Estate Planning Questions That Might Make You Squirm (Episode 288)

0:31 Well, good afternoon, Michiganders. It is Tuesday, January eighteen, twenty twenty two, and of course this is Tuesday with Tom, Michigan's only weekly internet show where we do answer your questions about a state planning and a state settlement in Michigan, and we don't send you a bill. As always, I'm your host, Tom Doyle, estate planning attorney, lifelong Michigan resident, and ambassador for all things good in this great state of Michigan. Welcome to today's program. But before we get started, just a reminder that if you head on over to the Tuesday with Tom website, you'll see that you now have the ability to conduct a search of the two hundred plus podcasts that we've had. Simply enter in your search terms and it will give you a list of podcasts in which I have discussed those terms. So head on over to Tuesday with Toom dot com and search for topics that are of interest to you.

1:41 Well. Last week's episode twenty twenty two Tax Review, I talked about a number of important tax changes that can impact somebody's estate plan that they either already have or that they're looking at putting together. In twenty twenty two, and included in that discussion is the amount that you can now gift annually to an individual. So if you're taking a review of your estate plan at the beginning of the year, looking at tax issues at the beginning of the year, consider putting a plan together. I invite you to listen to last week's episode today's show. We're going to talk about the twelve estate planning questions that might make you squirm. But please remember what I'm about to discuss during the program is, as always for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be legal advice. You need to work with your attorney to determine what is appropriate for you and your estate plan. Twelve estate planning questions that might make

3:19 you squirm. Oftentimes, in putting together the estate plan, there's going to be important questions that are asked by the attorney who's looking at putting that plan together for you. And some of those questions might seem very personal, and some of them might make you uncomfortable in being asked or answered, But it's not because we're just trying to be nosy. There are a number of things that sometimes clients haven't thought about that we need to think about in putting together a complete estate plan for you. So today we're just going to talk about twelve of them that are common ones that oftentimes might make somebody uncomfortable as part of their estate planning practice. One of the first if you have minor children, who is going to raise your children if both parents die? You need to think about that. Oftentimes we'll have young parents come in to talk to Amandon myself and they'll be talking, you know, we don't own anything, so we really don't know why we need to put together in a state plan.

4:30 Well in many of those cases, in actually in all of those cases, truth be told. If you have minor children, setting aside what you own, the decisions that you are going to make about who is going to raise your children if both parents die is the most important consideration in putting together and appropriate estate plan for you. So who's going to raise your children? Are both parents? Guy? And obviously that's a discussion that you and your spouse need to have before you come into the office. We don't want that awkward discussion to be taking place where nobody has thought about that. And oftentimes parents might have disagreements over who it is that's going to be raising the children, so you need to sort that out before talking to the attorney. Question two, what do you want to have happened with what you own? If you all die in a common disaster. It's what we in our office often referred to as the ultimate distribution. But you might be sitting there saying, well, I want things go to my spouse, and if spouse isn't alive, then we don't want things to go to children. Well, ask the next question would if no spouse or any children or perhaps even grandchildren survive you?

5:58 Now, what do you want to have happened that estate? Because if you don't plan for it, the state of Michigan has already put together a plan for you, and it might not be what you would want to have done. Number three, are there any descendants that you haven't mentioned? Are there other individuals that you haven't talked about that we need to consider in putting together that estate plan. I had a client a number of years ago was telling me that at the time that they got married, one of their siblings disclosed to them that they had actually fathered a child out of wedlock that the client didn't even know had occurred. That's what we're really talking about, are there other individuals out there that we need to know about because children are children, not necessarily just because they're children of a current marriage, So those can be important. That can be important information in putting together your estate plan to make sure that either everyone is being accounted for or people are being omitted that you don't want to receive part of your estate. Along those same lines,

7:28 have you told us about all the other important relationships in your life. It might not be that they're actually descendants or heirs, It might be other important relationships in your life. I know I've mentioned before in other programs about the client of mine who was in her eighties. We had a long conversation. She was thinking about getting remarried, and at the end of that discussion she asked me a puzzling question initially, and that is, if I get remarried, is it going to be in the newspaper. Well, she lived in a small town. I figured it's most likely going to be in the newspaper.

8:13 And my question to her was why does that matter? Well, it turns out the man she had been living with for twenty five years, who she represented to everybody that she was in fact married to, wasn't married to her, they simply lived together. That can be important for us to know to make sure that we're putting appropriate things in place as part of that estate plan, because it does legally make a different If she simply had a plan and she kept referring to my spouse but they weren't in fact married, that reference to the spouse in and of itself wouldn't be complete. So are there are other important relationships in your life that need to be considered. Another one, because of today's technology, is do you have and for lack of better terms, genetic material on ice, do you have fertilized embryos, eggs, or sperm that have been preserved for later use? If you do, what do you want to happen to those after your death? And importantly, as part of that, what does the law actually allow you to do with those after your death? But important considerations in making sure that you have addressed all of the issues that are going to rise as part of your estate plan.

9:45 Another one today that is becoming more common is that question are you transgendered? It might not be that you really don't want to disclose that if you're in the midst of a tr transition or you've already been through one, but that can have important considerations in putting together an estate plan. Often as part of that process, you might even certainly have most likely changed your name, and we need to make sure that things are matching up appropriately for you in putting together that plan. So it's not that we're just nosy. It's an important question that needs to be answered and addressed as part of your estate plan.

10:33 Question seven, Have you ever made large gifts to others? Have you ever, for example, have you added a child to ownership of your home, or have you given significant sums of money to a child or another person. That can become important because in twenty twenty two, for example, you can only give away sixteen thousand dollars per person per year before or we need to start worrying about federal gift tax returns. And in fact, the gift itself might not actually ever be taxable because of the exemption amount lifetime exemption amount that you have, But that doesn't mean that it didn't have to be reported, and that doesn't mean that if you didn't report it that you might have in fact committed a tax fraud. That needs to be addressed and remedied in making sure that everything is in order for your estate plan. Number eight, Who's going to take care of your pets? Who's going to take care of your pets? You need to think about that. You need to now you might not need a full blown pet trust although those are available in the state of Michigan, but it might be that you're going to want to set aside some sufficient funds to give to whoever that trustworthy person is that's going to be taking charge of your pet, or if your pet is going to be put up

12:05 for adoption, where is that going to take place? What agencies are available in your community for those arrangements to be made. In the healthcare area, the generic when do you want the plug to be pulled? It's important as part of the estate plan when we put one together, that you have your healthcare power of attorney in which you're naming the person who's going to make medical decisions for you. And that ultimate decision that you can ask anyone to make for you is to end life support. When do you want that to be done? And importantly, you need to have a conversation with that person too, so that they know when you would want that to occur. Passwords, what are your passwords? Use? Or name security questions? All those things that we use to access things on the internet today, where emails or Facebook or online banking whatever it happens to be, those that I guess information needs to be available. If you're become incapacitated and you have a durable power of attorney and you've got somebody who's going to now manage your bank account, how are they going to access your bank account? Or after your death, how are people supposed to manage and access any of the online assets that you have.

13:43 Number eleven is one that because of the passive time, you might actually have even forgotten about. But do you have if you're married, do you have a pre nup or a postnup or a waiver espousal rights? Do you have or did you sign a community property agreement if you lived in a community property state. You might have long ago forgotten about those. Maybe they're no longer relevant to your current circumstances, but it needs to be considered in part and parcel of putting together an appropriate current estate plan for you. Number twelve, do you have any serious or chronic health issues? Now you might ask, why does that matter, why does a lawyer need to know if I'm sick? Well, it might be that some of the planning techniques that are going to be used are only appropriate if we're relying upon actuarial tables that are accurate. If your health issues cause you to have or reduce life expectancy, then an attorney using actuarial tables in making recommendations to you about different estates planning options would not be operating on all of the information that they need to have.

15:07 So do you have serious or chronic health issues? And how might that impact decisions that need to be made about your estate plan? Now there there are certainly many many more questions that will likely come up during the course of reviewing and putting together your estate plan. But these are twelve of the common estate planning questions that oftentimes clients might feel uncomfortable about addressing. Certainly, if A Man and I can be of assistance to you in addressing these questions and putting together and estate planned relative to the answers to those questions, please reach out to us. A reminder too that amand and I would be honored to have the opportunity to help you protect your loved ones by putting together your estate plan or amending a plan that you already have, or perhaps assisting you in settling a loved ones estate. And because of COVID, we're not currently seeing people in our office. Everything is being done virtually, so you can head on over to the virtual office at Doyle LAWPC dot com. There you're going to find information, if your new client, about how we can plan your estate, how you can plan your estate from home, have the ability to

16:41 schedule zoom or telephone conferences, and of course you can always download our free estate Planning guidebook if you're a current client. In addition to having the ability to schedule telephone consultations, we have our Update my Plan service that can be used assist us in updating a plan that we've already put together for you, as well as other information for the relevant to current clients and for everybody. There is our Legal Store again available at doylapc dot com and through the Legal Store you can actually order individual legal documents by simply completing information through the Legal Store and those documents can also be ordered through our Facebook page. Well, that's it for today's show. As always, if you have a comment about the program, a topic that you'd like to have me discuss or questions that you'd like to have me answer. Please send me an email Tom at Tuesday with Toom dot com, or you can always send me a postcard Tom Doyle po Box one six zero six six, Lansing, Michigan for eight nine zero one, And always please consider following us on face Book on Twitter, that would be Tuesday with Tom, and of course the office is also located on Facebook and Twitter, and that would be Doyle Law PC. Remember too, the program is available probably anywhere that you happen to listen to podcasts, be

18:17 at Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcast, iHeart Radio, Speaker, et cetera. And if you have a smart speaker at home, you could always ask your smart speaker to play Tuesday with Tom as well. Thank you again for spending some of your time with us to do today, and as always, I hope that you have an awesome day and an awesome week in Michigan. Stay safe everyone. Tuesday with Tom has been brought to you by the estate planning attorneys at Doyle Law PC. To learn how we can help you with your stay plan or was settling a loved ones estate, Please call us today at five one seven three two three seven three six six. That's five one seven, three two three seven three six six