Don’t Leave Your Fiduciaries Floundering (Part 1)

Posted on March 31, 2015 | Leave a comment

Estate Planning Attorney Woodland HillsThe task of a fiduciary (e.g. executor, trustee or attorney in fact), when you are no longer around or able to provide guidance, can be a difficult one. He or she is charged with the job of gathering/marshalling all your assets. Effectively he or she is taking your place when you are unable to act or are no longer with us. To make that task easier, there are a number of things you can do. Here are some suggestions:

  1. Non-Legal Records. There are documents, in addition to the legal ones, that may also assist your legal representative. Consider adding a section called “Records” and include the following:
    1. Any information on pre-paid funeral or cemetery arrangements;
    2. A list of valuable assets (such as stocks/bonds, artwork, jewelry, collectibles) and their location (such as closet safe, freezer, lockbox under bed);
    3. Deeds for real estate holdings (residential, commercial or timeshares) with copies of related insurance policies;

      4. Continue reading →

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IRS Raises Limit on Tax-Free Transfers

Posted on November 3, 2014 | Leave a comment

Estate Planning Woodland HillsAs many estate planners anticipated, The Internal Revenue Service has raised the limit on tax-free transfers during life or at death.  Beginning in 2015 that amount, known as the basic exclusion, will increase to $5.43 million per person, up from $5.34 million this year.  This announcement, in Revenue Procedure 2014-61, indicates there will be no change in the annual exclusion, allowing you to give $14,000 in cash or other assets each year to as many individuals as you want without using the basic exclusion. The annual exclusion gifts don’t count towards the lifetime gift exemption. Another tactic is to fund a Continue reading →

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How to Protect your Digital Assets (Part 3)

Posted on September 19, 2014 | Leave a comment

Digital AssetsContinuing from our Blog series on Digital Assets, here are a couple ways you can protect you and your family:

Identify your digital assets
You can break them down into broad categories (email, domain, storage, finances, banking, stocks, bonds, securities, taxes, retirement, insurance, credit cards, debts, utilities, businesses, social, media, loyalty and other) and for each asset identify the username, password, account number and any other identifying information necessary to access the asset.

There are many sites to store this information or you can store it to a tangible media source (such as a DVD, portable hard drive or flash drive) or Continue reading →

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The Care and Preservation of Your Digital Assets (Part 1)

Posted on June 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

Digital AssetsHow many of you get “paper” bank statements?  How many you write “paper” checks to pay your monthly bills?  How many of you pay your bills through automatically scheduled payments?  How many of you store and save your personal information on your computers and on third party sites? And what happens to this information if you are no longer around?  Can your family get access to it?

According to a 2011 Census more than three-quarters of all Americans owned a computer.  That number increased to nearly 90% of all Americans who had a bachelor’s degree or higher.  Today, the vast majority of the population owns a computer and with it, what are now referred to as “digital assets”.

A digital asset has been defined as “information created, generated, sent, communicated, received or stored by electronic means on a digital device or system that delivers digital information.”  In common parlance, digital assets include personal information contained in:

  • Online accounts with financial institutions (e.g. banks or credit card companies)
  • Social media accounts such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, where a third party allows the account holder to store personal information
  • Online accounts with forums such as Amazon, eBay or Craigslist, that not only allow users to buy and sell but facilitate such transactions with on-line currency accounts such as Paypal.
  • Reward programs, such as frequent flyer miles or reward points.

Click here for Part 2 of “The Care and Preservation of Your Digital Assets”, where we will be discussing examples of digital asset disasters. If you have specific questions regarding your digital assets, you can contact our Estate Planning Attorney in Woodland Hills, Ca today.

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Do You Still Need an Estate Plan if You are Not Wealthy? (Part 2)

Posted on March 19, 2014 | 1 comment

Estate-Planning Lawyer Los AngelesContinuing on our estate tax discussion from last month, there are a number of other reasons, besides minimizing estate tax, to consider whether to engage the services of an estate planning attorney:

  • Without an estate plan, the State determines what happens to your property when you die.
  • Without an estate plan, and in particular a trust, the transfer of your estate will require a probate except in the limited circumstance of what is referred to as a “small estate”.  The probate process can be expensive and time consuming.  For example, an estate of $2 million, well under the 2012 $5.12 million threshold in the IRS study, would incur attorneys’ fees set by statute of approximately $40,000.00.
  • Without an estate plan (which would typically include powers of attorney and healthcare directives), should you become ill or incapacitated, your loved ones could not easily step in to take care of health and/other decisions and needs.

So the next time the question of an estate plan comes up and you think to yourself, I have “nothing”, I do not need a plan, do yourself a favor and reconsider.

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Do You Still Need an Estate Plan if You are Not Wealthy? (Part 1)

Posted on February 25, 2014 | Leave a comment
Estate Tax Returns Filed and Total Net Estate Tax, 2003–2012

Source: IRS, Statistics of Income, August 2013

The IRS recently released a statistical report entitled “Estate Tax Returns filed for Wealthy Decedents, 2003-2012”.  Some of the more interesting statistics in the data collected were:

  • The number of estate tax returns declined 87 percent from about 73,100 in 2003 to about 9,400 in 2012 primarily due to the gradual increase in the filing threshold.
  • The gross estate filing threshold was $5.12 million in 2012, up from $1.0 million in 2003.
  • In 2012, the total net estate tax reported on all estate tax returns filed for the year was $8.5 billion.
  • California had the highest number of estate tax returns filed in 2012, followed by Florida, New York, Texas, and Illinois.
  • Estate tax decedents with total assets of $20 million or more held a greater share of their portfolio in stocks (about 40 percent) and lesser shares in real estate and retirement assets than decedents in other total asset categories

Does the significant decline in the number of estate tax returns (due to the threshold for such returns increasing to $5.12 million in 2012 from $1 million) mean that only the “wealthy” (i.e. those with estates in excess of $5.12 million based on the 2012 threshold), need to be concerned about an estate plan and the avoidance or minimization of estate taxes?  Absolutely not.

While the avoidance and/or minimization of estate taxes is certainly one good reason to engage the services of an estate planning attorney, there are a number of other reasons to consider which will be discussed in part 2 of this blog series.

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Emergency Pet Care Note for Your Wallet

Posted on June 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

If you are a pet owner and concerned with protecting your companion, carrying a note in your wallet which contains care instructions in case of an emergency is always a good idea.

The emergency care note should contain:

  • Emergency guardian contact info
  • Landlord or owner of dwelling contact info
  • Executor of estate contact info
  • Neighbor’s contact info

You can use the following as a template for your emergency pet care note:

“In any situation in which I am unable to return home to feed my pets, such as my hospitalization or death, please immediately contact [Mary Smith] at [address and phone] or [John Doe] at [address and phone], to arrange for the feeding of my [cats/dogs] located in my home at [address]. The superintendent of my apartment building [name, address and phone], my Executor [name, address and phone], and my neighbor [name, address and phone] each have a copy of this document.”

For more information about protecting your pet, please see “Caring For Your Companion: The Importance of Protecting Your Pet“.

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Caring For Your Companion: The Importance of Protecting Your Pet

Posted on January 15, 2013 | Leave a comment

Picture of ChihuahuaPets receiving an inheritance!  It may sound extreme, but planning for your pet’s future is not about money, it is about security for both of you.  Just as responsible parents plan in advance to appoint a guardian to care for their children, responsible pet owners need to plan in advance for their pets.  If you are a pet owner, you should have two plans in place:

1) If you are unable to properly care for your pet due to an illness or other incapacity
2) If you are unable to properly care for your pet due to your death.

According to ASPCA, approximately 62% of households in the United States have at least one pet.  Yet, only 17% of pet owners have taken legal steps for their pet’s protection.  There are some very easy and cost-effective options which you can take advantage of now.  Don’t delay, your pets are counting on you!

Option 1 (Every pet owner must do this):

Carry a Pet Identification Card with you at all times.  This can either be a physical card that you carry in your wallet or purse, or additional information contained in your I.C.E. (In case of Emergency) contact on your cell phone.  The information on the Pet Identification Card should include:

a) a picture of your pet
b) the pet’s name
c) the location of the pet
d) any special needs of your pet
e) who to contact to take care of the pet.   This card can advise a police officer or other emergency personnel that you have a pet that also needs assistance.

Continue reading →

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