The Advanced Healthcare Directive

Back again with more thoughts on Estate Planning after completing your divorce.  Have you thought about your long-term health and end of life decisions?  Most of us never do.

If you had a longer term marriage, while watching the movie of the week, about that person in the car accident and coma, you might have shared with your ex, your views on what you would want if that happened to you.  Problem is, your ex is no longer in charge, or likely should not be in charge, but may be on your old papers.  Who helps with those end of life decisions?  Very likely you haven’t had that discussion with your children or other family members, and the Bar-B-Que discussion with “the gang”, doesn’t really count.  No time like the present, so you might as well do that at the same time as preparing your Advanced Healthcare Directive.  Remember, while this is about you, this isn’t for you.  It is to make sure your children, family or others, know your wishes, but more so, to be sure that they are not left to decide what you want, when you never told them.  Most hospitals will have an approved form that they will use when you are already in the hospital.  But if you are unable to communicate, or are otherwise incapacitated, it is already too late. 

What does an Advanced Healthcare Directive do?  A good Advanced Healthcare Directive clearly states exactly what you want, as far as your care, medical treatment, extreme efforts for treatment or sustaining life.  It generally does not become effective until you are hospitalized and until you are deemed to no longer have capacity to make decisions or communicate those decisions.  It generally designates who will make the decision as to whether you have capacity, such as your trusted physicians or special family members.  It will generally cease to have impact when your health has been restored, but in the event of your passing, it will also have your express desires for the disposition of your remains, perhaps relative to your religious belief, or other final affairs.

While this is typically a difficult issue to consider, let alone discuss, I can assure you that the peace of mind that you and your family will have, after these thoughts have been shared and are memorialized in a properly created Advanced Healthcare Directive, is immeasurable.  A good attorney can at least help you begin this process, while you prepare this part of your overall Estate Plan.

 

In the days that follow, I will give you more reasons to create, review and revise your Estate Plan. However, if you are interested in learning more about an Estate Plan, Wills, Trusts, Advanced Healthcare Directives, or Divorce, Custody, Visitation, Child Support, Spousal Support, Property Division, Modifications, Remarriage, or Pre-Nuptial Agreements, and you live in Santa Clara County or thereabout, please contact me at fbegun@gmail.com or at my other websites www.fcbegun.com/, or at www.linkedin.com for Fred Begun

Money Outside Your Estate Plan

I hope you found last week’s blog, “Show Me The Money” interesting.  I am looking forward to hearing some stories as you try your luck in the government gold mine.

Back again with more thoughts on Estate Planning after completing your divorce, but now I want to talk to you about retirement assets.  Technically, these are not in your Estate Plan, but they must be dealt with correctly in your estate planning.

You have completed your divorce, and you have life insurance, a pension, a 401K, an IRA, an Annuity, a Health Savings Account or some type of retirement/death benefit, you probably designated your ex as the beneficiary or trustee for the benefit of your children.  Good chance you haven’t changed that designation yet, or simply forgot to.  Guess what I just reminded you to do?  We need to make sure that these beneficiary name changes happen, after your divorce is final, which means Judgment in hand and in conjunction with your Estate Plan.

One thing I believe in, is having the right team of professionals to help you move forward in life.  Hire experts and follow their advise.  No one is a master of all aspects of Estate Planning.  My job would be to advise you and develop your Estate Planning documents.  You may need a Financial Advisor to help you with these retirement investments.  You may need an Insurance Broker to make sure you have the right type of insurance investment or annuity.  You may need a personal banker to assit you with the proper controlling accounts.  You may need an Accountant to help maximize your tax planning or even lifetime gifting.  You may need a Property or Mortgage Specialist if you are fortunate enough to have a home or investment property.  These and others are your Estate Planning team.  Each of them will have something to contribute to your decision making for these special assets that go outside your Estate Plan, but are an important part of your Estate Planning.

In the days that follow, I will give you more reasons to create, review and revise your Estate Plan. However, if you are interested in learning more about an Estate Plan, Wills, Trusts, Advanced Healthcare Directives, or Divorce, Custody, Visitation, Child Support, Spousal Support, Property Division, Modifications, Remarriage, or Pre-Nuptial Agreements, and you live in Santa Clara County or thereabout, please contact me at fbegun@gmail.com, or through my other websites at www.fcbegun.com, or at www.linkedin.com for Fred Begun

Money Lost and Found – Show Me The Money!

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Over the last few weeks, I’ve been starting to tell you that following a divorce you have many reasons to revise or create an Estate Plan.  I have glossed over the basic likely components of an Estate Plan, and once again, an Estate Plan is generally composed of a Will, a Trust, Powers of Attorney and an Advanced Healthcare Directive.  I want to take a break from the law and give you some tools to find what has been lost.

Usually a few times a year, frequently before the holidays or tax season, you hear a news story about how the government has billions of dollars that no one has claimed.  From time to time I go to a number of websites and look under the names of family and friends only to find that there is money out there that can’t find them.  Sometimes it is pennies, and other times, thousands of dollars. I found several hundred dollars of a rental deposit for my brother, but I also found several thousand dollars of stock and dividends for my wife, from her deceased father’s last long term job, because her father did not have a will.  Probate can be a long and painful process, but it only took us several months to organize and present all the birth, death, marriage and address information to verify the claim, but by the time we were done, my wife thought it was OK to be married to a lawyer sometimes.  Trying to be a good lawyer, estate planning, divorce or otherwise, I want to help people make and preserve money. 

Most recently, I saw an article online,  $58 billion unclaimed: Is some of it yours? by Melanie Hicken @CNNMoney January 27, 2013, citing several links to help you find money or property help by the government.

• State-held unclaimed property: Visit NAUPA's unclaimed.org for a map with links to each state's program.
• Life insurance: For benefits not held by the state, check the insurer's site directly. For example, MetLife has an online search.
• Pensions: For Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. benefits, visit the agency's online search directory.
• U.S. savings bonds: More than 45 million matured savings bonds, worth nearly $16 billion, remain unredeemed, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. To search the database, visit treasuryhunt.gov.
• Tax refunds: In 2011, the Internal Revenue Service said it had $153.3 million in tax refund checks that were undeliverable. To make sure you've received your checks, visit the IRS's Where's my refund? tool.

From my point of view, the moral of this story is that a good Estate Plan has everything included and nothing should be lost to you or your family.  My Estate Planning process causes my clients to review their records, dredge their memory and organize their thoughts.  Will everything always be included?  Probably not.  However, at the conclusion of a Divorce, you have a really good picture of what you have, so strike while the iron is hot.  Even so, now you have a list of some resources to Show You The Money!  I would love to hear from you that you checked out these links and were able to find some money lost to you, your family or friends.  Share your success stories.  Good luck and happy hunting.

In the days that follow, I will give you more reasons to create, review and revise your Estate Plan. However, if you are interested in learning more about an Estate Plan, Wills, Trusts, Advanced Healthcare Directives, or Divorce, Custody, Visitation, Child Support, Spousal Support, Property Division, Modifications, Remarriage, or Pre-Nuptial Agreements, and you live in Santa Clara County or thereabout, please contact me at fbegun@gmail.com or at my other websites www.fcbegun.com/, or at www.linkedin.com for Fred Begun

Children and the Estate Plan

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Back again with more thoughts on Estate Planning after completing your divorce, this time, we’re thinking about your children and the idea of Guardians.

When you have children, after the divorce, you have clear picture of your time and control of the children.  Under most cases, if you or your ex were to pass, the other natural parent should step in for complete control of the children. What happens if you drop dead tomorrow?  Sorry, but this happens.  What about if your ex dies the day before you or the day after you?  Who would you want to care for your children?  How would you provide for your children?  What about if either of you have already re-married?  Your Estate Plan could express your wishes for future guardians, after you and your ex’s untimely death.  You could create a sequence of family/friend alternatives to be caregivers and that same list or a different list for who controls your money for the benefit and care of the children.  Even though it is for your children, would you really want your money to go back to your ex in order to care for your children?  Now you can plan for that.

In the days that follow, I will give you more reasons to create, review and revise your Estate Plan. However, if you are interested in learning more about an Estate Plan, Wills, Trusts, Advanced Healthcare Directives, or Divorce, Custody, Visitation, Child Support, Spousal Support, Property Division, Modifications, Remarriage, or Pre-Nuptial Agreements, and you live in Santa Clara County or thereabout, please contact me at fbegun@gmail.com, or through my other websites at www.fcbegun.com, or at www.linkedin.com for Fred Begun

Intro to My Blog

You’ve just completed your divorce.  Maybe it was easy and non-confrontational or maybe it was the equivalent of legal root canal.  Either way, it’s over and you’re ready to move on with life, ready to regroup and ready to get yourself in a better place.  As with other major turning points in your life, now is the perfect time to consider making or revising your Estate Plan.

In case you need to know, an Estate Plan is generally composed of a Will, a Trust, Powers of Attorney and an Advanced Healthcare Directive. 

If you had an Estate Plan when you were married, your divorce should have cancelled any spousal rights you and your ex had in each other (California Family Code §2024).  However it is always better make cancellations expressly and not rely upon the Courts to get it right after you have gone.  Best way to do that is to do a new Estate Plan.

After your divorce, you may have things such as a house, banks accounts, stock accounts, retirement accounts or anything else that your got or fought for, and at this very moment in time, you know exactly what you have and where it is.  It should all be in your Court Papers.  Remember the Disclosures?  Remember the Marital Settlement Agreement and/or Judgment.  That’s your shopping list!  This is the best time to create a plan for the future use, control and disposition of what you have, and the list couldn’t be much easier to put together.

In the days that follow, I will give you more reasons to create, review and revise your Estate Plan. However, if you are interested in learning more about an Estate Plan, Wills, Trusts, Advanced Healthcare Directives, or Divorce, Custody, Visitation, Child Support, Spousal Support, Property Division, Modifications, Remarriage, or Pre-Nuptial Agreements, and you live in Santa Clara County or thereabout, please contact me at fbegun@gmail.com, or through my other websites, www.fcbegun.com, or www.linkedin.com for Fred Begun.