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KaneyLaw PLANNING AHEAD information worth considering 386 677 7965 1 protect Your Family Elan Kaney KaneyLaw com 2 January 2016 3 preserve plan for Your Wealth Your Future lives change your estate plan should too Every time you have a major change in your life you should revisit the plans you have put into place Bethany Miles developed a new application for cell phones and tablets She launched her business worked hard to grow it and then sold it for 2 million Bethany planned ahead for her children by executing a will that left her children equal shares She also included specific bequests of 10 000 to 20 other people Then Bethany lived through the Great Recession and neglected to revisit her estate plan She died unexpectedly when her estate was worth only 250 000 Based on the way Bethany designed her estate plan when her estate was worth 2 million it is fair to assume that she never intended to give her friends more of her wealth than her kids If Bethany had reviewed her estate plan on a regular basis she could have prevented thisdisappointment Bethany s children only inherited 25 000 each because the special bequests had to be paid first www kaneylaw com Changes in your life that should prompt you to review your estate planning documents Marriage Birth or Adoption of a child Divorce Traveling Abroad New Business Deals Death of a loved one Bankruptcy Inheritance Tragedy

HOMEMADE WILLS recipes for disaster Using a do it yourself will is the equivalent of pulling out your own tooth with a pair of pliers instead of going to the dentist If you have made your own will it could be plagued with problems If you downloaded the will from the internet is it in accordance with your State s laws Have you and your witnesses signed it on the same day Does it have contingencies For example if you leave all of your property to your sister what happens if your sister dies before you Or if you leave money to your child but you do not like her spouse what do you want to happen to her inheritance if they are in the process of getting a divorce when you die Lawyers get a bad rap for being dealkillers because we habitually look for what can go wrong However the best Estate Planning lawyers will prompt you to think about con tingencies We do not enjoy being morbid but we would be doing you a great disservice if we did not help you plan for different outcomes Here is a cautionary tale Bill was estranged from one of his children and wanted to disinherit him Bill bought DIY will software from a big box store and following the prompts listed his assets but omitted some important ones small numbers of shares of various phone company stocks that he had bought many years earlier Those shares which probably once seemed like small change had grown in value because of mergers and stock splits and were worth more than 1 5 million comprising most of Bill s estate by the time he died Unfortunately the DIY will did not include what s called a residuary clause indicating how to distribute what is left after estate expenses creditors and taxes have been paid and gifts of specific items or sums of money have been satisfied So guess what happened The stocks passed according to the law of intestacy and the son who the father wanted to disinherit walked away with almost 400 000 To make matters worse he had a substance abuse problem and blew through the money in less than a year the basics for everyone The biggest myth in estate planning is that you have to be wealthy for it to matter This is flawed in every possible way Last Will Testament Living Trust Durable Power of Attorney A written document with instructions for the distribution of your assets after you die It should be properly witnessed and stored for safekeeping If you have children this is a must have document so that you can dictate who will care for your children upon your death and you can put parameters in place to manage the money you leave to them This is also a must have document if you want your estate plan to remain private This is a very powerful document that gives your designated person the authority to transact financial affairs on your behalf This document provides instructions specifying what actions should be Health Care Surrogate Designation taken for your health in the event you are unable to make those decisions due to illness or incapacity HIPPA Authorizations Living Will 2 These give your doctors permission to discuss your medical situation with others parents siblings and close friends This records your wishes regarding various types of medial treatments such as resuscitation life support artificial feedings and organ donation www kaneylaw com

Digital Legacy Family members and executors can face numerous practical legal and moral problems in obtaining access to and handling another s digital assets Access Many of us have several online accounts with different types of services Bank Accounts Social Media Accounts Facebook Snapchat Instagram Pinterest Twitter Email Accounts Photo Storage Accounts Access to each account is by password and users are advised for security reasons to have different passwords for each account In an emergency no one may know what accounts you subscribe to how to access information for each account or how to deal with the content within each account unless you have recorded details of this information Even if you have written your passwords in a binder that binder will be of no use if you don t provide instructions on where to find the binder Google Google has now created an inactive account manager feature providing users a way to share parts of their account data Facebook Facebook tightly governs think court order when it allows a family member access to a decedent s account Facebook does allow an account to be memorialized at the request of a verified immediate family member MySpace MySpace will delete a profile upon request by a family member or executor who must provide the user s identification number not the user name or profile link The company will not provide access or allow edits to content or settings Twitter Twitter will deactivate an account and stop Who to Follow upon verified request from an immediate family member or executor Airline Miles American Airlines miles can be transferred out of a deceased member s account to a beneficiary s AAdvantage account Delta on the other hand changed their policy in 2013 and no longer allow rewards points to be transferred after death Likewise Southwest s RapidRewards points cannot be transferred once a member dies United Airways Dividend Miles can be transferred to a survivor s account free of charge as long as the request is made within a year of the member s death and the account was active when that person died Advice Leave instructions in your will as to what accounts you use along with the passwords to each one What is a legal guardian and why do I need one for my child protecting children Without a guardianship your child could be the ward of the State until the court can establish what is in your child s best interest What Why A legal guardian is an adult designated to care for a child in case both parents die before that child reaches adulthood Unless you specifically name a guardian in your will anyone can step forward and ask for the job and a judge will decide who gets custody Flexibility Guardianship can be flexible over time For example if you really want your parents to be your child s guardian right now but fear they will grow too old to handle the job you can specify that they be www kaneylaw com designated guardians for a set period of time i e until your child is 12 after which responsibility passes to a sibling or a friend Guardian of the Person Guardian of the Property You can identify a person to be the guardian of your child and a different person to be the guardian of the money you leave for your child This type of division is suitable if the person you have chosen to take care of the emotional and physical needs of your child is not particularly good with money 3