Estate Planning

Why It’s Important for Houston’s Young Couples to Consider Estate Planning

Published on: May 9, 2016 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Many young couples choose to hold off on estate planning because they feel they are too young to worry about estate planning and death. Maybe it’s because they think they don’t have enough assets to begin an estate plan or they just don’t want to think about death and what may happen to their minor children. However, having minor children is reason enough to being the estate planning process. And being young and healthy is not a “get out of jail free” card when it comes to death, as Houston accidents happen all the time.

If you have minor children, you should consider initiating the estate planning process immediately. While it’s not the easiest topic to discuss, it’s one of the most important things you can do for your family. The estate planning process is not too difficult, and it helps to be prepared before you start. The process is much easier when you know what is expected of you:

Name a trusted individual to be the executor of your estate.

Don’t Wait for a Rainy Day to Get Organized, Especially Not in Houston

Published on: May 6, 2016 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Yes, you have an organizational style. It may be chaos, or it may be hyper-organized. Either way it is still a style. Moving from paper to digital feels more organized, but it also requires management.

There are a number of different ways to approach any problem, including getting financial documents in order. Some people pile papers in a stack, promising to get to them some rainy day that doesn't seem to arrive. Others are calendar driven, filing and shredding at the end of every quarter. Still others hoard documents, shoving them in overstuffed filing cabinets. Millennials keep nothing on paper, operating under the expectation that any needed documents will be easily downloaded when they are needed.

Morningstar's article "How to Organize Your Financial Documents" acknowledges that it's getting easier to go with option three and rely exclusively on digital resources to manage and track your financial accounts and pay bills. Financial services will remind us that paperless is the green way to go. Assuming you take some commonsense actions to protect against financial fraud, it can also be very safe. However, before you go the minimalist route, put some basic infrastructure in place with these steps.

Financial Tactic for Houston Alzheimer’s Patients: A Trusteed IRA

Published on: May 4, 2016 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Houston families with an Alzheimer's patient must address the issue of financial planning as well as care and treatment. A number of planning tools should be discussed once a diagnosis has been made.

Any family faced with helping a loved one who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease has a number of challenges ahead. In The Wall Street Journal's "Voices: Consider Trusteed IRAs for Clients With Alzheimer's," the article suggests that frank discussions must begin to address a number of concerns for the present and the future. Issues include care and treatment, wishes for care when the person can no longer speak for themselves, determining who will manage finances, estate planning and how a spouse will be supported during the loved one's illness—however long it may last.

Many of those with an Alzheimer's diagnosis really are concerned with not becoming a financial or practical burden on their family. Loved ones can encourage them to see an elder law attorney to help them organize and designate their assets early, so that they will ensure appropriate distribution before they're not able to manage their money directly.

Financial To-Do List: The Master Directory and File Clean Out

Published on: May 3, 2016 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Anyone who has cleaned out someone else's filing system knows that we all keep way more paperwork than needed. Spare your loved ones and get started now on cleaning up and creating a directory.

Some people won't set foot into a supermarket without a shopping list. They are the people who are more likely to sift through documents, clean out files and follow the steps in Morningstar's article "How to Create a Master Directory." This directory would be a huge timesaver for you and your heirs, who will be more grateful than you would imagine to be spared hours of wading through unneeded paper files.

This type of document—be it a PDF, an Excel file, a Word document, or even a handwritten record—can be your inventory of financial accounts and contact info. If you keep it up-to-date, this can be an invaluable tool for your loved ones in the event you are unable to manage your assets for yourself. Here are the steps.

Every Houston Family Needs Estate Planning, Especially When It’s Complicated

Published on: April 13, 2016 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

A will is the best known estate planning document; it provides instructions about how to distribute your assets after death. There are many different kinds of trusts, and whether you need one or more than one is best determined with the help of an experienced estate planning attorney.

There is no simple estate—everybody has complexity, says The (Eugene, OR) Register-Guard article "Wills, trusts, big decisions." The basic questions are whether: (i) you're married; (ii) you have children, or children from multiple marriages or step-children; and (iii) there's real estate you own outside of the state. The larger the estate, the more questions there will be about how best to distribute the assets.

If it is a one-time married family, an estate-planning attorney can provide for financial assets to go straight to the children without probate administration in many cases. But things can be more complicated with blended families. There may be one spouse with children by a prior marriage and children from a subsequent marriage. If that is the case, then you may want to be sure that the children by the first marriage will be treated the same when the surviving spouse will have control of all of the assets.

Spring Cleaning? Don’t Forget Your Houston Estate Plan

Published on: April 11, 2016 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Throw open your windows, put the screens back in and get ready for more outdoor time, whether that means gardening or walks in the park. While you are at it, refresh your estate plan. If it has been three years or more since you last had it reviewed, it is time. This is especially true if your family has experienced any life changes, like marriages, births, deaths or divorce.

Many folks think they don't need estate planning because they don't have enough money for that, or they own everything jointly, says a recent article from CBS Boston, "Spring Cleaning: Estate Planning."

So why bother with a will? What happens when you both die? What if you have kids? Who is going to care for them if you pass away? Do you have things that you would want friends or family to have?

Survey Shows Wealthy Clients Need Solid Communication Regarding Houston Estate Plan

Published on: April 7, 2016 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

More times than one would think, the very wealthy start the process of working with an estate planning attorney, discussing the plan and figuring out how to achieve specific goals. But many stop short of actually executing the plan. What leads this to happen?

In an attempt to understand why some affluent clients choose not to take action, Forbes' article, "Why The Wealthy Do Not Implement Their Estate Plans," describes a survey conducted of 288 wealthy families (defined as those with a net worth of U.S. $10 million or more) who had engaged trusts and estates lawyers to design their estate plans but did not follow through. These folks cited a number of reasons why they didn't act on their estate plan.

Almost 90% said that the estate plan didn't deal with their goals, wants, and objectives. About half think that their estate plan was too complicated. Well, estate planning for the wealthy often requires complex strategies to achieve goals. But this shows that they needed an experienced trusts and estates lawyer to do more than simply create an estate plan. They needed a professional who was equally skilled at gauging the affluent clients' ability to cope with the complexity of the planning and to be comfortable with the plan.

Estate Planning is the Perfect Gift for Your Houston Family

Published on: March 31, 2016 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

In the absence of proper estate planning, medical care decisions can be delayed and families may face expensive and unnecessary costs. Think of your estate planning as a gift you can provide for your loved ones that will let them know you were thinking of them after you have passed. Grief is a painful process, even when loved ones have a long and full life. You can make it easier or harder for those you leave behind.

Make sure to state your wishes in the proper estate-planning documents. To complete these, consult with an estate planning attorney and keep the originals in a safe deposit box with a copy at home or on your computer. Some folk have their attorney hang on to the originals.

Nerd Wallet's article, "10 Keys to Proper Estate Planning," reminds us of the four key legal documents you should have in place, plus an additional one you might want to consider.

Wealthy Family Goes Public With Estate Battle

Published on: March 25, 2016 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Facebook has become the source of revolutions, personal journeys, and now, estate battles. When one of America's most admired art collectors passed away last year, she had an estate plan in place. Her husband of 14 years apparently didn't like the terms and is challenging the will. Her adult children from her first marriage are furious, and one is very publicly sharing his anger and disgust on Facebook.

The New York Post Page Six reports in "Melva Bucksbaum's $100M estate battle rages on Facebook" that the battle began when Melva, a former trustee of the Whitney Museum, died at 82 last year. Her husband Raymond Learsy—a trader, developer, and fellow Whitney board member—challenged her will and claims he's entitled to half her fortune, which is worth more than $100 million.

The action infuriated Melva's adult children, Gene and Glenn Bucksbaum and Mary Bucksbaum Scanlan. Glenn says that Learsy schemed to seize the family millions. He wrote on his public Facebook page, "Raymond Learsy…This name should be known. Full definition of cad. 1: An omnibus conductor 2: a man who acts with deliberate disregard for another's feelings or rights."

First Quarter: Time to Review Houston Estate Plan

Published on: February 26, 2016 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Over the course of time, things change that have an impact on your estate plan. Your children may have married or welcomed a new baby into the family. Perhaps you moved, or maybe you were widowed. Life is filled with changes, at every stage, and your estate plan needs to reflect those changes.

Dairy Herd published a valuable article, "Legal: Review and update your estate plan now," which advised that you should at least have the basic estate planning documents in place. This includes a will, a power of attorney, a medical power of attorney and an advanced healthcare directive (often called a living will). Also, some should look into trusts, depending on individual situations.

Taking the time to prepare these documents now can help avoid fighting and stress for loved ones left behind.