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Monday, December 3, 2012

How Estate Planning Attorneys Can Help Your Family

Planning what happens after your death can help your family dramatically. Once you're gone, there are a number of things surviving family members will have to think of from planning a service to burial arrangements. Instead of leaving it all to chance, consider working with estate planning attorneys to ensure everything is taken care of before it's needed.

A Will Ensures Assets Are Distributed And Children Are Taken Care Of

For a long time, it was thought that only wealthy people needed wills. However, everyone should have one. Many people have assets such as a car, home, savings account and more. Having this important document drawn up lets your family know what should happen with these matters after you've passed. Although you'll be gone, a professionally executed will can eliminate bickering and negative feelings among your bereaved friends and family.

If you have minor children, it's a definite must. This legal document will spell out what should happen to your children if you die. Without such, your children could find themselves in the middle of a custody battle between relatives, be placed in foster care, or end up with a relative who may be uncomfortable acting as their guardian.

A Living Will Ensures Your Medical Wishes Are Followed

A living will is a much different type of document. A living will, also known as an advanced medical directive, spells out what you want to happen in the event that you become too sick or incapacitated to make decisions for yourself. You can also appoint someone to act as your medical power of attorney, which is the person responsible for medical decisions in the event that you're unable to make them for yourself. Many states have outlined statutes that determine when an advanced medical directive goes into effect. If you're unsure about what's best for you, contact estate lawyers in your area and ask for advice.

Ask Estate Attorneys About Trusts: They're Not Just For The Wealthy

A trust fund conjures up images of wealthy young people who've never worked a day in their life, but this is a complete stereotype. Anyone with assets to pass on can create a trust for a relative. Estate planning attorneys can explain trusts in greater detail but, basically, a trust provides the deceased with the ability to determine how money is to be spent after they're gone. Trusts are the perfect solution if you want to ensure that your beneficiaries finish college before the money is distributed or if you want to space out the distributions so the beneficiary isn't provided with one large lump sum of cash.

These documents aren't the only ones that estate lawyers can help with. Make a list of your assets and then talk with estate attorneys to see which documents they recommend for your specific situation. There's no one-size-fits-all solution for estate planning. Attorneys who help with this specific type of planning for the future should be consulted before making any decision that affects your relatives.

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Left Out of a Will?

In the UK, anyone who feels they have been inadequately provided for in a Will has the right to challenge it. Regardless of whether you are a relative, a friend or simply an acquaintance of the deceased, you may want to challenge a Will because you believe that the deceased was not of sound mind when they had the document prepared, or that they were coerced into leaving their entire Estate to someone, for example. Although you will be expected to prove that this is the case in court, you may be successful in proving that the deceased actually wished for you to receive a portion of their Estate.

The claim must be made within six months from the date of Grant of Probate being issued. A Grant of Probate is a High Court document issued at the time of someone's death that establishes who has legal authority to deal with the Estate and affairs of the deceased.

If you want to make a claim and you are the surviving spouse, you must be able to argue that you have not been sufficiently provided for by your deceased husband.

Be aware however, if you intend to challenge a Will, you must be able to provide proof to substantiate your claims. It is uncommon for challenges not based on mental incapacity to be successful, so you must therefore weigh up the benefits of potentially winning your case, against the length of time it may take in order for a judgement to be made, and the stress caused by undertaking such a case.

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How Do I Donate My Body to Science?

Did you know that you can donate your body to science? If you wish to do so, it is important that you set those desires out in advance in an anatomized gift declaration or other planning document that is provided by the agency you wish to favor.

Benefits

Donating your body to a medical school is a great way to help advance the field of medical sciences. Medical students and researchers use donated bodies to learn and make new discoveries. Your donation could help cure a common disease or simply allow a medical student to prepare for his or her career.

Planning Ahead

You can leave special instructions in an anatomized gift declaration as to where you want your body donated or you can allow your personal representative to choose. It is best, however, to speak with a medical institution before you pass away. You can even make arrangements with them before hand. Doing so will save your personal representative the hassle of finding a way to carry out your wishes.

Planning ahead will also ensure that your family members will follow through on your plans. If you intend to donate your body to science, speak with your loved ones first. By explaining your reasons, they may have an easier time coming to terms with your decision.

How it Works

So how does it work? The medical institution will use your remains for up to a year. After that time they will cremate or bury your body. They may even scatter your ashes in a pre-determined location. If your family wishes, they may have your remains returned to them for burial or ash scattering.

The Rules

In order to donate your body to a medical school, it must be a whole body donation. You cannot be an organ donor first or your body may be rejected for other uses.

Your family also cannot receive payment for the use of your remains. The medical institution, however, will likely cover many of your burial or cremation expenses.

How Designate For The Care Of Your Pets In Your Last Will And Testament

Our pets are some of the most precious things in our entire lives. They provide us with unconditional love and even have a great deal of health benefits as well. What if you want to provide care and protection for your pets even after you have passed on. Well, the way that you can actually go about this is to designate that in your Last Will and Testament. When you are discussing your plans and desires for your Will with the legal professional make sure that you also mention that one of your goals is to provide a guardian who shall have the responsibility of watching after and providing for your pets. Some of the most common things that are outlined in a Will is actually for providing for the health of cats or dogs. So essentially what you can do is state that a portion of your assets shall be set aside which shall pay for any costs associated with the feeding and health costs of your desired animal.

The guardian that you appoint should be someone that you trust and someone that you know would take pride in looking after the animals. There are times when the situation comes up whereby that particular person needs to be removed because they are not performing the duties properly. As a result, what can be done is actually that in the Will it should be written that in that case there shall be a designated back-up guardian who then will take over the responsibilities of the original individual assigned to the task. This will ensure a seamless period of guardianship to provide for the care of your loved ones when you are no longer here. The process can be very simple as long as you plan carefully and have everything in writing.

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Should You Fund Your Trust Or Make It a Beneficiary?

If you have a Revocable Living Trust you can either fund your estate assets into the Trust or name the Trust as a beneficiary. Which way you choose will depend upon the asset.

Life Insurance Policy You can fund your life insurance policy into your trust, but when do so you must use caution. Some state laws may not protect a Revocable Living Trust from creditors. In this case your life insurance money may be used to pay debts.

Funding your policy into your Trust can, however, allow your trustee quick access to funds before and after your death. If you should become mentally or physically incapacitated, your trustee may be able to borrow against the policy if it is funded into your account. These funds can be used to care for your medical and personal well-being.

Financial Holdings Most accounts that are not retirement accounts set up through your employment can be easily funded into your Trust. These accounts include your savings accounts, checking accounts, non-retirement investments, and money market accounts. You can also fund a mature certificate of deposit into your account. If you prefer, you may instead name a pay on death beneficiary for many of these accounts. You must, however, stay on top of updating all beneficiaries as needed.

If, however, an account has tax deferment status as many retirement accounts do, you may want to name your Trust as a beneficiary instead of funding it into the Living Trust. When you fund a tax deferred account such as a 401K, the income taxes will become immediately due.

Personal Items Most personal items such as housewares, jewelry and clothing can be funded into your Trust. You may also fund vehicles, but there is a chance you may have to pay taxes when the Title is transferred from you to your Trust. You also run the risk of creating a liability for the trust if the vehicle is involved in an accident.

Real Estate A Living Trust is one of the best places to title your real estate because it can help your land holdings pass easily from you to your heirs upon your death. Using a Trust to bequeath land is a great way to help your property avoid probate.

Understanding No Contest Clauses

If you have a Last Will and Testament, Revocable Living Trust or an Irrevocable Trust, you have the option to include a No Contest Clause in your document. So what is a "No Contest" clause? It is a statement that says any beneficiary who challenges your estate document will be completely disinherited.

Possible Contest Points

An heir-at-law, beneficiary or beneficiary from a previous Will can issue a challenge to your Will for one of four reasons: your document was not signed according to state law, you endured strong and undue influence from someone, you were mentally disabled when you signed, or you were tricked into signing. These are valid reasons for a Will challenge, but sometimes heirs will issue a challenge simply because they are upset at being disinherited or receiving less than expected. A challenge without probable cause will likely be unsuccessful, but may succeed in slowing down the estate settlement process and costing your heirs some of their inheritance for legal fees.

Using a Clause

A No Contest Clause is a good way to deter unnecessary challenges to your estate plan. You should consider using such a clause if you feel someone may contest your Will. You should also use this type of clause if there is friction within your family that could lead to disputes during estate settlement.

If you do use a No Contest Clause, you should consider leaving something to every heir, to deter a contest. If an heir is disinherited, he or she will have nothing to lose and may feel free to issue a challenge.

Downsides

Sometimes a No Contest Clause does not work. If an heir has a legitimate reason to contest your Will a judge may allow that heir to issue a challenge without disinheriting him or her.

To make sure your document does not have a legal reason to be challenged, work with your attorney to ensure it is legally signed. You can also include a video as evidence that you are mentally stable, have created your Will on your own and that you knew what you were signing.