Monthly Archives: March 2015

Asset Protection, Estate Planning

How to Prevent Financial Abuse of Senior Citizens

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Because many senior citizens are particularly reliant on others, they are vulnerable to becoming the victim of financial abuse and scams. If you suspect a relative, caregiver or third-party of taking advantage of your loved one, it is important to contact one of our experienced elder law attorneys for assistance.

Below are a few tips on how to prevent a senior citizen from becoming a victim of financial abuse:

  • Make sure that more than one family member is actively involved in caring for the senior and is helping with their finances
  • Avoid having money or checks delivered to your loved ones’ home – have the funds deposited directly into his or her bank account
  • Help make sure the elderly individual stays involved in community activities as much as possible
  • If your loved one has a caregiver that is not a family member or friend, conduct a thorough investigation (including checking references) of the caregiver’s history
  • Monitor the use of funds for or by any caregivers. It’s not uncommon for a caregiver to use ATM cards or credit cards to assist the family member, but it’s a prime source of financial abuse – where the caregiver withdraws funds and continually explains it was for meals or clothing or a myriad of needs that are not traceable without receipts
  • Watch out for disappearing jewelry or other property

The above tips are not a guarantee that your loved one will not be subjected to financial abuse or become the victim of a scam, but they will reduce the likelihood of it happening. The more people that are involved in the senior’s life, the more protected he or she will be.

How do you know if your loved one is the victim of financial abuse? Each case is different, but below are a few of the warning signs:

  • Significant, unexplained withdrawals of cash
  • Valuable items are disappearing from the elder’s home
  • The senior becomes isolated from others
  • Costly or inexplicable charges on credit cards
  • Your loved one is fearful of the caregiver
  • Numerous checks made out to “cash”

Not only is financial abuse a crime that can be reported to Adult Protective Services, there are other legal options that are available. To learn more, contact one of our elder law attorneys to schedule an appointment.

The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.

 

Estate Planning

A Short Estate Planning Checklist

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Estate planning can seem overwhelming to many people and they don’t know where to begin. While there are many decisions to be made and numerous factors that must be considered, below is a simple checklist of four items that you should look into immediately:

  • Create an estate plan. Although this can include several tasks, it is important to take the first step. Contact us and let us walk you through the process of creating a comprehensive estate plan. Even if you cannot afford to accomplish everything you want right now, your estate plan can be established in steps. We can begin with what fits within your finances, then upgrade later. If you have an existing estate plan, let us review it and update it if necessary. Many changes occur over time, with family, your financial status, and of course your age.
  • Save on taxes. You can save a significant amount of money by taking advantage of the federal gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. To learn more about how to do this, please contact us.
  • Gifting. You are allowed to give tax-free gifts each year in an amount up to $14,000 in cash or other assets to as many individuals as you want. This strategy allows you to decrease the size of your estate (which can save on estate taxes) over time, while also benefitting your beneficiaries. You should discuss this with an estate planning attorney before embarking on gifting. Giving away assets has the obvious implication that you can’t get it back, but also, there are more tax-efficient ways of gifting than simply writing a check.
  • Life insurance. You should review your life insurance policies (or look into buying one) to confirm that it meets your family’s needs and that the beneficiaries named are correct.
  • Retirement Plans. You should review the beneficiary designations on your retirement plans. Naming the right primary beneficiary and secondary beneficiary is critical to your family.

Don’t be intimidated by the estate planning process. We can help simply it for you while also ensuring that you and your family are protected.

The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.

Estate Planning

Essential Legal Documents for Senior Citizen

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If you or a loved one are approaching your “golden years,” there are certain legal documents that should be created and signed as soon as possible. In order for another party to have the authority to discuss your medical treatment with health care providers, you must provide them the legal power to do so. Otherwise, patient confidentiality laws will prevent your loved ones from being able to assist you in making necessary medical decisions if you are unable to act on your own. And remember, these laws extend not only to your doctors, but also to assisted living facilities and nursing homes.

Each state has its own unique requirements for the legal documentation that is required to grant medical decision-making authority to another party. The primary document, in Utah is an Advanced Health Care Directive.

Advanced Health Care Directive

A Utah Advanced Health Care Directive (“Directive”) has two components. First is the appointment of an agent for health care decisions. This part of the document appoints another party to make medical decisions if you are no longer able to do so, including the right to admit you to a health care facility and other actions, which you should carefully consider. It can even nominate the person to be your guardian. Your appointed agent can also gain access to your medical records. It is important to provide a copy of your Directive to your appointed agent, your primary physician, your estate attorney (who should help you create it) and any applicable assisted living facility or nursing home.

The second part of the Directive allows you to determine whether or not you want certain life-sustaining medical care in certain events. This includes whether, or for how long you want to remain on life support. You can leave instructions regarding end of life decisions, which removes a hefty burden from your loved ones, or you can let your agent make decisions. If you execute a Directive, it is critical that you provide a copy with your agent and any relevant health care providers.

Do Not Resuscitate Orders

There is another category of health care planning that can be utilized in Utah. If you are the end stage of a debilitating disease, or in hospice care, knowing death is imminent, there is a DNR order you can sign, with the co-signature of a physician, which can stop all care to resuscitate you under your specific circumstances. This must be approached carefully. It is not intended as a substitute for a Living Will or Advanced Health Care Directive and should only be used when you are actually at the end of your life. This form should never be used with a health senior who might have an accident or health care incident and could be expected to recover.

We provide careful and thoughtful assistance with our clients in designating health care agents and in deciding the type of end of life care they desire.

The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.

Estate Planning

Getting Married? Time to Discuss Finances!

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If you are engaged, you are probably making a wide variety of plans for your future. Many couples spend considerable time planning their wedding, but they do not plan for how to combine their financial lives. Before you say “I do,” below are several issues you should discuss with your future spouse:

  • If you have always had your own accounts, you should consider each other’s spending habits and how to best organize your finances. In many cases, it makes sense to wait a while before combining your accounts, including credit cards. Many financial advisors believe it is wise for each spouse to maintain one individual credit card.
  • You will need to decide how your bills will be paid. Will one spouse be in charge of paying everything? Will you split the bills?
  • Should you consider a premarital agreement? If this is not a first marriage, or you have acquired significant assets prior to marriage, this is something you should definitely consider.
  • Both individuals should fully disclose their debt. You want to enter your marriage being open and honest about what you owe. It is surprising how many people get married only to discover their spouse has tax debt, credit card debt or even old DUI fines or court related payments being made. You should not undertake to pay these debts for your spouse!
  • If only one spouse has a job, you should discuss how the non-breadwinner will access and have some control over the family funds.
  • You should confer with a tax professional regarding whether you should file your taxes jointly or separately. This decision may make a significant difference in saving you money. It should not be done without thought, and each spouse should participate and understand the filing of tax returns. If one spouse has their own business they can create havoc on the household if they do not honestly and scrupulously report taxable income and expenses.
  • Once you are married, it is critical that you create a comprehensive estate plan. Not only will you want to protect your spouse if something should happen to you, your estate plan can provide you with many protections as well. We can assist you with creating wills, trusts, a health care proxy, power of attorney and an asset protection plan.

The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.

Estate Planning

How Technology Impacts Your Estate Plan

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It seems everyone is attached to their smartphone, iPad or iPod these days. As a result, these devices can play an important part in your estate plan, especially if you store personal and financial information online.

What does this all mean? Your online data can include significant assets that should be included in your estate plan. Whether it is access to your bank account, iTunes account, rewards points or other valuable online information, your estate plan should provide for your loved ones to have access to this type of property. You should leave a list of the websites you commonly access and your user-names, passwords or other log-on information. Failure to leave this information for your loved ones could result in the money, music, games or other types of virtual property you own getting lost.

While your loved ones are probably aware of where you maintain your checking account, but it is unlikely that they are aware of where you save your digital currency. It can be further complicated if your online identity is not the same as your actual identity. Without your login information to access these websites, the company that maintains your account may not allow your loved ones to access your digital assets. You must also remember to update your list each time you change your passwords.

In addition to leaving instructions on how to access your digital accounts, you should also set forth how your family members should handle these matters. For example, you may want to review each website’s terms of use to understand how your online assets will be handled upon your death. If there are certain instructions for granting rights to your executor or beneficiaries, you should take action to follow them. Some websites may have specific forms you need to complete and leave with your estate planning documents.

There are software ‘apps’ that help you gather all of this information together in one place, and even allow you to designate who has access at your death or incapacity. One of these which is known to the author is “SecureSafe”. It works on PC’s, Android, OS Apple products, etc. But it is critical information for the administration of a Trust or Will.

Don’t take the value of your digital assets for granted. You worked hard to establish your accounts and build your collection of music, points, books, games or other types of property, so you want them to be passed on to your loved ones.

The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.

Estate Planning

Events that Motivate Us to Create an Estate Plan

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It is common for people to procrastinate in creating their estate plan. Nobody likes to think about dying or how their family will move forward without them. At the same time, most people feel guilty if they don’t have an estate plan in place.

Over our years as estate planning attorneys, we have seen certain events cause our clients to jump-start their estate planning. Below are a few of the events that cause people to stop procrastinating and contact us:

  • A serious accident or troublesome medical diagnosis
  • The death of a close friend or relative
  • The birth of a child or grandchild
  • A vacation, especially one out of the country
  • Marriage or divorce

There are many other life events that can force you to think about your mortality and motivate you to get your affairs in order. Whatever circumstances, you are facing, you should put creating or updating an estate plan at the top of your “to do” list. You don’t want to wait until you are pressured to meet a deadline to make these crucial decisions. However, if you have a life event motivating you to take action, take the first by contacting us to schedule your initial consultation.

If you have procrastinated, and you believe that death is imminent, we can still help! Many lawyers, our firm included, will meet with clients at home or in a hospital, or do what is necessary to help a client who is dying or close to death and give them peace of mind. We think it’s worth it to take that concern off your mind. Let us help!

The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.

Estate Planning

Do You want to Protect the Environment when you Die?

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If you have spent your life recycling, growing your own food, composting, and other actions that protect the environment, you may want to consider how you can protect the earth when you die.

Funeral home owners and cemeteries are offering eco-friendly options for those that want a sustainable alternative. The “green” movement is gaining popularity and the efforts are extending into how death is handled. Many of the customs used by various cultures can be very harmful to the earth. For example, embalming chemicals, caskets, concrete vaults and the emissions from crematories can be damaging to the environment.

What does an eco-friendly burial involve? Typically, you will be buried in a simple wooden box, wicker casket or even a biodegradable shroud. You can even request plant-based embalming fluids instead of the toxic formaldehyde fluids. In addition to creating less waste, you might be surprised to learn that using these environmentally-friendly options are usually less expensive than traditional options.

If you are interested in taking care of your affairs, we can help you create a comprehensive estate plan, including pre-planning your funeral.

The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.

Estate Planning

Why Does an Estate Need to File an Income Tax Return?

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We have many clients ask us why an estate must file an income tax return. The quick answer requires you to understand a simple concept that may come as a surprise. When someone dies, the assets they own create an “estate” which may be made up of income producing property and non-income producing property. The IRS has created rules which state that the estate is now a new, separate taxable entity. It is possible for an estate to receive income following an individual’s death. Someone has to pay taxes on that income so the estate has to file an income tax return.

Common examples include income from a business, rental property, dividends, or even the interest that accrues on the deceased’s checking or bank accounts. All of these are considered to be income from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). You should also understand that an estate’s income taxes are different from estate taxes, which are based upon the value of the estate.

If an estate receives income after the individual dies and before the estate property has been distributed, it must be reported to the IRS. The appropriate form for reporting an estate’s income is Fiduciary Income Tax Return or Form 1041. If a beneficiary inherits an asset directly from the deceased, the estate does not have to report income on that asset. The beneficiary reports income from the date of death. For example if you inherited General Motors stock because of joint ownership, any dividends paid from the date of death must be reported by you.

In addition, if the estate earns income on certain assets, but then makes distributions to beneficiaries, the estate reports the income, but the beneficiaries may have to report it on their individual income tax returns and pay tax on the income.

Is it possible to avoid the fiduciary income tax? With our help and careful planning, it may not be necessary for a fiduciary income tax return to be filed. If all of the estate assets are quickly transferred to your beneficiaries, the estate will likely not hold the property long enough to earn enough income to require filing of a return. For example, assets that are held in a trust are generally distributed quickly, which can help minimize tax consequences. In contrast, if the probate process is delayed by family disputes or legal issues, the distribution of the estate assets can be delayed for months, even longer! As a result, the estate ends up holding the assets for a period of time, the estate receives income, and that results in the need for the estate to file an income tax return.

We can help trustees or executors understand the tax reporting rules and avoid tax reporting under the right circumstances.

The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.

Estate Planning

Should you Use an Online Estate Auction?

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Sadly, when a loved one passes away, it is common for family members to start fighting over the property the deceased left behind. Greed can make people do and say things they otherwise would not do or say. While we all hope our family members will be able to resolve disputes on their own, that often is not the case, especially if you leave a substantial estate with numerous assets to be distributed. In fact, leaving a Will that instructs your loved ones to divide your property in equal shares can also cause issues. How do you equally divide a family heirloom that all of the relatives want?

Because it is often impossible to divide your belongings equally, your loved ones can turn against each other quickly. If you don’t know how to divide your assets in your estate plan, one option for making sure your relatives all have the opportunity to inherit the treasures they want, you can leave instructions to conduct an online auction. For example, there are websites that allow your estate manager to take pictures of the estate assets and place them for sale on a website auction. Using this type of strategy for distributing your assets can ensure that each relative has an equal opportunity to inherit the items they want from your estate. It is an equitable process because each participant is given an equal number of points and whoever bids the most points on an item will “win” it. Your relatives will spend their allotted points on the items that mean the most to them. Once the auction is over, the estate manager can distribute the property of the individuals who won the items.

We have used this same process for many years without the internet, but the internet has made this a much more efficient process.

While the above may seem like an unusual way to distribute your estate, it can be effective for assisting families in avoiding conflict. There is a lot of flexibility in creating an estate plan. Whatever your circumstances, we can help you find a solution that helps not only protects your plan, but keeps the peace.

The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.

Estate Planning

Can Probate be a Good Thing?

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You have probably heard that you should avoid probate at all costs. Generally speaking, this is good advice. The probate process can be time-consuming and expensive. It also puts your private affairs out into the public. However, there are certain circumstances where allowing a portion of your estate to go through probate can be helpful.

If there are numerous creditors with claims against the deceased’s estate, probate can be beneficial. The probate process allows you to set a strict deadline for creditors to assert their claims against assets being passed through the deceased’s Will. All creditors who fail to meet the deadline may be barred from seeking to recover the debt owed to them.

If you have created a trust, the assets transferred into the trust do not go through probate. As a result, privacy is maintained. That does not mean creditors can be avoided, but it does create hurdles for them to overcome. Further, if you have a trust, even if some assets have to pass through probate, with a “pour-over Will“, the probate process is much less involved. Without question, trust administration is faster than probate, with less restrictions.

You may want to consider creating a trust to protect the majority of your property, while also leaving certain assets to pass through the Will and through probate. This strategy requires significant planning if you are considering asset protection and avoidance of creditor claims. The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.