Wills, Trust & Estates Planning

It seems like making a will is one of those things that everyone mean to get around to doing, but somehow never gets it done. Something always gets in the way of us making those all important final decisions.  Some people have adopted the point of view that “whatever happens, happens” and they don’t plan. 

Estate planning is an analytic exercise that starts with a review of your assets, family situation, business, and liability exposure. Everyone needs estate planning and it does not have to be complex. It relieves our loved ones of making decisions at a painful and vulnerable point in their lives.  Tax considerations, revelation of important disclosures, many different issues are addressed in the context of your Last Will and Testament.

Estate planning is a process that should ideally start when you are still fairly young and continue throughout your life. For most people, the first step is having a simple Last Will and Testament put in place, and then from there, add additional options over time. As your estate grows and evolves with you and your family, you will need to have trusts in place to help avoid probate, ensure privacy, prevent contest, protect your assets, minimize expenses, and minimize/defer death tax exposure. Learn more about Wills and trusts to see what type of testamentary planning you may benefit you and your family.

Planning what you want to happen for the people around you can be a great act of love. 

Estate planning is a process that has an end result – you are left with a set of structures, which are documents in written form, which will either come to effect immediately (lifetime planning) or will come to effect when you pass away (testamentary planning)or become incapacitated (disability/incapacity planning).

• What is a health care proxy:
• A health care proxy is a document that everyone should have. It designates a person of your choosing as your agent to make health-related decisions for your in case you are incapable of doing so yourself. It should name the primary agent and also appoint a successor agent. Health care proxy should contain the most recent HIPAA authorization language to allow any medical institution/organization to release your confidential medical information to your agent.
• What is a power of attorney:
• A power of attorney is a document which appoints a person of your choosing (sometimes, more than one person) to act on your behalf with respect to you financial and business affairs. In New York, a power of attorney does not appoint a person to make health care decisions for you. You must have a separate health care proxy designation for that purposes.

• What is a living Will:
• A living Will, also called Last Directive., is a document in which you express your wishes not to be kept alive using artificial means, such as ventilator and feeding tubes, if you are proclaimed terminally ill or brain dead. Such choice is very personal but if you feel strongly about this decision, you must have a Living Will that clearly expresses your wishes with respect to artificial, means of life support, feeding, hydration, and pain medication.

• What is designation of agent to control disposition of remains:
• New York has a document in which you may leave specific instructions concerning disposition of your remains and appoint an agent to control such disposition. This person will be in charge of your funeral and burial. If you have strong feeling and preferences concerning your funeral and burial or you want to be cremated, do not leave these instructions in your Will. Most of the time, the Will is opened and read after your funeral.

• What is Will:
• A Will is a document that memorializes your testamentary wishes (i.e. wishes expressed through a Will to come to effect at death not during lifetime).

• What is a Trust:
• A trust is an entity formed by trust agreement between Grantor (settlor) and trustee. Grantor (also called settlor sometimes) is a person who creates the trust.
• A trustee is a person who holds the property in trust for the benefit of beneficiaries listed in the trust agreement. A trustee does not own the property for his own benefit (unless he or she is a beneficiary of the trust as well as trustee). Trustees are held accountable for everything that they do with respect to the trust. They owe beneficiaries a duty of loyalty and care. They can never act is self-interest and must always think about the beneficiaries.

• Revocable Trust
• This is a trust that you can make changes to at any time, or even be revoked the trust entirely. It is used for testamentary planning to avoid or ease the process of probate.
• Irrevocable Trust
• Most often used for lifetime planning, involving gifting, business planning and succession, wealth succession, pre-marital planning, asset protection and planning for lifetime events (such as children’s marriages, new grandchildren, new business ventures, loss of job or medical insurance, retirement).