Houston Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorney Blog

The Power to Adjust the Trust

Published on: July 22, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Today’s low interest rates create special problems for those focused on income, including retirees and the income beneficiaries of trusts.

Prolonged periods of low interest rates can result in low trust income, creating conflict among beneficiaries. Many trusts are set up in a way that creates two different groups of beneficiaries. The first group are income beneficiaries who have a right to the current income the trust property generates. Another group are remainder beneficiaries. They get what is left in the trust when the trust ends. Income beneficiaries naturally want the income maximized and remainder beneficiaries want the principal maximized.

As Forbespoints out, in an article titled “With Interest Rates Low, Here's How To Boost Income From A Trust,” low interest rates make it difficult for trustees to keep both groups happy. There simply are not enough good investment vehicles available to keep both groups of beneficiaries happy in low interest rate environments. The solution is known as the power to adjust. This allows trustees to reclassify trust assets. Forbes has an example of how it can work: “By utilizing the power to adjust, trustees are able to invest in the best total return portfolio without regard to the amount of income it generates; so, for example, in the current low-rate climate, this may result in a portfolio that is primarily equity. The power to adjust allows the trustee to take a certain amount of principal, reclassify the assets as income, and distribute the assets to the income beneficiary.”

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.

Can Your Houston Estate Grow After Death?

Published on: July 17, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Who knew a “Walk on the Wild Side” could pay off so handsomely? Late rock legend Lou Reed left behind a $30 million fortune, The Post has learned. $20 million-plus in “money and other property” doesn’t include the approximately $10 million in gifts Reed left to his wife, sister and mother in his will. It also doesn’t include life insurance or retirement accounts. The funds are likely from Reed’s copyright and publishing interests …

Everyone probably knows some of the late Lou Reed's songs, such as “Walk on the Wild Side” and “Sweet Jane.” Even though Lou Reed was already a rock and roll legend, he had never had a true number one hit. The songs were not even in the top 10 in the United States. This left Reed with approximately $10 million in assets at the time of his death.

Reed's manager recently filed papers in court that he had already garnered another $20 million in assets for Reed's estate. The New York Post recently reported on how the money was likely earned. The article is titled “Lou Reed left behind $30 million fortune.”

Rising Costs of Special Needs Care

Published on: July 16, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

New studies are providing more current cost estimates. “What we found was shocking,” Mandell said. “This is a huge hit on families.”

The costs to care for a child with special needs is on the rise, as reported in a new study in the medical journal JAMA Pediatric. The study found that the total lifetime cost of supporting an individual with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is $1.4 million in the U.S.—with an added intellectual disability, the total rises to $2.4 million. Reuters recently reported on this study and its findings in an article titled "Raising an Autistic Child: Coping With the Costs."

These costs typically include an ongoing mix of special education programs, medical care, and lost wages as many parents of autistic children reduce their work hours or even quit their jobs to help their child full-time. The organization Autism Speaks estimates that it now takes roughly $60,000 annually to support someone with an ASD. Such costs can be so prohibitive that many affected families will move to states that offer a better collection of services.

Adding Your Collection to Your Houston Estate Plan – Does the Value Hold Up?

Published on: July 14, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Over the past few years pieces have not been selling as well as expected or not selling at all. Often the amount they are appraised for, and thus the amount the IRS views them as valuing, is not close to the amount that they garner at auction.

Have you ever watched the TV show Pawn Stars? The same process plays out on the show over and over again. Someone will bring in a rare item, the pawn store owner will call in an expert to appraise the item, the appraiser will give an approximate value, and then the store owner will offer to pay half the appraised value of the item.

Obviously, a pawn shop is not going to pay full price for anything. However, the spiel that the store owner often gives contains lessons. He explains to the customer that the appraisal value is how much the item might get at auction, but that it has to be the right auction with the right buyer and that in this economy nothing is going at auction for the full appraisal value.

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.

Houston Families: Leave an Inheritance or Give to Charity ?

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

Is inherited wealth making a comeback?

Is leaving an inheritance a good or bad idea? Well, it all depends on who you ask. For example, a recently published book by French economist Thomas Piketty, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” argues that estates are getting larger and eventually most of the money in the world will be tied up in huge estates. The argument is that this is bad. Why? Because the wealthiest people will have done nothing to earn the wealth themselves and much of the money will never be spent. Consequently, the money will just accumulate in estates and remain outside the greater economy.

Not all economists see this as a necessarily bad thing. In a recent article in The New York Times titled “How Inherited Wealth Helps the Economy,” Harvard Professor N. Gregory Mankiw explains how those who save their money and leave an estate to their heirs actually induce a redistribution of wealth from the owners of capital to workers. He states, “Because capital is subject to diminishing returns, an increase in its supply causes each unit of capital to earn less. And because increased capital raises labor productivity, workers enjoy higher wages.”

Doctors Need to Know: Who is the Decision-Maker?

Published on: July 7, 2014 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

“What about the wife?” the social worker asked.

How could we have missed this most basic and vital piece of information? It’s easier than you might think. The sister didn’t get along with the wife and apparently wasn’t moved to tell us of her existence. The social worker had been out sick, and his replacement assumed that we knew. And we had a concerned sibling at the bedside who fulfilled our mental checkbox for who makes an acceptable surrogate decision-maker.

While doctors are dealing with the medical issues during end-of-life situations, they have a harder time thinking about the personal wishes of their patients. It's best to have a plan in place and someone to communicate those wishes to the doctor in charge.