a judge to declare your mentally incompetent and appoint someone to manage your assets (often known as a conservator or guardian of the estate,) in order to take the control of your assets away from you and put it in their hands. A living trust may help you avoid this potential pitfall. Your properly funded living trust may be able to help even if this were to happen. That's because, in your revocable living trust, you likely named yourself as the initial trustee and named one (or hopefully multiple) successor trustee(s,) whom the trust stated would take over managing the trust if you died or were declared incompetent. Therefore, even if a judge did make such a declaration, all that would happen in your case is that the management of your assets would pass from you to the person you named as your successor trustee when you signed your trust document. 

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.com. 

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Joint Tenancy With Right of Survivorship | Possibly a Risky Proposition

Summary: There are many techniques that can help you avoid the potential costs and delays of probate. Just because all of these techniques can be entirely effective at avoiding probate does not, however, mean that they are all equal. With some of these techniques, the benefits of probate avoidance come with a downside of greater risks -- risks that your planning goals may be stymied, or that plan could end up requiring costly and time-consuming court litigation to sort out.   

Joint tenancy with right of survivorship (JTWROS) accounts, as well as pay-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts, can be wonderfully useful tools in some situations. Sometimes, they can even make up a helpful part of your overall estate planning. In certain circumstances, they can be a simple and low-maintenance way ensure that your assets pass to your desired beneficiaries without the hassles, costs and delays of probate administration. However, in many other situations, they can be risky. They pose the potential of having your money wind up in the hands of people other than the ones you wanted or, only less problematically, requiring expensive and stressful court litigation in order to get your wealth to the beneficiaries that you wanted to have it.

Take, for example, a case decided by the courts in September 2016. The case involved the estate of man named John, who was a senior in declining health in the final years of his life. He had both a checking account and a savings account. He had several people listed on his checking account as authorized signors. They included, in addition to John, his daughter, a grandson and the grandson's wife. On the savings account, authorized signors included John, the daughter and the grandson's wife.   

The problems arose shortly after John died. First, the grandson withdrew $22,000 from John's checking account. The grandson's wife then withdrew nearly $26,000 from John's savings account. This sum of almost $48,000 represented roughly 50% of the total amount in the two accounts combined. The couple claimed that they were entitled to the money because the accounts were joint accounts with right of surviviorship. In an account that is truly a JTWROS, all of the "tenants," or owners of the account, have equal claims to the account's assets in the event of the death of the account holders. 

Using these types of accounts as a probate-avoidance technique can be harmful in some situations. They can potentially put your wealth at risk if the person you've added to your account decides to use the account funds for his own purposes, rather than your goals. Alternately, even if the person you've added to your account is above reproach, your assets could still be at risk if that person divorces or is successfully sued by someone.

In John's case, the problem was a lack of clarity. If the account truly was a JTWROS asset, then the grandson and his wife had the legal right to withdraw the funds that they withdrew. However, John's daughter, in her lawsuit, claimed that the grandson and wife were not joint tenants; they were only added to John's accounts as signatories as a convenience to John. Ultimately, the courts sided with the daughter. The trial court ruled that the grandson and wife didn't have any evidence to show that John intended for the money in his checking and savings to pass to the daughter, grandson and grandson's wife as a JTWROS account would. If the outcome reached by the courts was not what John intended, then at least some of the objectives of his estate plan were frustrated. Even if the outcome did reflect John's goals for the money in his checking and savings, it took an expensive and time-consuming court battle to achieve this end.      

Careful planning can potentially help you avoid an unfavorable situation like what happened with this man's estate. There are ways to create a plan that will take the guesswork out of your planning goals. One example is a revocable living trust, which can allow you to dictate, with great specificity, exactly what you want to achieve with regard to each of your assets and each of your beneficiaries. In addition to this, it can also benefit you by avoiding probate while also sidestepping some of the risks involved with other probate-avoidance techniques like JTWROS accounts.   

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.com. 

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Revocable Living Trust | Your Estate Plan Can Protect You in Many Ways, Some of Which May Surprise You

Summary: Many people are aware that some forms of estate planning can offers a certain type of protection as one of their benefits; namely, protection. But they may also do more. They may protect you from the potential costs and delays of probate administration, they may protect you from the loss of privacy deriving from having the details of your estate become public record, they may possibly protect you from potentially unnecessary and stressful conservatorships proceedings in court, and they may even potentially protect you from claims by people professing to be your heirs who were left out of your plan. Properly drafted and implemented, a complete estate plan can do many things for you and your family, probably even more than you would have thought.           

A lot of people who are familiar with estate planning know that you can plan to avoid probate. Planning to avoid probate can help save you time, money and stress, as probate administration can be drawn out and expensive. An estate plan with a revocable living trust isn't the only way to avoid probate administration, but an estate plan with a living trust and its companion, the "pour over" will, can accomplish several other ends that may have great value for you. 

This form of planning may also protect your privacy. In many locations, probate administration case files are public record, meaning that anyone potentially can look at the contents of your estate simply by requesting your estate's file from the court clerk. If, however, your wealth is funded into a living trust, you avoid this as, in most states, living trusts and the distribution of their assets are not matters of public record and their details cannot be accessed by anyone with a file number. In addition, a plan with a properly funded living trust may be able to reduce the possibility of needing to go to court to seek appointment of a conservator to make financial decisions on your behalf should you become mentally incapacitated and be unable to make decisions for yourself. With a living trust, the management of your funded assets transfers seamlessly from you to the successor trustee you chose if you become incapacitated.

However, your estate plan with a living trust may provide you with an additional protection that is not as well known: protection against people claiming to be your long-lost children in order to get a portion of your wealth. Generally, the law assumes that all parents want to leave something to all of their children. So, in general, the laws have a default inheritance for children. This means that, if someone who isn’t in your will goes to court claiming to be your child, and the judge rules that they are legally your child, then they may get a “cut” of your estate. 

In some states, though, that rule applies only to a person’s probate estate. Oklahoma, for example, has explicitly ruled that these “pretermitted heirs” rights to a distribution do not extend to the assets funded into a living trust. In other words, if someone files a court claim alleging that they are your long-lost “love child,” and you have a fully funded living trust, then it doesn’t matter what the court decides about that person’s parentage, they still cannot take anything from your trust.

All this goes to show that proper estate planning, including the possibility of incorporating a living trust into your plan, has many potential benefits and multiple ways in which your plan can be a value protector to both you and your family.

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.com. 

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Creating An Estate Plan | Don't Procrastinate Getting an Estate Plan, But if You Have, Don't Give Up!

Summary: When it comes to estate planning, the best time to act is right away. Acting promptly protects you from the many unexpected things that can crop up in life, whether they involve a loss of mental capacity or even sudden death. However, even if you've waited and your mental abilities are not what they used to be, do not simply assume that you are no longer allowed to create or update an estate plan. It is always best to consult experienced professionals who can explain exactly what the rules and what you are (or are not) allowed to do. You may have more options than you would have thought.

Helen Weste was a divorced woman living in New Jersey. When she reached her mid 60s, she executed a will. That will split Weste's assets between her sister, eight nieces and nephews and two charities. By 2001, Helen's health and mental sharpness started to decline. By April 2002, doctors diagnosed Weste with severe dementia. The family decided to move Weste into an assisted living facility. Earlier that year, Weste, who was 74 by this point, visited an attorney about her estate plan. She signed the new document in March 2002. That will left a small portion of her estate to one of the charities and two of the nieces, but gave her home and 90% of her remaining estate to John Brek, a neighbor who had befriended Weste and performed odd jobs around her house. The new will also named Brek as executor.

After Weste died in March 2010, the family admitted the 1994 will to probate. In 2011, Brek sought to probate the 2002 will. One of the nieces, Joanne Halkovich, challenged Brek's request to probate the newer will. She argued that her aunt lacked the mental capacity required to execute a will when she signed the newer will. Both sides had competing expert opinions regarding Weste's mental functioning. The niece had an expert who testified that Weste did not understand either who the recipients of her new will were or the volume of her assets. She also presented records from her aunt's treatment in April 2002, just a month after she signed the newer will. Those doctors rated Weste on a numerical functioning scale where 21-30 was considered "severe problems," and they gave Weste a score of 20. 

On the other hand, Brek also had an expert, and this psychologist testified that Weste had testamentary capacity. Weste's attorney also testified, stating that he'd been practicing law for more than three decades and had no doubt that Weste had the required mental capacity. The New Jersey courts ultimately sided with Brek. The requirement for testamentary capacity is a low bar. The trial judge pointed out that Weste was still living alone when she made the newer will, and if she had the functioning ability to live alone and care for herself, she had the capacity to make a will. The appeals court upheld that conclusion

Obviously, the best time to create or update your estate is.... NOW! Chances are very low that your clarity of mind will be higher in the future than it is today, but there is a very real chance that your mental functioning could decline in the future. Furthermore, none of us are promised tomorrow, meaning that you should get your current estate planning goals placed into valid written legal documents right away, so that you are prepared for whatever the future might bring.

However, if you've procrastinated, don't turn that error into a double mistake by thinking that the degree to which you've declined during that time of procrastination means that the door has been totally shut on your creating or updating your plan. Perhaps the biggest lesson to be taken from the case of Weste's will is that, in general, most states have a very low bar on what level of mental functioning you have to have in order to create or alter an estate plan document. Don't assume. Go out and seek definitive answers from experienced estate planning professionals. You'll be glad for the information and you may find out the answers are more favorable than you would have thought.    

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.com. 

This article written and published by:

Legacy Assurance Plan

8039 Cooper Creek Blvd

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Revocable Living Trusts | How a Popular Radio Financial Advisor's Misconceptions Reveal Common Errors People Make

Summary: There are a lot of misconceptions people have regarding living trusts. Sometimes, even experienced (and well-known) financial planners can hold and speak some of these misconceptions. By looking closely at what the law allows you to do with a living trust (or any estate planning tool), you can get a better understanding of how these tools really can work for you and whether or not including them in your plan makes sense for you. Despite what some may say, a properly drafted living trust can allow you to maintain exactly as much control over your assets after you've funded them into your trust as you had before. 

Dave Ramsey is, according to Wikipedia, "an American businessman, author, radio host, television personality, and motivational speaker," and he is a highly successful one at that. His radio show is heard across 500 stations and his financial advice courses have been attended by countless people. His advice has helped many people overcome financial problems, especially when it comes to overcoming the potentially crushing burden of excessive debt.

Just like all of us, however, Ramsey is not infallible. When it comes to the issue of estate planning and the use of revocable living trusts, his statements reveal some misconceptions that are common among some professionals and lay people alike. By looking at some of his misconceptions, you can get a better picture of the estate planning options that exist and whether or not they could potentially benefit you.

In his book The Legacy Journey, Ramsey writes that "living trusts require you to move your assets from under your own control to a trust before your death. As a result, even basic financial decisions – like adjusting investments, managing bank accounts, giving to charities, and buying or selling real estate – have to go through a trustee because the trust legally owns everything." While Ramsey's statements are not outright falsehoods, they seem to demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of how living trusts can, and many do, work.

His description of how living trusts work is technically accurate in a certain sense, but it is also potentially very misleading. It is true that, if you create, execute and fund a living trust, you as an individual have relinquished control of those assets. That is exactly how trusts help you avoid probate... by moving those assets from legal ownership by you as an individual (which is how your assets are exposed to probate) to legal ownership by your trust (and avoid probate). But here's the thing: setting up such an arrangement does not mean that you have to give up actual control of your assets. 

The law allows you to customize your trust in a great many ways, with lots of options regarding when and to whom you distribute your wealth, as well as who is in charge of your trust. You can, and many people do, set up a living trust where you are the trustee from the time you set up the trust until the day you die or become mentally incapacitated. When Ramsey says that establishing and funding a living trust means moving control of your assets from you to a trustee, he's technically correct, but here's the thing: that trustee who takes over control of your assets --- it's you if you've named yourself as the trustee of your trust. In other words, all you do when set up a living trust like this is move the control of your assets from you as an individual to you as a trustee of your trust. You have no less control that you did before, and you can choose to maintain that level of control right until you die or become mentally incapacitated.

  

Ramsey also described living trusts in his book as "an up sell in the estate planning world" that is, in his words, "expensive" and "unnecessary." While he is correct that, in most cases, an estate plan with a living trusts costs more than one without a trust, a living trust is certainly not in the same class as, say, a fancy sunroof on your new car. 

As most people familiar with estate planning know. your living trust can help you avoid probate. In some states, the simple fact that your estate avoids probate can, by itself, pay for the cost of your living trust many times over. As an example, consider California. Some California estate planning lawyers have estimated that the average probate administration process costs the heirs roughly 5% of the value of the gross estate. So, if you have a $500,000 gross estate, then probate could cost you around $25,000. (And that's just on average!)

Additionally, there are other collateral benefits of living trusts that Ramsey overlooks. One of these is privacy. Certainly, some people may not care about all of the details of their estate becoming public record as part of their probate court case file, but a lot of people might look upon avoiding this outcome as an important goal as it relates to protecting their privacy and the privacy of their loved ones. Living trusts can do that in most locations. In most states, a probate case file, which has to be opened to probate a will, is public record; on the other hand, no such court case file is required to be opened to settle your trust and distribute its assets.   

Furthermore, you can also potentially enjoy greater control over the distribution of your wealth by using a trust. With a will, the entirety of an heir's distribution is given to him or her as soon as the probate process is complete. If you'd like to give your loved ones their distributions in portions spread out over a longer period of time, a trust can help with that, while a plan that relies upon a will cannot.

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.com. 

This article written and published by:

Legacy Assurance Plan

8039 Cooper Creek Blvd

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844.306.5272 (Phone)

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@assuranceplan

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Estate Planning | The National Elections and Their Impact on Your Estate Plan

Summary: There are many things that can influence your estate plan and indicate a need for a change to your plan. That's why estate plan "checkups" are so important; they give you an opportunity to take a closer look at these events and how they impact the plans you've made. Sometimes the influential event is a change in your life; sometimes it's a change in the law. Whenever the country elects a new president, that election's result could impact the laws related to estate planning. That is especially true in 2016, as the outcome of this election could greatly impact the estate tax laws and, for some people, necessitate a significant re-analysis of the plans they've made.  

The two major party candidates appear to have significantly different visions of what the federal estate tax should look like under their leadership. Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton has proposed an increase in the estate tax rate. Under the Clinton plan, an estate that owed estate taxes would pay between 45 and 65 percent, depending on the size of that estate. Additionally, Clinton's plan would make a broader range of estates obligated to pay the tax. Currently, the estate tax exemption is $5.45 million for an individual, or $10.9 million for a couple. Clinton's plan would drop that exemption to $3.5 million for individuals, the lowest the exemption amount has been since 2009.

Republican nominee Donald Trump's plan calls for a complete elimination of the estate tax, but would impose a different tax at death in certain cases. Under Trump's plan, the federal government would impose a capital gains tax at death on assets in an estate that had appreciated in value over time. This would mean that anything from collectible fine art to investment holdings could be taxed at a rate just below 20%. The Trump plan would, however, carve out a $10 million exemption for small businesses and family farms.    

The leading candidate outside the two major party nominees is Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party. Johnson's tax plan calls for a complete elimination of the estate tax, along with all income and payroll taxes. Under Johnson's plan, they would be replaced with a national consumption tax commonly known as the "Fair Tax." 

Each of these candidate's plan would obviously have a dramatically different impact on the planning of one's estate. Were Johnson to become president and enact his plan, there would be no need for any sort of estate planning to eliminate or minimize estate tax obligations, as no potential tax obligation would exist. Were Trump to become president and enact his plan, there might be a substantial need for some people to significantly alter their estate plans. If, for example, the Trump plan only imposed its capital gains tax on assets located inside a deceased person's probate estate, then the establishment of this plan might, for a substantial range of people, greatly expand the benefits of utilizing trusts as part of their estate plans. The Trump plan might also create other new techniques for minimizing or eliminating the death-triggered capital gains tax proposed under his plan.

If, as many pollsters forecast, Clinton becomes president, then many people may want to re-visit their estate plans. Currently, a married couple can potentially pass $10.9 million ($5.45 million each) of wealth at death without paying federal estate tax. Clinton's plan would lower the exemption to $3.5 million, or $7 million for a couple. This means that substantial number of estates that would owe nothing under the current system would be facing an estate tax obligation of between 45 and 65%. This could have dramatic impact on the considerable number of people with estates between $7 and $10.9 million, including small business owners and farmers. For these people, it would become essential to explore avenues for reducing the size of their taxable estates. These techniques can include trust planning options like Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, Qualified Personal Residence Trusts, Charitable Trusts and Grantor Retained Trusts. It may also involve establishing limited liability companies (LLCs) and/or Family Limited Partnerships (FLPs). 

Regardless of which candidate becomes president, the election reminds us that laws, including the laws impacting estate planning, can change, sometimes dramatically. Getting a periodic estate plan "checkup" can help you secure the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your plan is best equipped to deal with whatever the changed legal landscape looks like.

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.com. 

This article written and published by:

Legacy Assurance Plan

8039 Cooper Creek Blvd

University Park, Florida 34201

844.306.5272 (Phone)

info@legacyassuranceplan.com (email)

@assuranceplan

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Estate Planning Laws | Enactment of New Law Reminds Us of the Importance of Estate Plan Reviews

Summary: Very little in life is unchanging. The relationships in our lives change through death, birth, marriage and divorce, among other things. The laws change through the passage and enactment of new bills. Whether it is a new law or a life-event change, it can have an impact on your estate plan. With periodic estate plan reviews, you can gain the peace-of-mind that comes from knowing that your plan remains optimized to function at its best possible level, even after taking into account all of the changes in the law and your life that have taken place. 

Back in late May 2016, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton signed a bill into law. The signing probably was not headlines news, even in that state. But, for Minnesota pet owners, it was welcome news. With the governor's signature, Minnesota became the 50th and final state to recognize the legal validity of pet or animal trusts. Pet or animal trusts work similarly to most every other kind of trust. They allow an animal owner, whether the beneficiary is your pampered poodle or a working animal like a horse, to establish the trust agreement with that animal (or animals) as the beneficiary. The trust creator then names a trustee who manages the trust assets and the income from those assets for the benefit of that named beneficiary. With this kind of estate planning, you can ensure, not only that your animal will go to a loving home, but that the animal will have the financial resources he or she needs. 

Transfer on death deeds are a useful tool for some people who may desire to avoid probate but whose circumstances may dictate that a revocable living trust isn't right for them. These deeds work like the death beneficiary designations on your life insurance or other financial accounts. With proof of a valid transfer on death deed, along with evidence that you're the beneficiary and the previous owner has died, you can take immediate ownership of a piece of real property without requiring a probate process. More than half of the 50 states recognize these deeds. Missouri has had them since 1989. California, however, passed a new law and began recognizing them in 2016.

What do these sets of facts have in common? They are both reminders that the laws governing estate planning are not etched in stone. They change with some frequency. Some of the changes may be very minor. Others, like the creation of a new type of trust or new type of real estate deed, can be major. Regardless of whether a change created by a new law is minute or large-scale, any change can have an impact on your plan. 

A few years ago, Indiana law created a legally enforceable "Funeral Planning Directive." If you lived in Indiana and decisions like place of burial or cremation-versus-interment mattered to you, this change would be enormous to you. If, however, you had already created your Indiana estate plan before the new law passed and you thought that your were all finished with your estate planning, you might have had the potential of missing out on the benefits of this change in the law. The same is true if you, as a pet owner, had already created your Minnesota estate plan before May 2016 and ceased doing anything with your plan after you signed it.

A popular modern social media acronym is "FOMO," which is short for "fear of missing out." As someone with an estate plan, you should have FOMO -- fear of missing out on the benefits of potentially helpful changes in the law, or fear of missing out on having an optimized estate plan because you did not update your plan to account for shifts in the law or changes in your personal life. With periodic estate plan reviews, you need not have this fear, however. A routine estate plan review can help you identify life-event changes, such as marriages, divorces, deaths or births, which may indicate a need for an amendment to your plan. Reviews may also allow your estate planning team to notify you that a law has changed, and give you the opportunity to discuss with your estate planning attorney how these changes may impact your plan.

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.com. 

This article written and published by:

Legacy Assurance Plan

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