When it comes to organ donation, creating awareness is a very important aspect. Recently, billionaire Facebook Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that his social networking site wants to help solve the crisis. Realizing that on an average of 18 people in the United States die waiting for an organ transplant, Zuckerberg is encouraging users to go to their Facebook Time Line, where under Life Event they will see a Health and Wellness section. There is a place for the individual to indicate that they have decided to be an organ donor, provide their state and/or country and even a story about why they have chosen to be an organ donor. With more than 114,000 people in the United States awaiting organ donation, this is a great step to create awareness and a great way save thousands of lives. The Facebook page will also include a link to Donate Life America for people to become official donors. Identifying that you are a donor on Facebook does not make the process official, people need to actually register with the Secretary of State or they can go to a local organization in Michigan called Gift of Life and register through their organization.
More and more people are choosing not to get married due to the fact that so many marriages are ending in divorce. Although, the overall divorce rate is dropping slightly, it is actually on the rise of individuals between the ages of 25 and 29. Statistics say that 1 in 10 marriages fail every five years and that only 51% of adults are married today, compared to 72% back in 1960. Basically, that means that many couples are choosing to live together and not get married. In addition to these divorce statistics, more than half of the births to women under 30 now occur out of wedlock. What does that mean in the estate planning business? That means that if you are a single parent, you need to make sure that you have a guardian lined up in the event of your death and if you are living with your significant other and are not married, you may need to make your wishes known as to what would happen in the event of your death. For example, if you own the home and your boyfriend lives with you should he inherit the home or should it pass to your family? Should your boyfriend have the right to live in the home for a period of time or do you expect him to vacate immediately? If you are a single mother and have had a child out of wed lock, is the father involved and will he be the best person to be the guardian of your minor child? Additionally, is the father of your minor child good with money and would he be the best person to manage your minor child’s money in the event of your death? Estate planning is important for everyone, but when your situation becomes a little less traditional pre-planning is extremely important.
When it comes to dealing with a Special Needs child there are so many issues that need to be addressed. With this past month being Autism Awareness Month, it is good to know that these issues are being addressed by not only families, but by the community. The Great Lakes Center for Autism Treatment and Research is a collaboration between Residential Opportunities Inc. (ROI) and Western Michigan University. It will offer and intensive residential program for the most challenging children with the diagnosis of developmental disabilities, especially Autism. Research has shown that three years of early intensive behavioral intervention allows 50% of children diagnosed with Autism to live the remainder of their life as though they have little or no disability. Another 40% will make significant improvements. This is important because of the cost of early intensive behavioral intervention for a child with Autism is estimated at $50,000 per year. In contrast, 2006 Harvard School of Public Health Study estimated that a child with Autism who does NOT receive this early treatment will cost society approximately $3.2 million in social and medical services and lost wages through age 55. With just an early investment of $150,000 per child, society, which is mostly our government can save over $3 million of expense for many of these children. But this is just the first step of planning, this is planning on the government’s part. There also needs to be planning on the families part. If a family member has a child with Autism or any special need, it is important that that child not receive a lump sum of inheritance at the time of death. That inheritance could affect that child’s ability to receive this type of assistance or government benefits. What families need to understand is that although there are great resources out there in government benefits for children with disabilities many of these benefits do not provide some of the specific needs of a Special Needs child such as clothing, household needs and/or even the opportunity to travel with family members. A Special Needs Trust will allow a parent or family member to set aside money for a Special Needs Child and provide that that money is being managed by a third party. Since the Special Needs Child does not own the funds and cannot access them individually, the money set aside will not affect the Special Needs child’s government benefits.
When it comes to dying there are many issues that need to be addressed and if you do not take the time to put them in writing your family will not have a clue what you want. For example, having your estate plan complete so that your family knows how you want things divided and who you want to be in charge is the first step, but the planning does not stop there. It is also important that you give your family an indication of what type of funeral/burial arrangements that you would prefer. Do you want to be buried or do you want to be cremated? Do you want a service or do you want just a memorial? How simple or how grand do you want everything to be? There are over 100 questions that could be asked when planning for your funeral/burial site. Our list is provided courtesy of Langeland Family Funeral Home and identifies the various items that need to be considered and those questions that need to be answered.
When signing legal documents it is important that you know what you are signing and how you are signing the document. In a recent case, a woman signed her husband into a nursing home signing the admissions agreement as the responsible party at a nursing home. The wife was responsible for dealing with co-insurance issues as well as making the necessary application for Medicaid. Unfortunately, the wife did not obtain the necessary information, was not able to qualify her husband for private and/or for medicaid and as a result the nursing home discharged her husband. Unfortunately, prior to the discharge a bill had been incurred and the bill was sent to the wife based on the fact that she had signed the admissions agreement. The wife ultimately attempted to file for bankruptcy and discharge the debt, but the bankruptcy court denied her claim on the basis that it was a willful neglect of her duty and getting the necessary co-insurance and/or Medicaid information together. The point of this story is be careful how you sign a legal document. In reality, the wife should have signed as her husband’s Durable Power of Attorney and not in her personal spousal capacity. In addition to being careful on how you sign a document on behalf of another person, it is also important that you read the contract carefully.
Many individuals are overwhelmed by the small print. If that is the case, have the document reviewed by one of your adult children who is capable of understanding these types of contacts or have it reviewed by your attorney. I recently had a case where the wife signed the agreement without reading all the fine print and ultimately had agreed to allow the nursing home to put a lien on her home for any unpaid portion of her husband’s nursing home bill. In many situations, a spouse is admitted to a nursing home on a fairly rushed basis or in the midst of crisis planning. Regardless of the circumstances, it is important that you take the time to review the contract in detail and make sure it is what you are willing to ultimately agree to and that you are signing it in the right capacity.
When it comes to estate planning, the movie stars always give us a lot to talk about. In recent news we learned that Zsa Zsa Gabor’s family is fighting over her care and the management of her funds. Apparently, Zsa Zsa Gabor’s ninth husband has been secluding her from Zsa Zsa’s daughter Francesca Hilton and Francesca is concerned about how he is spending Zsa Zsa’s money. Not only is Zsa Zsa’s competency in question, but based on comments made by her husband Fredric von Anhalt, I would surmise that his competency or motives are in question too. Prince von Anhalt announced that he wanted his 94 year old wife to be a mother again via a surrogate mother. What is important to take out of the craziness of this movie star family is that even if you have designated someone to make medical and financial decisions for you under a Durable Power of Attorney and a Designation of Patient Advocate your family, if they feel that you are not being properly cared for, always has remedies through the probate court. If you feel that a family member has been appointment as a medical or financial Power of Attorney and is not acting in the best interest of the individual that appointed them, the probate court is an independent third party that can evaluate the situation and require an accounting about what has transpired to ensure that a family member is really being taken care of.
When it comes to dividing things equally between children, parents are extremely concerned that they do not treat one child differently than another. Unfortunately, each child may have different needs during the course of their lifetime and the parents may be in the position to assist that child. Over the last several years, I have seen an increase in the number of children that are receiving assistance from their parents. Such assistance can include help with legal fees for such things as drunk driving and/or divorce, assistance with housing as a result of a job loss, and assistance with medical expenses. The parents want to help out the child, but they want to make sure that when the money is divided up at the time of death that the advancements provided to the child in need are taken in to account. In other words, if their son received $70,000 in “assistance” during the parents lifetime and the daughter received nothing, it is typically the clients wish that that $70,000 be treated as an advancement of their son’s inheritance. The $70,000 would then be deducted from what he would have otherwise received at the time of their death. It is important when trying to equalize your estate that these advancements, loans and gifts that you have made to your child are reflected in writing in your Trust or Will estate planning documents and that you not merely rely on a verbal understanding.
When it comes to serving as an agent under a Durable Power of Attorney, there are some important things you need to understand. First of all, you must act in the best interest of the individual who has designated you, also referred to as the principal. You should not co-mingle your funds with the principal’s funds and you should not use the principal’s funds for your own personal use or obligations. Additionally, as an agent under a Durable Power of Attorney you should keep an accounting of all transactions and most importantly you should cease all activity as agent under a Durable Power of Attorney when the principal dies. In addition to these responsibilities and restrictions, it is also important that the agent understand that he or she is not authorized to designate a successor to themselves. For example, if you are the primary agent under a Durable Power of Attorney and you are not in a position to act on behalf of the principal, you will need to resign as the agent. Having said that, you are not authorized to designate a successor to yourself and the successor agent would fall to the next person in line. As an agent for the principal, you have the authority to act on behalf of the principal, but that authority does not include the right to change, amend or update the principal’s estate plan.
When it comes to celebrity deaths, they are the “poster child” of how not to set up your estate plan. The recent death of Whitney Houston provides another example of what not to do. Whitney died with what is called a Testamentary Trust. A Testamentary Trust is actually a Last Will and Testament with Trust provisions within the documents. In other words, all of Whitney Houston’s assets have to go through the public probate court process before the Trust is set up. Why anyone would choose to probate their asset before they are placed into a Trust is difficult to understand? If Whitney had set up a revocable living Trust during her lifetime and transferred all of her assets into the name of her Trust, her assets would have passed to her daughter privately. Her family would not have had to open a probate estate and the details of her affairs would not be plastered across every newspaper and website in the country. It is my opinion that a Testamentary Trust is almost the equivalent of doubling dipping. The attorney is charging the client to create a more advanced Will, then ultimately, you are charging the client the cost of going through probate. Ultimately, the more cost effective route for the client to take is a revocable living Trust that is set up while they are alive, avoids probate at death and keeps everything private.
When it comes to setting up a Living Trust, most people are concerned about a couple of things, avoiding probate, protecting a special needs children or controlling assets from the grave in the event a child has spendthrift issues or even drug and alcohol issues. These have been traditional reasons to set up a Living Trust and will continue to be reasons for people to set up Living Trust.
However, with the implementation of the Medicaid Recovery Act, which the State of Michigan avoided for over 10 years, there are new reasons to have a Living Trust. Although, a Trust may not allow you to protect the cash or investment assets, as in many cases they need to be spent on nursing home care, a Living Trust can ultimately protect your home and your personal property. Under the Estate Recovery Act, the only assets that the State of Michigan can go after are assets that pass through probate. If you have set up a Living Trust and have done some legal, but creative planning, your home can pass through the Trust, avoid probate and ultimately avoid repayment of Medicaid expenses.
When it comes to planning for a beneficiary receiving government benefits such as Medicaid or SSI, it is important that your estate plan does not provide for outright distribution to that beneficiary. An individual receiving SSI or Medicaid is only authorized to have $2,000 or less in their bank account. If they inherit a substantial amount of money from you, that money will become part of their estate and if the amount exceeds $2,000 they will loose their government benefits. They will be required to spend down the funds that they inherited from you and once those funds are gone, they can re-apply for benefits. When an individual is receiving SSI or Medicaid and they inherit money, outright, they cannot disclaim it and refuse the funds because refusal of those funds is considered a divestment and merely disclaiming or refusing the funds could affect their SSI and Medicaid. When a beneficiary who is receiving SSI and Medicaid inherits money there is a special procedure that must be followed to protect those assets. It would typically require court involvement and something called a Medicaid Payback Trust. This is a very expensive process, but it ultimately can protect the beneficiaries inheritance. Obviously, the best way to approach leaving money to a beneficiary who is receiving SSI or Medicaid is to hold those funds in a Special Needs Trust and never make the beneficiary the owner.
When it comes to estate planning, many of us want control from the grave. I was recently asked a question about whether or not parents can control where the funds would be distributed if a child predeceased a parent. For example, would the deceased child’s money go to his or her spouse or would it flow down to the grandchildren? The answer to this depends on not only on your estate plan, but it can also depend on the order of death. For example, if your daughter predeceases you and your estate plan (a simple Will or a Living Trust) provides that the daughters portion goes to her then living issue, her issue are her natural born and legal adopted descendants, not the spouse. Another factor to consider, which can be controlled by your document, is the timing of the death. I had a situation many years ago where my client died and her daughter died less than a month after her. If the document had not specifically stated that her daughter had to outlive her by 90 days to receive her inheritance, the daughters inheritance would have gone into her estate and would have ultimately gone to her spouse, not the daughters children. If you do not define survival for a child, such as 90 days, the State of Michigan defines survival as 72 hours. All of the things that we have worked hard for during our lifetime are important to use and like most individuals we want to make sure that our assets and money go to the right people. To ensure that this happens it is important to have an up to date estate plan that addresses many of these issues.
I was recently watching a sitcom where the family was headed to a funeral and the kids said, “mom & dad, do you have a Will?”
The parents responded, “yeah, we scribbled something on a napkin and divided everything equally. The bank will take the house and you kids take the rest.”
Obviously, this is not the best type of estate planning, but for many, it is the only planning they have. I read a recent article about whether a suicide note would serve as a valid Will. Apparently, prior to the mother’s suicide, she hand wrote on the outside of an envelope that the envelope was not to be opened until she died. Inside the envelope she wrote on a separate piece of paper, “please make sure the kids get my money” and signed the letter. A lawsuit in probate court followed between the children and the wife’s newly married spouse as to the validity of the suicide note as a Will. Following excessive litigation, the court found that the hand written note did in fact satisfy the holographic Will requirements. Unfortunately, this decision followed extensive litigation. Obviously, hand written notes or writing notes on a cocktail napkin are not the best way to complete your estate plan. There are several things to consider when setting up a Will such as who will serve as the executor, who will serve as the guardian of any minor children and if you are newly married, it may be important to specifically exclude your spouse.
We no longer live in the June and Ward Cleaver, “Leave it to Beaver” era when it comes to relationships. Statistics show that fewer and fewer people are getting married and more people are co-habitating. In fact, the number of co-habitating, unmarried partners increased ten fold between 1960 and 2000. 10.7% of the unmarried population report living together with an unmarried partner. Not only have we seen more co-habitating amongst men and women, the amount of same-sex unmarried partner households has increased by almost 13%. Why is all of this information important when it comes to estate planning?
It is important because when it comes to co-habitating with someone that you are not married to, some of the traditional rights in the estate planning world do not apply. For example, if you are married and your spouse dies without a Will or a Trust, under the probate laws you will be entitled to inherit most, if not all of that spouses assets. If you are co-habitating with another individual and they die, you are entitled to none of their assets if there is nothing prepared such as a Will or Trust. If you are living with another person and you are not married to them and that person faces medical issues, you may have no authority to make medical decisions, get medical information or even pick up a prescription for that individual. Additionally, there are issues about commingling of assets, personal property and bank accounts and if the two unmarried partners have children from a previous relationship, there are issues as to whether your children will inherit your “stuff” or whether it will pass to your partner. It is said that about two-fifth’s of children are expected to live in a co-habitating household at some point. It is as a parent that estate planning will become even more important in these situations.
New Year’s resolutions are a great idea, but many times we do not follow through with them. In fact, statistics show that sixty percent of the people who signed up for a gym membership no longer use it. When it comes to making a New Year’s resolution regarding updating or setting up your estate plan, it is one resolution you should keep. So many individuals procrastinate on setting up an estate plan because they cannot imagine anything bad will happen to them in the near future. Unfortunately, families constantly face issues with regard to Special Needs children, parents dying without designating a guardian for their minor children, individuals dying leaving assets to children who are not mature enough to manage those assets and many other issues.
Setting up an estate plan is not as difficult as many would think, but it is a very important New Year’s resolution to keep.
This is a question that is being asked by many individuals again and again, primarily based on the cost of long term care insurance. Unfortunately, the cost of nursing home care continues to increase at a much faster pace than the return on most of our investments. Like any insurance, we buy it for peace of mind. When we are younger, we buy life insurance to replace a lost income in the event of death or to pay for funeral/burial expenses. We buy insurance on our homes and cars in the event of a fire or an accident. Long term care insurance is no different. We buy it for the peace of mind that the assets that we have worked our entire life to save will be protected in the event a spouse has to enter a nursing home. Although, most of us save money during our entire career to support us later in life, most of us are not prepared to spend several thousand dollars a year on long term care. Less than 10% of seniors typically have long term care insurance, yet 90% worry about long term care costs. It may seem expensive, as much as $3,000 or $4,000 a year, but in the grand scheme of things a $3,000 a year premium could ultimately protect over $70,000 of your assets each year that you are in the nursing home.
Many of the clients we talk to think that Medicaid is an easy solution for their long term care costs. Unfortunately, if the client has retirement accounts or other investments, the government is going to take these into consideration before Medicaid is awarded. Just remember that interest rates have fallen, longevity has improved and care costs have increased faster than general inflation and for these reasons alone, long term care insurance is something you should consider.
So many people are concerned about the State of Michigan taking their home. What many people need to understand is that the only reason that the State of Michigan even becomes involved in issues regarding your home or liens on your home is if you begin receiving Medicaid assistance in a nursing home. In 1993, the Federal Government advised every state that they should enact an “Estate Recovery Program” and Michigan decided to ignore their instructions and put off enacting such a program until July 1, 2011. At this time, the current Medicaid Recovery Act allows the State of Michigan to file a lien against homes that passed through the Probate Court process. Currently, there is nothing in place that allows the State of Michigan to recover against a home that does not pass through probate. Although we anticipate that we will see legislation that may allow for this down the road, there are ways to protect the home even if Medicaid is being received. Having said that, there is a concern that Estate Recovery measures will increase exploitation of the elderly and family members should consider consulting a qualified Medicaid or Estate Planning attorney before buying any financial or legal products which may claim to have magical qualities that allow you to avoid the Estate Recovery Act.
Many family members do not believe that their parents could be a victim of financial exploitation. Unfortunately, as people reach a certain age many institutions and individuals prey on them with the theory that they are easily confused and/or easy to manipulate. Many times seniors that receive these solicitations or calls are lonely and are happy to speak with the individual on the other end of the line and in many instances they provide way too much personal information and put their identity at risk. If you are child or family member of an elderly person, it is important that you take corrective steps to make sure that they are not a victim of exploitation or identity theft. One of the first steps is obtaining Durable Power of Attorney over that family member so that you have the authority to follow up with their financial institutions and/or advisors and monitor their accounts to make sure that large sums of money are not being transferred or being paid out. It may even be important for you to make a list of items for that family member to address if they receive a phone call or solicitation on the phone. One of the most important things to put on that list is that they say at the end, “I need to call my daughter/ son/family member and run this by them before I agree to anything.” Additionally, if you are a child that is extremely busy or lives out of town or out of state and monitoring your family member’s finances is difficult you may want to consider hiring a professional to assist you with some of these duties.
Remember, not only are these funds necessary to protect your family members care, but this may also be your inheritance that is being put at risk.
Over and over I hear the comment, “why is it that my assets have to go through probate if I have a Will?” The answer is quite simple. A Last Will and Testament is a document designed to give instructions to the probate court on how you would like to pass your individually owned assets. If at the time of your death, you own your house in your name, bank accounts and/or investments, and there is no joint owner or beneficiary option, those individual assets are frozen until the court can appoint an executor under your Last Will and Testament. The Will provides a guideline not only for the court, but for other family members to identify who is to serve as the executor or personal representative of the estate and how you would like your assets divided. Having a Will may not avoid probate, but it is better than having nothing at all. Without a Will, there is no indication of who is to serve as executor and how you would like your assets divided. Although individually owned assets under a will do go through the probate court process, it at least provides a summary of your wishes. If your goal is to avoid probate, then you need to consider a living Trust instead.
The third common fear that senior’s face is the fear of taxes. We have had so many modifications and changes to our tax laws over the last few years that it is confusing and difficult to keep track of where we stand. For 2011 and 2012, the federal government has decided that we can pass up to $5 million death tax free, this amount is double if you are married. This is purely a death tax provision and does not apply to income taxes. For example if you are leaving your family less than $5 million there will be no estate tax, but if part of the assets that you are leaving are a regular IRA or an asset that has been tax deferred, when the beneficiary begins taking withdrawals from that retirement account, they will be subject to income taxes. The good news is that if you hold assets until the time of death that have appreciated in value, such as real estate or stocks, when those assets pass to your heirs, they get what we call a “step-up in basis”. Meaning that any increase in value that you experience during your lifetime is irrelevant and the IRS looks only at the date of death value. If the beneficiary liquidates the asset at the date of death value then there are typically no capital gains. It is important when dealing with tax issues and estates that you not rely on information from neighbors and friends, but consult with your local accountant or CPA.
Continuing on the common fears of many people in their golden years, is myth number two and many of those fears are related to long term care. Too many family members believe that they can transfer all of their wealth to their children and qualify for Medicaid. Medicaid is welfare through the state and federal government and closely scrutinizes what people do with their money prior to entering a nursing home and applying for Medicaid. The problem is that many people feel that they can transfer their money to their children and their children will hold these funds in case they need them. What they do not realize is that these children may have medical expenses, financial problems or they may even face divorce and these funds could suddenly disappear even though the ultimate intent was to hold them for the parents. Obviously, as with any estate planning or long term planning, waiting for the government to make the decisions for you is not the best option. If you are still at an age where you can consider long term care insurance, it is important that you do so. It can protect not only your spouse, but it can protect the inheritance that you want to leave to your children. With the proper planning and long term care insurance, dealing with the government and/or medicaid will never become an issue.
No one wants to believe that their estate will turn into a fight amongst family members, but the reality of it is that it happens more often than you know. The best way to avoid this problem is to make sure that your estate plan is as clear as possible. Do not assume that the things you have told your children will be accepted by other children and that your “verbal” agreement is sufficient. Although some people may need more complex estate planning documents because of their wealth or because of a family business many of us can rely on simple Wills. Regardless of the type of planning that you have put in place, you need to be very clear about what you want. Family arguments may not arise while you are alive, but they can clearly arise when you are gone. Any ill will or family dynamics may not show up during your lifetime, but when you are gone and they are no longer concerned about upsetting mom and dad, those feelings can come to the forefront. Bad things can happen and old family rivalries can rear their ugly heads. When it comes to planning, it is important to even address the small stuff. It is much better for you to be specific as to simple things such as personal property like who gets the jewelry, who gets the car, who gets grandma’s china. Do not assume that because you have told a child that it is all set. Do not make that child fight for those items when you are gone, make sure that it is writing and as clear as possible to avoid family problems in the future. Most parents goal is to make sure that their children are still friends even after they are gone.
This is the first in a series of five “fears” of the golden years.
When we think about all of the money that was donated in 2010 by individuals, over $200 billion, it is important to understand all of the options that we have when it comes to giving.
Charitable gifts can be something as simple as putting a check in the mail and allowing the charity to decide how to spend the money, or the gift can be more specific and be attached to a specific fund or a specific use. Many times when people give and they want the money to be used for a very specific use, it is placed in an endowment fund. Not only are these funds earmarked for a specific use, in many endowment funds, the charity is only able to use the income, but the principal remains intact. The gift lives on in perpetuity and ensures that the money will be there in years to come and will always create a steam of income for the charity. When making a lifetime charitable gift it is important to consider whether you want them to have immediate access to all of the money or whether you want some restrictions. When it comes to long term planning, such as in a Will or Trust, some other considerations you may want to make is whether you should give the charity a dollar amount or a percentage of your estate. With a percentage, it ensures that the charity receives something along with your family regardless of your net worth. With a dollar amount, you know the exact amount the charity is going to get, but many people are concerned that should they spend a lot of their money later in life that the dollar amount may ultimately exceed what their family would get. Making a gift of a specific dollar amount in your Last Will and Testament or Trust is a great option, but may require that you revisit the amount of that gift periodically.
Part of any complete estate plan is getting your funeral/burial wishes in order. Many family members do not like to discuss this topic so it goes unaddressed and at the time of death, the family has no idea what to do. Is cremation your preference or traditional burial? What family members need to know is that when it comes to cremation there are some rules that need to be followed. Traditional burial does not require the consent of your family members, but cremation does. The Mortuary Code has identified an order of priority as to who can authorize cremation. If you are married and you are the first spouse to die, your surviving spouse has that priority. If you are the surviving spouse and you die then a majority of your adult children must consent to cremation. There is an actual form that must be signed before cremation can occur and obviously, this is something that should be discussed with your family in advance.
In addition to the decisions about cremation versus burial, there a lot of other creative things that people may want to identify, including the type of service, what they want done with their cremated remains.
As an example, two Alabama game wardens recently launched a company called www.myholysmoke.com. This company turns a loved ones cremated remains into ammunition. Family members can then fire the ammunition in remembrance of the deceased. Oddly enough, one pound of ashes fills around 250 shot gun shells. I guess this puts a hole new meaning to “going out with a bang”
With a variety of relationships occurring these days, many people are not getting remarried. Many people are living together and moving in with their significant other. Although the arrangement may be a financial benefit for both of the parties there are some estate planning issues that need to be addressed. What if the boyfriend owns the home and he dies, will the children or family of the deceased boyfriend allow the girlfriend to live in the home an unlimited amount of time? Or, will the family give her three days notice and ask her move out? When your living arrangements are non-traditional and someone is living with you, you may need to revisit your estate plan to ensure that that boyfriend or girlfriend is allowed to live in the home for a period of time until other housing can be found and that the family knows your wishes regarding the living arrangements. Estate planning is not just for married people, it is for anyone who wants to make sure that their wishes are known and provide for another individual in their life.
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