Estate Planning
Estate Planning for Modern (and Traditional!) Families
The majority of Emily’s practice is in the area of Estate Planning. Estate planning is just that: a Plan, unique to you and your situation. It is not just a set of form documents that can be applied to every situation.
No two families are alike. For Emily, knowing each client’s goals and family dynamic is essential to a good Estate Plan. You can expect a lot of questions about who in the family gets along with whom, who has challenges (special needs, alcoholism, addiction, spendthrift habits, estrangement), who is the leader, and who can be relied on no matter what. At Dunham Law, we want you to understand your Estate Plan, why we created it the way we did, and how it will work in the real world when you can no longer make your own decisions or after your death. Our goal is not for you to leave our office with an armload of documents that you don’t understand. Our goal is for you to walk out the door with understanding and peace of mind.
At our first meeting, we will discuss: Powers of Attorney for both finances and health care, including Living Wills and Directions to Physicians; Wills vs. Trusts; non-probate transfers such as death beneficiaries, payable on death (POD) or transfer on death (TOD) accounts; retirement assets such as IRAs, 401Ks, 403bs and how they are treated at your death; as well as the probate process and how to avoid probate, if that works in your estate plan.
Most importantly, Emily will talk about how all of these documents and consideration work together in your Estate Plan, and what your heirs will need to do in the real world in the event of your incapacity or death.
Did you know?
How you title your financial accounts matters a lot in your Estate Plan. If you hold an account jointly with another owner, that person will likely receive the entire account at your death, due to the joint title. Very often, I see clients who have been told to put their child or children on their accounts as joint owners, so that way, the child will have immediate access to the funds when the parent dies. This advice can cause unexpected problems. First, naming a child as a joint owner on your account is a gift to that child, which may require tax reporting and may cause a penalty for nursing home planning purposes; Second, the child is an owner on the account, and could withdraw all the funds for any reason, if they choose; Third, the account will appear on the child’s credit report as an asset, so may affect their ability to obtain a loan; Fourth, the account is available to the child’s creditors; last, the account will belong solely to that child when the parent dies, which can be a problem if there are other children or heirs who expected to receive a portion of the account.
It is a usually a better idea to name the child or person who will be managing the account for you (writing out the checks, etc.) as the “Power of Attorney” on the account, and, depending on your estate plan, it may make sense to name all of your children or other beneficiaries as “death beneficiaries.”
Did you know?
If you have a blended family, estate planning is essential. If you do not have Will or Estate Planning Trust, Wisconsin’s law of “intestate succession” applies. Under this law, if a family consists of married spouses with children of the marriage, the assets will go first to the surviving spouse and if there is no surviving spouse, to the children. In a blended family situation, where there is a spouse and children that are not of the marriage, if there is no Will or Estate Planning Trust, the law says that the deceased person’s individual property goes half to the surviving spouse and half to the deceased person’s children that are not of that spouse. For Marital Property, the surviving spouse keeps their one-half interest and the deceased spouse’s one-half interest will go to the children not of the marriage.
No two families are alike. For Emily, knowing each client’s goals and family dynamic is essential to a good Estate Plan. You can expect a lot of questions about who in the family gets along with whom, who has challenges (special needs, alcoholism, addiction, spendthrift habits, estrangement), who is the leader, and who can be relied on no matter what. At Dunham Law, we want you to understand your Estate Plan, why we created it the way we did, and how it will work in the real world when you can no longer make your own decisions or after your death. Our goal is not for you to leave our office with an armload of documents that you don’t understand. Our goal is for you to walk out the door with understanding and peace of mind.
Schedule an Appointment
If you need reliable legal counsel, Dunham Law LLC is ready to advocate for you. Contact us today to schedule a consultation and experience the difference of working with a firm that puts your best interests first.
