Understand the limits of a Power of Attorney

May 3, 2021

Power of attorney is an important tool in estate planning. The recent article “Top Ten Facts About Powers of Attorney” from My Prime Time News, explains how a POA works, what it can and cannot do and how it helps families with loved ones who are incapacitated. It is important to understand the limits of a Power of Attorney.

The agent’s authority to powers of attorney (POA) is only effective while the person is living. It ends upon the death of the principal. At that point in time, the executor named in the last will or an administrator named by a court are the only persons legally permitted to act on behalf of the decent.

An incapacitated person may not sign a POA.

Powers of Attorney can be broad or narrow. A person may be granted POA to manage a single transaction, for example, the sale of a home. They may also be named POA to handle all of a person’s financial and legal affairs. In some states, such as Colorado, general language in a POA may not be enough to authorize certain transactions. A POA should be created with an estate planning attorney as part of a strategic plan to manage the principal’s assets. A generic POA could create more problems than it solves.

You can have more than one agent to serve under your POA. If you prefer that two people serve as POA, the POA documents will need to state that requirement.

Banks and financial institutions have not always been compliant with POAs. In some cases, they insist that only their POA forms may be used. This has created problems for many families over the years, when POAs were not created in a timely fashion.

In 2010, Colorado law set penalties for third parties (banks, etc.) that refused to honor current POAs without reasonable cause. A similar law was passed in New York State in 2009. Rules and requirements are different from state to state, so speak with a local estate planning attorney to ensure that your POA is valid.

Your POA is effective immediately, once it is executed. A Springing POA becomes effective when the conditions specified in the POA are met. This often includes having a treating physician sign a document attesting to your being incapacitated. An estate planning attorney will be able to create a POA that best suits your situation.

If you anticipate needing a trust in the future, you may grant your agent the ability to create a trust in your POA. The language must align with your state’s laws to achieve this.

Your agent is charged with reporting any financial abuse and taking appropriate action to safeguard your best interests. If your agent fails to notify you of abuse or take actions to stop the abuser, they may be liable for reasonably foreseeable damages that could have been avoided.

The agent must never use your property to benefit himself, unless given authority to do so. This gets sticky, if you own property together. You may need additional documents to ensure that the proper authority is granted, if your POA and you are in business together, for example.

It is important to understand the limits of a Power of Attorney. Every situation is different, and every state’s laws and requirements are different. It will be worthwhile to meet with an estate planning attorney to ensure that the documents created will be valid and to perform as desired.

If you are interested in learning more about Powers of Attorney, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: My Prime-Time News (April 10, 2021) “Top Ten Facts About Powers of Attorney”

Deduct Expenses for Long-Term Care

April 29, 2021

The skyrocketing costs of long-term care (LTC) can ruin your retirement savings. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that 27% of Americans turning 65 this year will have at least $100,000 in long-term-care costs, and 18% will require care costing more than $250,000. However, you may be able to deduct expenses for long-term care.

Kiplinger’s recent article entitled “Tax Breaks may be available for Long-Term Care” says that if you need LTC, you may be able to deduct a portion of the costs on your tax return. If you purchased a long-term-care insurance (LTCI) policy to cover the costs, you may also be able to deduct some of your premium payments. Since retirement planning includes long-term care, it’s important to know how these tax deductions can help to offset overall costs.

Long-Term-Care Costs

The IRS allows you to deduct unreimbursed costs for long-term care as a medical expense, if certain requirements are met. This includes eligible expenses for in-home, assisted living and nursing-home services. The long-term care must be medically necessary and may include preventive, therapeutic, treating, rehabilitative, personal care, or other services. The cost of meals and lodging at an assisted-living facility or nursing home is also included, if the primary reason for being there is to receive qualified medical care.

The care must also be for a chronically ill person and provided under a care plan prescribed by a doctor. The IRS says that a person is “chronically ill,” if he or she can’t perform at least two activities of daily living. These are things like eating, bathing, or dressing. They must be unable to do these without help for at least 90 days. This condition must be certified in writing within the last year. A person with a severe cognitive impairment, like dementia, is also considered chronically ill, if supervision is needed to protect his or her health and safety.

To get the deduction, you have to itemize deductions on your tax return. However, itemized deductions for medical expenses are only allowed to the extent they exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.

An adult child can claim a medical expense deduction on his own tax return for the cost of a parent’s care, if he can claim the parent as a dependent.

Insurance Premiums

The IRS also allows a limited deduction for certain LTCI premiums. Similar to the deduction for long-term-care services, this has to be an itemized deduction for medical expenses. Again, only premiums exceeding the 7.5% of AGI threshold are deductible. (Note that self-employed individuals may be able to deduct premiums paid for LTCI as an adjustment to income without having to itemize.)

In addition, the LTCI policy is required to satisfy certain requirements for the premiums to be deductible. The policy can only cover long-term-care services, so the deduction only applies to traditional LTCI policies, not “hybrid” policies that combine life insurance with long-term-care benefits. This deduction also has an age-related cap. For 2021, the cap is $5,640 if you’re older than 70, $4,520 if you’re 61 to 70 and $1,690 if you’re 51 to 60. (For those 41 to 50, it’s $850, and for 40 or younger, it’s $450.)

Make sure to educate yourself on what types of expenses you can deduct for long-term care. These deductions can be valuable for people in their seventies and older.

If you are interested in learning more about long-term care, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Kiplinger (March 23, 2021) “Tax Breaks may be available for Long-Term Care”

Protect your Special Needs Child’s Benefits

April 28, 2021

Planning for a child with special needs can be especially tricky. Well-meaning relatives may not understand that putting a family member with special needs in their will could put your family member’s lifestyle and future at risk, says the article “Benefits for children with special needs from Hoosier Times. You need to protect your special needs child’s benefits. Planning ahead is your best defense.

Individuals with special needs are eligible for a variety of government benefits and local programs that help with housing, medical needs, specialized equipment, independent living, job training and a variety of other services. Most of these programs are means-tested, that is, they require participants to qualify for benefits. If your loved one has no income and few assets, that’s not a problem.

However, when relatives, especially grandparents, include individuals with special needs in their estate plans or make them beneficiaries of insurance policies or retirement plans, they could put all of these benefits at risk.

Hopefully, relatives will keep you informed of their plans. You’ll need to be appreciative but firm and explain just how badly their generosity could backfire, if their gifts are not structured properly.

There is a way to leave bequests or make gifts to a special needs child that will not put their benefits at risk: a Special Needs Trust (SNT), either one that has been created already or one created for their gift. A SNT is designed to help people with special needs use financial gifts for different purposes, while maintaining their eligibility for services.

There are two types of SNTs:

First-party SNT—An individual with Special Needs, their legal guardian, or the court may establish a first party SNT funded by the individual’s own assets, either through earnings or an inheritance or a personal injury award. The first party SNT includes a “payback” rule: the trust must pay back the state for certain benefits, when the individual with special needs dies.

Third-party SNT—A relative other than the individual wishes to include them in an estate plan, so the relative or other person sets up a third-party SNT. The third-party trust is funded with assets from the relative or other person and no payback provision is required.

An SNT is excellent instrument to protect your special needs child’s benefits. There are many issues involved in establishing an SNT, so the best person to set one up is an elder law estate planning attorney. You’ll also want to involve anyone in the family who might contribute to the trust, so they know what to expect and how they can participate, if they wish to do so.

If you would like to learn more about special needs planning, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Hoosier Times (March 4, 2021) “Benefits for children with special needs

Avoid Costly Beneficiary Mistakes

April 27, 2021

We all go through lots of changes in our lives, but failing to address those changes in your estate planning can become costly. Beneficiary designations are an area that is frequently missed. You can avoid costly beneficiary mistakes by keeping your planning updated. Let’s say you divorce and remarry and forget to change your beneficiary from your ex-spouse. Your ex-spouse will be smiling all the way to the bank. There won’t be much that your new spouse could do, if you forgot to make that change before you die. Any time there is a life change, including happy events, like marriage, birth or adoption, your beneficiary designations need to be reviewed, says the article “One Beneficiary Mistake You Really Don’t Want to Make” from Kiplinger.

If there are new people in your life you would like to leave a bequest to, like grandchildren or a charitable organization you want to support as part of your legacy, your beneficiary designations will need to reflect those as well.

For people who are married, their spouse is usually the primary beneficiary. Children are contingent beneficiaries who receive the proceeds upon death, if the primary beneficiary dies before or at the same time that you do. It is wise to notify any insurance company or retirement fund custodian about the death of a primary beneficiary, even if you have properly named contingent beneficiaries.

When there are multiple grandchildren, things can get a little complicated. Let’s say you’re married and have three adult children. The first beneficiary is your spouse, and your three children are contingent beneficiaries. Let’s say Sam has three children, Dolores has no children and James has two children, for a total of five grandchildren.

If both your spouse and James, die before you do, all of the proceeds would pass to your two surviving children, and James’ two children would effectively be disinherited. That’s probably not what you would want. However, there is a solution. You can specify that if one of your children dies before you and your spouse, their share goes to his or her children. This is a “per stirpes” distribution.

This way, each branch of the family will receive an equal share across generations. If this is what you want, you’ll need to request per stirpes, because equal distribution, or per capita, is the default designation. Not all insurance companies make this option available, so you’ll need to speak with your insurance broker to make sure this is set up properly for insurance or annuities.

Any assets that have a named designated beneficiary are not controlled by your will. Consequently, when you are creating or reviewing your estate plan, create a list of all of your assets and the desired beneficiaries for them. Your estate planning attorney will help review all of your assets and means of distribution, so your wishes for your family are clear. The bottom line is clear: avoid costly beneficiary mistakes.

If you would like to learn more about beneficiary designations, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Kiplinger (March 23, 2021) “One Beneficiary Mistake You Really Don’t Want to Make”

Talk about Inheritance with your Children

April 26, 2021

How do you talk about inheritance with your children? One strategy to get your children prepared to handle the assets they’ll eventually inherit, is to have them meet with your professional advisors. They can explain what you’ve been doing.

FedWeek’s recent article entitled “Preparing Your Heirs for Their Inheritance” suggests that your children should meet with your accountant for an explanation of any tax planning tactics that you have been implementing. That way those tactics can be continued after your death. If you have a broker or a financial planner, your heirs should meet with this adviser for a review of your portfolio strategies.

Know that if you hold investment property, it might pose special problems.

While your investment portfolio can be split between your children, who can follow their individual inclinations, it’s tough to divide physical property. Your kids might disagree on how the property should be managed.

With any assets—but especially rental property—you have to be realistic. Ask yourself if your children can work together to manage the real estate.

If they cannot, you may be better off leaving your investment property to the one child who really can manage real estate and leave your other children non-real estate assets instead. You might also provide that some of your children can buy out the others at a price set by an independent appraisal.

Another way you can help is by proper handling of appreciated assets, such as stocks.

If you purchased $20,000 worth of XYZ Corp. shares many years ago, those shares are worth $50,000. If you sell those shares to raise $50,000 in cash for retirement spending, you’ll have a $30,000 long-term capital gain.

You might raise retirement cash, by selling other securities where there’s been little or no appreciation.

That will allow you to keep the shares and leave them to your children. At your death, your shares may be worth $50,000, and that value becomes the new basis (cost for tax purposes) in those shares. If your children sell them for $50,000, they won‘t owe capital gains tax.

All of the appreciation in those shares during your lifetime will not be taxed. So take the time to talk about inheritance with your children. It will avoid a great deal of head and heartache for everyone. If you are interested in learning more about discussing difficult estate planning topics with your children, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: FedWeek (March 31, 2021) “Preparing Your Heirs for Their Inheritance”

Per Stirpes Designations in a Will

April 22, 2021

Let’s say you had six brothers and sisters. All of your siblings were still living at the time your father made his will. However, three of your brothers died before your father passed away. In that case, would the children of the deceased siblings be entitled to their fathers’ shares of their grandfather’s estate? Yes, if the father utilized per stirpes designations in a will.

What if that wasn’t what the father intended when he wrote the will. Instead, the money was to be divided equally between his remaining living children. Who’s right?

Nj.com’s recent article entitled “My father died. Who will get the share meant for a dead beneficiary?” says that it really depends on how the will was written by the deceased, who’s also known as the testator.

A will may state, “I give, devise, and bequeath my residuary estate to those of my children who survive me, in equal shares, and the descendants of a deceased child of mine, to take their parent’s share per stirpes.”

Per Stirpes designations in a will mean that the share of a deceased child will pass to the children of that deceased child in equal shares, if any. However, if nothing is stated in the will, then every state has law that interprets a lapse of a will provision. These are known as “anti-lapse” statutes.

For example, the Kansas anti-lapse statute (K.S.A. 59-615), is operative only when:

The testator bequeaths or devises property to a beneficiary who’s a member of the class designated by the statute
The specified beneficiary predeceases the testator and leaves issue who survive the testator and
The testator doesn’t revoke or change his or her will as to the predeceased beneficiary.

If you are a resident of Arizona, that state’s anti-lapse statute applies, if a beneficiary under your will predeceases you. The anti-lapse statute would apply if the predeceasing beneficiary were your grandparent, a descendant of your grandparent, or your stepchild, who have at least one child who survives you. Therefore, if the anti-lapse statute were to apply, the child who survives you would effectively take your beneficiary’s place, and inherit the gift instead of the beneficiary.

Talk to an experienced estate planning attorney if you have questions about using per stirpes designations in a will.

If you would like to learn more about beneficiary designations in a will, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: nj.com (March 25, 2021) “My father died. Who will get the share meant for a dead beneficiary?”

A victory for Adults caring for Aging Parents

April 21, 2021

A New Jersey Appellate Division recently reaffirmed the state’s regulation that allows older adults to transfer their homes to adult caregiver children without Medicaid penalty, reports an article titled “Major Victory for Adults Who Provide Home Care for Parents” from The National Law Review. The regulation permits the home to be transferred with no Medicaid penalty, when the adult child has provided care to the parent for a period of two years. This allows the parents to remain at home under the care of their children, delaying the need to enter a long-term care facility. It is a victory for adults caring for aging parents.

New Jersey Medicaid has tried to narrow this rule for many years, claiming that the regulation only applies to caregivers who did not work outside of the home. This decision, along with other cases, recognizes that caregivers qualify if they meet the requirements of the regulation, regardless of whether they work outside of the home.

The court held that the language of the regulations requires only that:

The adult child must live with the parent for two years, prior to the parent moving into a nursing facility.
The child provided special care that allowed the parent to live at home when the parent would otherwise need to move out of their own home and into a nursing care facility.
The care provided by the adult child was more than personal support activities and was essential for the health and safety of the parent.

In the past, qualifying to transfer a home to an adult caregiver child was met by a huge obstacle: the caregiver was required to either provide all care to the parents or pay for any care from their own pockets. This argument has now been firmly rejected in the decision A.M. v. Monmouth County Board of Social Services.

The court held that there was nothing in the regulation requiring the child to be the only provider of care, and the question of who paid for additional care was completely irrelevant legally.

It is now clear that as long as the child personally provides essential care without which the parent would need to live in a nursing facility, then the fact that additional caregivers may be needed does not preclude the ability to transfer the home to the adult child.

The decision is a huge shift, and one that elder law estate planning attorneys have fought over for years, as there have been increasingly stricter interpretation of the rule by New Jersey Medicaid.

It amounts to a huge victory for adults caring for aging parents. While Medicaid is a federal program, each state has the legal right to set its own eligibility requirements. This New Jersey Appellate Court decision is expected to have an influence over other states’ decisions in similar circumstances. Since every state is different, adult children should speak with an elder law estate planning attorney about how the law of their parent’s state of residence would apply if they were facing this situation. If you would like to learn more about caring for aging loved ones, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: The National Law Review (March 22, 2021) “Major Victory for Adults Who Provide Home Care for Parents”

When a Guardianship is Needed to Protect a Senior

April 20, 2021

We would like to think that all of our very responsible parents and relatives have their legal documents in order. However, that is not always the case. It might be difficult to gauge when a guardianship is needed to protect a senior.

Florida Today’s recent article entitled “One Senior Place: What is guardianship and should I seek it?” explains that we need to have a serious discussion with our loved ones and determine if, in fact, “their affairs are in order.” If not, a guardianship may be in their futures.

That is because a guardianship is really a last step.

Guardianship is a legal process that is used to protect a senior who is no longer able to care for his or herself due to incapacity or disability. A court will appoint a legal guardian to care for a senior, who’s called a ward. A legal guardian has the legal authority to make decisions for the ward and represent his or her personal and financial interests. A court-appointed guardian can also be authorized to make healthcare decisions. In a guardianship, the senior relinquishes all rights to self-determination, so you can see how this is the choice of last resort.

If a suitable guardian isn’t found, the court can appoint a publicly financed agency that serves this role.

A doctor will examine a senior and determine if he or she is incompetent to make his or her own decisions. The judge will review the senior’s medical reports and listen to testimony to determine the extent of the alleged incapacity and whether the person seeking guardianship is qualified and responsible.

A guardian can be any competent adult, such as the ward’s spouse, another family member, a friend, or a neighbor. There are even professional guardians. The guardian will usually consider the known wishes of the person under guardianship.

Guardianship can be very costly and can involve a profound loss of freedom and dignity. As a result, speaking with an experienced elder law attorney is essential.

While it might be hard to know when a guardianship is needed to protect a senior, there are things that any competent adult can do to decrease the chances of ever needing guardianship. This includes:

Drafting a power of attorney for finances; and
Drafting an advance healthcare directive, which names a surrogate decision maker for your healthcare decisions, including the right to refuse or terminate life-sustaining medical care based on your wishes.

Moreover, talk about your wishes and all your estate planning documents with your family. That way they’ll know how to put your plan into action, if required in the future.

If you are interested in learning more about guardianship, please read our previous posts.

Reference: Florida Today (March 23, 2021) “One Senior Place: What is guardianship and should I seek it?”

Revise your Planning with a Second Marriage

April 19, 2021

It is wise to revise your planning with a second marriage. The assets you and your second spouse bring into the marriage need to be carefully considered when revising your estate plan, says a recent article “Value of an Estate Plan Review With a Second Marriage” from Mondaq. If there are children from one or both partner’s prior marriages, those too need to be considered. If you plan on having children together, the estate plan needs to include this as well.

The best time to prepare this new estate plan would be before the wedding. This way, you can both go forward with the wedding and celebration with clear minds and hearts.

Start with a complete inventory of all assets and debts. List financial accounts, including investments, savings and checking accounts. Real estate and any personal assets, pensions and tax deferred retirement accounts should be included.

Review your wills, trusts, health care plans and directives, powers of attorney and any other estate planning documents at this time.

There may be assets that need to be retitled, and beneficiaries on all assets that permit designated beneficiaries should be updated at this time. Check to be sure a prior spouse is not the beneficiary of any life insurance or pensions. Any debts or liabilities that one partner brings to the marriage should be reviewed at this time. Comingling accounts and marriage will make both spouses responsible for each other’s debts, which should be discussed candidly.

Based on the inventory, one or the other partner may wish to have a prenuptial agreement to protect their individual financial interests during a second marriage. A prenuptial agreement may also be used to waive respective rights to each other’s property. These agreements are also used to serve as a means of retaining control of a business and defining premarital assets and debt.

When children are involved, decisions need to be made as to how assets are to be divided. Does one spouse want to leave their assets to their own children or to all of the children?

One way of addressing children in a second marriage is to create a separate marital trust to ensure that the new spouse receives the share of the assets you want them to have, while preserving your children’s inheritance. In the case of IRAs, it may be prudent to split them into separate IRAs among your spouse and children to protect the children’s inheritance.

When naming new beneficiaries, be aware that your new spouse may have mandatory rights to certain assets, such as qualified retirement plans. The only person who can inherit a Health Savings Account (HSA) without it becoming taxable, is your spouse. Remember to change this from your former spouse to the new spouse. Naming your children as the beneficiary would cause the account to be taxable on your death.

There could be significant financial consequences if you fail to revise your planning with a second marriage. An estate planning attorney who has worked with second and subsequent marriages can help facilitate a discussion about structuring an estate plan. Working with a professional who knows how these situations are resolved can be a great help in getting the process started and keeping it moving forward.

If you would like to learn more about estate planning and blended families, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Mondaq (March 2, 2021) “Value of an Estate Plan Review With a Second Marriage”

Poor Estate Planning Decisions can be Costly

April 15, 2021

Poor estate planning decisions can be costly. The dispute over Larry King’s estate shines a harsh spotlight on what happens when an elderly person makes major changes late in life to his or her estate plan, especially when the person has become physically weakened and possibly mentally affected, due to aging and illness. A recent article from The National Law Journal, “Larry King Will Contest—Key Takeaways,” examines lessons to be learned from the Larry King will contest.

A handwritten will is most likely to be probated. King’s handwritten will was witnessed by two individuals and may rise to the standards of California’s rules for probate. California was likely King’s residence at the time of his death. However, even if King’s won’t satisfy one section of California estate law referring to probate, it appears to satisfy another addressing requirements for a holographic will.

Holographic will requirements vary from state to state, but it is generally a will that is handwritten by the testator and may or may not need to be witnessed.

The battle over the will is just a starting point. Most of King’s assets were in revocable trusts and will be conveyed through the trusts. He did not seek to revoke or amend the trusts before he died. News reports claim that the probate estate to be conveyed by the will is only $2 million, compared to non-probate assets estimated at $50 million—$144 million, depending upon the source.

Passing assets through trusts has the advantage of keeping the assets out of probate and maintaining privacy for the family. The trust does not become a matter of public record and there is no inventory of assets to be filed with the court.

Any pre- or post-nuptial agreements will have an impact on how King’s assets will be distributed. This is an issue for anyone who marries as often as King did. Apparently, he did not have a prenuptial agreement with his 7^th wife, Shawn Southwick King. They were married for 22 years and separated in 2019. While Larry had filed for divorce, the couple had not reached a financial settlement. California is a community property state, so Southwick will have a legal claim to 50% of the assets the couple acquired during their long marriage, regardless of the will.

It is yet unclear whether there was a post-nuptial agreement. There are reports that the couple separated in 2010 after tabloid reports of a relationship between King and Southwick’s sister, and that there was a post-nuptial agreement declaring all of King’s $144 million assets to be community property. Southwick filed for divorce in 2010, and King sought to have the post-nup nullified. They reconciled for a few years and King was reported to have updated his estate plan in 2015.

The claim of undue influence on the will may not be easy to challenge. Southwick is claiming that Larry King Jr., King’s oldest son, exerted undue influence on his father to change the will. They were not close for most of Larry Jr.’s life, but in the later years of his life, King made a transfer of $250,000 to his son. Southwick wishes to have those transfers set aside on the basis of undue influence. She claims that when King executed his handwritten will, he was highly susceptible to outside influences and had questionable mental capacity.

Poor estate planning decisions can be costly. Expect this will contest to continue for a while, with the possibility that the probate court dispute extends to other litigation between King’s last wife and his oldest son.

If you are interested in learning more about costly mistakes in estate planning, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: The National Law Review (March 15, 2021) “Larry King Will Contest—Key Takeaways”

Blog Articles

Understand the limits of a Power of Attorney

Deduct Expenses for Long-Term Care

Protect your Special Needs Child’s Benefits

Avoid Costly Beneficiary Mistakes

Talk about Inheritance with your Children

Per Stirpes Designations in a Will

A victory for Adults caring for Aging Parents

When a Guardianship is Needed to Protect a Senior

Revise your Planning with a Second Marriage

Poor Estate Planning Decisions can be Costly

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