Time to Review Your Estate Plan
With the New Year arriving, it is time to review your Georgia estate plan to make sure you and your family are properly protected. The following checklist walks you through the review process. Take a few minutes to look it over and reflect on any changes that you might need. Please contact me after your review if any changes are needed.
- Do you have a Georgia Will, Financial Power of Attorney, and an Advance Directive for Health Care? These three documents are considered the basics of every estate plan.
- Have you moved into the State of Georgia since you last signed your estate planning documents?
- Do you have a memorandum of distribution attached to your Will? Although not legally binding, it expresses your desires as to the distribution of your personal items. If you don’t have one, you should consider preparing one to guide your executor. If one exists, you should review it to make sure that it is still current.
- Is any person receiving your personal property a minor (under 18)? If so, consider one of the many ways to protect the distribution to the minor child.
- Do you own assets held jointly or where you have a named beneficiary (i.e., bank accounts or insurance policies)? These assets will be distributed outside of your Will. The joint property will pass to the surviving owner and all assets with a beneficiary designation will pass to that beneficiary. You should carefully review ownership and beneficiary designations to make sure that they distribute your property to the correct people at your death.
- Are your residuary beneficiaries correct? Residuary beneficiaries are the people who receive your estate after your property has been distributed to the legal heirs. Are your alternate beneficiary designations appropriate? In the event that all of your primary beneficiaries pass away, who will inherit your assets?
- Have you established trusts within, or independent of, your will? Trusts give great flexibility in distributing the assets to the beneficiaries, and, at the same time, protect those assets from a beneficiary’s immaturity, misuse, creditors, divorce, etc. Also, trusts may be used when you want to direct how assets will pass upon the beneficiary’s death.
- If you have a trust established, are the terms still appropriate? Does the Trustee have the authority to make distributions to the beneficiary for health, maintenance, education and support, or are distributions within the Trustee’s total discretion?
- Do any of your beneficiaries have special needs? A Special Needs Trust enables a person under a physical or mental disability, or an individual with a chronic or acquired illness, to have, held in Trust for his or her benefit, an unlimited amount of assets.
- Is your estate plan flexible? Does it contain such things as a disclaimer provision, a limited power of appointment, an option for the surviving spouse to appoint an Acting Trustee, or an interrorem clause?
- Are your Executors, Trustees, and Guardians still the appropriate people and still in the order you desire? Are their addresses, if listed, still current?
- Although there are no federal estate taxes in 2010, you should plan for there return if Congress does not act this year. Thus, it is important that you re-title your assets to allow for bypass trust establishment. This allows the surviving spouse to fund the trust(s) that will create an estate tax savings.
- Is your Financial Power of Attorney current? Are your Agents and their contact information up-to-date? Are the Agent’s power’s extensive?
- Does your Advance Directive for Health Care comply with Georgia law? Is it current as to your desired Agents and wishes?
- Does your Advance Directive for Health Care reference the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”)? The HIPAA privacy rules have created a new category of private information called “Protected Health Information” or “PHI” or “Protected Medical Information” or “PMI”. Your Advance Directive for Health Care should include a HIPAA provision to avoid any inability of a Health Care Representative to receive information in the event of medical emergency.
- Does your Advance Directive clearly state your desire about what medical treatment you want to receive or refuse in a terminal situation?
- Do your beneficiaries and executor know where all of your estate planning documents are located? In addition, you should have a copy of your Advance Directive of Health Care placed into your medical record with your primary care physician. The documents should be readily and easily accessible.
- If you own a business, do you have a management succession plan?
- Do you have a buy/sale agreement for your family business interests?
Your estate plan is very important and an investment that should be reviewed annually. Please make sure that your estate plan meets your needs—it will bring peace of mind to you and your family. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
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