Estate Planning

Are Houston Boomers Neglecting Their Estate Planning?

Published on: April 28, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

"If you are looking at Baby Boomers, they are looking at what their cash flow will be in retirement," says Carol Kroch, managing director, wealth and philanthropic planning at Wilmington Trust in Wilmington, Del. "Can they do the things they want to do? Can they retire? Can they keep the house? They are not focused on death."

Failure to consider wills and estate planning is a frequent issue, and not just for Houston Boomers. Seniors usually think that it’s something they can put off and deal with later.

USA Today recently published an article, titled “Big retirement mistake: Boomers with no estate plan,”that offers several tips for people who might be lagging behind in their retirement savings. The article emphasizes that there are three very important things to think about when you start your estate planning (this week!):

Houston Family Caregivers Should Ask Important Questions

Published on: April 15, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Family caregivers face many details every day and estate planning may not be a top priority amidst the day-to-day caregiving tasks.

However, there are many things caregiving expert Amy Goyer wished she would have asked before her mom and sister passed away.She says that it’s harder for her to feel that she totally lived up to her responsibilities as executor of their estates.

Her recent AARP article, titled “5 Questions I Wish I Had Asked Before They Died,”explains that she is going to ask her other sisters and other loved ones about this type of information now—long before she hopes she’ll ever need it. She has in place the proper advance directives, estate and financial planning, but she says that she’ll also be more thorough with the finer details. To that end, the author recommends asking these questions:

Houston Family’s New to Estate Planning? See Helpful Guide

Published on: March 23, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Whether you want to provide for your family after your death or you just want to ensure that the process is as easy as possible for your family, estate planning is the easiest way to accomplish your goals.

What exactly is estate planning? Are you unsure of where to begin?

“Estate planning is simply the fancy legal term for deciding what to do with your stuff after you are gone,” according to The Cheat Sheet article titled “A Beginner’s Guide to Estate Planning.” Although no one really likes to talk about dying and what will happen when they die, it’s important to start planning. You really want to start your estate planning now while you are still living (of course!) and in sound mental and physical health. Planning allows you to choose what happens to your assets and prized possessions instead of a relative, friend—or worse—the probate court. With some basic estate planning, you can ease the burden on your loved ones of dealing with your estate.

Yes. YOU Do Need Estate Planning!

Published on: March 20, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Have you thought about dying lately? Most of us don't. Make sure you do some estate planning today before things get complicated.

End-of-life planning is not a fun topic to think about. Nobody wants to think about passing away, but is that going to change the inevitable? Not a chance.

A recent article in The Huffington Post, titled “Why We Avoid Estate Planning,”gives us reasons most of us avoid estate planning:

Daughter Fights to Ensure Father’s Proper Military Burial

Published on: March 16, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Until Feb. 20, when Missouri state authorities intervened to help Yvette James get control of her father's remains, James was stuck in a nightmare of red tape. All she wanted was to rightfully fulfill her father’s burial wishes, something she should have legally been allowed to do from the get-go.

It seems Yvette James was wrongly excluded from her father’s burial planning due, in large part, to her own military service. Even though she has the right to make those decisions under state law as the primary next of kin and only child, a funeral home allowed her cousin to make arrangements for the service and burial. This story was told in The Army Times, in an article titled“Soldier fights for right to bury her father.”

The cousin wanted to bury James’ father at a veterans’ cemetery in St. Louis. However, James wants to have her father cremated and buried at Arlington National Cemetery, as she plans to retire in Maryland. As James put it: "Arlington is the ultimate cemetery. My dad was so proud of his service. That's all he talked about. He did four years, and you'd think he did 30. He loved the Marines."

Include Everything in the Prenup! A Lesson from Robin Williams’ Estate Dispute

Published on: March 6, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

"The mess comes when you don't have proper estate planning," said Robert Nachshin, a family law attorney based in Los Angeles. An important tool in that toolbox is a prenup, which spells out how assets should be split up if the marriage fails or a spouse dies. Nachshin said that a spouse who wants to protect assets in a second marriage should have both trusts and a prenup.

A prenup details how assets would be split up if the marriage fails or a spouse dies. A spouse who wants to protect assets in a second marriage should also talk to an experienced estate planning attorney about trusts. Planning details about prenups were covered in a recent CNBC article titled “Remarrying? Shower kids with love, and a good prenup. ”

One of the best features of a prenup is that it can protect nearly every kind of asset an individual may want to pass along—this includes art collections, cash, and the family business. Without a prenup, it’s easier for a spouse to obtain some unintended part of the estate if you die. A prenup should be airtight to avoid legal issues. Although Robin Williams had a well-thought-out estate plan when he passed, which included a prenup and a trust for his children, some of his personal items were left out of the documents. This is causing a fight between his spouse and his children.

Your Houston Estate Plan Check Up

Published on: March 5, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Once the basic documents are in place, they should be revisited periodically. If there is a major change in your circumstances- good or bad, your attorney should know.

How are those New Year’s Resolutions coming along for your finances and estate plan?

Fox News recently posted some tips in an article titled “Is it time for your legal checkup?”The article advises that a will is a great starting point, even if you’re young and healthy. Once we have children, another important part of estate planning is designating a guardian who will rear your children if something unforeseen happens. It’s also important to decide the ages at which your kids should inherit assets. You should discuss all of this with your estate planning attorney: allowing the trustee to have the discretion as to how, whether, and when to make distributions can protect immature or young beneficiaries. This will also keep these assets from counting against a young person’s college financial aid applications.

Houston Families: Money-Makers (or Money-Savers) for NOW

Published on: February 20, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Here are money tasks to do this week that will help 2015 be more prosperous. Most can be done in about an hour.

As reported in a Chicago News Service article titled “Got an hour? Tackle these money tasks,” a recent survey from the National Endowment for Financial Education found 64 percent of U.S. adults will make a financially focused goal in 2015. The article also notes that in making those goals, you should be specific and make individual tasks to keep the job manageable.

The first question you might ask is “Where the heck do you get the money to fund these goals?”

DIY Estate Planning May Not Work for Houston Families

Published on: February 9, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

People have many options today for creating their own estate planning documents. Forms can be purchased quickly from websites and books. However, trying to create your own estate plan can actually be more expensive than hiring an attorney.

Everyone knows that attorneys can be expensive. This is just as true for estate planning attorneys as it is for other types of attorneys. An entire industry has sprung up to give consumers a cheaper option for some supposedly routine legal matters, like estate plans. Forms are available for downloading online that promise buyers they just need to read the instructions and fill in the blanks to create their own wills and trusts.

One major problem with these services is when estate planning is not done properly it is much more expensive to fix things than it would have been to hire an attorney to do things right in the first place.

Houston Families: Do You Have Your ICE File?

Published on: January 19, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Create a file that you name sometime like "ICE," which stands for “in case of emergency.” Some people call this their “grab-and-go” file, since that’s what it’s for. Make sure that anyone who needs to have this information knows how to access it. For example, if you have to leave for the hospital in a hurry, this file will contain all your important information. Here’s what to put in there.

Are you prepared for an emergency? Do you have all your files ready to go?

A recent article in the Ashland Daily Tidings, titled “In the new year, be sure you have your 'ICE' file ready,” suggests that you create a file named ICE—“in case of emergency” or the “grab-and-go” file. Make sure anyone who needs to have this information knows where it is, so if you have to leave for the hospital in a hurry, you’ll have all your important information.