Category: Estate Planning
Planning for Long-Term Care
Many people don’t know that over 69% of people turning 65 this year will need some sort of long-term care at some point in their retirement. Our firm specializes in planning for and managing retirement for private and institutional clients, and our clients often require advanced planning to protect their assets. First of all, it’s important that you have an elder law attorney. Elder law is a niche area of legal practice covering estate planning, wills, trusts, retirement healthcare planning and protection of assets. A good elder law attorney can help advise you on all these areas. The right planning starts with the right documents, especially the Power of Attorney. The power of attorney law changed in Ohio in 2012 to the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, and many powers of attorney documents don’t conform with this legislative change. We highly recommend for anyone with a power of attorney written prior to March of 2012, that you have that document reviewed to determine if it meets the new criteria. Another important aspect of elder law is retirement health care planning. For example, most people under 80 don’t have pensions, and their net worth is primarily invested in IRA’s and 401(k)’s. These assets present a difficult challenge when planning. For those individuals, a leverage strategy using annuities and/or life insurance with long term care benefits can be very effective. Traditional long-term care insurance is no longer the on
The Power of Coordination
At the Lineweaver Companies, we believe a team approach to coordinating all your financial, legal, tax, and insurance needs helps save you time, money and worry. For example, we had clients who were both close to retirement, and unfortunately the husband had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The first thing we did was to work with them to make sure his pension was triggered in such a way that the wife could receive a greater lifetime benefit - almost a million more dollars than she would have otherwise received. At the same time, in this sort of situation, you have to consider powers of attorney – and other basic estate planning documents that everyone should have, like wills, and even if trusts make sense for your particular situation. There were also huge student loan balances of more than $120,000. But, because they kept the loans entirely in the father’s name, when he passed, the debt was forgiven. But what many people don’t know is that the forgiveness of debt – in this case student loan debt - is considered income by the IRS – and therefore taxable. As you can imagine, in this case it was significant: an additional $40,000. However, we were able to work with the family and the IRS to get the entire amount forgiven as well – so they ended up having the debt and the tax bill forgiven. Given the pension payouts and their savings, they had significant assets that needed to be managed eff
What the New Trump Tax Law Means for Your Estate Plan
When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 passed and was signed into law late last year, it was the most sweeping overhaul to the tax code in more than 30 years. While there are many estate planning strategies that have remained in place, this also opened the door to new opportunities, and so it may be wise to revisit your estate plan. Increased Limits on the Estate Tax The Tax Cut and Jobs Act temporarily doubles the exemption amount for estate, gift and generation-skipping taxes from the $5 million base, set in 2011, to a new $10 million base, good for tax years 2018 through 2025. The exemption is indexed for inflation, so an individual can shelter $11.2 million in assets from these taxes. Another federal estate law provision called portability lets couples who do proper planning double that exemption. So, a couple could exclude $22.4 million for 2018. The law’s sunset provision means that, absent further Congressional action, the exemption amount would revert to the $5 million base, indexed. 529 Plans Under previous regulations, 529 withdrawals were tax-free as long as the funds were spent toward qualified higher education expenses, which included tuition, room and board, and computer software and equipment at any eligible post-secondary institution. With the new tax act, parents who send their children to private elementary and high school will have more options when it comes to saving for tuition. The new tax plan allows 529 plans to be used for up to $10,000 pe
Is Your Estate Plan Up to Date?
Prepare for the Inevitable There’s a saying that goes something like this….”When you are dead, you don’t know you are dead. It is difficult only for the others.” When you pass away, it will be difficult for family members to deal with. Do not make it more difficult by not having your affairs in order. That is not the legacy you would like to leave….a mess someone else had to clean up. The decisions you make now about where your assets go after your death can affect people’s lives profoundly. If you don’t have the proper plans in place, chances are things will not go as you think. Transfers of your assets could be stressful, complicated, expensive, and create unnecessary taxes. Most people avoid thinking about, let alone planning for, their death. And yet making arrangements can be a liberating experience. Relieving your families of the burden of having to do it for you is also a demonstration of consideration, kindness and love. Estate-planning advice often revolves around the choice and creation of legal structures and documents, such as wills and trusts. Indeed, these are critical tasks, and you should consult a knowledgeable trusts and estates attorney to get them done right. The most basic estate-planning issues to address are 1) how much you can give, 2) who gets your assets, and 3) when- either during your lifetime or after your death. These three issues are interactive. A change in one can affect the others and
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