Caregiving

Assisted Reproductive Technology and Estate Plans

Published on: April 27, 2020 | by Ettinger Law Firm

In-vitro fertilization, also known as IVF, has its origins in the 1890’s when the first known case of embryo transplantation occurred in rabbits in Great Britain. By 1973, scientists were able to transplant a human embryo into a woman. The first human IVF pregnancy occurred 47 years ago in Melbourne, Australia. In addition to IVF there are other assisted reproductive technologies, commonly called ART for short, that have changed human conception, such as artificial insemination and surrogacy that have made parenthood possible for people who are unable to reproduce naturally.

Significant changes are afoot in the area of estate planning of such families as more children are born from ART methods for reproduction. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1.8% of all infants born in the United States were aided by ART methods. In the context of estate planning, there are two main issues ART families should tackle. First, how parentage and descendants are defined for legal purposes, such as maintenance and inheritance. Second, is who controls the disposition of stored genetic material that has not been used.

Are all children descendants, legally speaking, of course?

How much can you receive in divorce benefits?

Published on: April 15, 2020 | by Ettinger Law Firm

If you’re eligible for divorce benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA), you can collect up to 50% of the amount your former spouse is eligible to receive by claiming your benefits at his or her full retirement age (FRA).

Your FRA is either 66, 66 plus a few months, or 67, depending on the year you were born. The earliest you can claim Social Security benefits is 62. If you claim benefits before your FRA, your Social Security benefits will be permanently reduced by as much as 30%. You can only receive your full Social Security benefit amount if you claim benefits at your FRA.

You cannot double dip

Quick Advice about COVID-19 and Wealth Transfer Planning

Published on: April 6, 2020 | by Ettinger Law Firm

The COVID-19 pandemic has understandably left many people facing challenges. Remember that even the most difficult times often present opportunities, which currently includes an ideal situation to transfer assets to a loved one. The combination of decreased market values, lowered interest rates, and a high tax rate exemption has caused people to utilize several advantageous estate planning strategies.

# 1 – Making the Most of Gifting

Based on the value of assets, transferring property through gifting often requires individuals to consider estate taxes, gift taxes, and generation-skipping taxes. By transferring assets to loved ones while the asset’s value is temporarily at its lowest, you have the greatest chance possible of removing the assets from your taxable estate while making the most out of available exemptions.

Back to Basics: Estate Planning 101, Part IV

Published on: March 12, 2020 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Every estate plan should include a living trust. A living trust is different from a trust and should be part of your estate plan along with a last will and testament and power of attorney (financial and medical) documents.

Why a living trust is an important estate plan document

A living trust is a written legal document that partially substitutes for a will. With a living trust, your assets (your home, bank accounts and stocks, for example) are put into the trust, administered for your benefit during your lifetime, and then transferred to your beneficiaries when you die. Living trusts, have great value as part of estate planning, but not necessarily to avoid probate. A living trust, if properly prepared and administered, can be a very effective tool to manage assets in the event of illness, disability or the effects of aging. In light of the aging population, the use of living trusts to minimize the risk of elder financial abuse and address similar issues, should be an important consideration in an estate plan.

Back to Basics: Estate Planning 101, Part II

Published on: March 6, 2020 | by Ettinger Law Firm

A trust is an important estate plan document. Other estate planning documents include a last will and testament and intestate succession.

Every state has laws that determine who your heirs are and what proportion of the estate the heir is entitled to receive. Heir refers to blood relatives and are usually grouped according to closeness of relationship: Children and spouse; siblings and parents; aunts, uncles, and cousins. Where there is no will or trust, the estate is deemed “intestate” and must be settled according to state probate law. Individuals who inherit property under a will or trust are referred to as beneficiaries. Persons can be named as beneficiaries on bank accounts, life insurance policies, financial portfolios, retirement accounts, and certain types of titled property such as real estate – they need not be heirs. Remember heirs can be beneficiaries, but beneficiaries are not always heirs.

To complete an estate plan, you should consider adding trust documents.

Back to Basics: Estate Planning 101, Part I

Published on: March 2, 2020 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Creating a thoughtful estate plan is one of the greatest gifts anyone can leave their loved ones. It is important to update your will when major changes occur. These might include marriage, divorce, opening or closing a business, buying or selling real estate, or birth or death of an heir.

Estate planning is a process that helps ensure that your desires for distribution of your property and assets at death are carried out. During life, to complete an estate plan, you should consider the following:

Will: A will is the primary document that should be prepared while living, to be effective at death. A will is a written document expressing how you would like your estate to be distributed after death. Usually a will must be executed in the presence of two disinterested witness and be notarized. You must also have testamentary capacity (over the age of 18, of sound mind, and competent).

Can Debt Collectors and Creditors Garnish My Retirement Benefits?

Published on: November 17, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

More seniors than ever are carrying high debt into retirement. Managing high debt simultaneously with managing the cost of daily living and medical care on a fixed income is a recurring problem in many households. The amount of debt burden has skyrocketed over the past decade.

The National Council on Aging commissioned the Survey of Consumer Finances to study debt and how it impacts seniors economic security. The key findings are listed below:

Percentage of households headed by an adult 65 or older with any debt increased from 41.5% in 1992 to 51.9% in 2010 and then to 60% in 2016.

What to Do When a Loved One Passes (The Survivor’s Guide)

Published on: November 12, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Settling an estate, after the loss of a loved one while grieving, is a difficult process. For the weeks and months that follow the funeral, handling the estate of a deceased individual may quickly overwhelm survivors. The steps outlined below provide a guide to survivors through this tumultuous time.

Immediately upon the death of a loved one

After notifying family members and close friends, contact a funeral director. The funeral director is able to assist with funeral and burial arrangements, publish an obituary, order the death certificate, and transport your loved one’s remains to the funeral home.

What Trust Instrument Is Right for You?

Published on: November 8, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

The advantage of including a trust in your estate plan is that trusts usually avoid probate. The beneficial effect of that advantage is that your beneficiaries may gain access to the assets held in trust faster than those assets transferred via will. When used optimally a trust may minimize estate taxes. Trust can be arranged in many ways and can specify exactly how and when the assets pass to the beneficiaries. What follows are a brief description of the types of trust instruments that may be included in your estate plan.

Basic types of trusts

Marital or “A” trust	Provides immediate benefits to your surviving spouse. However, the assets in the trust are included in the taxable estate of the surviving spouse. The surviving spouse does not pay estate taxes on his or her spouse’s assets, until he or she passes.
Bypass or “B” trust	Bypasses the surviving spouse’s estate, providing federal estate tax exemption for each spouse, popularly referred to as a credit shelter trust.
Testamentary trust	Assets from the will are transferred into a testamentary trust upon death. The assets are subject to probate and transfer taxes and often continue to be subject to supervision by the Surrogate’s Court.
Irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT)	Designed to exclude life insurance proceeds from the deceased person’s taxable estate while providing liquidity to the estate and/or the trusts’ beneficiaries. This type of trust is irrevocable.
Charitable lead trust	Estate assets pass to a charitable or religious organization and the remainder is given to your beneficiaries.
Charitable remainder trust	For a period of time the trust provides an income stream to the beneficiary and then any remainder goes to a charity.
Generation-skipping trust	Using the generation-skipping tax exemption, a generation-skipping trust permits trust assets to be distributed to grandchildren or later generations without incurring either a generation-skipping tax or estate taxes on the subsequent death of your children.
Qualified Terminable Interest Property (QTIP) trust	Used to provide income to a surviving spouse. Upon the spouse’s death, the assets then go to additional beneficiaries named by the deceased. Often used in second marriage situations, as well as to maximize estate and generation-skipping tax or estate tax planning flexibility.
Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT)	Irrevocable trust funded by gifts you make (grantor). It is designed to shift future appreciation on quickly appreciating assets to the next generation during your (grantor’s) lifetime.

Consult with a New York trusts and estates lawyer to include a trust as part of your estate plan. Be sure to read our next post, Understanding the Differences Between Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts, to learn about the types of trust instruments that may be included in your estate plan.

Mistakes to Avoid When Establishing Trusts, Part 2

Published on: November 1, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

This is the last post in our in-depth series of trusts and why and how to include them in your estate plan. For prior topics, click here. We were last discussing common mistakes we see in the establishment of trust instruments. Our last post examined failing to fund the trust. The next topics surround beneficiary designations and policy titling.

No. 3 – Unintended beneficiaries of retirement accounts and life insurance policies

Trust funds include life insurance proceeds and other accounts and policies payable to beneficiaries. If those accounts and policies do not properly designate your trust as a primary or contingent beneficiary, then those funds will pass to the beneficiary directly, disregarding any of your instructions from the trust document. The result of the distribution may be that your beneficiary receives more or less than you attended or sooner than necessary, defeating the purpose of the establishment of the trust.