The Estate of The Union Season 4|Episode 3

Episode 7 of The Estate of The Union Podcast

August 20, 2021

We are estate planning and probate attorneys and we experience death weekly. The saddest aspect of our work is knowing that most, if not all, of the great stories of our clients’ lives have died with them. This can be heartbreaking for future generations. The solution to this dilemma is to capture those memories NOW. In episode 7 of The Estate of the Union podcast, Brad interviews Michael O’Krent with Life Stories Alive.

Mike’s company videotapes life stories so that generations of family members can grasp the essence of the individual loved one, not just the inheritance. Brad and Mike discuss what to expect when recording your life story and how the process works with Life Stories Alive. Brad talks about his personal experience recording his story for his loved ones, and Mike shares some touching stories of how impactful these video presentations can be for both the storyteller and the viewer.

Take the time to record these special stories while you can. The Money will be spent, but the memories can endure forever.

In each episode of The Estate of The Union podcast, host and lawyer Brad Wiewel will give valuable insight into estate planning, making an often daunting subject easier to understand.

It is Estate Planning Made Simple!

The Estate of The Union can be found on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts. Please click on the link below to listen. We hope you enjoy it.

If you would like to learn more about Michael O’Krent and Life Stories Alive, please visit their website www.lifestoriesalive.com

Texas Trust Law focuses its practice exclusively in the area of wills, probate, estate planning, asset protection, and special needs planning. Brad Wiewel is Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Blended Family Dynamics create Challenges

July 26, 2021

Law school teaches about estate planning and inheritance, but experience teaches about family dynamics, especially when it comes to blended families with aging parents and step siblings. Blended family dynamics can create challenges and put an estate plan at risk, advises the article “Could Your Aging Parents’ Estate Plan Create A Nightmare For Step-Siblings?” from Forbes. The estate plan has to be designed with realistic family relationships in mind.

Trouble often begins when one parent loses the ability to make decisions. That’s when trusts are reviewed for language addressing what should happen, if one of the trustees becomes incapacitated. This also occurs in powers of attorney, health care directives and wills. If the elderly person has been married more than once and there are step siblings, it’s important to have candid discussions. Putting all of the adult children into the mix because the parents want them to have equal involvement could be a recipe for disaster.

Here’s an example: a father develops dementia at age 86 and can no longer care for himself. His younger wife has become abusive and neglectful, so much so that she has to be removed from the home. The father has two children from a prior marriage and the wife has one from a first marriage. The step siblings have only met a few times, and do not know each other. The father’s trust listed all three children as successors, and the same for the healthcare directive. When the wife is removed from the home, the battle begins.

The same thing can occur with a nuclear family but is more likely to occur with blended families. Here are some steps adult children can take to protect the whole family:

While parents are still competent, ask who they would want to take over, if they became disabled and cannot manage their finances. If it’s multiple children and they don’t get along, address the issue and create the necessary documents with an estate planning attorney.

Plan for the possibility that one or both parents may lose the ability to make decisions about money and health in the future.

If possible, review all the legal documents, so you have a complete understanding of what is going to happen in the case of incapacity or death. What are the directions in the trust, and who are the successor trustees? Who will have to take on these tasks, and how will they be accomplished?

Blended family dynamics can create challenges, but there are solutions. If there are any questions, a family meeting with the estate planning attorney is a great option. Most experienced estate planning attorneys have seen just about every situation you can imagine and many that you can’t. They should be able to give your family guidance, even connecting you with a social worker who has experience in blended families, if the problems seem unresolvable.

If you would like to learn more about estate planning for blended families, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Forbes (June 28, 2021) “Could Your Aging Parents’ Estate Plan Create A Nightmare For Step-Siblings?”

Consider a QTIP trust for your Blended Family

June 3, 2021

Many people have so-called “blended” families, where one or both spouses have children from a previous marriage. Estate planning can be hard for a spouse in a blended family who wants to provide for a surviving spouse and for children from an ex-spouse. Consider a QTIP trust for your blended family.

Fed Week’s recent article entitled “‘Blended’ Families Raise Special Estate Planning Considerations” suggests that one option may be a qualified terminable interest property or “QTIP” trust.

This kind of irrevocable trust is frequently used by those with children from another marriage.

A QTIP trust allows the grantor of the blended family to provide for a surviving spouse and maintain control of how the trust’s assets are distributed, once the surviving spouse dies.

Income (and sometimes the principal) generated from the trust is given to the surviving spouse to ensure that the spouse is cared for during the rest of his or her life. Therefore, with a QTIP:

At the death of the first spouse, the assets pass to a trust for the survivor. No one else can receive distributions from the trust; then
At the death of the second spouse, any assets left in the QTIP trust are passed to beneficiaries named by the first spouse to die. This is usually the children of the first spouse to die.

With a QTIP trust, estate tax is not imposed when the first spouse’s dies. Rather, estate tax is determined after the second spouse has died. Moreover, the property within the QTIP providing funds to a surviving spouse qualifies for marital deductions. As such, the value of the trust isn’t taxable after the first spouse’s death.

While this arrangement may appear to address the needs of both sides, in many remarriages the surviving spouse is much younger than the one who died.

In many cases, the surviving spouse may be close to the age of the children of the spouse who died. As a consequence, those children may have to wait a number of years for their inheritance.

To avoid this, a better approach would be to provide for biological children as well as for a surviving spouse at the first death. It might be time to consider a QTIP trust for your blended family. Assets can be divided at that time. If an asset division is impractical, the proceeds of a life insurance policy may help to provide some inheritance for all parties.

If you would like to learn more about estate planning for blended families, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Fed Week (May 7, 2021) “‘Blended’ Families Raise Special Estate Planning Considerations”

The Monthly Two Minutes – Blended Families

June 1, 2021

The Monthly Two Minutes – Blended Families

We’ve started a new monthly video series that we are calling the The Monthly Two Minutes and are excited to share the latest edition – Blended Families. The second episode deals with the complexity of blended families. Second marriages and step-children can make investment and estate planning more difficult. We discuss what financial advisors need to know.

As a reminder, we now have a our own Podcast, The Estate of the Union! It’s “Estate Planning Made Simple” and we tackle all kinds of topics relating to the board spectrum of estate planning. We’ve got four already posted and more to come. We hope you will enjoy them enough to share it with others. It’s available on Apple, Spotify and other podcast outlets.

Brad Wiewel is a Board Certified Texas estate planning attorney with a state-wide practice. Mr. Wiewel is an AV Rated attorney, which is the highest distinction for practicing attorneys in the legal world. Brad is licensed by both the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Texas. He received a B.A. from the University of Illinois, and graduated from St. Mary’s School of Law in San Antonio with distinction (Top 10%).

Revise your Planning with a Second Marriage

April 19, 2021

It is wise to revise your planning with a second marriage. The assets you and your second spouse bring into the marriage need to be carefully considered when revising your estate plan, says a recent article “Value of an Estate Plan Review With a Second Marriage” from Mondaq. If there are children from one or both partner’s prior marriages, those too need to be considered. If you plan on having children together, the estate plan needs to include this as well.

The best time to prepare this new estate plan would be before the wedding. This way, you can both go forward with the wedding and celebration with clear minds and hearts.

Start with a complete inventory of all assets and debts. List financial accounts, including investments, savings and checking accounts. Real estate and any personal assets, pensions and tax deferred retirement accounts should be included.

Review your wills, trusts, health care plans and directives, powers of attorney and any other estate planning documents at this time.

There may be assets that need to be retitled, and beneficiaries on all assets that permit designated beneficiaries should be updated at this time. Check to be sure a prior spouse is not the beneficiary of any life insurance or pensions. Any debts or liabilities that one partner brings to the marriage should be reviewed at this time. Comingling accounts and marriage will make both spouses responsible for each other’s debts, which should be discussed candidly.

Based on the inventory, one or the other partner may wish to have a prenuptial agreement to protect their individual financial interests during a second marriage. A prenuptial agreement may also be used to waive respective rights to each other’s property. These agreements are also used to serve as a means of retaining control of a business and defining premarital assets and debt.

When children are involved, decisions need to be made as to how assets are to be divided. Does one spouse want to leave their assets to their own children or to all of the children?

One way of addressing children in a second marriage is to create a separate marital trust to ensure that the new spouse receives the share of the assets you want them to have, while preserving your children’s inheritance. In the case of IRAs, it may be prudent to split them into separate IRAs among your spouse and children to protect the children’s inheritance.

When naming new beneficiaries, be aware that your new spouse may have mandatory rights to certain assets, such as qualified retirement plans. The only person who can inherit a Health Savings Account (HSA) without it becoming taxable, is your spouse. Remember to change this from your former spouse to the new spouse. Naming your children as the beneficiary would cause the account to be taxable on your death.

There could be significant financial consequences if you fail to revise your planning with a second marriage. An estate planning attorney who has worked with second and subsequent marriages can help facilitate a discussion about structuring an estate plan. Working with a professional who knows how these situations are resolved can be a great help in getting the process started and keeping it moving forward.

If you would like to learn more about estate planning and blended families, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: Mondaq (March 2, 2021) “Value of an Estate Plan Review With a Second Marriage”

Estate Planning Presents Emotional Challenges

December 8, 2020

More than two-thirds of all advisors surveyed by Key Private Bank said the hardest part of estate planning is navigating family dynamics, according to a 2019 survey. The sensitivity of simply talking about estate planning presents emotional challenges to putting a plan in place, especially when the family includes multiple marriages and blended families.

Advice is offered in a recent news article from CNBC, “Executor of a Family Estate? Here’s How to Avoid Infighting Over Inherited Wealth.”

Much of the problem, experts say, stems from poor communication. A dialogue needs to be open between generations that is a two-way conversation. In most instances, the older generation needs to invite the younger generation to get the ball rolling.

A lack of clarity and transparency can lead to problems. One example is a father leaving the family farm to his children, with a plan that also included money to help run the farm and legal documents to help the transition go smoothly. However, the children didn’t want the farm. They wanted to sell. Disagreements broke out between siblings, and the family was bogged down in a big fight.

Clearly Dad needed to talk with the children, while his estate plan was being created. The children needed to be upfront and honest about their plans for the future, and the issue could have been solved before the father’s death. The lesson: talk about your wishes and your children’s wishes while you are living.

After someone dies, they may leave behind an entire estate, with a lifetime of personal items that they want to gift to family members. However, if these items are not listed in the will, the heirs have to decide amongst themselves who gets what. This is asking for trouble, whether the items have sentimental or financial value. In fact, sentimental items often generate the most controversy.

When conflicts arise, the presence of a third party who doesn’t have emotional attachments and is not embroiled in the family dynamics can be helpful.

If the issue is not addressed before death, there are a few ways to move forward. An estate planning attorney who has seen many families go through the emotional challenges of estate planning can offer suggestions while the will is being prepared. There are facilitators or mediators who can help, if things get really rocky.

Heirs may wish to create a list of items that they would like to be reviewed by the executor. This option works best, if the executor is not a sibling, otherwise charges of favoritism and “Mom always liked you best” can spiral into family spats.

Some families group items into buckets of equal value, others set up a lottery to determine who picks first, second, etc., and some families literally roll the dice to make decisions.

If you would like to learn more about inheritance and distributing personal property, please visit our previous posts.

Reference: CNBC (Nov. 12, 2020) “Executor of a Family Estate? Here’s How to Avoid Infighting Over Inherited Wealth”

Category: Blended Families

Episode 7 of The Estate of The Union Podcast

Blended Family Dynamics create Challenges

Consider a QTIP trust for your Blended Family

The Monthly Two Minutes – Blended Families

Revise your Planning with a Second Marriage

Estate Planning Presents Emotional Challenges

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