Estate Planning

College Assistance from Grandpa and Grandma

Published on: July 31, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Many grandparents want to help their grandchildren pay for college, but don't know the best ways to do that. Financial advisers who can show them how to make those contributions and reap financial advantages for themselves can shine.

Many families struggle enough to meet their current needs that they just do not have enough to pay for their children's college education. And with the costs of college education increasing year after year, it is almost impossible for students to make enough to pay for it with part-time jobs. Consequently, grandparents are starting to look into ways to help pay for their grandchildren's college education. They have already earned their wealth and are in a better position than the parents to pay for school.

A recent Reuters article examined how grandparents can pay for their grandchildren's college education while getting a tax benefit for themselves. The article, titled “YOUR PRACTICE-Selling grandparents on the perks of 529 college savings plans,”suggests a 529 college savings plan. This unique account can be used to contribute more than the yearly gift tax exemption into an account that a grandchild can later use for educational expenses. The accounts are not perfect as they could make a grandchild ineligible for financial aid.

Houston College Graduates Need Estate Plans Too

Published on: July 24, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

After graduating from college, and even law school, the thought of drafting your estate plan probably did not make the top twenty on your "to-do" list, and why should it? The only thing most young professionals have when they first start out is debt. However, after you land your first job, preparing your estate plan needs to move quickly to the top of that elusive "to do" list.

Regardless of your age, you might not think you have very much – but you probably have enough to want to have a say in who gets what.Young people may not view estate planning as a necessity when just starting their careers, but the reality is they should plan how their assets will be distributed in case something were to happen to them.

Estate planning is more than just deciding how your assets will be distributed. That is a large part of it, but there are other documents every good estate plan should include. A recent article in the National Law Review, titled “Five Estate Planning Documents Every Young Professional Should Have,” lists the documents that every recent college graduate will want to include as part of his or her estate plan:

Keeping Your Houston Estate Plan Up-To-Date

Published on: July 21, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

"Many have not taken adequate steps to review and update these plans since the moment they were signed. Meanwhile, major life events such as marriage, the birth of a child or the launch of a business may have occurred."

Estate plans are not a one-shot deal. They are like a snapshot of your life at a particular point in time. An old estate plan shows how your property and life circumstances looked at the time it was made. But things change over time, and so should your estate plan.

If you never change your estate plan, it might stop doing what you want. As Forbes points out, in an article titled “Why You Should Update Your Estate Plan,” if you do not update your estate plan when your life circumstances change, then you might be risking costly legal battles for your heirs. Significant property acquisitions that are not accounted for in your estate plan can lead to problems. Having additional children or getting divorced can cause problems, if you do not change your estate plan. Tax law changes could make your old estate plan ineffectual.

The Digital Afterlife for Houston Estate Planning

Published on: July 18, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Planning for control of your personal information after you die used to be as simple as telling someone about the desk drawer or the fireproof box or the safe deposit box at the local bank. But in the era of smartphones and cloud computing services, that same stuff may be stored in digital formats on servers scattered across the globe.

What happens to your digital life after you have passed? Does it just automatically go away? Most people today have numerous online accounts. They have email accounts for work and personal use, accounts on sites like Facebook and Twitter, and some people also have blogs or even their own websites. If you check the privacy policies on the sites where you have accounts, you will notice that most sites will not give out any information about your accounts without your prior permission and some will not give out information without a court order. Your digital life may or may not go on without you, so you must plan ahead of time.

As a recent New York Times article, “How to Digitally Avoid Taking It to the Grave,” points out, if you do not plan ahead regarding how someone else can access your accounts after you pass away, then you risk the loss of those accounts. In other cases, accounts you would want to carry on might disappear. It depends on the policies of the sites where you have accounts. Some states have passed laws granting executors access to digital accounts after the owners pass away, and there is an effort underway to pass a uniform law in every state.

Disinheritance is a Sticky Situation

Published on: July 11, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Lawyers for Mr. Cohen say that he was entrusted with his father’s business, and that the two men enjoyed a close and caring relationship. But lawyers for Ms. Perelman claimed that it was that closeness that allowed Mr. Cohen, who eventually took over operations of Hudson Media, to manipulate the ailing man into changing his will.

Even when there are good reasons for leaving everything to one child, disinherited children will often choose to fight in court. Most people attempt to leave all of their children an equal proportion of their assets. That is not always easy to do. If the majority of assets are tied up in a business, for example, then it may be prudent to leave the business to the child who is active in the business. Just be ready for a fight if this decision is done late in life.

A recent article in The New York Times, titled “In Inheritance Battle, Judge Sides Against Perelmans,” reported on a legal dispute over the estate of billionaire Robert Cohen.

Financial Tips from a State Treasurer

Published on: July 10, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

From checking Unclaimed Property to setting up automatic bill payments, here are some simple tips each of us can use to keep our finances organized this year.

Although you may not live in Missouri and it may not be "spring cleaning" season, Missouri State Treasurer Clint Zweifel offered sound financial advice in a column from The South County Mail entitled"Spring cleaning? Don’t forget your finances." Mr. Zweifel has some "simple tips" on estate planning and taking care of money that you can do any time of the year.

For Texans, Susan Combs serves as the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. The Comptroller's office features a robust website that outlines the state's financial state and offers resources for residents, along with "Unclaimed Property" listings.

Estate Tax Liabilities and Life Insurance for Houston Families

Published on: July 4, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

“While there are a number of ways to address estate tax liabilities and retirement savings distinctly, developments in the life insurance arena are providing new and potentially better options. These strategies are highly versatile to meet the evolving needs of the individual many years into the future.”

As those in business well know, there are really only two ways to deal with a potential business liability: proper planning and execution on the one hand, and proper use of insurance on the other. Many find both approaches can also work in tandem to effectively achieve their estate planning and retirement goals.

The use of insurance to deal with an estate tax liability inevitably brings us to the topic of life insurance. In fact, an interesting approach was advocated recently in a Forbes article titled “Life Insurance For Estate Taxes And Retirement.” Why life insurance? Well, while the fundamental risk life insurance is meant to resolve is the loss of income upon the death of a breadwinner, it can cure the problem of illiquidity when estate taxes are due. That is especially helpful if real estate or other illiquid assets are what is driving your estate to taxation in the first place.

Preserving Genetic Material for Offspring – How Does this Affect Your Houston Estate Plan?

Published on: June 25, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

As growing numbers of people use reproductive technology to have children later in life or overcome infertility issues, many affluent Americans are leaving behind “genetic material” that could conceivably add a new heir to the family.

Estate planning is all about tying together the loose ends of your life. Easier said than done, right? It seems with every passing generation our lives get even more complicated. Medicine, especially fertility medicine, continues to baffle the legal system. The perfect example of that is posthumous progeny (how is that even a phrase?) through cryogenics, in vitro fertilization, and entirely understandable timing. It’s been in the news before, but MarketWatch recently took up the topic in an article titled “Your frozen sperm could inherit your estate.”

Inheritance, unless you plan otherwise, legally flows from generation to generation or simply the closest kin in lieu of that next generation. It’s an age-old concept and logically follows the nature of human reproduction. On the other hand, that can get pretty complicated when we stop reproducing as they always have (as in only the ways they could) in ages past.

Wealth Distribution Options for the Single or Childless

Published on: June 12, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

"We say to people: 'If you do nothing, your money will go to the state. Is that what you want?' That's enough to make them want to consider something else," says Andrew Russell, a certified financial planner in San Diego.

If you have no spouse or children, you may feel like you have an estate planning dilemma. How do you plan when there is no one to plan for? For an increasing portion of the population there are no direct descendants, and those individuals are pondering their wealth distribution options.

Reuter’s summarized the issues in a recent article titled “Estate planning for the young, rich and childless.” It’s in one sense a case of there being no easy or automatic options. This means that the sky is the limit. The other side of the coin, however, is that there is much room for option paralysis. For most, the most rewarding decision is to find a way to give back to the community and to the causes about which you care most through charitable giving.

Should Houston Women Look At Estate Planning In A Different Light?

Published on: June 9, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

It’s not that there are different estate-planning tools for each sex. But women are likelier to live longer, they’re likelier to be custodial parents and, speaking generally, women often approach the topic differently than men.

Do you think estate planning for women is different than it is for men? Gender isn’t and shouldn’t be important when it comes to so much in life. However, it actually should be something you take into account when it comes to estate planning. Men and women are simply different and often have different legal folds to their life.

On that note, MarketWatch had a bit of advice for women worth sharing in a recent article titled “How women can make estate planning easier.” The challenges that end up arising for women can seem subtle or can be outright life-altering. Either way there are important aspects to account for whether planning as a married couple or as a single person.