Sept. 12, 2023
Estate Planning Questions That Might Make You Squirm (Episode 288)
Sometimes, questions that have to be asked to prepare your estate plan are uncomfortable. They are not being asked by the attorney simply to be nosy, but are being asked to make sure that an appropriate estate plan is being prepared for you.
Sometimes, questions that have to be asked to prepare your estate plan are uncomfortable. They are not being asked by the attorney simply to be nosy, but are being asked to make sure that an appropriate estate plan is being prepared for you.
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Well, good afternoon, Michiganders.
It is Tuesday, January eighteen, twenty
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twenty two, and of course this
is Tuesday with Tom, Michigan's only weekly
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internet show where we do answer your
questions about a state planning and a state
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settlement in Michigan, and we don't
send you a bill. As always,
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I'm your host, Tom Doyle,
estate planning attorney, lifelong Michigan resident,
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and ambassador for all things good in
this great state of Michigan. Welcome to
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today's program. But before we get
started, just a reminder that if you
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head on over to the Tuesday with
Tom website, you'll see that you now
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have the ability to conduct a search
of the two hundred plus podcasts that we've
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had. Simply enter in your search
terms and it will give you a list
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of podcasts in which I have discussed
those terms. So head on over to
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Tuesday with Toom dot com and search
for topics that are of interest to you.
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Well. Last week's episode twenty twenty
two Tax Review, I talked about
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a number of important tax changes that
can impact somebody's estate plan that they either
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already have or that they're looking at
putting together. In twenty twenty two,
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and included in that discussion is the
amount that you can now gift annually to
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an individual. So if you're taking
a review of your estate plan at the
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beginning of the year, looking at
tax issues at the beginning of the year,
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consider putting a plan together. I
invite you to listen to last week's
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episode today's show. We're going to
talk about the twelve estate planning questions that
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might make you squirm. But please
remember what I'm about to discuss during the
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program is, as always for educational
purposes only. It is not intended to
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be legal advice. You need to
work with your attorney to determine what is
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appropriate for you and your estate plan. Twelve estate planning questions that might make
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you squirm. Oftentimes, in putting
together the estate plan, there's going to
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be important questions that are asked by
the attorney who's looking at putting that plan
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together for you. And some of
those questions might seem very personal, and
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some of them might make you uncomfortable
in being asked or answered, But it's
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not because we're just trying to be
nosy. There are a number of things
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that sometimes clients haven't thought about that
we need to think about in putting together
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a complete estate plan for you.
So today we're just going to talk about
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twelve of them that are common ones
that oftentimes might make somebody uncomfortable as part
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of their estate planning practice. One
of the first if you have minor children,
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who is going to raise your children
if both parents die? You need
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to think about that. Oftentimes we'll
have young parents come in to talk to
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Amandon myself and they'll be talking,
you know, we don't own anything,
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so we really don't know why we
need to put together in a state plan.
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Well in many of those cases,
in actually in all of those cases,
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truth be told. If you have
minor children, setting aside what you
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own, the decisions that you are
going to make about who is going to
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raise your children if both parents die
is the most important consideration in putting together
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and appropriate estate plan for you.
So who's going to raise your children?
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Are both parents? Guy? And
obviously that's a discussion that you and your
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spouse need to have before you come
into the office. We don't want that
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awkward discussion to be taking place where
nobody has thought about that. And oftentimes
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parents might have disagreements over who it
is that's going to be raising the children,
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so you need to sort that out
before talking to the attorney. Question
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two, what do you want to
have happened with what you own? If
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you all die in a common disaster. It's what we in our office often
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referred to as the ultimate distribution.
But you might be sitting there saying,
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well, I want things go to
my spouse, and if spouse isn't alive,
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then we don't want things to go
to children. Well, ask the
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next question would if no spouse or
any children or perhaps even grandchildren survive you?
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Now, what do you want to
have happened that estate? Because if
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you don't plan for it, the
state of Michigan has already put together a
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plan for you, and it might
not be what you would want to have
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done. Number three, are there
any descendants that you haven't mentioned? Are
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there other individuals that you haven't talked
about that we need to consider in putting
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together that estate plan. I had
a client a number of years ago was
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telling me that at the time that
they got married, one of their siblings
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disclosed to them that they had actually
fathered a child out of wedlock that the
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client didn't even know had occurred.
That's what we're really talking about, are
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there other individuals out there that we
need to know about because children are children,
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not necessarily just because they're children of
a current marriage, So those can
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be important. That can be important
information in putting together your estate plan to
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make sure that either everyone is being
accounted for or people are being omitted that
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you don't want to receive part of
your estate. Along those same lines,
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have you told us about all the
other important relationships in your life. It
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might not be that they're actually descendants
or heirs, It might be other important
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relationships in your life. I know
I've mentioned before in other programs about the
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client of mine who was in her
eighties. We had a long conversation.
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She was thinking about getting remarried,
and at the end of that discussion she
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asked me a puzzling question initially,
and that is, if I get remarried,
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is it going to be in the
newspaper. Well, she lived in
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a small town. I figured it's
most likely going to be in the newspaper.
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And my question to her was why
does that matter? Well, it
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turns out the man she had been
living with for twenty five years, who
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she represented to everybody that she was
in fact married to, wasn't married to
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her, they simply lived together.
That can be important for us to know
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to make sure that we're putting appropriate
things in place as part of that estate
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plan, because it does legally make
a different If she simply had a plan
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and she kept referring to my spouse
but they weren't in fact married, that
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reference to the spouse in and of
itself wouldn't be complete. So are there
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are other important relationships in your life
that need to be considered. Another one,
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because of today's technology, is do
you have and for lack of better
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terms, genetic material on ice,
do you have fertilized embryos, eggs,
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or sperm that have been preserved for
later use? If you do, what
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do you want to happen to those
after your death? And importantly, as
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part of that, what does the
law actually allow you to do with those
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after your death? But important considerations
in making sure that you have addressed all
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of the issues that are going to
rise as part of your estate plan.
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Another one today that is becoming more
common is that question are you transgendered?
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It might not be that you really
don't want to disclose that if you're in
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the midst of a tr transition or
you've already been through one, but that
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can have important considerations in putting together
an estate plan. Often as part of
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that process, you might even certainly
have most likely changed your name, and
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we need to make sure that things
are matching up appropriately for you in putting
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together that plan. So it's not
that we're just nosy. It's an important
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question that needs to be answered and
addressed as part of your estate plan.
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Question seven, Have you ever made
large gifts to others? Have you ever,
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for example, have you added a
child to ownership of your home,
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or have you given significant sums of
money to a child or another person.
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That can become important because in twenty
twenty two, for example, you can
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only give away sixteen thousand dollars per
person per year before or we need to
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start worrying about federal gift tax returns. And in fact, the gift itself
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might not actually ever be taxable because
of the exemption amount lifetime exemption amount that
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you have, But that doesn't mean
that it didn't have to be reported,
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and that doesn't mean that if you
didn't report it that you might have in
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fact committed a tax fraud. That
needs to be addressed and remedied in making
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sure that everything is in order for
your estate plan. Number eight, Who's
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going to take care of your pets? Who's going to take care of your
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pets? You need to think about
that. You need to now you might
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not need a full blown pet trust
although those are available in the state of
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Michigan, but it might be that
you're going to want to set aside some
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sufficient funds to give to whoever that
trustworthy person is that's going to be taking
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charge of your pet, or if
your pet is going to be put up
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for adoption, where is that going
to take place? What agencies are available
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in your community for those arrangements to
be made. In the healthcare area,
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the generic when do you want the
plug to be pulled? It's important as
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part of the estate plan when we
put one together, that you have your
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healthcare power of attorney in which you're
naming the person who's going to make medical
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decisions for you. And that ultimate
decision that you can ask anyone to make
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for you is to end life support. When do you want that to be
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done? And importantly, you need
to have a conversation with that person too,
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so that they know when you would
want that to occur. Passwords,
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what are your passwords? Use?
Or name security questions? All those things
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that we use to access things on
the internet today, where emails or Facebook
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or online banking whatever it happens to
be, those that I guess information needs
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to be available. If you're become
incapacitated and you have a durable power of
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attorney and you've got somebody who's going
to now manage your bank account, how
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are they going to access your bank
account? Or after your death, how
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are people supposed to manage and access
any of the online assets that you have.
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Number eleven is one that because of
the passive time, you might actually
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have even forgotten about. But do
you have if you're married, do you
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have a pre nup or a postnup
or a waiver espousal rights? Do you
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have or did you sign a community
property agreement if you lived in a community
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property state. You might have long
ago forgotten about those. Maybe they're no
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longer relevant to your current circumstances,
but it needs to be considered in part
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and parcel of putting together an appropriate
current estate plan for you. Number twelve,
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do you have any serious or chronic
health issues? Now you might ask,
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why does that matter, why does
a lawyer need to know if I'm
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sick? Well, it might be
that some of the planning techniques that are
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going to be used are only appropriate
if we're relying upon actuarial tables that are
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accurate. If your health issues cause
you to have or reduce life expectancy,
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then an attorney using actuarial tables in
making recommendations to you about different estates planning
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options would not be operating on all
of the information that they need to have.
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So do you have serious or chronic
health issues? And how might that
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impact decisions that need to be made
about your estate plan? Now there there
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are certainly many many more questions that
will likely come up during the course of
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reviewing and putting together your estate plan. But these are twelve of the common
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estate planning questions that oftentimes clients might
feel uncomfortable about addressing. Certainly, if
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A Man and I can be of
assistance to you in addressing these questions and
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putting together and estate planned relative to
the answers to those questions, please reach
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out to us. A reminder too
that amand and I would be honored to
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have the opportunity to help you protect
your loved ones by putting together your estate
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plan or amending a plan that you
already have, or perhaps assisting you in
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settling a loved ones estate. And
because of COVID, we're not currently seeing
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people in our office. Everything is
being done virtually, so you can head
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on over to the virtual office at
Doyle LAWPC dot com. There you're going
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to find information, if your new
client, about how we can plan your
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estate, how you can plan your
estate from home, have the ability to
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schedule zoom or telephone conferences, and
of course you can always download our free
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estate Planning guidebook if you're a current
client. In addition to having the ability
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to schedule telephone consultations, we have
our Update my Plan service that can be
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used assist us in updating a plan
that we've already put together for you,
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as well as other information for the
relevant to current clients and for everybody.
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There is our Legal Store again available
at doylapc dot com and through the Legal
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Store you can actually order individual legal
documents by simply completing information through the Legal
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Store and those documents can also be
ordered through our Facebook page. Well,
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that's it for today's show. As
always, if you have a comment about
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the program, a topic that you'd
like to have me discuss or questions that
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you'd like to have me answer.
Please send me an email Tom at Tuesday
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with Toom dot com, or you
can always send me a postcard Tom Doyle
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po Box one six zero six six, Lansing, Michigan for eight nine zero
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one, And always please consider following
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would be Tuesday with Tom, and
of course the office is also located on
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the program is available probably anywhere that
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Podcast, iHeart Radio, Speaker, et
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cetera. And if you have a
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ask your smart speaker to play Tuesday
with Tom as well. Thank you again
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for spending some of your time with
us to do today, and as always,
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I hope that you have an awesome
day and an awesome week in Michigan.
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Stay safe everyone. Tuesday with Tom
has been brought to you by the
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estate planning attorneys at Doyle Law PC. To learn how we can help you
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with your stay plan or was settling
a loved ones estate, Please call us
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today at five one seven three two
three seven three six six. That's five
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one seven, three two three seven
three six six
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Well, good afternoon, Michiganders.
It is Tuesday, January eighteen, twenty
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twenty two, and of course this
is Tuesday with Tom, Michigan's only weekly
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internet show where we do answer your
questions about a state planning and a state
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settlement in Michigan, and we don't
send you a bill. As always,
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I'm your host, Tom Doyle,
estate planning attorney, lifelong Michigan resident,
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and ambassador for all things good in
this great state of Michigan. Welcome to
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today's program. But before we get
started, just a reminder that if you
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head on over to the Tuesday with
Tom website, you'll see that you now
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have the ability to conduct a search
of the two hundred plus podcasts that we've
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had. Simply enter in your search
terms and it will give you a list
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of podcasts in which I have discussed
those terms. So head on over to
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Tuesday with Toom dot com and search
for topics that are of interest to you.
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Well. Last week's episode twenty twenty
two Tax Review, I talked about
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a number of important tax changes that
can impact somebody's estate plan that they either
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already have or that they're looking at
putting together. In twenty twenty two,
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and included in that discussion is the
amount that you can now gift annually to
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an individual. So if you're taking
a review of your estate plan at the
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beginning of the year, looking at
tax issues at the beginning of the year,
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consider putting a plan together. I
invite you to listen to last week's
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episode today's show. We're going to
talk about the twelve estate planning questions that
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might make you squirm. But please
remember what I'm about to discuss during the
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program is, as always for educational
purposes only. It is not intended to
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be legal advice. You need to
work with your attorney to determine what is
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appropriate for you and your estate plan. Twelve estate planning questions that might make
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you squirm. Oftentimes, in putting
together the estate plan, there's going to
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be important questions that are asked by
the attorney who's looking at putting that plan
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together for you. And some of
those questions might seem very personal, and
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some of them might make you uncomfortable
in being asked or answered, But it's
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not because we're just trying to be
nosy. There are a number of things
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that sometimes clients haven't thought about that
we need to think about in putting together
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a complete estate plan for you.
So today we're just going to talk about
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twelve of them that are common ones
that oftentimes might make somebody uncomfortable as part
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of their estate planning practice. One
of the first if you have minor children,
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who is going to raise your children
if both parents die? You need
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to think about that. Oftentimes we'll
have young parents come in to talk to
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Amandon myself and they'll be talking,
you know, we don't own anything,
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so we really don't know why we
need to put together in a state plan.
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Well in many of those cases,
in actually in all of those cases,
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truth be told. If you have
minor children, setting aside what you
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own, the decisions that you are
going to make about who is going to
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raise your children if both parents die
is the most important consideration in putting together
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and appropriate estate plan for you.
So who's going to raise your children?
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Are both parents? Guy? And
obviously that's a discussion that you and your
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spouse need to have before you come
into the office. We don't want that
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awkward discussion to be taking place where
nobody has thought about that. And oftentimes
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parents might have disagreements over who it
is that's going to be raising the children,
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so you need to sort that out
before talking to the attorney. Question
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two, what do you want to
have happened with what you own? If
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you all die in a common disaster. It's what we in our office often
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referred to as the ultimate distribution.
But you might be sitting there saying,
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well, I want things go to
my spouse, and if spouse isn't alive,
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then we don't want things to go
to children. Well, ask the
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next question would if no spouse or
any children or perhaps even grandchildren survive you?
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Now, what do you want to
have happened that estate? Because if
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you don't plan for it, the
state of Michigan has already put together a
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plan for you, and it might
not be what you would want to have
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done. Number three, are there
any descendants that you haven't mentioned? Are
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there other individuals that you haven't talked
about that we need to consider in putting
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together that estate plan. I had
a client a number of years ago was
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telling me that at the time that
they got married, one of their siblings
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disclosed to them that they had actually
fathered a child out of wedlock that the
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client didn't even know had occurred.
That's what we're really talking about, are
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there other individuals out there that we
need to know about because children are children,
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not necessarily just because they're children of
a current marriage, So those can
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be important. That can be important
information in putting together your estate plan to
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make sure that either everyone is being
accounted for or people are being omitted that
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you don't want to receive part of
your estate. Along those same lines,
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have you told us about all the
other important relationships in your life. It
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might not be that they're actually descendants
or heirs, It might be other important
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relationships in your life. I know
I've mentioned before in other programs about the
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client of mine who was in her
eighties. We had a long conversation.
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She was thinking about getting remarried,
and at the end of that discussion she
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asked me a puzzling question initially,
and that is, if I get remarried,
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is it going to be in the
newspaper. Well, she lived in
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a small town. I figured it's
most likely going to be in the newspaper.
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And my question to her was why
does that matter? Well, it
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turns out the man she had been
living with for twenty five years, who
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she represented to everybody that she was
in fact married to, wasn't married to
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her, they simply lived together.
That can be important for us to know
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to make sure that we're putting appropriate
things in place as part of that estate
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plan, because it does legally make
a different If she simply had a plan
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and she kept referring to my spouse
but they weren't in fact married, that
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reference to the spouse in and of
itself wouldn't be complete. So are there
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are other important relationships in your life
that need to be considered. Another one,
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because of today's technology, is do
you have and for lack of better
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terms, genetic material on ice,
do you have fertilized embryos, eggs,
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or sperm that have been preserved for
later use? If you do, what
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do you want to happen to those
after your death? And importantly, as
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part of that, what does the
law actually allow you to do with those
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after your death? But important considerations
in making sure that you have addressed all
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of the issues that are going to
rise as part of your estate plan.
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Another one today that is becoming more
common is that question are you transgendered?
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It might not be that you really
don't want to disclose that if you're in
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the midst of a tr transition or
you've already been through one, but that
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can have important considerations in putting together
an estate plan. Often as part of
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that process, you might even certainly
have most likely changed your name, and
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we need to make sure that things
are matching up appropriately for you in putting
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together that plan. So it's not
that we're just nosy. It's an important
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question that needs to be answered and
addressed as part of your estate plan.
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Question seven, Have you ever made
large gifts to others? Have you ever,
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for example, have you added a
child to ownership of your home,
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or have you given significant sums of
money to a child or another person.
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That can become important because in twenty
twenty two, for example, you can
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only give away sixteen thousand dollars per
person per year before or we need to
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start worrying about federal gift tax returns. And in fact, the gift itself
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might not actually ever be taxable because
of the exemption amount lifetime exemption amount that
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you have, But that doesn't mean
that it didn't have to be reported,
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and that doesn't mean that if you
didn't report it that you might have in
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fact committed a tax fraud. That
needs to be addressed and remedied in making
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sure that everything is in order for
your estate plan. Number eight, Who's
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going to take care of your pets? Who's going to take care of your
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pets? You need to think about
that. You need to now you might
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not need a full blown pet trust
although those are available in the state of
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Michigan, but it might be that
you're going to want to set aside some
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sufficient funds to give to whoever that
trustworthy person is that's going to be taking
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charge of your pet, or if
your pet is going to be put up
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for adoption, where is that going
to take place? What agencies are available
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in your community for those arrangements to
be made. In the healthcare area,
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the generic when do you want the
plug to be pulled? It's important as
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part of the estate plan when we
put one together, that you have your
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healthcare power of attorney in which you're
naming the person who's going to make medical
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decisions for you. And that ultimate
decision that you can ask anyone to make
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for you is to end life support. When do you want that to be
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done? And importantly, you need
to have a conversation with that person too,
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so that they know when you would
want that to occur. Passwords,
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what are your passwords? Use?
Or name security questions? All those things
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that we use to access things on
the internet today, where emails or Facebook
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or online banking whatever it happens to
be, those that I guess information needs
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to be available. If you're become
incapacitated and you have a durable power of
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attorney and you've got somebody who's going
to now manage your bank account, how
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are they going to access your bank
account? Or after your death, how
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are people supposed to manage and access
any of the online assets that you have.
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Number eleven is one that because of
the passive time, you might actually
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have even forgotten about. But do
you have if you're married, do you
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have a pre nup or a postnup
or a waiver espousal rights? Do you
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have or did you sign a community
property agreement if you lived in a community
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property state. You might have long
ago forgotten about those. Maybe they're no
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longer relevant to your current circumstances,
but it needs to be considered in part
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and parcel of putting together an appropriate
current estate plan for you. Number twelve,
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do you have any serious or chronic
health issues? Now you might ask,
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why does that matter, why does
a lawyer need to know if I'm
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sick? Well, it might be
that some of the planning techniques that are
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going to be used are only appropriate
if we're relying upon actuarial tables that are
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accurate. If your health issues cause
you to have or reduce life expectancy,
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then an attorney using actuarial tables in
making recommendations to you about different estates planning
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options would not be operating on all
of the information that they need to have.
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So do you have serious or chronic
health issues? And how might that
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impact decisions that need to be made
about your estate plan? Now there there
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are certainly many many more questions that
will likely come up during the course of
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reviewing and putting together your estate plan. But these are twelve of the common
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estate planning questions that oftentimes clients might
feel uncomfortable about addressing. Certainly, if
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A Man and I can be of
assistance to you in addressing these questions and
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putting together and estate planned relative to
the answers to those questions, please reach
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00:15:52.440 --> 00:16:08.279
out to us. A reminder too
that amand and I would be honored to
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have the opportunity to help you protect
your loved ones by putting together your estate
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plan or amending a plan that you
already have, or perhaps assisting you in
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settling a loved ones estate. And
because of COVID, we're not currently seeing
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people in our office. Everything is
being done virtually, so you can head
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00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:33.720
on over to the virtual office at
Doyle LAWPC dot com. There you're going
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00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:37.120
to find information, if your new
client, about how we can plan your
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00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:41.320
estate, how you can plan your
estate from home, have the ability to
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schedule zoom or telephone conferences, and
of course you can always download our free
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estate Planning guidebook if you're a current
client. In addition to having the ability
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00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:59.320
to schedule telephone consultations, we have
our Update my Plan service that can be
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00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:03.599
used assist us in updating a plan
that we've already put together for you,
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00:17:04.759 --> 00:17:11.079
as well as other information for the
relevant to current clients and for everybody.
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There is our Legal Store again available
at doylapc dot com and through the Legal
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00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:26.279
Store you can actually order individual legal
documents by simply completing information through the Legal
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00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:30.880
Store and those documents can also be
ordered through our Facebook page. Well,
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that's it for today's show. As
always, if you have a comment about
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the program, a topic that you'd
like to have me discuss or questions that
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00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:45.720
you'd like to have me answer.
Please send me an email Tom at Tuesday
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00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:48.839
with Toom dot com, or you
can always send me a postcard Tom Doyle
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00:17:49.160 --> 00:17:55.400
po Box one six zero six six, Lansing, Michigan for eight nine zero
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one, And always please consider following
us on face Book on Twitter, that
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00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:06.240
would be Tuesday with Tom, and
of course the office is also located on
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Facebook and Twitter, and that would
be Doyle Law PC. Remember too,
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the program is available probably anywhere that
you happen to listen to podcasts, be
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00:18:17.119 --> 00:18:22.160
at Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google
Podcast, iHeart Radio, Speaker, et
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00:18:22.200 --> 00:18:26.720
cetera. And if you have a
smart speaker at home, you could always
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00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:34.079
ask your smart speaker to play Tuesday
with Tom as well. Thank you again
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for spending some of your time with
us to do today, and as always,
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I hope that you have an awesome
day and an awesome week in Michigan.
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Stay safe everyone. Tuesday with Tom
has been brought to you by the
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estate planning attorneys at Doyle Law PC. To learn how we can help you
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with your stay plan or was settling
a loved ones estate, Please call us
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today at five one seven three two
three seven three six six. That's five
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one seven, three two three seven
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