Estate Planning

Important Estate Planning Steps to Take after a Parent’s Death

Published on: November 15, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Losing a parent is not easy. While being prepared for the event might not make the emotional aspect any easier, it can help to eliminate the potential for additional problems. As a result, this article reviews some of the important financial steps that you can take after a parent passes away.

# 1 – Determine if Your Parents Had an Estate Plan

The position of managing a parent’s estate after their death can be made much easier if a parent had an estate plan. Ideally, a parent will organize all of their estate documents in an easy to find but secured location. The best estate plans include wills that address how assets should be handled, dispositions of last remains regarding how a parent’s remains should be disposed of, and several other documents.

Why More than Wills Are Necessary for Estate Planning

Published on: November 13, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Wills play an important part in the estate planning process. The best estate plans, however, include more than wills. Instead, the best estate plans anticipate the numerous complications that can arise at the end of a person’s life.

Advance Healthcare Directives

Medical powers of attorney and living wills serve an important role that wills simply do not touch. A medical power of attorney can be used to appoint someone to make healthcare decisions in case you become incapacitated. A living will can be used to determine what type of life-prolonging measures you would like if you end up on life support.

Estate Planning Strategies for Couples without Children

Published on: November 11, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Not everyone can have children, and not everyone wants them. Supporting this trend are statistics that reveal America’s fertility rate is on the decline. In 2018, the number of children born in the United States even dropped to its lowest rate in 32 years.

There are numerous reasons why couples are deciding to not have children including concerns about money and uncertainties about the prospect of raising a child in today’s world. Some couples who have decided to not have children make the mistake of thinking that they do not need a detailed estate plan, but in actuality they do.

It is still important to make sure that any assets owned by the couple pass according to their wishes. It is also often critical that burial and funeral requests of the couple are properly carried out. As a result, this article reviews some important details that couples without children should remember while estate planning.

Estate Planning Advice for Millenials

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

Estate planning changes between groups of people. The necessary estate planning strategies also change between people. Like it or not, it is time for many members of the millennial generation to begin the estate planning process.

As a result, this article examines some of the unique challenges faced by this age group as well as takes a review of some estate planning strategies that Millenials should follow.

Powers of Attorney and Living Wills Are Helpful

New Estate Planning Topics You Should Know About

Published on: November 6, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

It is difficult to perform estate planning without taking finances and taxes into consideration. Instead, many people who perform successful planning discover that these three topics are interchangeably related. In the last year, several new topics have been introduced that redefine how each of these three areas.

This article takes a brief look at some new and exciting estate planning strategies.

# 1 – Upstream Gifting

How to Reduce the Risk of Revocable Trust Litigation

Published on: November 4, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

The California Court of Appeals recently decided the case of Winston v. Winston-Levin, which reviews some important estate planning considerations. In 1986, Robert Levin created a revocable trust, which he later revised several times. Sadly Robert passed away in 2015, and litigation occurred concerning subsequent revisions to the trust when Robert’s daughter from a previous marriage initiated legal action against Robert’s widow.

The California court subsequently voided a revision to Levin’s trust and ordered the widow to return property she had received according to these changes. The daughter subsequently appealed arguing that the court had mistakenly voided the entire revision rather than just the portions that benefitted the widow.

The California Court of Appeals ultimately found that the trial court had made the correct decision and that only voiding provisions related to the widow would not carry out the deceased man’s wishes.

Estate Planning and 529 Plans

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

The usage of 529 plans is growing substantially. While for years, many families relied on these plans to fund college, these plans are also capable of being utilized to manage wealth, minimize taxes, and make multi-generational gifts.

This article takes a brief examination of the advantages as well as limitations that 529 plans can provide.

Avoid Gift and Estate Tax Rules

Should Medicaid Planning Be Included in Your Estate Plan?

Published on: October 30, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

State plans for medical assistance under federal Medicaid law must comply with certain requirements located in Title 42 U.S.C. § 1396a.4, but do not always do so. In 2018, the United States District Court for the District of Alaska in the case of Disability Law Center of Alaska v. Davidson denied a motion for summary judgment on three claims alleging that Davidson who in her position as the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services had violated federal Medicaid law.

The violations of which the Center was accused were: failure to provide adequate notice on how to apply for and access applied behavioral therapy, not reimbursing for ABA under the program, and not providing ABA services under the program with reasonable promptness. In arriving at its decision, the court noted that the Disability Law Center had the burden under federal law of establishing that Davidson had deprived them of the following rights: the right to notice of availability of ABA services, the right to be reimbursed for ABA therapy, and the right to have ABA therapy provided.

The court’s subsequent decision subsequently supported the position that any state that has elected to participate in federal Medicaid programs must be prepared to provide services identified under the federal statute as mandatory. This case underscores the right that many individuals in the United States have to Medicaid benefits.

A Quick Guide to New York MOLST Forms

Published on: October 28, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

One of the common responses that many people have as they learn about estate planning is that there are a number of estate planning documents. In addition to things like wills, living wills, advance directives and powers of attorney, there also also a number of other important documents.

In New York there are Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) forms. This article briefly reviews what MOLST forms do and situations where you might need one of these documents.

The Role of MOLST Forms

Advice from Sveen v. Melin on the Importance of Beneficiary Designations

Published on: October 25, 2019 | by Ettinger Law Firm

In 1997, Ashley Sveen purchased a life insurance policy. Later that year, Ashley married Kaye Melin and named Melin as primary beneficiary on his life insurance policy. Sveen also named his two adult children as contingent beneficiaries.

Several years later, Minnesota amended its revocation on divorce. Sveen and Melin divorced in 2007, but Sveen never changed the beneficiary designation on his life insurance policy. After Sveen passed away in 2001, the insurance company that held the policy requested a court make a judgment on whether Melin or Sveen’s children should receive benefits from the policy.

The United States District Court of Minnesota then granted summary judgment for the Sveen children and awarded them life insurance proceeds. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed and remanded this decision. Subsequently, the court found that the policyholder’s ability to opt out of the law by redesignating his former wife as the beneficiary of the policy did not resolve the issue.