Helpful Legal Resource

One of the most highly trafficked legal web sites, FindLaw provides the most comprehensive set of legal resources on the Internet for:

• Lawyers
• Businesses
• Students
• Individuals

The website, findlaw.com, also contains news and legal updates, and can help people find a lawyer should they need to do so.

You can find links to additional resources like this on the "helpful links" page on our website. 

Reflections on Freedom from an Estate Planning Perspective

As we approach the 4th of July and are thinking about the celebration of the Declaration of Independence, we would also like to reflect briefly on freedom from an estate planning perspective.

• Freedom to choose who you want to act on your behalf when you no longer can, instead of the Court deciding who this person(s) will be.
• Freedom to allocate assets to whomever you want, instead of the State of New Hampshire deciding for you.
• Freedom to minimize taxes, instead of burdening beneficiaries who then face adverse tax implications.
• Freedom to protect loved ones and to make their lives easier and less costly in the event of a disability or of a death, rather than having them involved with the Court and other bureaucracies.

Be proactive and celebrate the freedom to plan for yourself and for those dearest to you. Wishing you a happy and safe 4th of July and a wonderful summer!

Why So Many People Update Their Estate Plans Every Five Years

A common question from many of our clients involves identifying the right timeframe for updating an estate plan.
 
Generally speaking, there are three reasons whey plans should be updated on an approximate five-year cycle:

1. Changes in law, including tax laws
2. Changes in family situation
3. Changes in financial position

In some cases updates should be made more frequently, such as when changes in family situation occur including births, marriages, deaths, and so on. But generally speaking a five-year updating cycle is a good target.

3 Ways to Avoid Probate

There are a number of different ways of holding assets that will avoid probate.

The simplest is probably just joint ownership, such as a piece of real estate held as joint tenants or a bank account held jointly. This type of assets will pass automatically to the other joint owner when the first owner dies – but keep in mind, there will still be a probate at the second death.

Another way to avoid probate is by assets which have 'designated beneficiaries', such as an insurance policy or a retirement plan (such as an IRA). These assets will pass to those beneficiaries when the owner of the asset dies.

Still another way to avoid probate is to hold assets in a revocable trust.

Two More Good Reasons to Plan Your Estate

As noted in our previous post, people often ask about why it is important to have an estate plan. Here are two more good reasons:

• Allows you to protect yourself and your loved ones in the event you become disabled. Without powers of attorney for financial matters and health care, if you become disabled, your loved ones will be dealing with the courts, which is costly, time consuming and stressful.
  
• Save your heirs taxes, time in settling your affairs, surety insurance premiums and legal and accounting costs. Did you know that the tax rate for accumulation trusts has increased significantly under recent changes to our tax laws and particularly under Obamacare? It is important that if you have a trust that you have it reviewed to ensure that the income is distributed, not accumulated.

Do I need to do estate planning with an attorney?

Most people will benefit from a properly drafted estate plan. Even if a person has modest assets, the other documents created in the estate planning process, such as the durable power of attorney for financial matters, and the durable power of attorney for health care, are of great benefit in assisting a person's family in administering his or her affairs should he or she become ill or incapacitated. Beyond that, a will, or in many cases, a trust, is very helpful in creating an orderly way for assets to pass when someone dies.

As far as using an attorney is concerned, while it is true that many of the documents that an estate planning attorney will use can be found in very simple form in a bookstore or online, these documents, when used by a non-lawyer, will not be able to encompass the complexities of particular individual situations, and may contain \"boiler plate\" language that is not at all what the person intended. In addition, these forms may not even be valid in the state where the person using them resides.