Estate Planning

What’s on the Mind of Gen-Xers: Not Retirement Planning

Published on: April 26, 2018 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

A survey found that Gen Xers are less concerned about retirement planning than they are about other financial challenges.

Don’t forget that group that’s between the headline grabbing millennials and boomers: Generation Xers, Americans between ages 36-55. A survey from the IRA (Insured Retirement Institute) appears to have uncovered a significant knowledge gap in this group when it comes to personal finance.

Think Advisor’s recent article, “These 3 Threats Scare Gen Xers More Than Basic Retirement Costs: IRI” explains that the survey aimed to find out how Gen Xers are handling retirement planning. The analysts who summarized Gen Xers’ approach to retirement planning said “They’re (mostly) doing it wrong.”

Are You Saving Enough for the High Cost of Assisted Living?

Published on: March 13, 2018 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

If you haven’t been saving for retirement, maybe you’ll do better if you are focused on saving for assisted living. One well known survey, 2017 Genworth Cost of Care Survey, reports that you’ll need $1,517 a month for adult day health care. Those fees are only going in one direction—up!

Adult health day care is not inexpensive in our country. If all you need is adult day health care, consider yourself lucky. It’s a bargain at more than $1500 a month, compared to $3,750 for an assisted living facility, $3,994 for home care services, and $4,099 for home health aides.

If you want some privacy, the median cost is $7,148 for a semiprivate room at a nursing home and $8,121 for a private room. Will you be able afford it? Wealth Advisor poses this question in its recent article, “Have Clients Planned For Long-Term Care?”

Have the Discussion Now About Inheritance and Estate Plans

Published on: February 26, 2018 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

This is easier in some families than others, but discussing your parent’s estate plan and assets while they can still have that conversation is important for millennials.

Think of it this way: you can have an awkward conversation with your parents now and everyone can get more comfortable with the discussion and the topic, or you can launch into a screaming match when Mom and Dad are gone, the family is grieving and there are no parents around to soothe embattled siblings.

No matter how you look at it, this conversation will be uncomfortable. This is because it’s based on one ominous certainty: that the people we love are going to die.

Best Time to Start on a Succession Plan? The Day You Start Your Business

Published on: November 15, 2017 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

It may sound whimsical, but the moment you open a business is also the time to start thinking about how you’ll exit the business, whether you intend to sell to a partner, leave the entire business to a family member or sell as soon as you come up with the next big idea.

One of the biggest mistakes made by entrepreneurs is failing to create a written plan for their long-term exit strategy. What they don’t understand is that by creating a succession plan, which includes ways to boost the value of the business years before you want to sell or retire, they’ll have a created a road map for a more successful business.

Springfield (MO) Business Journal’s recent article, “Starting a business? Plan your exit now,” advises that you begin with creating a culture of success with your employees, especially the key people. That means fostering an ownership mentality, so they see their critical role in the company’s long-term success and their role in helping that to continue in the future, long and short term.

What You Need to Know About Wills

Published on: September 29, 2017 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Your best bet for making or changing a will, is to sit down with an experienced estate planning attorney, so that your will won’t be invalid. Mistakes in wills are not easily fixed.

Having an estate plan in place and discussing your estate plan with your loved ones in advance, can help eliminate some of the emotional turmoil that accompanies death. The South Coast Register from down under offers some worthwhile suggestions in “Dying to Know Day: Wills and won’ts of estate planning.”

A will is a legal document that lets you choose the relatives, friends, and charities who you want to inherit your assets when you die.

Why Life Expectancy Is Important to Financial Planning

Published on: September 27, 2017 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Statistically speaking, women live longer and earn less than men. That makes financial and retirement planning far more important for women.

It’s not pleasant to contemplate, but because women often take time out from their careers to raise children or take care of elderly parents and still earn less than their male colleagues, their life-time income is usually lower than the average male. While both sexes need to do financial and retirement planning, women are more likely to find themselves facing financial difficulties as they age.

The Marietta Daily Journal’s article, “With women living longer, more financial planning may be needed,” notes that while the gender pay gap is narrowing, in 2015 women earned 83% of what men earned, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. This can mean that women get fewer Social Security benefits, save less for retirement, and have smaller pensions. Women are also more likely to live on their own in their senior years, either by choice, divorce or the death of a spouse.

More Changes Coming to Medicare in 2018

Published on: August 10, 2017 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Higher fees are coming to high earners, when income thresholds for the highest surcharge tiers drop even further next year.

If you were hit with premium surcharges for Medicare Part B and Part D already, these costs will increase again in 2018, according to a recent article in Kiplinger, “Medicare Surcharge Thresholds to Drop.”

This recalibration of the trigger points was a part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, also called the "Doc Fix" law, which ended the annual battles over fee schedules for doctors' Medicare payments. To help pay for the permanent fix, lawmakers have asked high-income beneficiaries to foot the bill.

Fake Law Firm Website Scamming Seniors in Houston

Published on: July 31, 2017 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Here’s another reason to meet with your estate planning attorney face-to-face. An overseas-based scam is targeting the elderly with a website that uses photos and content stolen from real law firm websites.

A website purporting to be an estate planning law firm is the subject of a lawsuit from the Houston Bar Association, which is trying to get the site shut down. According to the Houston Chronicle, the fake firm, which calls itself Walsh & Padilla, is targeting elderly people and offering estate planning services.

In reality, the ABA Journal notes, in its article, “Fake law firm website uses real lawyers' pictures to fleece consumers, bar lawsuit says,” the scheme’s website appears to be operated from South Africa and uses photos of lawyers taken from real law firm websites. The scammers mail letters to elderly people telling them they’ll be getting life insurance proceeds, after they provide their bank account numbers and other financial details. One senior was scammed out of $14,000, the lawsuit says.

Your Mid-Year Estate Planning Checklist: 10 Things You Should be Doing Now

Published on: June 29, 2017 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Here is a helpful checklist of the top ten ways to keep your estate plan current.

Review your existing Will and any trust agreements. Over the course of a year our personal and our professional lives can change dramatically. Tax laws and regulations are also subject to change as new political administrations come into office. It is therefore important to periodically make sure that your documents will work the way you want them to. Some questions to ask: Is your plan tax efficient? Do you need to make any changes about the timing and manner in which your assets will transfer to your beneficiaries? Do you need to change any beneficiaries or add anybody new? These are all basic questions to keep in mind when reviewing your existing documents.
Consider whether your named fiduciaries are still appropriate. Your executors and trustees will be tasked with some significant responsibility. You should consider whether the persons you appointed in your documents are up to the tasks that lie ahead of them or if an alternate person or persons should be appointed.

Strong Trust Planning is Important When One Spouse is Not a U.S. Citizen

Published on: May 17, 2017 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

With many tech companies, universities and businesses, North Carolina has become home to many resident aliens who contribute greatly to the state’s growth. Estate planning requires special knowledge of non-citizen tax rules.

More than $1 billion in annual foreign direct investment gives North Carolina’s private sector employment a huge boost, as reported in Trust Advisor’s recent article, “Foreign Spouses Need Strong Trust Planning.” That includes hundreds of thousands of workers, individuals who are not U.S. citizens but who establish residence here.

They’re known as “resident aliens” under U.S. tax law. There are also nonresident, non-U.S. citizens (“nonresident aliens”) who will invest in real and personal property situated in the state. This can include a wide variety of real and personal property, from vacation homes to ownership interests in a holding or operating company.