6 Crucial Estate Planning Tips

Estate planning isn't just for the wealthy. It is to make sure your family is taken care of if something happens to you.

The basic pieces of estate planning are a Will, a Living Will or Durable Power of Attorney, a Revocable Trust, Life insurance, and 
Long Term Care.

1. The Will

The most important part of your estate plan is your will. It names your heirs -- the people you want to receive your money and possessions after you die. If you have children or dependents, a Will also names the person you want to take care of them.

In most states, you need a lawyer to create a will, but it needn't be very expensive. If you die without a will, the state will decide who will get your assets, your money and who will take care of your children.

2. The Living Will or Durable Power of Attorney

A Living Will or Durable Power of Attorney (POA) says what types of medical treatment you want (or don't want) if you get sick and cannot talk to the doctor. This document also states that you give someone permission to make decisions about your money and property if you are not able to make them yourself.

3. Health Care Directive

This document is also frequently referred to as a Living Will. With this document, you name a person who will make decisions about your health care if you are personally unable to make those decisions. Be sure your doctor has a copy of your health care directive.

Although you may have both documents, keep in mind that they may conflict since the Health Care Directive allows another to make decisions while the Living Will already states what is to be done. Absent statutory or document direction, healthcare providers may experience a conflict as to what to do.

4. The Revocable Trust

In incorporating a Revocable Trust into your estate plan, don't forget to update all the account titling into the name of the trust. Not changing titles creates problems.

Moreover, never name a financial institution as successor executive/trustee after surviving spouse or instead of a surviving spouse.  In some cases, this is to the detriment of the spouse and other beneficiaries because large institutions usually follow their fiduciary responsibilities with a less personable approach that another trustee could provide.

Finally, just having a will just about guarantees probate which can cost approximately 3% of your estate. A properly drafted and funded trust-based plan (seriously consider a land trust if your state laws allow for it) can avoid probate and protect your beneficiaries from predators and creditors. It can also incorporate sophisticated tax planning so that you can avoid or reduce estate tax liability.

5. Life Insurance

Do not name minor children outright as primary or contingent beneficiaries of life insurance or retirement plans. When children are named as primary or contingent beneficiaries a court must appoint a guardian who then must be bonded and file a laborious annual accounting with the local court.

Also, with regards to beneficiaries, it is important to remember to change the beneficiary in the event of a divorce or death. And never name a special needs child or a grandchild directly as beneficiary. Instead, use a trust for the benefit of the child. If you list a child as a direct beneficiary, you affect the child's eligibility for Social Security disability benefits.

6. Long-term Care Insurance (LTCi)

Long-term care can be a wise investment. If you become unable to perform routine daily functions such as dressing yourself then long-term care will pay the expense for someone to help you whether in your home or elsewhere. LTCi will also protect your assets, so that you have something left in your Will to direct to your heirs.

Now its your turn. How much importance do you put on estate planning. Do you think that any one of these steps are more important than another?

Leave your comments below. 

Quick Guide to Buying Long Term Care Insurance

It is important to remember that when planning for long -term care, the focus should not be on the cost of care currently, but what care will cost when it is most likely needed. That may be 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, or longer.

Now let's consider five essentials regarding long term care insurance.

1. There are different types of provisions in long term care insurance. The type of long term care that is provided depends on the patient's medical necessity, psychosocial needs, and financial situation. Types of long term care include: skilled nursing, intermediate, custodial home-based and hospice care.

2. Policyholders must meet certain conditions to receive benefits.
Long term care benefits begin when policyholders meet certain conditions. A licensed professional performs an assessment to determine if there is a medical necessity for long term care. Medical necessity is generally defined as an inability to perform daily activities, such as bathing, dressing, or eating, due to severe physical limitations or cognitive impairments.

3. The type of policy and the needs of the individual determine the cost of long term care insurance.
Annual premiums can vary significantly depending on your age, health, and the type of policy, but policies can run as high as $5,000 or more per year, However, you do not have to pay that much. Your premium could be reduced by choosing a shorter benefit period, buying at a younger age, sharing care, choosing a longer elimination period, reducing the daily benefits, and including inflation protection.

4. A typical policy pays for care either in a nursing facility or at home
You may fiercely resist living out the rest of your life in a nursing home and would prefer to live at home. These benefits include homemaker/home helper service and home health services which would cover both non-medical and medical services in the home. Today's best long term care policies are designed to provide for this.

5. Your premiums may be tax deductible

There are tax advantages to acquiring long term insurance. Whether you buy it as an individual, a sole proprietor or as a corporation, the premiums can be treated as a tax deductible medical expense. Your tax adviser can update you on the current federal and state rules and limits.


Choosing a Long Term Care Insurance can be complicated. Leave me an e-mail at bwillbar@gmail.com if you have any questions. and, don't forget a Final Expense Plan.

Any Comments? Leave them below.

End of the CLASS Act and the Rise of Long Term Care Insurance

Image by bterrycompton via Flickr

The CLASS act (Community Living Assistance Services and Support) was another poorly designed and grossly inadequate government program. As a part of the Health Care Reform Act, it was to pay you a paltry lifetime benefit of about $50 per day when you became elderly or disabled and needed long term care. But, to receive this benefit in the future, it would have been necessary for you to voluntarily allow your employer take an undetermined amount out of your regular paycheck along with the Social Security, Medicare, and Income taxes that's already being withheld. It is good that the CLASS act no longer exist. May it rest in peace.

Still, with the elderly being the most rapidly growing segment of our population, it once again elevates the need for Long Term Care insurance (LTCi). This type of insurance begins when your doctor certifies that you are unable to perform at least two of the six activities of daily living without assistance and that this disability is expected to last at least 90 days. These activities include:

• Eating
• Toileting
• Transferring
• Bathing
• Dressing
• Continence

For you and your family, the amount of benefits per day, the waiting period, and the length of the benefits becomes essential information. As an example, you can choose a daily benefit of $200 per day, a waiting period of 60 days, and benefits to last for a lifetime. The age in which you apply, your state of health, and the above essentially determine the premium that you will have to pay.

Although the cost of long-term care may vary from state to state, across the country the cost of long term care, specifically assisted living and nursing home care, can easily exceed $50,000 a year. Recently in Illinois, an Assisted Living Facility (private, one bedroom) costs $41,880 and Nursing Home Care (private room) $63,875 or a (semi-private room) $54,750. Check out these costs in your state.

It is clear this that for most families it would be financially devastating to have to personally pay the cost of a family member's long term care in one of these types of facilities. The family may try to care for the beloved member at home, but often, for variety of reasons, it just can't be done.

The end of the CLASS Act once again leaves LTCi as the only way to get the benefits you need if you become elderly and disabled or just disabled. As a conscientious family member, you do not want to become a burden on other family members when it can be prevented. After all fitting it into a financial plan may just require some forethought and sincerity.