Estate Planning Lawyer

How to Determine Your Trustee?

Published on: July 7, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Many people set up trusts to help provide for loved ones and favorite causes after they pass away. A trust can help manage the wealth you wish to transfer and ensures the efficient distribution of assets—such as property or a sum of money—over a set period of time. Yet a trust is only as strong as the trustee overseeing it.

A trustee is the individual or company that administers a trust for the benefit of named beneficiaries. Duties can range widely and may include paying bills and taxes, and managing property and investments.

Forbes recently had a nice article about this titled “How To Choose The Right Trustee For Your Estate.” Most importantly, the article says a trustee “has a legal fiduciary duty to manage a trust on a beneficiary’s behalf,” by always acting in the beneficiary’s best interests, as outlined by the trust.

Tell Your Houston Family Your Estate Planning Goals

Published on: July 1, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

What can you do to push past the emotional aspects of estate planning to make sure your surviving family members can successfully deal with issues that may arise after you pass away?

Start early. Patrick Severo is the senior vice president and financial advisor at RBC Wealth Management. He also has three kids and knew he needed a plan to take care of them after he is gone. Severo recently told Forbes in the article titled, “Don't Let Emotion Sabotage Your Estate Plan,”that, although the discussion about what happens after you pass away feels uncomfortable, the earlier you can begin, the better off you’ll be because these things take time – maybe even years!

To help the people you care about handle the financial, administrative and familial consequences of your eventual passing, be as transparent as possible about what they can expect from your estate. Mismatched expectations can often cause trouble that could’ve easily been avoided if the news wasn’t coming as such a surprise.

Estate Planning Tips for Houston Widows

Published on: June 30, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

For the last several decades, you’ve always made these kinds of decisions together. What can already be an emotional task of drafting a will is even more so after the loss of a lifelong partner. Even in the event of a terminal illness diagnosis with time to prepare in advance, Senior Vice President and Financial Advisor Cinda J. Collins of RBC Wealth Management often felt overwhelmed during the settlement of her husband’s estate after he passed away from leukemia.

While the best course of action is always to plan together ahead of time, Forbes published estate planning advice for surviving spouses in “The Widow's Guide To Estate Planning And Wealth Transfer.”

Make Sure You Have a Professionally Drafted Will. To be as prepared as possible in the event of a spouse’s passing, talk to an experienced estate attorney together as a couple to ensure all your affairs are in order. If a spouse passes away unexpectedly without planning, the surviving partner will have headaches.

Don’t Have a Will? Do You Know What Happens?

Published on: June 29, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

In some parts of the U.S., like West Virginia, without a will, your estate is first distributed according to your marital status and children, including those of previous marriages. However, if you have no spouse or children, you may want to pull out your family tree to see who could be in the running.

When there is no will in place, commonly in West Virginia, the current spouse of a married couple with or without one or more descendants receives the full estate. However, your spouse would receive only 60% of the estate if he or she had children with you and also a previous marriage. Your children would then receive the remaining 40% of the estate. But if you were the spouse with kids from a previous marriage(s), then all your children will inherit one-half of your estate, and the other half to your current spouse.

Confused yet? That’s what The (Huntington, WV) Herald-Dispatch asks us in its recent article titled “Planning ahead: What happens if you don't have a will.”

Have You Planned for Your Digital Estate?

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

Portland attorney Victoria Blachly said people can avoid the personal, financial and in some cases legal headaches that come with losing access to their online accounts by creating a Virtual Asset Instruction Letter where they list their online accounts, the passwords they use to access each one, and instructions explaining what, if anything, should be done with the content each account holds.

What happens to all of your online accounts when you die? Will your loved ones be able to access them? If so, what should they do with those accounts? There is much to think about when it comes to your digital estate planning.

An article from The (Bend OR) Bulletin, “Estate planning in a digital world,”says that you can avoid personal, financial, and legal headaches by creating a Virtual Asset Instruction Letter.

Women Have Important Estate Planning Considerations to Address

Published on: June 22, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

In the absence of a well-crafted estate plan, women can be affected more often and more directly than men. According to www.forbes.com, women live longer than men, on average, and tend to marry older spouses; this makes women three times more likely as men to be widowed at age 65.

With women commonly living longer than their male spouses, it is essential for women to have their financial and estate plans in order.

Northwest Herald’s article, “Home State Bank Emphasizes Estate Planning For Women,”says that a key aspect of estate planning is designating someone you trust to act on your behalf in financial and legal matters in the event you can't (even temporarily) due to illness or disability. Designate this person in a durable power of attorney.

Wisconsin’s Northland College Receives $200K from Local Bar Owner

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

A bar owner who never attended college has left $200,000 to the alma mater of her best customers. Ida F. Meyer of Lake Placid, Fla., died March 22 at 103 years of age. “I might as well give it back to the College,” she told her attorney Michael A. Rider, during her estate planning. “Those kids were good to us.”

A Northland News article, “Former bar owner bequests $200,000 to Northland College,”reported how students from that era remember a fastidious, kind couple who didn’t tolerate loud or obnoxious behavior. They ate foot-long hotdogs and brick cheese sandwiches on rye bread, and drank dime taps. They played hits on the jukebox.

Cabbie’s is credited with many chance meetings, first dates and long-lasting marriages. “I met my sweet wife of 48 years in the fall of 1964 on a Friday night at Cabbie’s,” said Northland College alumnus Tom Bogess in the article.

Divorced? Update Beneficiary Designations

Published on: June 12, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Fran had just learned that her deceased husband Ed’s life insurance proceeds were going to be paid to his ex-wife Sally. As Fran found out from her lawyer, beneficiary designations can be the trump card of estate planning.

You heard that right. The ex-wife Sally will get the life insurance proceeds. It doesn’t matter what the will says in these circumstances. With certain financial instruments the beneficiary designations have authority to control the asset disposition regardless of other provisions.

A recent WMUR article, titled “Money Matters: The trump card of estate planning,”sets out a handful of good pointers to remember.

You’re Getting Married? Is Your Estate Plan Current?

Published on: June 10, 2015 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

At some point, everyone needs to consider estate planning. It’s time to create an up-to-date estate plan when you experience one of these life events.

Think estate planning isn’t for you? Think again! And it’s not just a one-time deal; changes in your life should result in changes to your plan, so be ready to make some updates.

The Richland Source notes in a recent article, titled “Do you need an estate plan?”, that it’s time to create an up-to-date estate plan when you have one of these life events:

Pre-Retirement To-Do’s for Houston Boomers

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

Don’t wait until the very last minute to make sure you are prepared, says Michael H. Milarski, a partner and senior financial advisor with Signature Financial Planning.

Have you checked your list and you’re sure you’re ready to retire? You may have a few items to address before your golden years can begin.

A recent Fox Business article, titled “5 Things to Do Now if You’re Near Retirement,”says that these are the five important things to work on in the five years before you retire.