Read more about the article Factors to Consider when Picking Executor, Trustees and POAs – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Factors to Consider when Picking Executor, Trustees and POAs – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Having your estate planning documents created with an experienced professional is important, as is naming the people who will be putting your plan into action. A key sticking point is often deciding who is the right person for the role, says an article from Nasdaq titled “Estate Planning: 5 Tips to Pick Trustees, Executors and POAs.” It helps to stop thinking about how people will feel if they are not selected and focus instead on their critical thinking and decision-making abilities.

Consider who will have the time to help. Having adult children who are highly successful in their professions is wonderful. However, if they are extremely busy running a business, leading an organization, etc., will their busy schedules allow the flexibility to help? A daughter with twins may love you to the moon and back. However, will she be able to handle the tasks of estate administration?

Take these appointments seriously. Selecting someone on an arbitrary basis is asking for trouble. Just because one child is older doesn’t necessarily mean they are capable of managing your estate. Making a decision based on gender can be equally flawed. Naming agents and executors with financial acumen is more important than giving your creative child the chance to learn how to manage money through your estate.

Don’t make the process more complicated. There are many families where parents name all the siblings to act on their behalf, so no one feels left out. This usually turns into an estate disaster. An odd number of siblings can lead to one group winning decisions by sheer numbers, while aggressive, win-at-all-costs siblings—even if it’s just two of them—can lead to delayed decisions and family divisions.

Name the right person for right now. Younger people who don’t yet have children often aren’t sure who their best agent might be. Picking a parent may become problematic, if the parent becomes sick or dies. Naming a close friend in your thirties may need updating if your friendship wanes. Make it simple: appoint the best person for today, with the caveat of updating your agents and documents as time goes on and circumstances change. Remember, circumstances always change.

Consider the value of a professional trustee or fiduciary. The best person to be a trustee, executor or power of attorney may not always be a family member or friend. If a trustee is one sibling and the beneficiary of the trust is another sibling who can’t manage money, the relationship could suffer. If a large estate includes generational trusts and complex ownership structures, a professional may be better suited to deal with management and tax issues.

The value of having an estate plan cannot be overstated. However, the importance of who will be appointed to oversee and administer the estate is equally important. The success of an estate plan often rests on the people who are assigned to handle their respective tasks.

Be candid when speaking with an experienced estate planning attorney about the people in your life and their abilities to manage the roles.

Reference: nasdaq (Sep. 4, 2022) “Estate Planning: 5 Tips to Pick Trustees, Executors and POAs”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

Read more about the article What Is Upstream Planning? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

What Is Upstream Planning? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Estate planning with an eye to a future inheritance, known as “upstream planning,” can be especially important where families pass significant wealth from generation to generation. Knowing these details in advance can have a big impact on deciding on how to manage the heir’s own assets, as explained in the article “Expecting an Inheritance? Consider Coordinating Your Estate Plan with Your Parents’” from Kiplinger.

What happens when information is kept private? In one example, a patriarch refused to share any details, despite having children who had succeeded on their own and didn’t really need their inheritances. The family was left with an eight-figure estate tax bill.

Clear and open discussions make sense. If a person has an estate large enough to need to pay federal estate taxes, inheriting more will add to their heir’s tax burdens. Parents may choose to leave assets to heirs through a trust. Money in a trust belongs to the trust, so in addition to tax benefits, the trust is a good way to protect assets from creditors, litigation, or divorce.

Trusts are also used to take advantage of the GST—generation skipping tax exemption. The executor of the parents’ estates can apply their GST exemption to the trust, which will not be taxed when they are distributed or passed to grandchildren, even if the grandchild is a beneficiary of the trust.

Business considerations also come into play. If a couple built and grew a business now being run by their granddaughter, and the grandsons have had little or no involvement, their wishes should be clarified: do they want their granddaughter to be the sole heir? Or do they want the grandsons to receive cash or other assets or any shares of the business?

Talking about multigenerational wealth early and often provides benefits to all concerned. The more money a family has, the more it makes sense to have those conversations and not only from an estate tax perspective. Those who created the wealth can use upstream planning as a way to start conversations about their success, family values and hopes for how heirs and future generations will benefit.

In some families, these conversations won’t happen because they think it’s too private or don’t want their children and grandchildren to feel they don’t need to work hard to become responsible citizens.

Communicating and coordinating are vital to success. Your estate planning attorney will be able to provide guidance, having seen what happens when upstream planning occurs and when it does not.

Reference: Kiplinger (Oct. 4, 2022) “Expecting an Inheritance? Consider Coordinating Your Estate Plan with Your Parents’”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

Are You Ready for 2026? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

You may not be thinking about Jan. 1, 2026. Any New Year’s Eve celebrations being planned now are more likely to concern Jan. 1, 2023. However, if your estate is worth $5 million or more when the first day of 2026 arrives, your estate planning should begin now. According to a recent article from Forbes, “Is 2026 An Important Year For Your Wealth?,” the reduction in the estate tax exemption will revert to the 2010 level of $5 million adjusted for inflation. It could go even lower. With federal tax rates on estates over the exemption level set at 40%, plus any state estate or inheritance taxes, planning needs to be done in advance.

Considering the record levels of national debt and government spending, it’s unlikely these exemptions will remain the same. Now is the time to maximize today’s high estate tax exemption levels to minimize federal estate taxes and maximize what will be left to heirs.

Your estate planning attorney will have many different strategies and tools to achieve these goals. One is the Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT). This is an irrevocable trust created by each spouse, known as the grantors, for the benefit of the other spouse. Important note: to avoid scrutiny, the trusts must not be identical.

Each trust is funded by the grantor in an amount up to the current available tax exemption. Today, this is $12.06 million each (or a total of $24.12 million) without incurring a gift tax.

This serves several purposes. One is removing the gifted assets from the grantor’s estate. The assets and their future growth are protected from estate taxes.

The spousal beneficiary has access to the trust income and/or principal, depending upon how the trust is created, if they need to tap the trust.

The trust income may be taxed back to the grantor instead of the trust. This allows the assets in the trust to grow tax-free.

Remainder beneficiaries, who are typically the grantor’s children, receive the assets at the termination of the SLAT, usually when the beneficiary spouse passes away.

The SLAT can be used as a generation-skipping trust, if this is the goal.

The SLAT is a useful tool for blended families to avoid accidentally disinheriting children from first (or subsequent) marriage. Remainder assets can be distributed to named beneficiaries upon the death of the spouse.

The SLAT is an irrevocable trust, so some control needs to be given up when the SLATs are created. Couples using this strategy need to have enough assets to live comfortably after funding the SLATS.

Why do this now, when 2026 is so far away? The SLAT strategy takes time to implement, and it also takes time for people to get comfortable with the idea of taking a significant amount of wealth out of their control to place in an irrevocable trust. For a large SLAT, estate planning attorneys, CPAs and financial advisors generally need to work together to create the proper structure. Executing this estate planning strategy takes time and should not be left for the year before this large change in federal estate taxes occurs.

Contact us to begin planning your SLAT strategy with one of our experienced estate planning attorneys today.

Reference: Forbes (Oct. 4, 2022) “Is 2026 An Important Year For Your Wealth?”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

How Do I Handle Debt in Retirement? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

MarketWatch’s recent article entitled “Interest rates are rising – how older Americans should handle their credit” reports that roughly seven in 10 older Americans have some form of debt. According to a Senior Living survey of more than 1,000 adults in 2021, of the participants aged 60 years and older, 25% had an auto loan, 43% carried credit card debt, 13% had medical debt and 38% held a mortgage.

The number of seniors with debt dropped from the first survey conducted the year before, during the height of the pandemic, when that figure was 79%. The Federal Reserve then began steadily raising the federal-funds rate.

Consumer debt is unwelcomed for those on a fixed budget in retirement. We should prioritize paying down those debts as quickly as possible. A way to do that is analyzing the money coming in and out every month, cutting expenses wherever reasonably possible and allocating a higher portion to credit card balances. Consumers can also contact their credit card company, or a credit counselor, to learn more about debt repayment plans.

Retirees should try to avoid tapping into their retirement nest eggs, if possible, especially to avoid any tax consequences. While refinancing may sound like a good idea, it might not make sense until rates have dropped.

There are two popular methods for paying down debt:

  1. The avalanche strategy, where you put most of your repayment money toward the loans with the highest interest rates (after making minimum payments for all of their debts); and
  2. The snowball method, which is when people throw the extra cash toward the smallest debts.

Not everyone can afford to pay off their debt quickly. However, having a plan makes a huge difference in eventually getting the balance down to $0.

Home loans aren’t seen the same way as credit card debt, although some Americans are more comfortable bringing a mortgage into retirement than others.

Many mortgages are fixed, which means the interest rate and monthly payment remain the same throughout the life of the loan. A homeowner’s net worth is also growing when he pays his mortgage, since part of that payment is going toward the principal of the property.

Reference: MarketWatch (Oct. 3, 2022) “Interest rates are rising – how older Americans should handle their credit”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

Does My College Kid Need an Estate Plan? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

When it comes to estate planning, we usually think of older adults. However, it’s a topic that we should also consider for college students.

WDIO’s recent article entitled “Estate planning is for college students too” reminds us that there’s a number of documents you can put into place in the case of an emergency.

Power of Attorney. There are two types of POAs. The financial power of attorney allows a named agent to make financial decisions on behalf of the college student, in the event they are unable to do so. A medical power of attorney names a healthcare agent.

These can have HIPAA language written into them that authorizes their medical provider to release information about them. Remember, if your student travels away from home for college, you may need a POA for that state.

Will. A typical college student might not have a lot of money. However, they do have their own stuff, and someone needs to make the decision regarding what happens to that stuff. Ask the student to name the parents as the executor of his or her will.

FERPA Waiver. FERPA stands for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Without this waiver, a parent has no authority to call the college and request information about your student if they are over 18. With a waiver, you can request a transcript and student loan information.

HIPAA Waiver. A HIPAA waiver allows an adult child’s health information to be disclosed. It’s usually for medical facilities, doctors, schools, or any other person where they are in possession of the health information of a person where that individual authorizes the release of the information to a designated person.

If you have a child in college, contact us to schedule a time for your child to discuss creating an estate plan with one of our experienced estate planning attorneys.

Reference: WDIO (Sep. 28, 2022) “Estate planning is for college students too”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

What Happens when You Inherit a Retirement Account? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

The SECURE Act of 2019 reset the game for IRAs and other tax deferred retirement accounts, says a recent article from Financial Advisor titled “IRAs, Taxes and Inheritance: Planning Becomes a Family Affair.” Prior to SECURE, investors paid ordinary income tax rates on withdrawals, whether they were voluntary or Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from these accounts, except for Roths. When individuals stopped working and their income dropped, so did the tax rate on their withdrawals. All was well.

Then the SECURE Act came along, with good intentions. The time period for payouts of IRAs and similar accounts after the death of the account owner changed. Non-spouse beneficiaries now have only 10 years to empty out the accounts, setting themselves up for potentially huge tax bills, possibly when their own incomes are at peak levels. What can be done?

Heirs of individual investors or couples with hefty IRAs and investment accounts are most likely to face consequences of the new tax regulations for RMDs and inheritances from the SECURE Act.

A widowed spouse faces the lower of either their own or the partner’s RMD rate—it’s tied to birth years. However, there is a pitfall: the widowed spouse files a single tax return, which cuts available deductions in half and changes tax brackets. Single or married, consider accelerating IRA withdrawals as soon as taxable income lowers early in retirement. Taking withdrawals from IRAs at this time voluntarily often means the ability to defer and as a result, optimize Social Security benefits to age 70.

For non-spousal beneficiaries of inherited IRAs, there’s no way around that 10-year rule. Their tax rates will depend on income, whether they file single or joint and any deductions available. If a beneficiary dies while the account still owns the assets, those assets may be subject to estate taxes, which are high.

Here’s where tax planning could help. IRA owners may try to “equalize” inheritances among heirs with tax consequences in mind. For instance, a lower earning child could be the IRA beneficiary, while a higher earning child could receive assets from a brokerage account or Roth IRAs. Alternatively, an IRA owner could establish trusts or make charitable bequests to empty the IRAs before they become part of the estate.

Contact us to speak with one of our experienced estate planning attorneys who will help you create a road map for distributing IRA and other tax deferred assets based on the tax and timing for beneficiaries or what you want to fund after you pass.

Another strategy, if you don’t expect to exhaust your IRA assets in your lifetime, is to systematically withdraw money early in retirement to fund Roth IRAs, known as a Roth conversion. The advantage is simple: inherited Roth IRAs need to be drawn down in ten years, but the money isn’t taxable to beneficiaries.

Decumulation planning is complicated to do. However, your estate planning attorney will help evaluate your unique situation and create the optimal income sourcing plan for your family based on their assets, including taxable and tax-advantaged accounts, Social Security benefits, pensions, life insurance and annuities.

Reference: Financial Advisor (Sep. 29, 2022) “IRAs, Taxes and Inheritance: Planning Becomes a Family Affair”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

Top 10 Success Tips for Estate Planning – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Unless you’ve done the planning, assets may not be distributed according to your wishes and loved ones may not be taken care of after your death. These are just two reasons to make sure you have an estate plan, according to the recent article titled “Estate Planning 101: 10 Tips for Success” from the Maryland Reporter.

Create a list of your assets. This should include all of your property, real estate, liquid assets, investments and personal possessions. With this list, consider what you would like to happen to each item after your death. If you have many assets, this process will take longer—consider this a good thing. Don’t neglect digital assets. The goal of a careful detailed list is to avoid any room for interpretation—or misinterpretation—by the courts or by heirs.

Meet with an estate planning attorney to create wills and trusts. These documents dictate how your assets are distributed after your death. Without them, the laws of your state may be used to distribute assets. You also need a will to name an executor, the person responsible for carrying out your instructions.

Your will is also used to name a guardian, the person who will raise your children if they are orphaned minors.

Who is the named beneficiary on your life insurance policy? This is the person who will receive the death benefit from your policy upon your death. Will this person be the guardian of your minor children? Do you prefer to have the proceeds from the policy used to fund a trust for the benefit of your children? These are important decisions to be made and memorialized in your estate plan.

Make your wishes crystal clear. Legal documents are often challenged if they are not prepared by an experienced estate planning attorney or if they are vaguely worded. You want to be sure there are no ambiguities in your will or trust documents. Consider the use of “if, then” statements. For example, “If my husband predeceases me, then I leave my house to my children.”

Consider creating a letter of intent or instruction to supplement your will and trusts. Use this document to give more detailed information about your wishes, from funeral arrangements to who you want to receive a specific item. Note this document is not legally binding, but it may avoid confusion and can be used to support the instructions in your will.

Trusts may be more important than you think in estate planning. Trusts allow you to take assets out of your probate estate and have these assets managed by a trustee of your choice, who distributes assets directly to beneficiaries. You don’t have to have millions to benefit from a trust.

List your debts. This is not as much fun as listing assets, but still important for your executor and heirs. Mortgage payments, car payments, credit cards and personal loans are to be paid first out of estate accounts before funds can be distributed to heirs. Having this information will make your executor’s tasks easier.

Plan for digital assets. If you want your social media accounts to be deleted or emails available to a designated person after you die, you’ll need to start with a list of the accounts, usernames, passwords, whether the platform allows you to designate another person to have access to your accounts and how you want your digital assets handled after death. This plan should be in place in case of incapacity as well.

How will estate taxes be paid? Without tax planning properly done, your legacy could shrink considerably. In addition to federal estate taxes, some states have state estate taxes and inheritance taxes. Talk with your estate planning attorney to find out what your estate tax obligations will be and how to plan strategically to pay the taxes.

Plan for Long Term Care. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that about 70% of Americans will need some type of long-term care during their lifetimes. Some options are private LTC insurance, government programs and self-funding.

The more planning done in advance, the more likely your loved ones will know what to do if you become incapacitated and know what you wanted when you die.  Contact us to begin working on your estate plan with one of our experienced estate planning attorneys today.

Resource: Maryland Reporter (Sep. 27, 2022) “Estate Planning 101: 10 Tips for Success”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

Estate Planning Considerations for Minor Children – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Creating an estate plan with minor children in mind has a host of variables quite different than one where all heirs are adults. If the intention is for the minor children to be beneficiaries, or if there is a remote chance a minor child might become an unintended beneficiary, different provisions will be needed. A recent article titled “Children need special attention in estate planning” from The News-Enterprise explains how these situations might be addressed.

Does the person creating the will—aka, the testator—want property to be distributed to a minor child? If so, how is the distribution to occur, tax consequences and safeguards need to be put into place. Much depends upon the relationship of the testator to the minor child. An older individual may want to leave specific dollar bequests for minor children or great-grandchildren, while people with younger children generally leave their entire estate in fractional shares to their own minor children as primary beneficiaries.

While minor children and grandchildren beneficiaries are excluded from inheritance taxes in certain states, great- grandchildren are not. Your estate planning attorney will be able to provide details on who is subject to inheritance, federal and state estate taxes. This needs to be part of your estate plan.

If minor children are the intended beneficiaries of a fractional share of the estate in its entirety, distributions may be held in a common trust or divided into separate share for each minor child. A common trust is used to hold all property to benefit all of the children, until the youngest child reaches a determined age. When this occurs, the trust is split into separate shares according to the trust directions, when each share is managed for the individual beneficiary.

Instructions to the trustee as to how much of the income and principal each beneficiary is to receive and when, at what age or intervals each beneficiary may exercise full control over the assets and what purposes the trust property is intended for until the beneficiary reaches a certain age are details which need to be clearly explained in the trust.

Trusts for minor children are often specifically to be used for health, education, maintenance, or support needs of the beneficiary, within the discretion of the trustee. This has to be outlined in the trust document.

Even if the intention is not to make minor children beneficiaries, care must be taken to include provisions if they are family members. The will or trust must be clear on how property passed to minor child beneficiaries is to be distributed. This may be done through a requirement to put distributions into a trust or may leave a list of options for the executor.

Testators need to keep in mind the public nature of probate. Whatever is left to a minor child will be a matter of public record, which could make the child vulnerable to scammers or predatory family members. Consider using a revocable living trust as an alternative to safeguard the child and the assets.

Regardless of whether a will or trust is used, there should be a person named to act as the child’s guardian and their conservator or trustee, who manages their finances. The money manager does not have to be a parent or relative but must be a trustworthy person.

Contact us to discuss your specific situation with one of our experienced estate planning attorneys and to create a plan to protect your minor children, ensuring their financial and lifestyle stability.

Reference: The News-Enterprise (Sep. 10, 2022) “Children need special attention in estate planning”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

Read more about the article What’s Being Done to Help Seniors Age in Place? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

What’s Being Done to Help Seniors Age in Place? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Seasons’ recent article entitled “Federal grant will fund $15 million in aging-in-place home projects” provides everything you need to know about the latest on aging in place. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is making $15 million available to assist seniors with home modifications. This funding is made available through HUD’s Older Adult Home Modification Program.

“The funding opportunity … will assist experienced nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, and public housing authorities in undertaking comprehensive programs that make safety and functional home modifications, repairs and renovations to meet the needs of low-income elderly homeowners,” HUD officials said in a statement.

The goal of the program is to assist low-income and older adult homeowners (at least age 62) to remain in their homes by providing low-cost, low barrier and high-impact home modifications to reduce their risk of falling, improve general safety, increase accessibility and to improve functional abilities in the home.

“This is about enabling older adults to remain in the comfort of their family home, where they have made their life,” the spokesperson said, “rather than having to move to a nursing home or other assisted care facilities.”

With an estimated 20% of the population reaching age 65 by 2040, the home modification program aims to assist older adults who remain in their homes safely with honor and respect.

“We must allow our nation’s seniors to age-in-place with dignity,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge in a statement. “This funding will give seniors the flexibility to make changes to their existing homes—changes that will keep them safe and allow them to gracefully adjust to their changing lifestyle.”

Eligible applicants include experienced nonprofit organizations, state and local governments and public housing authorities that have at least three years of experience in providing services to the elderly. Individuals, foreign entities and sole proprietorship organizations are not eligible to apply or receive funds, according to HUD. As a result, there’s no individual application homeowners or family members need to fill out to receive funding. Homeowners, family members, caregivers and other interested parties who want to get help and receive home modifications need to apply through a certain institution by contacting organizations in their area in the process of applying for funds or that have already received funds.

“Caregivers can contact the local organization that has a home modification grant, and let the grantee know that they are caregivers for a family with a family member that is age 62 and older, who owns the home they live in and are interested in having the family’s home modified under HUD’s Home Modification grant program to help them age in place,” a HUD spokesperson said.

Reference:  Seasons (Sep. 19, 2022) “Federal grant will fund $15 million in aging-in-place home projects”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

Is Your Business Included in Estate Plan? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Forbes’ recent article entitled “The Importance of Estate Planning When Building Your Business” says that every business that’s expected to survive must have a clear answer to this question. The plan needs to be shared with the current owners and management as well as the future owners.

The common things business owners use to put some protection in place are buy-sell agreements, key-person insurance and a succession plan. These are used to make certain that, when the time comes, there’s both certainty around what needs to happen, as well as the funding to make sure that it happens.

If your estate plan hasn’t considered your business interests or hasn’t been updated as the business has developed, it may be that this plan falls apart when it matters the most.

Buy-sell insurance policies that don’t state the current business values could result in your interests being sold far below fair value or may see the interests being bought by an external party that threatens the business itself.

If your agreements are not in place, or are challenged by the IRS, your estate may find itself with a far greater burden than anticipated.

Your estate plan should be reviewed regularly to account for changes in your situation, the value of your assets, the status of your (intended) beneficiaries and new tax laws and regulations.

There are a range of thresholds, exemptions and rules that apply. Adapting the plan to make best use of these given your current situation is well worth the effort. Contact us to talk to one of our experienced estate planning attorneys about your plan.

Including your estate planning as part of your general financial planning and management will frequently provide a valuable guidance in terms of how best to set up and manage your broader financial affairs.

Financial awareness can not only inform how you grow your wealth now but also ensure that it gets passed on effectively. The same is also true of your business.

A tough conversation about what happens in these situations can be a reminder to management that over dependence on any key person is not something to take for granted.

Reference: Forbes (Sep. July 12, 2019) “The Importance of Estate Planning When Building Your Business”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys