Estate Planning for Veterans and Active Military Is Important

May 7, 2024

Your dedication to your country is unwavering as a veteran or active military service member. While you’re committed to your duty, you must protect yourself and your loved ones and preserve your legacy. Veterans and active military personnel can and should create an estate plan to match their unique needs. Based on Trust & Will’s article, “Estate Planning for Veterans & Active Military,” we look at why estate planning for veterans and active military personnel is so important.

Military life is marked by unpredictability and uncertainty for you and your family, making estate planning a vital aspect of preparing for the future. Many individuals have plans to distribute funds and appoint trusted loved ones to handle medical and financial matters if the unthinkable happens. Estate planning is essential to help provide for your loved ones if you pass away or are incapacitated. Knowing that your family will be cared for can give you peace of mind.

A will serves as a cornerstone of your estate plan, allowing you to:

Protect Your Family: Specify guardianship for minor children, ensuring they’re cared for by trusted individuals in your absence.
Distribute Assets Seamlessly: Designate beneficiaries and outline asset distribution instructions, including real estate, retirement and financial accounts, sentimental items, and other property.
Plan for the Unexpected: Outline your preferences for medical care and end-of-life decisions to prepare for unforeseen circumstances.

In the military, adaptability is critical, but so is ensuring your affairs are managed in your absence. Powers of Attorney enable you to:

Delegate Your Decisions: If you are incapacitated, designate trusted individuals to handle your legal, financial, and medical decisions.
Manage Your Affairs: Maintain continuity in managing assets, paying bills, and making critical decisions, even during deployments or periods of incapacity.
Mitigate Financial Risk: Protect against financial exploitation and past-due bills by appointing reliable agents to act in your best interests.

For military families, asset protection and efficient wealth transfer are paramount. Trusts offer a range of benefits, including:

Asset Preservation: Safeguard assets during incapacity or deployment, ensuring financial stability for your family.
Probate Avoidance: Streamline the distribution of assets to beneficiaries, bypassing the lengthy and costly probate process.
Tax Efficiency: Minimize estate taxes and maximize tax savings, preserving more of your hard-earned assets for future generations.

Your dedication and sacrifice are unmatched as a veteran or active military service member. That is why estate planning is so important for veterans and active military personnel. By prioritizing estate planning and including will, trust, and power of attorney strategies, you can protect your loved ones and preserve your legacy for generations. Consult with an experienced estate planning attorney for peace of mind. If you would like to learn more about planning for veterans, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Trust & Will “Estate Planning for Veterans & Active Military,”

Photo by Matthew Hintz

There are Burial Benefits Available to Veterans

March 28, 2023

There are burial benefits available to veterans through the VA. Only about one in five veterans who died last year were buried free of charge in department or state-run veteran cemeteries. Less than half of individuals eligible for some type of burial or gravesite financial assistance took advantage of the benefit, says Military Times’ recent article entitled, “VA officials work to raise awareness of cemetery, burial services.”

“I want even more veterans and family members to know about and take advantage of the final benefits a veteran earns for their service,” said Matthew Quinn, undersecretary for memorial affairs at the National Cemetery Administration.

“They have the option to choose VA for their final wishes. And we will take care of them and their loved ones in a manner that mirrors their own dedicated service and devotion to our nation, in perpetuity.”

NCA officials are trying to emphasize VA burial services as the U.S. nears the 50th anniversary of the agency assuming control of national veterans cemeteries. There are now 155 such resting places managed by VA and another 121 funded by the department. However, the use of the burial benefits lags behind other well-known VA support services.

Quinn said several factors cause the low usage rate for burial services, including “family wishes” that multiple individuals be interred in the same plot. Only spouses and certain other dependents can be buried with a headstone alongside a veteran in a national cemetery.

However, other assistance — such as free headstones for veterans being interred at private cemeteries and free medallions for existing headstones to denote the deceased individual’s veteran status — are often overlooked because family members and funeral homes aren’t familiar with the benefits.

VA provided about 350,000 headstones for veterans’ graves last year, and another 12,000 medallions.

Quinn said while vets don’t have to use the services, those interested should consider applying before any of the services are needed to ensure they have the options ready.

“Applying for eligibility prior to the veteran’s death ensures that necessary service records are in order, so grieving family members do not have to search for military discharge papers while they are already under great stress,” he said. There are burial benefits available to veterans and your estate planning attorney can help you get the most out of these benefits as a part of your overall planning. If you would like to learn more about burial and funeral planning, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Military Times (Jan. 24, 2023) “VA officials work to raise awareness of cemetery, burial services”

Increase in Benefits for Vets Next Year

July 29, 2021

A new plan, to be voted on by a House Appropriations subcommittee, asks for $113.1 billion in discretionary spending for VA programs in fiscal 2022. The plan should see an increase in benefits for vets next year.

That’s an increase of about 8% from current levels and about $176 million more than what President Biden asked for in his budget proposal released last month.

Military Times’ recent article entitled “House lawmakers back big budget boost for Veterans Affairs programs” says that if it were approved, the proposal would result in total department spending of more than $270 billion in 2022.

“This bill demonstrates a strong commitment to our servicemembers, their families and our veterans,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., in a statement accompanying the budget proposal release.

“It’s a blueprint to make our VA and military stronger and more responsive to all those who proudly protect America, now and in the past,” the Democratic Congresswoman said.

Total department spending is expected to be more than $250 billion in fiscal 2022.

This draft budget also includes $10.9 billion for military construction projects next fiscal year—roughly $3 billion above current year levels and $1 billion more than the president’s request.

House appropriators are expected to vote to pass the plan to the full chamber soon. A possible vote on the package is expected in late July.

However, it will likely still be months before a final budget agreement is reached on VA and military construction spending with the U.S. Senate.

The latest plan calls for $97.6 billion for veteran medical care spending, of which $778.5 million would go towards gender-specific care for women veterans ($73 million more than what the White House requested), $902 million for medical and prosthetic research ($20 million more), and $84 million for “whole health” initiatives ($10 million more). In total, it looks like a significant increase in benefits for vets next year.

If you would like to learn more about veterans health care and other related issues, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Military Times (June 24, 2021) “House lawmakers back big budget boost for Veterans Affairs programs”

Photo by Craig Adderley from Pexels

Category: Veterans Administration

Estate Planning for Veterans and Active Military Is Important

There are Burial Benefits Available to Veterans

Increase in Benefits for Vets Next Year

Categories

View Blog Archives

Watch the

Estate Of The Union

Join Our

eNewsletter and Blog Digest List

Listen to the

Estate Of The Union

Texas Trust Law

Quick Links

Connect With Us