Many people still have a parent named or an ex-spouse, but have never taken the time to update those. If something happened to you would you want your retirement to pass to your ex-husband or would you want your life insurance to pass to your mom who may be in the nursing home. Although, changing a beneficiary to a minor child or to your children in general will not allow you the control that a Trust would allow you, it does ensure that your beneficiary will inherit those proceeds. Although many of us do not like to deal with paperwork updating your beneficiaries on life insurance, CD’s and retirement accounts is a simple way to plan until you have the time or resources to get in and do a complete estate plan.

The first option is put provisions in your Will or your Trust and the second option is to create a “tangible personal property list”. This list can be in your own handwriting, dated and signed or alternatively, if it is typed up then it should have two witnesses to verify your signature. These tangible personal property lists should then be kept with your estate planning documents and a copy should be provided to your estate planning attorney.

In addition to making the list there are several ways to manage your collectibles or create an inventory for your successor administrator. The website www.managemycollectibles.com gives collectors information on a multitude of specific software programs that allow collectors to create a database of their own collections and this electronic record can create values, identify works of art, and/or insurance on each item of personal property. If you do not want to do the tangible personal property list and you merely want to allow your children the option to bid or purchase the items at sale, but you want to limit it to family members only, there is a website that can be utilized by your administrator called www.edivvyup.com. This allows your administrator to set up an on-line auction of items of tangible personal property that can only be utilized by a password. The final alternative is to make sure that you give these items of tangible personal property away prior to your death. That ensures that the individual that you wish to have the item gets it and can enjoy it during your lifetime.

Additionally, it may be important for your child to give you financial Power of Attorney as well. This will allow you to get information regarding their outstanding tuition, do banking for them if they are unavailable and even handle lease agreements with their landlord. No matter what your age, once you become an adult at age 18 a medical and financial Power of Attorney are two important documents to consider.

The problem is that many individuals would choose to do nothing instead of spending the time with an attorney to get their estate plan set up right. In fact, some surveys indicate that every four married couples with minor children lack any documentation as to who would serve as the guardian of their minor children in the event both parents died. Unless you are a single individual who does not own property and has no children and lives from pay check to pay check, you probably need an estate planning attorney to guide you through the process. Most people make mistakes when they try on-line forms and in fact, many of the individuals do not even understand the terminology when the forms are presented to them. Do you understand the difference between a Living Will, a Power of Attorney, a Last Will and Testament and a Living Trust? Do you understand the various designations that are created within these documents and the powers that you are giving to individuals under the terms of these documents? Is it more power than you would be comfortable with if you truly understand the legal nature of each document? If you do not know the answers to each of these questions then do-it-yourself estate plans are probably not right for you.

1. When placing an obituary in the newspaper, do not include the deceased person’s street address.

2. You may want to mention the birth year or the age they were at the time of death, but avoid providing the entire month, date and year of the decedent.

3. Make sure that the funeral home is providing notice of death to the Social Security office. If not, make sure that you verify with Social Security that the individual has died.

4. It is also important to contact all of the decedent’s financial institutions to let them know that the individual has died and identify whether or not a successor Trustee or a Personal Representative will be stepping in to handle the accounts.

5. Contact the Secretary of State and let them know that the individual has passed away, thereby cancelling the Michigan Driver’s License and it’s usability.

6. Contact all financial institutions and let them know that the individual has died and that any active durable powers of attorney is null and void and advise them of the individual that will be contacting them as the Personal Representative of the estate or Trustee of a living Trust.

7. Consider having all of their mail transferred to a P.O. Box number or to the administrator’s home to avoid credit card applications or other information being stolen from their mailbox.

However, during the course of a parent’s lifetime, Special Needs provisions can be set up within their living Trust. The Special Needs provisions allow for money to be held in Trust for the Autistic child’s lifetime, but the child is not treated as the owner of the funds. A successor Trustee is then given permission to use the funds for comforts and luxuries that the child will need throughout the course of his or her lifetime. Many of these needs are not provided to the child through the government assistance mentioned above. Since the child does not have control of the funds and the funds do not appear in the child’s personal account or under the child’s Social Security number, these funds will be protected throughout the child’s lifetime. At the death of the child, the funds can then pass back to other children or even on to a non-profit to fund research on Autism. When dealing with a family member with Autism a simple Will or no estate planning at all will not protect that family member.

It is important that you carefully consider what the gift can be used for. Additionally, you may want to consider having instructions that if the purpose for which you gave the gift no longer exists, that the remaining portion of the gift passes to another charity or another department within the charity. Obviously, nominal gifts do not afford donors this amount of control, but when considering a larger gift to a charity during your lifetime or at death there are many ways that the donor can advise or control that gift even from the grave.

For female advisors, attorney’s, Trust officers, bankers and financial advisors if you are interested in learning more about charitable giving through the Kalamazoo Community Foundation contact my office and we will get you more information on their upcoming seminar. You are also welcome to contact Joanna Dales at jdales@kalfound.org

Recently, I had a family member contact me regarding concerns over a wife’s gambling habits. The husband was concerned that if he passed away prior to his wife’s death and left her all of the assets that she would “blow through” these assets in no time at all. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to provide for his spouse, he was just concerned that there would not be funds available when she needed them for nursing home care, assisted living or any other needs that may arise. More and more, spouses are contacting me and asking me how do I protect these funds if I predecease my wife and she is left with the bulk of the assets? How do I know that she will not blow them in Las Vegas the next week? It is very important that these couples or this spouse get in and meet with a qualified estate planning attorney to discuss setting up a trust that has control mechanisms within the trust that only provide for distributions to the spouse for health, support, medical needs, assisted living needs, etc. The trust needs to put someone other than the spouse in control of the money to ensure that the money is there for her life time.

Michigan ranks 42^nd nationwide in the percentage of registered drivers who have officially expressed their wish to someday become organ, eye and tissue donors. Adding one million names to the state’s confidential database will bring Michigan in line with the national average of 39 percent.

Just 24 percent of drivers in this state have signed the registry.  Part of the reason Michigan lags behind other states: Most residents aren’t aware that signing the back of a Michigan driver’s license or state ID isn’t enough to be a donor anymore. Residents now must join the Michigan Organ Donor Registry by going online to www.giftoflifemichigan.org, by calling 800.482.4881 or by visiting a Secretary of State branch office.  

Adding more names to the state’s confidential database will remove a family’s burden of making a decision about organ donation during their shock and grief. It also will make more organs available for the 3,000 people waiting in Michigan for a second chance at life.

You are encouraged to rally support from employees, family members, neighbors, friends and colleagues.  There’s a critical need for life-saving organs in our state, so Michigan needs more residents to commit to giving organs and tissue. It could be the only chance some of us ever have to save a life.

After joining the Michigan Organ Donor Registry, a red heart logo will be placed on the individual’s Michigan driver’s license or state ID, indicating that person’s wish to someday be a donor.

Last year in Michigan, 288 people donated organs – not nearly enough to meet the need.

In fact, 18 people die every day in the U.S. waiting for an organ transplant. More than 105,000 are on the national waiting list for organs.

One organ donor can save the lives of up to eight people, and those who give tissue can improve the quality of life for up to 50 sick or injured people.

People need to realize that nursing home coverage is either based on private pay with your own funds or requires that you spend your funds first and then apply for government assistance (Medicaid). Many of the rules that were put in place several years ago still apply. Your home, car and personal property are protected assets and do not have to be sold. However, any retirement accounts, bank accounts, certificates of deposits, savings bonds, annuities, or cash value in life insurance policies are considered an available asset that must first be utilized by the nursing home patient before government assistance will kick in. Many people believe that the government “takes” your money. The reality is the State and Federal government require that you account for your available funds and once they determine that you do not have any available funds or that you have exhausted them, then Medicaid can be considered. However, the government does not take your money, they ask you to spend it first.

We know that Smith signed his Trust almost 12 years before he married Anna Nicole and he never updated the Trust to provide for her or to indicate that he was not providing for her. Anna Nicole Smith sued the estate for what she claims was promised to her and ultimately the court denied her request. This is a good example of where 12 year old estate plans need to be updated. It may have been in the best interest of Howard Smith to update his estate plan to either provide for Anna Nicole Smith or to specifically provide that he was leaving her nothing. By not providing either way, he left the issue up in the air and ultimately he left it for the courts to decide. It would have been much quicker and probably much easier if Howard Smith’s son would have been able to present the court with a document which specifically excluded Anna Nicole Smith from his estate as opposed to remaining silent on the matter.

When changing circumstances occur in your life, it is important to review your estate plan and make sure that the terms of your plan address those changes or that you update the estate plan to make sure that they are not ignored. Do not assume that your family will know what you want or that a verbal request will suffice.