No matter how much people prepare for a smooth handling of their estates, problems seem to arise in many situations. I will be discussing typical problems and how they could be avoided at a free Zoom program for the East Brunswick Public Library on Thursday, March 20, at noon.
Discussion Points
The following are some of the topics I will discuss and point out pitfalls and what to do to avoid them.
- Powers of attorney are quite common, and I will briefly explain five types of these powers and some clauses in them that you might not want if you were aware of the consequences of leaving them as is.
- The importance of, and reasons for, using an attorney rather than doing it yourself.
- A checklist of 20 reasons why you should relook at an existing will.
- The importance of, and what important and substantial asset cannot be in, a prenuptial agreement.
- An important reason not to have every credit card as a joint card if you are married.
- Ways to arrange for cash to be available to pay for your funeral.
- The many substitute “wills” people usually have and how to integrate them with your actual will.
- How living trusts really work and the single biggest mistake people with living trusts make.
- Some reasons for differences in the wills of spouses.
- How the ownership of some obvious assets might not be clear.
- An annual letter that should be sent to beneficiaries of a trust that owns a life insurance policy.
- How selling an unwanted or no longer needed life insurance policy works.
- Providing liquidity for an estate or beneficiary.
- Who to write the check to when paying medical or college costs for a grandchild or anyone else.
- How bequests left in trust for the life of a beneficiary works.
- The one thing that must be done when a required minimum distribution was not taken in the year the beneficiary died.
- Reasons for and an easy way to bifurcate an IRA account.
- When to start your Social Security benefits.
- No-brainer reasons to make qualified charitable distributions from your IRA account.
- Making a claim to recover escheat funds from every state you ever lived or worked in.
- A perspective on leaving an inheritance.
- Why everyone should do estate planning but very few are fortunate enough to have estates that will be subject to estate taxation, and those that do can consider estate tax planning (not covered in this program).
- Why someone should give up an inheritance and what they should not do if that’s what they want to do.
- Ways to leave funds to charity and which account those funds should come from.
- Why you shouldn’t “legislate” from the grave.
- And some other things that will also be covered.
This is an ambitious listing of what I will cover in an hour, and I will touch on each of these, but I also will have slides with a lot of these addressed.
You can attend for free but you must register at Take a Business Break: Pitfalls to Avoid When Planning Your Estate | East Brunswick Public Library. All attendees will receive a PDF of the PowerPoint slides after the presentation.
Contact Me
If you have any tax, business, financial or leadership or management issues you want to discuss please do not hesitate to contact me.
