New & Noteworthy Articles

The term “estate planning” encompasses not only planning for your death, but also for your disability. As we all know, people are living longer and the likelihood that you will experience Alzheimer’s, dementia, diminished capacity, or other cognitive impairment before you die has increased dramatically. Thus, no estate plan is complete without taking steps to ensure that, if you become incapacitated and can’t make decisions for yourself, someone you trust will be empowered to act on your behalf.

Many things we rely on have specific expiration dates that require action on our part. Driver’s licenses, vehicle registrations, passports, credit cards, memberships all have to be renewed on or before a specific date. We are given ample warning of the specific date these things expire, so we know we have to deal with this deadline. If we miss the deadline, these things are no longer of any use.

According to recent studies, a majority (55%) of adults have not written their will. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a will. That’s because if you don’t prepare your own will, Maryland’s inheritance law does it for you. It’s called the laws of intestacy, and those laws apply to those who die without a valid will. And some significant changes to those laws went into effect on October 1, 2023.

Your estate plan is not something you can ever “finish.” Your circumstances may change in the future, as well as tax laws or other laws that may affect your estate plan, and often these changes can come with both opportunities and pitfalls. It is best if your estate plan is reviewed regularly and updated to maintain your goals and address any changes in the law.

Among the younger generation, estate planning is sometimes thought of as something only rich old people need to be concerned with. Many parents of young children haven’t given much thought to their estate plan. They may not think they have an “estate” to plan for.

Estate Planning is not only about what happens if you die. It’s also about planning for what happens if you are incapacitated. That is, what happens if due to a stroke, serious injury or illness you are unable to make decisions for yourself?

Most of my clients have a Revocable Living Trust as the centerpiece of their estate plan. For many of them, a major reason they created the trust may have been the significant estate tax benefits it provided. But as you may have heard, recent tax law changes have essentially eliminated the danger of an estate tax for more than 99% of us. Thus, for most of my clients the Living Trust no longer provides any estate tax benefits. So it is reasonable for folks to wonder if their Living Trust now serves any beneficial purpose and to ask: “Do I still need a Living Trust?”

There’s a lot more to an estate plan than the legal documents – the Will, Trust and Powers of Attorney. In fact, there are other things that are even more

So, you have succeeded in putting your estate plan together – you have your Will, Trust, Powers of Attorney, and Medical Directives in place. The beneficiary designations for your life insurance policies and retirement accounts are in place. You review your estate plan periodically to make sure it continues to reflect your wishes and accomplish your goals. All the legal documents necessary to implement your estate plan are complete. But there is one further step you can take to make things easier for your loved ones if you die – prepare them for the eventuality.

Over the past 10-20 years, Living Trusts have become the estate planning vehicle of choice for many people. Such revocable trusts are frequently recommended by estate planning attorneys, financial advisors and CPAs.