Muskegon estate planning attorneys

5 Misconceptions about Estate Planning

While most people don’t feel comfortable discussing incapacitation or death, estate planning can prevent discord in the family and make sure that your loved ones are provided for.

An estate attorney can also help you appoint a power of attorney and create an advance directive outlining end-of-life care. A comprehensive estate plan prevents your assets from being mishandled or going to the wrong people.

Continue reading to learn the five myths that prevent people from scheduling an appointment with an estate planning attorney.

Four Reasons You Should Have a Last Will and Testament

1. You Decide Who is in Charge of Your Estate

When you designate a Personal Representative, a Last Will and Testament allows you to determine in advance who will carry out your instructions after your death. Without designating a Personal Representative, court rules determine who will be responsible for settling your estate. Failing to designate a Personal Representative adds to the cost of probate and can substantially delay who will carry out your wishes. Under Michigan law, the probate court will automatically appoint the person you select as Personal Representative without a hearing. Contrary to belief, a Will does not avoid probate but it’s better than dying “intestate,” that is, without a Will and leaving it to the court to decide who is in charge and how to divide your assets.

2. You Decide Who Will Take Care of Your Minor or Disabled Children

A Will allows you to designate who will take care of your minor or disabled children. Without a Will, it’s up to the court to decide who will act as guardian or conservator of your children. It’s important to name someone you believe shares your life values and who will meet your children’s needs in the manner you prefer.

3. You Decide How Your Estate Will be Distributed

If you die without a Will, your estate may not be distributed the way you intend. This is especially true in blended families. If you or your spouse have children from prior relationships, without a Will your spouse or children may not receive what you intend. A Will is a method to determine what you want the outcome of your estate to be, otherwise it’s up to the court to decide for you based upon the intestate rules provided under Michigan law.

4. A Will Allows You to Give Specific Instructions Without Losing Control of Your Assets

It may be tempting to put someone else’s name on your assets “just in case something happens” but joint ownership arrangements can put you in a position to lose control over your assets both before and after your death. In some cases, the best way to make a specific gift of property or other assets is to include those directions in your Will. That way, there’s no confusion about what you intend.

Let us help you achieve the peace of mind that your affairs are in order. We have a proven process to protect you and your family.

Starting the planning process is easy. Give us call at (231) 799-4994 to set up a complimentary Get Acquainted Call.

Four Benefits of a General Durable Power of Attorney

A general durable power of attorney is a fundamental part of any estate plan. This important legal document allows you to appoint someone else to act for you to make financial decisions if you cannot make decisions for yourself.

When creating a general durable power of attorney, you are known as the “principal” and the person to act for you is called your “agent” or “attorney-in-fact.”

1. Keep Control While Allowing Someone Else to Act for You

Instead of creating a general durable power of attorney, it may be tempting to add another person as a signatory on your bank accounts “just in case something happens.” Adding someone else as a joint tenant on your bank accounts or other assets can cause you to lose complete control over what you own. Joint ownership arrangements make your asset the property of the new joint owner; and, joint ownership arrangements put your assets at risk to pay for your new joint owner’s liabilities. Don’t make your joint owner’s debts your problem. A general power of attorney allows you to appoint someone else to act for you either immediately or upon proof of incapacity without losing control. And, it requires the agent to always act in your best interest.

2. Avoid Probate Court

If you become disabled and are unable to make your own decisions, without a general durable power of attorney your family may have no choice but to petition the probate court for the appointment of a conservator. Appointing a conservator can be an expensive and time consuming process. Once a conservator is appointed, it’s usually for life. That means so long as you are alive and disabled, your conservator must provide a complete inventory of your assets and report of all of your income and expenses to the court and your family every year. What you own and what you make becomes a part of the public court records.

3. Provide for Asset Protection

If you end up needing financial assistance to help pay for long term care or nursing expenses, most power of attorney documents place handcuffs or limitations on your agent’s ability to protect your assets. When given the choice, most families prefer to protect as much of their savings and assets as possible from being spent on nursing home costs that might otherwise be paid for through government benefit programs like Medicaid. Without specific authorization to apply for government benefits or to take actions that might protect what you own, your agent may be forced to spend all of your assets on medical expenses or other costs associated with a chronic, long term illness. If your family has to go to court to get permission to act for you, there is no guarantee that the court will feel the same way you do about how to protect your assets.

4. Allow Access to Information

Putting someone else on your bank account might allow them to pay your bills from that particular account but it does nothing to allow access to financial information or medical records needed to help pay your bills, apply for government benefits or to make other important decisions. Without a general durable power of attorney, financial and medical privacy rules may prevent others from disclosing important information needed to protect you or others who depend on you for support.

If you’d like to create a general durable power of attorney please give us a call at (231) 799-4994 or contact us using the form below:

Don’t Let Your Wishes Get Derailed by 3 Common Planning Traps

When done effectively, estate planning assures that you can keep control of yourself and your assets at every life stage. Like it or not, every one of us fits into one of the following life stages:

Alive and well
Alive and not well; or
Not alive.

The method of planning you choose determines your ability keep control of your own affairs at each of these life stages. None of us can predict the timing of a chronic illness or the time of our death. But, we can control how our assets are managed or protected when sickness or death occurs.

Don’t let your expectations get derailed by these common planning traps:

1. Perils of Joint Tenancy.

It’s very tempting to try to manage or protect your assets by placing someone else’s name on your bank accounts or property. It’s easy too. Someone at the bank might even have suggested “it’s a good idea” to add a name or two onto your accounts in case “something happens.”

We don’t recommend planning based on joint tenancy because you lose immediate control over the jointly held asset and you expose your assets to the creditors of your joint tenant.

Because a Will or Living Trust does not control jointly held assets, joint tenancy risks sabotaging your distribution goals after death.

And, if you need help paying for nursing home care adding your child’s name to the deed of your home might prevent you from qualifying for Medicaid.

2. Over Reliance on Beneficiary Designations.

Naming a beneficiary on investment or retirement accounts can avoid probate upon death but provides no authority for any one else to act for you if you are sick or disabled. A beneficiary designation applies only after your death.

Without a General Durable Power of Attorney in place to manage assets during illness, your family will be stuck with an expensive trip to the probate court to obtain guardian or conservator powers.

If your beneficiary is a minor or is a person with disabilities, you will likely be putting your former spouse or the court in charge of how those assets are managed.

3. Failure to Understand the Limitations of a Last Will and Testament.

Although it’s better to have a Last Will and Testament than to die without one, most people don’t understand how a Will really works. Here are five things you should know about a Will:

A Will offers no help to your family if you are disabled.
A Will only applies to individually owned assets.
A Will does not control jointly titled assets.
A Will does not control beneficiary designation assets.
A Will does not avoid probate when you die.

In Michigan, all Wills are subject to probate proceedings known as “informal” or “formal” administration. If you’ve read a clause in a Will that’s something like this, “I direct that my Will not be supervised by the Court,” it simply means that you are selecting the most limited form of probate possible under court rules.

If you’d like to learn more about your estate planning options click on the link below or call (231) 799-4994 to schedule a complimentary Get Acquainted Call.

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Four Reasons Why a Last Will and Testament Is Not an Estate Plan

Most people acknowledge that “someday” they should get a Last Will and Testament in place. However, that’s an old model of planning that’s fixated only on what happens at death. Estate planning is not just a morbid exercise that’s limited to telling your family what you want done after you are gone. Here are four reasons why having only a Last Will and Testament is not an estate plan.

1. A Last Will and Testament Offers No Help If You Become Disabled.

The sole purpose of a Last Will and Testament is to provide instructions about what you own in your own name at the time of your death. If you are unable to manage your own property because of illness, the personal representative of your Will can’t do a thing about it. Why? Because you are not dead. A personal representative only has authority to act after death by obtaining letters of authority from the probate court.

If your plan does not include a well thought out general durable power of attorney or living trust, your family will have no choice but to go to court if you become disabled.

2. A Last Will and Testament Does Not Protect Your Assets from Nursing Home Expenses.

If you are over age 65, the odds of having a nursing home event are 1 out of 2. And, 1 out of 10 seniors who enter a nursing home are never able return to their own home. At more than $8,500 per month for skilled nursing care, most families rely on Medicaid to pay for it.

If you rely on Medicaid to pay for nursing home care, a Last Will and Testament does nothing to protect your assets. When you die, the State of Michigan has a right to recover the cost of your lifetime care from the value of all assets that are controlled by your Will.

It is a rude awakening for the beneficiaries of your Will to discover that your assets must first be used to pay back the state for your lifetime care expenses.

When that happens, your family is left with virtually nothing. However, if your home or assets are conveyed at death by a method that avoids probate, those assets are not subject to estate recovery.

3. A Last Will and Testament Does Not Control Beneficiary Designation Assets.

It’s important to understand what a Will does or does not control. A Will contains instructions about what you own in your own name at the time of your death. Your Will does not control assets for which you have made pay on death (POD), transfer on death (TOD), or other forms of beneficiary designations.

Many clients hold significant wealth in annuities, qualified retirement accounts, life insurance or other assets. All too often, beneficiary designations for these types of resources are completed in a manner that is much different than the instructions contained in your Will. When this happens, your beneficiaries may be in for some unpleasant surprises because of inconsistent planning instructions.

4. A Last Will and Testament Does Not Avoid Probate.

Many of our clients share a common goal of preserving privacy at death. If that’s an important goal of yours, a Will is not enough. A Last Will and Testament is nothing more than a letter of instruction to the probate court about how you wish to divide what you own in your own name at the time of your death.

At a minimum, the process of administering your Will requires an application for informal probate to obtain letters of authority to carry out your written instructions. As a result, your instructions about who is in charge and what you want them to do becomes publicly accessible information. If you wish to maintain privacy about those things, a Last Will and Testament is not enough.

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