An entire $3 million estate of a Texas doctor was awarded to his ex-wife in a recent court ruling. Mrs. Denise Reichert took the oath of independent executrix of the will and estate of Dr. Oscar Reichert.
The judge who presided over the hearing dismissed the contest of will filed by Brandi Reichert, who is the doctor's oldest daughter from his first marriage.
However, Brandi failed to show up in court.
It’s simple math. A plan to save more and spend less is a good plan for retirement.
But a recent Forbes article, "The Most Potent 401(k) Booster," says that if you have the self-discipline and the ability to plan, you can shrink your debts and add to your emergency, college, or retirement funds.
Saving is essential. A recent Wells Fargo survey says that 71% of those over 40 who are consistent savers believe they will have enough for retirement. The more you save, the more confident you will become in your ability to live the life you want.
Trusts offer many advantages in estate planning. Privacy, avoiding probate, more control over personal finances, the ability to more closely monitor investments and tax planning are a few of the reasons to incorporate trusts into your estate plan, according to a recent article in Wilmington Business, "Selecting the Right Trustee."
Selecting the right trustee to execute your plans is just about the most critical decisions you can make—maybe even as important as the terms of the trust itself. Think about these qualifications when selecting your trustee:
• Administrative Skills and Knowledge. Your trustee must perform a lot of different tasks, like safeguarding assets, collections, reinvestment and distribution of income, document interpretation, bill paying, and many others.
It’s very important for individuals who are diagnosed with dementia to appoint a trusted family member or friend to make a commitment to help them make important financial and medical decisions when they no longer can do these tasks. According to an article in Money, "5 Essential Documents for Protecting a Loved One with Dementia," the time to make this assignment is when the person is still mentally competent and has the legal capacity to make sound decisions.
If you delay with the paperwork, your family member's dementia may progress to the point where he or she cannot legally turn over power. At that point, your only option is to petition for guardianship and ask a judge to declare the person incapacitated. That can take about two months and may be expensive. It can get even worse if your loved one—or another family member—contests the application.
Laws vary by state, and mistakes can be costly. You should draft these documents with the help of an experienced elder care attorney. Here are the key documents that are recommended:
An interactive online tool has been released by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that walks consumers through a series of questions to help them better understand the optimal time to file for Social Security benefits. The "Planning for Retirement" site is an attempt to address a serious problem facing older Americans who claim their benefits too early in life, which results in their receiving lower monthly benefits. The goal of "Planning for Retirement" is to show the user how to make a better decision.
In many instances, the claiming-age decision is based on limited information about the financial impact of that choice. The new CFPB tool lets people estimate how much money they can expect to receive at different ages and provides tips to help evaluate the trade-offs. The "Planning for Retirement" tool is at: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/retirement/.
Folks can claim their benefits several years before their "full retirement age" and take less money each month. Or they can wait and get bigger monthly checks. This is typically a one-time choice, so if you claim the reduced or increased benefit, that's what you get for the rest of your life, with annual cost-of-living adjustments. In addition, this decision affects the benefits your spouse will receive after your death.
Naming a beneficiary for your IRA, 401(k) or any other retirement plan and then making sure that the name is right as you go through the many stages of life could be one of the most important financial decisions you make, according to The (Crystal Lake, IL) Northwest Herald in "Rectifying the retirement minefield."
Of course, if you want to give your retirement savings to your first husband, he won't mind. But your second husband might!
If you're married, you'll want to designate your spouse as the primary beneficiary. Federal law requires your surviving spouse to be the primary beneficiary in employer-sponsored retirement plans, like a 401(k), unless your spouse signs a written waiver letting you name someone else as the primary beneficiary. In most cases, spouses will name each other as the primary beneficiaries to their retirement plans. Those funds help maintain the lifestyle they've enjoyed in their marriage.
Much needed changes are underway at the Clark County Nevada Guardianship program, after a local television reporter uncovered major lack of oversight, including families torn apart and financial abuse by the individuals charged with protecting the elderly. According to a follow-up report by KTNV News, "More staff means more oversight in guardianship system," some of the changes are the establishment of a hotline and the examination of all guardianship processes.
Clark County District Court will add more staff to better supervise guardianship cases in response to what they have termed a clear need for compliance oversight after the KTNV investigation showed double billing and questionable charges. They found cases where the entire life savings of vulnerable "wards" went missing and their homes were sold without court approval.
The court has hired a new Guardianship Compliance Administrator who will oversee the adult guardianship program, create a citizen complaint process, and look into any claims of discrepancy or fraud. The court is also taking action on several other issues stemming from the news investigation, including greater transparency and scrutiny of how private professional guardians handle a person's money.
New Year's resolutions are a favorite tradition. But have you taken care of your end-of-year tasks concerning your finances. There's still time to finish off your 2015 list!
US News reminds us in "6 Financial Tasks You Need to Complete Before the End of the Year" that there are several opportunities for smart financial moves and some last chances to take advantage of financial benefits. The article lists six things to consider crossing off your 2015 list in the next few weeks:
Make a Charitable Donation. Your donation to a charity is tax deductible. Why not do this and take the deduction on your 2015 tax filings? Charitable donations are nice for homeowners who itemize because they get the full benefit of the deduction.
As with the rest of America, Hawaiians are coping with a growing population of citizens over age 65 diagnosed with Alzheimer's, approximately 25,000 in total. Advocates, including members of a dementia task force under the Executive Office on Aging and members of the local Alzheimer's Association, are focusing on preparing professionals and caregivers to address the often complex needs of individuals with dementia.
A recent article in KHON, titled "Task force aims to help seniors living with dementia" recently reported on this.
James Pietsch, the director of the University of Hawaii Elder Law Program, told KHON that there are multiple tasks under this task force, one of which is supportive research to determine whether professionals are qualified or capable of handling these type of cases. Professionals like doctors, social workers, nurses, and lawyers need to be better prepared to handle issues involving dementia.
Today’s millennials understand that their digital assets, which include everything from family movies hosted in the cloud, to social media accounts, digital currencies like Bitcoin and domain names, have value that can be passed to others when they die. One young man created a will that listed all of his digital assets and used a password manager to gather all passwords in a central location. He gave the password manager to his brother, who is his estate executor. He also moved certain digital assets, particularly photos and movies, to a file sharing service so that other family members would have access to them in the event of his demise.
Many people neglect to include digital effects in their estate plans, which can be a huge mistake, as valuable assets may go unnoticed, or money and time might be spent attempting to find them.
There are some assets like digital currencies, video game characters, and Internet domain names that exist only in cyberspace. You can’t put these in a safety deposit box: they can be overlooked because they aren’t as tangible. These days, folks are acquiring more digital assets like Facebook photos or email addresses all the time. However, getting access to social media accounts can be difficult because laws governing digital assets vary by state. Online sites concerned with user privacy have drastically different terms and conditions that sometimes exclude executors.
