Estate planning is never a one-and-done type of a deal.
You may have a totally solid estate plan in place today, but it can be
worthless with time if you do not update it.
Regardless of who you are, your life circumstances will
evolve continuously as your finances, family situation, goals and the law may
change, necessitating the need to update your estate planning documents. If you
do not experience a major life event, you should review your estate plan at
least yearly to update its terms.
However, numerous life events prompt you to update your
estate plan to save your loved ones from conflicts and court cases. Below are
some major life events that require you to review your plan immediately:
When you apply for Medicaid, the government will
“look back” at the previous five years preceding the date of your
application. Specifically, Medicaid evaluates how many gifts of money you gave
to individuals or entities, with some exceptions. These gifts are added up and
then divided by Medicaid’s penalty divisor to determine how many “penalty
period” months they attach to your application.
After the loss of a loved one, one of the last things
you want to consider is any debt they’ve left behind. When a family member
dies, their assets, including life insurance policies, vehicles, real estate,
bank accounts, and retirement investments, among other things, comprise their estate. The estate may be bequeathed to
heirs, but it can also be used to settle outstanding debts of the deceased. A
professional probate lawyer, such as The Mattar Firm, can help you and your
family navigate what constitutes the estate and which debts will need to be
settled from the estate.
A comprehensive estate plan needs to address all your
assets. This plan may be straight forward for most people as they only include
the most common items, such as personal property, their residence, and
financial accounts. Other assets, such as retirement funds, life insurance, and
annuities, do not necessarily require inclusion in the living trust. This all
is contingent on the classification of account.
The city of Naples has hard working people who want to
feel safe as they go through their daily lives. It takes more than a seatbelt
and good brakes to feel safe in Naples. People need to know that if something
does happen to them that there is someone who can speak on their behalf and
make the right medical decisions. That is why the people of Naples need to
become familiar with health proxies.
You have recently made the good decision to go see an estate planning lawyer to get your will done. You outlined all of your final requests, and your attorney put in plenty of clauses and provisions that will make sure that your estate is handled just as want it. Now you are done, right? No, you are not. There are many reasons why your will should be reviewed and updated on an annual basis.
There are many different situations where someone may
ask you to help manage their money. As people get older, the skills necessary
to maintain a monthly budget start to wane. When this happens, the elderly
usually reach out to family members for help with their finances. Sometimes the
courts will step in and determine that a person is unable to handle their own
finances and will appoint someone to manage their accounts. In this situation,
the money manager would regularly report to the courts and the actions of the
money manager would be closely monitored for fraud.
When you are getting estate planning done in Fort
Myers, you have many options on how you can put together your legal documents.
An experienced estate planner will have many different ways to structure your
will or trust, and there are many different ways to protect your assets as
well. If you want your Fort Myers estate to match your personal views and
needs, then your estate should be individualized.
A family member passes away and you mourn the loss of a
loved one with the rest of your family, as anyone would. A few days later, you
get a letter from your loved one’s attorney indicating that you have been named
as the executor for their estate. This is a tremendous responsibility that can
consume months of your time. Is it mandatory that you accept this position, or
can you refuse?
If you were to ask 10 Fort Myers residents about estate
planning, you would probably get 10 different answers. One of the consensus
answers may be that estate planning is only for elderly people with significant
financial resources. If you have a family, own a house and/or a car, and are
worried about how you will care for your family after you have passed away,
then you are a prime candidate for estate planning.