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1002 Frederick Road |
News
| Young Family Estate Planning WHO NEEDS A WILL? A family with children under the age of 18, it is extremely important that you have your legal affairs in order. Recently there have been several cases of notoriety where the parents have left young children without Guardians and without Trustees. This article is directed for those with children under the age of eighteen. APPOINT A TRUSTEE: Typically a Young Family Will would have all the assets going from spouse to spouse and then in the event that both spouses are deceased, the assets being turned over to the children. In the event that the children are under the ages of 18 it would be necessary to appoint a Trustee. The Trustee's duty is to manage the assets for the children while they are minors as well as to manage the trust funds until the conclusion of the trust. Most families would designate a time when the trust would cease. Many families choose the ages of 21, 23 or 25 to allow for the children to complete their post secondary education and to allow the use of all the trust funds to complete those educational needs. Additionally, many families postpone the distribution until the youngest reaches the termination date so that all of the children have full availability of the entire trust fund. APPOINT A GUARDIAN: The second important designation of the Will is that of a Guardian. The Guarduan is the person who would raise the children. The Guardan would stand in the day to day activites for the paraents and would at times necessary, request from the trustee financial support as deemed necessary by the Guardian and the Trustee. CHECKS & BALANCES: It is not necessary the Guardian and Trustee be the same person, however, they may be the same person if you deem that person or persons to be the best ones to raise the children and manage the finances. Sometimes it is prudent to name a different Trustee and a different Guardian so that there are checks and balances on both the financial aspects and the hands-on raising of the children. APPOINT A PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE: The last item necessary for a Young Family Will is that of a Personal Representative. The Personal Representative's duties ar to gather the assets of the estate, payoff the estate's debts and then turn over those assets to the Trustee. That job is more of a legal process and must be approved by the court. Also if you have a Young Family Will, you may want to review it to make sure the Trustees and the Guardians are still the most appropriate persons to take care of matter for you children. Occasionally, someone has passed away, circumstances have changed and you may want to update or change those Trustees and Guardians. WHAT IF? Young Family Wills are extremely important. If you do not designate the Trustees or Guardians or Personal Representative, then the court will have to step in and make those appointments. The court may make an appointment of someone that you do not want to have caring for your children. There will also be additional court costs. Finally, it will be time consuming to complete. Without a will, it would take six weeks to three months to place the children, while with a will children are placed immediately. All these issues can be avoided by taking care of the legal matters ahead of time. If you do not have these documents, I would strongly advise that you undertake executing them at the earliest time as they are such an important part of insuring your children's future in the sudden and tragic event that it is needed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nursing Home Costs Searching for a nursing home can be an overwhelming prospect. We recommend beginning your search at www.medicare.gov. This site provides comprehensive information for all types of nursing support, and allows preliminary comparison between nursing home quality and staff ratings. After narrowing your search, visit and research each home thoroughly before making your final decision. Once you have identified a nursing facility that meets your needs, you may be surprised to learn of the tremendous cost of nursing care. As the chart below illustrates, the cost of long term care makes it difficult to provide support in a nursing home for even a short time without incurring an enormous financial burden. In 2006, Metlife Market Survey calculated the average daily cost of a private room in a nursing home in the United States to be $206 per day or $75,190 annually. This cost represents an increase of 1.5% from $203 in 2005. Following is a chart comparing 2006 daily nursing home rates for some areas that you may be considering:
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| Top Reasons for not Having a Will 56%:Procrastination 12%:Fear of confronting one’s mortality 10%:Confusion about the process 6%: I believe I’m too young to have a will 6%: I don’t care what happens after I’m gone 5%: I don’t have enough money to have a will | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MEDICAID UPDATE Recently, the Department of Social Services, has been attempting to force spouses of a deceased spouse to elect against their share of the estate. Therefore, the use of life estate deeds in order to keep property out of probate may be a wise choice when a spouse is forced to enter a nursing home. In a recent case before the Department of Social Services, the husband and wife divided up their assets and transferred the house into the wife's name. Please note that the husband was the one who was admitted to the nursing home. However, in this case, the wife died first and left her house to her estate. In the state of Maryland, the husband was then forced to receive one-third of her estate and that one-third of the estate was then transferred to the nursing home. In this case, if the couple had left the property in a life estate deed, that would have passed outside of the estate and, therefore, the Department of Social Services could not have forced the spouse in the nursing home to seek his share of the estate. It should be noted, however, that this case is still under appeal and the state of Maryland may still recover from the house, even under a life estate. By the circumstances of this matter, most parties would be well-suited to draft a life estate deed to, hopefully, avoid this situation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LIVING WILL CONSULTATIONS On October 1, 2006 the State of Maryland drastically changed the requirements for an Advanced Medical Directive. If you have not had your Advanced Medical Directive updated, you should have a free consulation to discuss how the new changes may affect your choices. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Office News ● Catonsville Arts and Crafts Festival: Look for the Weinkam and Weinkam both at the Catonsville Arts Festival and stop by to talk with either Lou Weinkam, Jr. or Lou Weinkam, Sr. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DISCLAIMERS IN ESTATE PLANNING Gaining popularity in Estate Planning is the use of a disclaimer trust. A disclaimer trust is a document that allows a surviving spouse to maximize their estate tax deduction post mortem. Upon the death of a spouse, the surviving spouse would elect to transfer assets of the Estate directly to the beneficiary’s children, or into a trust for the children. Additionally, the surviving spouse would be permitted to use the income during the remainder of their lifetime. Thus, the disclaimer trust will allow the spouse to make an informed choice regarding Federal Estate Tax issues | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PRIVACY ACT REGULATIONS ●HIPPA With the enactment of the Privacy Rules Statement on April 14, 2003, doctors and hospitals are required to complete privacy rule statements. These rules are also referred to as HIPPA. HIPAA is an acronym for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. These forms protect patient privacy and have a provision for severe financial fines to the medical profession for a violation of these rules. ●ADVANCE CARE DIRECTIVES Recently, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys announced that these new HIPAA rules also apply to Advance Care Directives. Currently, a majority of Maryland health care providers are not accepting medical directives without HIPAA wording. If you already have a health directive you should have it updated to include the new wording. All Advance Health Directives prepared must now comply with the new HIPPAA regulations. ●PATRIOT ACT Another area of concern is the Patriot Act. This Federal Legislation was enacted in response to the 9/11 tragedy and concerns the release of financial information. You may be surprised to learn that if you are inquiring about health information or financial information for someone else, including a spouse, you will probably not be able to get this information. To ensure that you will be able to obtain health and financial information, a Power of Attorney is required. ●UPDATE RECORDS For many years we have been recommending the execution of Powers of Attorney and Advance Care Directives as a part of estate planning. More than ever, because of the new rules dealing with the release of health and financial information we are recommending that everyone have a valid Power of Attorney for financial matters and an updated Advance Care Directive for health matters as part of their Estate Planning package. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Office News - September 2007 Lou Weinkam, Jr. was a featured speaker for the National Business Institute's Estate Planning and Recovery for Elderly Clients Seminar. He spoke on Planning for your Clients Incapacity and Giving Informed Advice about Long-Term Care. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Office News - September 2007 Congratulations to Lou Weinkam, Jr.'s son, Gus, who received straight A's his entire first year at St. Mary's College in Southern Maryland. Congratulations also to Lou Weinkam Jr.'s son,Dominick, who also received straight A's this past year at Catonsville High School. Dominick is currently on the J.V. Football team. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Archived News |
1002 Frederick Road, Catonsville, MD 21228
phone: 410-744-3256, fax: 410-744-3423, lawhelp@weinkam.com