If you use Facebook to share, track, and report on important life events, it can provide an intimate snapshot of your life, and it can also serve as a key part of your legacy—and one you’ll likely want to protect following your death. With this in mind, as with any other digital asset you own, you should include your Facebook profile as part of your estate plan.

While you’ll want to include your Facebook profile in your plan’s inventory of digital assets, Facebook also offers a special function, known as a “legacy contact,” for managing your profile after death. Using a legacy contact, you can choose someone to look after your account and control the activities of your account once you’ve passed away.

If you are interested in preserving your digital legacy using Facebook’s legacy contact, here we’ll break down the basics of how this function works. To learn more about protecting and passing on the rest of your digital assets, meet with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®, to discuss the different options available.

MANAGING YOUR DIGITAL AFTERLIFE

At the time of your death, Facebook allows your account to be “memorialized,” so friends and family can gather and share memories of you and your life. To have your account memorialized, Facebook requires proof of the account holder’s death using a special request form and evidence of death, such as an obituary. Facebook accounts can be memorialized regardless of whether or not a legacy contact has been selected.

Once your account has been memorialized, only confirmed friends can see your profile or find it in a search. Your memorialized profile will no longer appear in friend suggestions, nor will anyone receive birthday updates or other account notifications.

When your account is memorialized, the word “Remembering” will be added next to your profile name. Depending on your privacy settings, friends and family members can post content and share memories on your timeline. A memorialized account is locked, so its original content cannot be altered or deleted, even if someone has your password information.

WHAT YOUR LEGACY CONTACT CAN DO

If you’ve designated a legacy contact, once your account has been memorialized, that individual will be able to manage your Facebook account based on the permissions you’ve granted him or her. As with any other person you select to manage your assets after your death, you’ll want to carefully consider who to name as your legacy contact, as this individual will have control over your memorialized Facebook account and therefore also control your legacy to some extent.

Your Facebook legacy contact can perform several functions, including:

• Write a pinned post for your profile to share a final message on your behalf or provide information about your memorial service.
• View posts, even if you had set your privacy to Only Me.
• Decide who can see and who can post tributes on your memorialized profile.
• Delete tribute posts.
• Change who can see posts that you’re tagged in.
• Remove tags of you that someone else has posted.
• Respond to new friend requests.
• Update your profile picture and cover photo.
• Request the removal of your account.
• Download a copy of what you’ve shared on Facebook, if you have this feature turned on.

WHAT YOUR LEGACY CONTACT CANNOT DO

However, it’s important to point out that your legacy contact doesn’t have unlimited control over your account. To this end, your legacy contact cannot take the following actions:

• Log into your account as you.
• Read your direct messages.
• Remove any of your friends or make new friend requests.

Alternatively, if you’re not interested in having your Facebook account continue after your death, you can choose to have your account permanently deleted upon your passing. For instructions on choosing your legacy contact and to learn more about your options for managing your Facebook account after death, check out Facebook’s Help Center FAQs. 

PRESERVE YOUR DIGITAL ASSETS

Since social media and other digital assets play such a big role in our lives, you should work with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®, to ensure that all of your digital property is protected by your estate plan. With our support, we will inventory your digital assets and include instructions on how you want them handled in your planning documents, so they can pass seamlessly to your loved ones upon your death.

What’s more, we can also help you name a digital executor, who will be in charge of managing your digital assets upon your passing, so that those assets can bring the most benefit to your heirs for generations to come. Contact us today to learn more.

This article is a service of Marsala Law Firm, Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

Despite the fact that it happens to every single one of us and is as every bit as natural as birth, very few among us are properly prepared for death—whether our own death or the death of a loved one. 

Yet the pandemic might be changing this.

According to Census figures, the pandemic caused the U.S. death rate to spike by nearly 20% between 2019 and 2020, the largest increase in American mortality in 100 years. More than two years and 1 million deaths later, it’s more clear than ever that death is not only ever-present, but a central and inevitable part of all our lives.

Yet, some in the end-of-life industry believe the pandemic’s massive loss of life has also created an opportunity to transform the way we face death, grief, and all of the other issues that arise when we lose someone we love dearly. In fact, this sentiment is the mission of the new startup Empathy, an AI-based platform designed to help families navigate the logistical and emotional challenges following the death of a loved one.

“For far too many, COVID-19 has been a terrible reminder that death and loss are all around us,” notes Empathy CEO and co-founder Ron Gura in a recent company report. “But it also represents an opportunity to shift public perception, to bring a topic that has been for far too long shrouded in darkness into the light of day, where we can fully examine it and figure out how best to help those who have to shoulder its burdens.”

As anyone who has dealt with loss knows, when a loved one dies, those left behind face major challenges, not only emotional and logistical, but financial as well. Empathy was designed to help manage and streamline these responsibilities for grieving families. In addition to the app, in March 2022 Empathy released its first-ever Cost of Dying Report, which surveyed more than 2,000 Americans—each of whom had lost a loved one in the last five years—to get a clearer picture of dying’s true cost to families. 

Last week, in part one of this series, we discussed some of the Cost Of Dying’s most notable findings and explained how proactive estate planning can dramatically reduce many of the financial, logistical, and emotional challenges for your loved ones following your death. Here in part two, we wrap up our summary of the report and outline more of the ways proactive planning can relieve the burden of your death for your family. 

THE COST IN LOST TIME

On average, the report found that families spent 420 hours over 13 months completing all the tasks needed to settle a loved one’s estate after death. However, the time commitment shot up to 20 months for estates that required the court process of probate. Additionally, most respondents underestimated how long these tasks would take: 54% said it took longer than they expected, while 31% said it took much longer. 

To give you some idea of what consumed families’ time most during these months, the report breaks down the responsibilities that respondents reported taking the longest as follows:

Most Time-Consuming Tasks

• The funeral: 55%
• Financial matters: 47%
• The will and probate: 45%
• Paying bills, debts, and taxes: 41%
• Dealing with the house or other property: 25%
• Finding service providers: 23% 

Reducing The Time Burden For Your Family

With proper estate planning, you dramatically reduce the time your surviving loved ones will have to spend on many of these tasks. For example, by preplanning and prepaying your own funeral, you can greatly reduce what most families reported as the most time-consuming task.

For other tasks, such as dealing with probate and paying off estates with debt, you can use estate planning to totally eliminate the need for your family to deal with these issues. As we noted last week, you can save your family both the time and expense of probate by creating a revocable living trust. One other unnecessary task we see families spending a lot of time on is simply locating all of a loved one’s assets when they die.

This happens when you become incapacitated or die, and your family is unable to find—or simply overlooks—all of your wealth and property. And this occurs because most people fail to properly inventory their assets or keep that inventory regularly updated throughout their lifetime. Indeed, this is why there’s currently more than $58 billion of lost and unclaimed assets held by state and federal agencies in the U.S.

Keeping an updated inventory of all of your assets is so important, we offer this service for free to every one of our clients. Moreover, when you work with us, we will not only help you create a comprehensive asset inventory, we have systems in place to make sure your inventory stays consistently updated throughout your lifetime. 

We’ve even created a unique (and totally FREE) tool called a Personal Resource Map to help you get the inventory process started right now on your own, without the need for a lawyer. Once you’ve done that, schedule a meeting with us, as your local Personal Family Lawyer®, to incorporate your inventory with your other estate planning strategies.  

THE TOLL ON THE MIND & BODY

The seemingly endless number of tasks and responsibilities grieving families must deal with can be both confusing and stressful. And since most of us have never handled such processes before, you face a surreal learning curve that only adds to your emotional burden.

To this end, more than 30% of respondents said they simply didn’t know what to do during the period immediately following a loved one’s death, and for those under age 45, that number rose to 43%. Not surprisingly, estates with debt typically caused more stress to those who had to manage them, and lower-income families were considerably more likely than those with higher incomes to report feeling lost during the process. 

Such stress can even result in debilitating emotional and physical symptoms. As evidence of this fact, more than 57% of respondents reported suffering at least one clinical symptom of stress, while the average person suffered three or more. The most common symptoms induced by grief-related stress include the following: 

Clinical Symptoms Experienced

• Stress headaches: 30% 
• Stress-related fatigue: 42% 
• Panic attacks: 17.5% 
• Memory impairment: 16%

A Lack Of Communication Compounds Stress

Our society is so separated from the dying and grieving process that just talking about it is often considered taboo. Sadly, this only makes things that much more difficult when we finally face death’s inevitable reality.

“Bereavement is emotionally and physically taxing,” writes BJ Miller, MD, Empathy’s Compassion Advisor, in the report’s section on dying’s mental cost. “It’s hard on your body, it’s hard on your mind, it’s hard on your life. By not talking about it openly, we have made it much harder than it needs to be.”

One positive part of this situation is that when those enduring loss are properly educated and informed about what to expect and how to best deal with these responsibilities, things do get easier for them.

“The good news is that when we give them the guidance they need, when we fill that knowledge gap, the bereaved tend to feel a lot better,” says Miller.

Don’t Leave Your Family In The Dark

One easy way you can make dealing with your own eventual death far easier for your loved ones is by working with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®. We will support you to have intimate discussions about planning for death and incapacity with your family. When done right, such proactive communication and planning can put your life and relationships into a much clearer focus and offer you peace of mind, knowing that the people you love most will be protected and provided for no matter what happens to you.

Furthermore, we take the time to get to know your family members and include them in the planning process. In this way, everyone affected by your plan is well-aware of what your latest planning strategies are and why you made the choices you did, along with knowing exactly what they need to do if something happens to you. And by getting to know your family over time, when something does happen, your lawyer will be there for the people you love, with an underlying relationship and trust already established.

A New Kind Of Estate Planning

As the pandemic has made abundantly clear, death is unavoidable—and it can strike at any time. However, you can make your eventual death far easier for the people you love by creating a proper estate plan. Moreover, facing life’s greatest fear head-on and planning for it will allow you to enjoy your current life even more. In fact, our clients often report a huge sense of relief after meeting with us, and they frequently say they wish they’d created their Life & Legacy Plan sooner.

In the end, by working with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®, you’ll discover that the estate planning process isn’t something morbid or depressing. When done right, estate planning is about far more than just planning for your death and passing on your “estate” and assets to your loved ones—it’s about planning for a life you love and a legacy worth leaving by the choices you make today—and this is why we call our services Life & Legacy Planning.

With this in mind, if you’ve been avoiding preparing for death, you could be missing out on an incredible opportunity for yourself, while leaving behind a potential nightmare for your family. If you’re ready to start truly living your life and make things as easy as possible for your family, meet with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to properly plan for the inevitability of death in service to more life. Contact us today for an appointment.
This article is a service of Marsala Law Firm, Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

Despite the fact that it happens to every single one of us and is as every bit as natural as birth, very few among us are properly prepared for death—whether our own death or the death of a loved one. 

Yet the pandemic might be changing this.

According to Census figures, the pandemic caused the U.S. death rate to spike by nearly 20% between 2019 and 2020, the largest increase in American mortality in 100 years. More than two years and 1 million deaths later, it’s more clear than ever that death is not only ever-present, but a central and inevitable part of all our lives. 

Yet, in what may be one of its few positive outcomes, some in the end-of-life industry believe that the pandemic’s massive loss of life has created an opportunity to transform the way we face death, grief, and all of the other issues that arise when we lose someone we love dearly. In fact, this sentiment is the mission of the new startup Empathy, an AI-based platform designed to help families navigate the logistical and emotional challenges following the death of a loved one.

“For far too many, COVID-19 has been a terrible reminder that death and loss are all around us,” notes Empathy CEO and co-founder Ron Gura in a recent company report. “But it also represents an opportunity to shift public perception, to bring a topic that has been for far too long shrouded in darkness into the light of day, where we can fully examine it and figure out how best to help those who have to shoulder its burdens.”

As anyone who has personally dealt with loss knows, when a loved one dies, those left behind face major challenges, not only emotional and logistical, but financial as well. Empathy was designed to help manage and streamline these responsibilities for grieving families—and in the process, “change the way the world deals with loss.”

A Digital Assistant For Grieving Families

Empathy provides users with digital tools that offer step-by-step instructions detailing all of the administrative, legal, and financial tasks you need to manage in order to finalize a loved one’s affairs and settle their estate. To help users prioritize their work and avoid burnout, the Empathy app flags the most time-sensitive tasks.

In addition to the technology, Empathy also offers human-centered support in the form of live Care Specialists, who can be contacted via the app. The Care Specialists support you by answering questions, helping you locate services and providers, and even handling certain tasks for you if needed, such as calling funeral homes, contacting life insurance companies to speed up policy payouts, and helping executors file court petitions. 

Determining Dying’s True Cost

To further shed light on just how vastly unprepared most of us are when dealing with death, in March 2022 Empathy released its first-ever Cost of Dying Report. In partnership with Goldman Sachs, Empathy’s report surveyed more than 2,000 Americans—each of whom had lost a loved one in the last five years—to get a clearer picture of dying’s true cost to families—and as Gura says, “bust open the taboo that has for too long kept it out of the public consciousness.”

The report looked not only at the financial burden dying brings, but it also examined the cost “in time, in stress, in harmed productivity, and in strained interpersonal bonds.” Paired with the results of the research, the Cost of Dying includes a collection of insights from the study’s advisors, partners, and experts in the bereavement field. 

These contributors seek to clarify what we can learn from the study’s numbers and explain how we can use the figures to rethink how to best serve the bereaved, “as individuals, as organizations, and as a society.” While you can read the full report, which can be accessed for free on Empathy’s website, the following are some of the study’s most notable findings, along with corresponding insights from some of the report’s contributors. 

THE FINANCIAL COST

Following a loved one’s death, the total bill—including the funeral and hiring all of the other professional support—cost families an average of $12,702. The average cost of a funeral was $7,267, and according to the National Funeral Directors Association, that cost has risen 7.6% in the last 5 years. 

On top of the funeral, families paid an average of $5,846 to hire additional professionals, such as lawyers, financial advisors, and realtors. The bill charged for these services include the following individual costs:

Professional Services 

• $3,910 lawyer fees
• $4,461 real estate professionals
• $2,456 accountants
• $1,637 therapists or social workers

Notably, the $3,910 in lawyer’s fees was nearly double for estates that required the court process of probate, which was the case for one-third of families surveyed. When you include lawyers, court costs, and all of the other related fees, the total cost to complete probate for families averaged $16,800.

Fortunately, by working with us, your local Personal Family Lawyer®, your family can avoid the time, expense, and emotional burden associated with probate. For example, by placing assets in a properly created and maintained revocable living trust, assets held by the trust will pass to your loved ones without the need for probate or any court intervention following your death or incapacity.

But that’s not the only way proactive planning can help your loved ones following your death. Using our Life & Legacy Planning Process, you can achieve a variety of other goals, including asset protection, avoiding family conflict, funding long-term care, estate tax mitigation, as well as family legacy creation and preservation, to name just a few. Sit down with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®, for a Family Wealth Planning Session to find the most effective and affordable planning solutions for you and your family based on your family dynamics, assets, as well as your overall goals and desires. 

Paying The Final Bill

So how did families pay for all of these expenses? Only 1 in 7 families had any of the costs associated with their loved ones’ death paid in advance or were able to use payable-on-death funds. Additionally, more than 50% of families had to deal with estates that included debt. To foot the bill for these expenses, 36.1% of respondents used their own savings or investments, while 42.4% used their checking accounts or credit cards.

For most families, the financial costs associated with loss were exacerbated by a lack of information about exactly how much money they should expect to spend, notes internal medicine physician Shoshana Ungerleider, MD, in the report’s section on death’s financial cost. Compounding that stress, Ungerleider says, was the families’ fear of making a mistake that will make their financial burden even worse.

“A majority of families find themselves unprepared for and under-informed about the real financial costs of death, with few available resources for finding out,” writes Ungerleider. “They can spend months or years terrified that a wrong move will wipe out their inheritance or even their own savings.”

As an example of what such a mistake might look like, Ungerleider notes that a lack of proper estate planning can lead to the deceased’s home being seized after death “to pay off expenses incurred through Medicaid, even if the family member who was their primary caregiver is still living in the home.”

This is another area where thoughtful estate planning can be invaluable. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we offer planning strategies that can help you and/or your senior parents qualify for Medicaid and other benefits, without putting the family home or other assets at risk. Moreover, we will serve as both you and your family’s trusted advisor at all times, so you never have to worry about anyone impacted by your plan being under-informed about death’s many responsibilities.

Next week, in part two of this series, we will discuss more of the Cost Of Dying’s most notable findings and detail other ways you can dramatically reduce the financial, logistical, and emotional burden for your loved one’s upon your death using our Life & Legacy Planning Process. Until then, if you are ready to create or update your estate plan, contact us, your Personal Family Lawyer® today.

This article is a service of Marsala Law Firm, Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

With divorce occurring in roughly 50% of all marriages in the U.S. and life expectancy increasing every day, second—and even third—marriages are becoming quite common. And when people get remarried in mid-life and beyond, they often bring children from prior marriages into the mix. Such unions are often referred to as a “blended” family or a “Brady Bunch” family.

But blended families can also take other forms. Whether you have stepchildren, adopted children, children from a previous relationship, or you have someone you consider “kin,” even though that individual might not be classified as your legal relative in the eyes of the law, these are also examples of a blended family.

Whenever you merge two families into one, you are naturally going to encounter some challenges and conflict. To this end, blended families present a number of particularly challenging legal and financial issues from an estate planning perspective. Indeed, though all families should have an estate plan, planning is absolutely essential for those with blended families. 

If you have a blended family and something happens to you, without a carefully considered estate plan, your loved ones are at risk for significant misunderstanding and conflict, and having your assets tied up in court, instead of passing to those you want to receive them. Unless you are okay with setting your loved ones up for heartache, confusion, and pain when something happens to you, you need an estate plan that’s intentionally designed by an experienced lawyer (not an online document service) to keep your loved ones out of court and out of conflict.

While you should meet with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to plan for your particular family situation, here are a few of the most common issues blended families should keep in mind when creating or updating their estate plan.

1. Keeping Your Assets Separate

If you get remarried and have children from a previous marriage, you need to think about how you want to balance providing for your new spouse and ensuring the children from your previous marriage receive an inheritance from you, in the event of your incapacity or when you die.

If you intend to keep your assets separate, so each spouse can pass an inheritance to his or her own children, you’ll need to create and maintain separate financial accounts. For instance, one account contains the assets you want to pass on to your children, and the other can be either a separate or joint account that contains the assets you want to share with your new spouse.

Keep in mind, if you and your spouse commingle your income and assets, then the new spouse will have claim and control of those assets when you die, which can easily leave your kids with nothing. Moreover, joint accounts can be subject to claims from a former spouse and/or creditors, so unless you want your new spouse to share that risk, keep at least some of your assets separate.

And if you’re keeping assets separate, be sure to talk with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® about the best ways to do that, since it can get somewhat tricky, particularly when you are sharing some assets and buying new assets together with your new spouse.

2. Issues With Inheritance Timing

If you have children for whom you want to leave an inheritance, you need to consider how and when you want those assets to be passed on. For example, what would happen if you die prematurely or if your spouse is significantly younger than you? Do you want your kids to wait until your new spouse dies to receive their inheritance, or do you want them to receive it immediately following your death? Perhaps you desire to create a hybrid in which your children receive a small inheritance at the time of your death, and they receive the rest upon the death of your new spouse, which could be many years in the future.

Establishing trusts for each spouse’s children can protect those assets and stipulate when the kids receive their inheritance. You may want to provide your children with some of their inheritance, such as proceeds from a life insurance policy, upon your death, and then release the rest at some point in the future. Or if your kids are very young, you may decide to leave that decision up to your spouse or a third-party successor trustee, who can better determine the most advantageous time to pass on your children’s inheritance to them.

As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we will work with you, taking into account your unique family dynamics, assets, and potential areas of risk and conflict to help you determine the optimal time to pass on your wealth and other assets to your heirs to ensure it has the maximum benefit for everyone involved.

3. Carefully Consider Your Trustees

A common scenario for blended families is for one spouse to set up a revocable living trust that names themselves as the trustee during his or her lifetime, with the surviving spouse named as successor trustee once the first spouse dies. Yet, this would leave all decisions related to the trust assets to the surviving spouse, which could cause conflict with the children from your prior marriage. 

For example, the new spouse may choose to invest the trust assets conservatively, ensuring he or she has enough money to live comfortably for a few decades, instead of investing the assets for growth. On the other hand, the children—particularly if they are younger—might be better off having the assets placed into higher-risk investments, which can offer better returns in the long run, but leave less income for the surviving spouse.

In this case, it could be best to name a neutral third-party as successor trustee, so both your children and surviving spouse’s interests can be balanced fairly.

4. Preventing Conflict

If you are in a second (or more) marriage, with children from a prior marriage, the conflicting interests of your children and spouse can create serious strife between them in the event something happens to you. To reduce the likelihood of conflict, your estate plan needs to contain clear and unambiguous terms, spelling out the beneficiaries’ exact rights, along with the rights and responsibilities of executors and/or trustees. Such precise terms help ensure all parties know exactly what you intended.

Additionally, it’s essential that you meet with all affected parties within your blended family while you’re still alive (and of sound mind) to clearly explain your wishes directly, if you hope for your loved ones to love each other after you are gone. Sharing your intentions and hopes for the future with your new spouse and children from a prior marriage can go a long way in preventing disagreements over your wishes for each of them.

As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we can even facilitate these meetings to help ensure your blended family maintains a harmonious relationship no matter what happens to you.

5. Planning For Incapacity

In addition to planning for your eventual death, you must also plan for your potential incapacity. In this case, you’ll need to discuss how planning vehicles for your incapacity, such as a durable financial power of attorney, medical power of attorney, and a living will will be handled. 

For example, if you become incapacitated, who would you want making your legal, financial, and medical decisions for you? If your children are young, it’s best to leave those decisions up to your surviving spouse. However, if your children are older, you may want them included in the discussion of how such decisions will be made. Or you may prefer to name one of your adult children as your decision maker, or you might divide the different duties between your spouse and adult children.

Regardless of what you choose, we can support you to create an estate plan that ensures your incapacity will be managed exactly how you would want in every possible scenario.

Bringing Families Together

Along with other major life events like births, deaths, and divorce, entering into a second (or more) marriage requires you to carefully review and rework your estate plan. And updating your plan is exponentially more important when there are children involved.

As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we’ve been specially trained to counsel blended families on how to properly protect their assets in a manner that’s best for both the spouse and any children involved. We will ensure that you and your new spouse can clearly document and communicate your wishes to avoid any confusion or conflict over how assets and/or legal agency will be managed and passed on in the event of one spouse’s death or incapacity.

If you have a blended family, or are in the process of merging two families into one, sit down with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to discuss your different planning options. Contact us today to schedule your visit.

This article is a service of Marsala Law Firm, Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

If you’re looking to collect life insurance proceeds as the policy’s beneficiary, the process is fairly simple. However, during the emotional period immediately following a loved one’s death, it can feel as if your entire world is falling apart, so it’s helpful to understand exactly what steps you need to take to access the insurance funds as quickly and easily as possible.

Not to mention, if you’ve been dependent on the person who died for financial support and/or you are responsible for paying for the funeral or other expenses, the need to access insurance money can be downright urgent. Plus, unlike other assets, an estate’s executor typically isn’t involved with collecting life insurance proceeds, since benefits pass directly to a beneficiary, so this is something you will need to handle yourself.  

With this in mind, we’ve outlined the typical procedure for claiming and collecting life insurance proceeds, along with discussing how beneficiaries can deal with common hiccups in the process. However, because all life insurance policies are different and some involve more complexities than others, consult with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® if you need any support or guidance.

Filing A Claim

Death benefits are not automatically paid out from a life insurance policy. In order to collect the proceeds, you must first file a claim with the life insurance company. But before you start the claims process, you must first identify the beneficiary of the policy: are you the beneficiary, or is the policy set up to be paid to a trust?

We often recommend that life insurance proceeds be paid to a trust, not outright to a beneficiary. This way, the life insurance proceeds are protected from lawsuits, creditors, and even a divorce that a beneficiary may be involved with at the time they collect the funds.

In the event a trust is the beneficiary, contact us, your Personal Family Lawyer®, so we can create a certificate of trust that you (or the trustee, if the trustee is someone other than you) can send to the life insurance company, along with a death certificate, when it becomes available.

In any case, you (or the trustee) will notify the insurance company of the policyholder’s death, either by contacting a local agent or by following the instructions on the insurance company’s website. If the policy was provided through an employer, you may need to contact the insured’s workplace first, so they can put you in touch with the appropriate insurance representative.

Many insurance companies allow you to report the death over the phone or by sending in a simple form and do not require the actual death certificate at this stage. Depending on the cause of death, it can sometimes take weeks for the death certificate to be available, so this simplified reporting option can dramatically speed up the process.

From there, the insurance company typically sends the beneficiary more detailed forms to fill out, along with further instructions about how to proceed. Some of the information you’re likely to be asked to provide during the claims process include the insured’s date of birth, date and place of death, their Social Security number, marital status, address, as well as other personal data.

Your state’s vital records office creates the death certificate, and it will either send the certificate directly to you or route it through your funeral/mortuary provider. Once you’ve received a certified copy of the death certificate, you’ll need to send it to the insurance company, along with all of the other forms the insurance company requires you to complete.

Multiple Beneficiaries

If more than one adult beneficiary was named, each person should provide his or her own signed and notarized claim form. If any of the primary beneficiaries died before the policyholder, an alternate/contingent beneficiary can claim the proceeds. In that case, however, he or she will need to send in the death certificates of both the policyholder and the primary beneficiary.

Minor Beneficiaries

Although policyholders are free to name anyone as a beneficiary, when minor children are named, it creates serious complications, since insurance companies will not allow a minor to receive life insurance benefits directly until they reach the age of majority, which varies between states—in some it’s 18, and others it’s 21.

If a minor child is named as a beneficiary, you would need to go to court to be named as the child’s legal guardian in order to manage the funds until the child comes of age—and this is the case even if you’re the child’s natural parent. This is because unless you are specifically named as the guardian of the minor’s estate, you are not automatically considered the guardian of the child’s financial assets, even as their parent.

 
This is why you should never name a minor child as a life insurance beneficiary, even as a backup to the primary beneficiary. Rather than naming a minor as the beneficiary, it’s often better to set up a trust to receive the proceeds. In that case, the proceeds are paid into the trust, and whomever is named as trustee will collect the insurance proceeds and manage the funds for the child’s benefit until he or she comes of age. 

Moreover, within the terms of the trust, you can also spell out exactly how you’d like the trustee to manage the money for the child and even how the child can use the funds once they’ve reached adulthood.

In any case, you should consult with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to determine the best options for passing on your life insurance benefits and other assets to minor children. 

Insurance Claim Payments

Provided you fill out the forms properly and include a certified copy of the death certificate, insurance companies typically pay out life insurance claims fairly quickly. In fact, some claims are paid within one to two weeks of the start of the process, and rarely do claims take more than 60 days to be paid. Most insurance companies will offer you the option to collect the proceeds via a mailed check or transfer the funds electronically directly to your account.

Delayed Payouts

The payout of life insurance proceeds can be delayed for a number of reasons. Beneficiaries often face delays if the policyholder dies within two years of the policy being issued. This is due to the fact that most life insurance policies contain a contestability period. 

Most contestability periods are typically between one to two years, and if the insured dies during this period, the insurance company can investigate the claim to ensure that the policyholder didn’t commit fraud on the policy application by lying about underlying health problems, family medical history, or other conditions.

That said, provided the insurance company doesn’t discover fraud or other issues with the application, it will most likely pay the claim once the investigation is wrapped up. If problems with the application are discovered, the insurance company might pay a reduced benefit or even deny the claim, depending on what is uncovered.

Payout may also be delayed when homicide is determined to be the insured’s cause of death and the beneficiary is a suspect. In this case, the payout is typically delayed until the beneficiary is cleared of any involvement in the insured’s death.

A few other common reasons insurance payouts may be delayed include:

• The insured committed suicide within two years of the policy being issued.
• The insured died during the course of illegal or criminal activity, such as a robbery or driving while intoxicated.
• The insured omitted risky activities, such as smoking or skydiving, on the policy application.

Additional Information

Sometimes an insurance company will request you to send in a completed W-9 form (Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification) from the IRS in order to process a claim. Most of the time, a W-9 is requested if there is some question or issue with the records, such as having an address provided in a claim form that doesn’t match the one on file.

That said, a W-9 is simply a way for the insurance company to verify certain information in order to prevent fraud, so don’t be alarmed if you’re asked for one. This is a common verification practice, and it doesn’t automatically mean the company suspects you of fraud or plans to deny your claim.

We’re Here To Help

While collecting life insurance proceeds is often a simple process, don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have questions or need support in any way. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we are here to ensure the process goes as smoothly as possible for you during what is likely to be an extremely trying time. Contact us today to learn more.

This article is a service of Marsala Law Firm, Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

As we are about to wrap up another Pride Month, the LGBTQ+ community faces an increasingly uncertain legal landscape. In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, ending the recognition of a constitutional right to abortion, many are worried that other rights, especially those enjoyed by same-gender couples, might also be under threat. 

In fact, with Roe overturned, legal experts warn that the Supreme Court’s new Republican majority may come for landmark LGBTQ-rights decisions next, including marriage equality established by Obergefell v. Hodges. In light of this potential challenge, it’s critical that same-gender couples ensure their estate plans are carefully reviewed and updated by an estate planning lawyer who understands the special needs of LGBTQ+ planning to address any such developments.
Although we will have to wait and see whether the Supreme Court ultimately decides to rule on marriage equality, same gender couples can act right now to put in place a number of proactive estate planning measures to ensure their relationships have the maximum legal protections. 

While you should meet with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to address your specific circumstances, here are answers to some frequently asked questions related to LGBTQ+ estate planning.

Q: My partner and I are in a registered domestic partnership in our state, but we are not married. Do we qualify for the same rights and benefits available to married couples?

A: No, domestic partnerships, civil unions, and other alternative legal relationships to marriage only offer rights and protections in the states that recognize them. Marriage is the only relationship that is recognized by the federal government. 

Moreover, the rights and protections offered by domestic partnerships and civil unions can vary widely from state to state. In some states, for example, domestic partnerships and civil unions do not affect property rights between the two partners, while in other states they do. 

If you want all of the rights and protections that come with having your relationship recognized by the federal government, marriage is your only option.

However, you can replicate almost all of the benefits of marriage through a comprehensive estate plan—what we call a Life & Legacy Plan—so give us a call and let’s discuss how we can support you in getting the right legal documents and plan in place for you and your partner.

Q: My partner and I have been living together for 10 years, but we are not married and have no desire to get married. I’ve created a will, but my partner has no estate plan at all. What would happen to me in the event my partner dies or becomes incapacitated?

A: If you are unmarried and your partner dies without any estate plan, your partner’s assets will be distributed to his or her surviving family members according to our state’s intestate succession laws. Those laws only apply to relatives in the eyes of the law, so you would have no right to inherit any of your partner’s assets.

If not remedied immediately, this could have catastrophic effects for you. For example, if your partner dies, and you are not named on the deed to a home you live in together, you could even be left homeless should the family member who inherits the house decide to kick you out.

Similarly, in the event of your partner’s incapacity, you would have no automatic right to make medical decisions on their behalf, nor would you be able to access any financial accounts that are solely in their name. Your partner’s family could even prevent you from visiting your partner in the hospital.

In light of these facts, if you are in an unmarried relationship and you want your partner to inherit any of your assets upon your death or have any say in how your healthcare and/or finances are managed in the event of your incapacity, it’s absolutely crucial that each of you create a Life & Legacy Plan that addresses both death and incapacity.

Q: What kind of estate planning tools typically make up an effective incapacity plan for LGBTQ+ or any unmarried couple?

A: Estate planning isn’t just about planning for your eventual death; it’s also about planning for your potential incapacity due to serious injury or illness. Creating an effective incapacity plan allows you to name the person (or persons) you would want to make your healthcare, legal, and financial decisions for you if you are incapacitated and unable to make such decisions yourself.

If you haven’t planned for incapacity, the choice is left up to the court to appoint a legal guardian to make these decisions on your behalf. If you are unmarried and the court appoints one of your relatives as your guardian, your family could leave your partner totally out of the medical decision-making process and even deny him or her the right to visit you in the hospital. And even if you are married, it’s not guaranteed that your spouse would have the ultimate legal authority to make such decisions.

Though the court typically gives spouses priority as guardians, this isn’t always the case, especially if unsupportive family members challenge the issue in court. To ensure your partner/spouse has the ability to make these decisions for you, you must grant him or her the legal authority to do so using medical power of attorney and durable financial power of attorney.

A medical power of attorney gives your partner/spouse the authority to make healthcare decisions for you if you’re incapacitated and unable to do so yourself. Similarly, a durable financial power of attorney gives your partner/spouse the authority to manage your financial, legal, and business affairs, including paying your bills and taxes, running your business, selling your home, as well as managing your banking and investment accounts.

Additionally, you should also create a living will, so that your partner/spouse will know exactly how you want your medical care managed in the event of your incapacity, particularly at the end of life. Finally, don’t forget to provide your partner/spouse with HIPAA authorization within the medical power of attorney, so they will have access to your medical records to make educated decisions about your medical treatment.

As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we will support you in putting in place a robust estate plan that will ensure that your partner/spouse has the maximum rights possible if you are ever struck by a debilitating accident or illness.

Q: My partner and I are married, and we both have a will. Is this a sufficient level of planning?

A: Although a will is a foundational part of nearly every adult’s estate plan, we recommend that couples who have assets—even those who are married—create both a will and a trust, if you want to ensure your loved ones stay out of court upon your incapacity or death.

A will does not work in the event of your incapacity, which could happen at any time before your death. Should you become incapacitated with only a will in place, your spouse may not have access to needed funds to pay bills, or they might even be forced to leave your home by a family member appointed as your guardian during your incapacity.

Furthermore, upon your death, a will is required to go through the often long, costly, and potentially conflict-ridden court process known as probate. In contrast, assets that are properly titled in the name of your trust would pass directly to your spouse upon your death, without the need for probate or any court intervention.

If your relationship is not supported by one or both families, avoiding court is especially important. If a family member doesn’t support your relationship, they are more likely to contest your will during probate. If your will is successfully contested, this could prevent your spouse from receiving assets you left in your will. Not only that, but the process of contesting a will is extremely time-consuming, costly, and emotionally draining for your surviving spouse.

Finally, when an attorney drafts your will, it is typically not set up to protect your assets after they are passed to your spouse from creditors or lawsuits. However, leaving your assets in a trust that your spouse can control would ensure the assets are protected from creditors, future relationships, and/or unexpected lawsuits.

Q: How can I ensure that my unmarried partner is able to carry out my wishes for my funeral arrangements?

A: To make certain that your partner has the legal authority to control your funeral arrangements, you should create a funeral directive, also known as a disposition of remains directive. This directive, which describes how you want your funeral or cremation arrangements carried out, can be included as part of your will, or it can be a separate stand-alone document.

Absent any estate planning, state law dictates who has the right to dispose of your remains and control your funeral, and if you are unmarried, this authority is typically given to your surviving family members. However, a properly drafted funeral directive allows LGTBQ+ couples to opt out of this default and designate the person you want to control your final arrangements.

Q: How can the non-biological parent in an LGTBQ+ relationship gain parental rights and avoid custody battles in the event of the biological parent’s death?

A: To ensure the full rights of a non-biological parent, many legal experts advise same-gender couples to undergo second-parent adoption. But in many states, it can be extremely difficult for same-gender couples to adopt. Some states even permit employees of state-licensed adoption agencies to refuse to grant an adoption if doing so violates their religious beliefs. And given the Supreme Court’s new conservative majority and the recent decision on Roe v Wade, such legal discrimination is likely to continue.

However, using a variety of estate planning strategies, as your local  Personal Family Lawyer® we can provide non-biological, same-gender parents with some protection of their parental rights. Starting with our Kids Protection Plan®, LGBTQ couples can name the non-biological parent as the child’s legal guardian, both for the short-term and the long-term, while confidentially excluding anyone the biological parent thinks may challenge their wishes.

By doing so, if the biological parent becomes incapacitated or dies, his or her wishes are clearly stated, so the court can do what the parent would have wanted and keep the child in the non-biological parent’s care.

Beyond that, there are several other estate planning vehicles—living trusts, power of attorney, and advance healthcare directives—we can use to grant the non-biological parent additional rights. We can also create “co-parenting agreements,” which are legal agreements that stipulate exactly how the child will be raised, what responsibility each partner has toward the child, and what kind of rights would exist if the couple splits or gets divorced.

An Advocate For LGTBQ+ Rights

Given these uncertain times, it’s more important than ever for LGBTQ+ couples, especially those with children, to have a carefully prepared estate plan that’s been created by a lawyer with experience dealing with these issues, and avoid using online document services at all costs. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, you can trust us to create an estate plan that’s specifically designed to prevent court challenges by family members who disagree with your relationship, and provide your partner/spouse with the maximum legal and financial benefits possible.

Using our Life & Legacy Planning Process, us, your Personal Family Lawyer® can ensure that no matter what happens to you, your beloved will be protected and provided for in the exact manner you wish, rather than being stuck in a financial and legal nightmare. Furthermore, we can help ensure that non-biological parents in same-gender partnerships have as many parental rights as possible, without resorting to second-parent adoption. Contact us, your Personal Family Lawyer® today to learn more and get your plan started.

This article is a service of Marsala Law Firm, Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge. 

These days, more and more young people are delaying—if not totally foregoing—a life that involves marriage and parenting. The lack of jobs, crushing student debt, multiple recessions, and the pandemic have pushed many young people into a life path that leaves little room for settling down with a partner and getting married—and even less room for having children.

Yet, for other young adults, staying single and childless is simply a matter of choice. Regardless of the reason, as more young adults opt for non-traditional lifestyles, the number of single childless households is likely to steadily increase in the coming years.

While most adults don’t take estate planning as seriously as they should, if you are single with no children, you might think that there’s really no need for you to worry about creating an estate plan. But this is a huge mistake. In fact, it can be even MORE important to have an estate plan if you are single and childless.

If you are single without kids, you face several potential estate planning complications that aren’t an issue for those who are married with children. And this is true whether you’re wealthy or have very limited assets. Indeed, without proper estate planning, you’re not only jeopardizing your wealth and assets, but you’re putting your life at risk, too. And that’s not even mentioning the potential conflict, mess, and expense you’re leaving for your surviving family and friends to deal with when something unexpected happens to you. 

With this in mind, if you’re single and childless, consider these three inconvenient truths before you decide to forego estate planning.

1. Someone Will Have to Handle Your Stuff

Whether you’re rich, poor, or somewhere in between, in the event of your death, everything you own will need to be located, managed, and passed on to someone, which can be a massive undertaking in itself—one that few families are properly prepared for. 

In fact, following a loved one’s death, American families spend an average of 500 hours and $12,700 over the course of 13 months (20 month if probate is required) to finalize the person’s affairs and settle their estate, according to the first annual Cost Of Dying report released this March by tech startup Empathy in partnership with Goldman Sachs. Look for additional articles in the coming weeks covering the Cost Of Dying and the new role Empathy is playing in the end-of-life industry.

On top of the logistical complications involved with finalizing your affairs, without a clear estate plan, including a will or trust, your assets will go through the court process of probate, where a judge and state law will decide who gets everything you own. In the event no family steps forward, your assets will become property of the state.

Why give the state everything you worked to build? And even if you have little financial wealth, you undoubtedly own a few sentimental items, maybe even including pets, that you’d like to pass to a close friend or favorite charity.

However, it’s rare for someone to die without any family members stepping forward. It’s far more likely that some relative you haven’t spoken with in years will come out of the woodwork to stake a claim. Without a will or trust, state intestacy laws establish which family member has the priority inheritance. If you’re unmarried with no children, this hierarchy typically puts parents first, then siblings, then more distant relatives like nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, and cousins.

Depending on your family, this could have a potentially troubling—and even deadly—outcome. For instance, what if your closest living relative is your estranged brother with serious addiction issues? Or what if your assets are passed on to a niece with poor money-management skills, who is likely to squander her inheritance?

And if your estate does contain significant wealth and assets, this could lead to a costly and contentious court battle, with all of your relatives hiring expensive lawyers to fight over your estate. In the end, this could tear your family apart, while making their lawyers rich—all because you didn’t think you needed an estate plan.

As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we will work with you to create an estate plan that ensures that your assets will pass to the proper people, while avoiding both unnecessary court proceedings and family conflict.

2. Someone Will Have Power Over Your Healthcare

Estate planning isn’t just about passing on your assets when you die. In fact, some of the most critical aspects of estate planning have nothing to do with your money at all, but are aimed at protecting you while you’re still very much alive.

Proactive planning allows you to name the person you want to make healthcare decisions for you in the event you are incapacitated and unable to make such decisions yourself. This is done using an estate planning tool known as a medical power of attorney.

For example, if you’re incapacitated due to a serious accident or illness and unable to give doctors permission to perform a potentially risky medical treatment, it would be left up to a judge to decide who gets to make that decision on your behalf.

If you have a romantic partner but aren’t married and haven’t granted him or her medical power of attorney, the court will likely have a family member, not your partner, make those decisions. Depending on your family, that person may make decisions contrary to what you or your partner would want.

And if you don’t want your estranged brother to inherit your assets, you probably don’t want him to have the power to make life-and-death decisions about your medical care, either. But that’s exactly what could happen if you don’t put a plan in place.

Furthermore, your family members who have priority to make decisions for you could keep your dearest friends away from your bedside in the event of your hospitalization. Or family members who don’t share your values about the type of food you eat, or the types of medical care you receive, could be the one’s making decisions about how you’ll be cared for.

To address these issues, you need to implement an estate planning tool that provides specific guidelines detailing exactly how you want your medical care to be managed during your incapacity, including critical end-of-life decisions. This is done using an estate planning vehicle known as a living will.

Bottom line: If you are single with no kids, you need to create an estate plan in order to name healthcare decisions-makers for yourself and provide instructions on how you want those decisions made should you ever become incapacitated and unable to make those decisions yourself.

3. Someone Will Get Power Over Your Finances

As with healthcare decisions, if you become incapacitated and haven’t legally named someone to handle your finances while you’re unable to do so, the court will pick someone for you. The way to avoid this is by granting someone you trust durable financial power of attorney.

A durable financial power of attorney is an estate planning vehicle that gives the person you choose the immediate authority to manage your financial, legal, and business affairs if you’re incapacitated. This agent will have a broad range of powers to handle things like paying your bills and taxes, running your business, collecting your Social Security benefits, selling your home, as well as managing your banking and investment accounts.

Without a signed durable financial power of attorney, your family and friends will have to go to court to get access to your finances, which not only takes time, but it could lead to the mismanagement—and even the loss—of your assets should the court grant this authority to the wrong person.

What’s more, the person you name doesn’t have to be a lawyer or financial professional; it can be anybody you choose, including both family and friends. The most important aspect of your choice is selecting someone who’s imminently trustworthy, since they will have nearly complete control over your finances while you remain incapacitated. And besides, with us as your Personal Family Lawyer®, your agent will have access to our team as their trusted counsel should they need guidance or help.

Don’t Leave So Much At Risk

Given these potential risks and costs for yourself and  those you care about, it would be foolhardy if you are single without kids to ignore or put off these basic estate planning strategies. Identifying the right estate planning tools is easy to do, and it begins with a Family Wealth Planning Session. During this session, us,  your local Personal Family Lawyer® will consider everything you own and everyone you love, and guide you to make informed, educated, and empowered choices for yourself and your loved ones.

In the end, it will likely take just a few hours of your time to make certain that your assets, healthcare, and finances will be managed in the most effective and affordable manner possible in the event of your death or incapacity. Don’t leave your life and assets at risk or leave a mess for the people you love; contact us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to get your estate planning handled today.

This article is a service of Marsala Law Firm, Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during 

which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

If a family member or friend has asked you to serve as trustee for their trust either during their life, or upon their death, it’s a big honor—this means they consider you among the most honest, reliable, and responsible people they know.

That said, serving as a trustee is not only a great honor, it’s also a major responsibility, and the role is definitely not for everyone. Serving as a trustee entails a broad array of duties, and you are both ethically and legally required to properly execute those duties or you could face liability for not doing so.

In the end, your responsibility as a trustee will vary greatly depending on the size of the estate, the type of assets covered by the trust, how many beneficiaries there are, and the document’s terms. In light of this, you should carefully review the specifics of the trust you would be managing before making your decision to serve.

Remember, you don’t have to take the job. That said, depending on who nominated you, declining to serve may not be an easy or practical option. On the other hand, you might actually enjoy the opportunity to serve, so long as you understand what’s expected of you.

With this in mind, here we’ll give you a brief overview of what serving as a trustee typically entails. For help in making your decision, contact us, your Personal Family Lawyer®, so we can detail exactly what your specific trust would require of you. And as we’ll discuss more below, if you do accept, we can also help you carry out your responsibilities, so rest assured, you won’t have to handle things all by yourself.

A Trustee’s Primary Duties

Although every trust is different, serving as trustee comes with a few core requirements. These duties primarily involve accounting for, managing, and distributing the trust’s assets to its named beneficiaries as a fiduciary.

As a fiduciary, you have the power to act on behalf of the trust’s creator and beneficiaries, always putting their interests above your own. In fact, you have a legal obligation to act in a trustworthy and honest manner, while providing the highest standard of care in executing your duties.

This means that you are legally required to properly manage the trust and its assets in the best interest of all the named beneficiaries. And if you fail to abide by your duties as a fiduciary, you could face legal liability. For this reason, you should consult with us for a more in-depth explanation of the duties and responsibilities a specific trust will require of you before agreeing to serve.

But regardless of the trust or the assets it holds, some of your key responsibilities as trustee include:

• Identifying and protecting the trust assets
• Determining what the trust’s terms require in terms of management and distribution of the assets
• Hiring and overseeing an accounting firm to file income and estate taxes for the trust
• Communicating regularly with beneficiaries
• Bringing in the right investment management team to manage the trust assets
• Being scrupulously honest, highly organized, and keeping detailed records of all transactions
• Closing the trust and distributing the assets when the trust terms specify

Experience NOT Required

It’s important to point out that being a trustee does NOT require you to be an expert in law, finance, taxes, or any other field related to trust administration. In fact, trustees are not only allowed to seek outside support from professionals in these areas, they’re highly encouraged to do so, and the trust estate will pay for you to hire the support you need.

So even though serving as a trustee may seem like a daunting proposition, you won’t have to handle the job alone. And you are also able to be paid to serve as trustee of a trust should you choose to accept the role. 

That said, many trustees, particularly close family members, often choose to forgo any payment beyond what’s required to cover the trust expenses, if that’s possible. The way  you are compensated as a trustee will depend on your personal circumstances, your relationship with the trust creator and beneficiaries, as well as the nature of the assets in the trust.

We’re Here To Help

Because serving as a trustee involves such serious responsibility, you should meet with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® for help deciding whether or not to accept the role. We will offer you a clear, unbiased assessment of what’s required of you based on the specific trust’s terms, assets, and beneficiaries.

And if you do choose to serve, it’s even more important that you have someone who can assist you with the trust’s administration. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we will guide you step-by-step throughout the entire process, ensuring you properly fulfill all of the trust creator’s wishes without exposing the beneficiaries—or yourself—to any unnecessary risks. Contact us today to learn more.

This article is a service of Marsala Law Firm, Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.

When creating an estate plan, people are often most concerned with passing on the “big things” like real estate, bank accounts, and vehicles. Yet these possessions very often aren’t the items that have the most meaning for the loved ones we leave behind.

Smaller items, like family heirlooms and keepsakes, which may not have a high dollar value, frequently have the most sentimental value for our family members. But for a number of reasons, these personal possessions are often not specifically accounted for in wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents. 

However, it’s critical that you don’t overlook this type of property in your estate plan, as the distribution of such items can become a source of intense conflict and strife for those you leave behind. In fact, if you don’t properly address family heirlooms and keepsakes in your estate plan, it can lead to long-lasting disagreements that can tear your family apart.

Heirlooms & Keepsakes: Little Things With Big Value

Heirlooms and keepsakes are both prized for their sentimental value, but these possessions are slightly different from one another in terms of the manner in which the items are passed on. 

Heirlooms: Heirlooms are passed down among family members for generations, and the passing of heirlooms sometimes involves traditions. For example, the first daughter to marry inherits grandmother’s heirloom wedding ring.

Keepsakes: Keepsakes, on the other hand, are possessions that are given or kept specifically for sentimental or nostalgic reasons, and these items may only get passed on once. For example, photo albums are a typical keepsake that are treasured by many families. If a keepsake gets passed on multiple times, it may eventually become a family heirloom.

Although just about any personal possession could be considered an heirloom or keepsake, some of the most common examples of these items include the following:

• Jewelry
• Photographs
• Books
• Art
• Musical instruments
• Furniture
• Clothing
• Bibles
• Recipes
• Family documents (such as birth certificates, baptism records, and citizenship papers)
• Collections (such as sports memorabilia, coins, stamps, and doll collections)

Issues Raised By Passing On Heirlooms & Keepsakes

In the legal world, both heirlooms and keepsakes are considered “non-titled personal property.” As mentioned earlier, when there is no plan in place for the distribution of these items following the owner’s death, it can create bitter conflicts among family members. Indeed, fights over heirlooms and keepsakes can cause close family members to never speak with one another again.

In her book “Who Gets Grandma’s Yellow Pie Plate?” Professor Marlene S. Stum, an expert in family social science at the University of Minnesota, warns of the infighting that can occur when there’s no plan for who inherits these personal effects.

“What surprises many people is that often the transfer of non-titled personal property creates more challenges among family members than the transfer of titled property,” says Stum. “Research has shown that disputes over inheritance and property distribution are one of the major reasons for adult siblings to break off relationships with one another.” 

Given the potential trouble the distribution of heirlooms and keepsakes can cause for your heirs, you’ll want to take extra care in seeing that these family treasures are passed on properly. And this means incorporating them into your estate plan in one way or another. 

Strategies For Peacefully Distributing Heirlooms & Keepsakes

While there is no one perfect way to distribute these items in your estate plan, your primary goal should be to maintain harmony among your loved ones during an already emotional time. As with most sensitive issues, clear communication is vital to this process.

Because your family members can have vastly different values associated with certain heirlooms and keepsakes and you may have little idea about how each person feels, you should speak with each family member in advance. By talking with family members about their feelings and expectations regarding your possessions ahead of time, you will have a much better idea how to distribute these items to your loved ones with the least amount of conflict.

Additionally, you should decide ahead of time if you need to have any of your heirlooms or keepsakes appraised. In doing so, you provide your heirs with the necessary documentation to gauge the monetary value of these items, and you can save them from extra work while they are mourning your death. 

Again, the manner in which you distribute your heirlooms and keepsakes will depend largely on the items you have to pass on and your specific family situation. That said, here are a few estate planning strategies to consider when passing on these precious possessions.

Gifting during your lifetime: Of course, you don’t have to wait until you die to pass on your heirlooms and keepsakes, and you may prefer to give away certain special items while you are still living. By doing so, you get to personally witness the joy your loved ones experience when they receive the gift, and you can also personally explain the reasons you want each person to have a particular item.  

If your heirlooms and/or keepsakes have a high monetary value, you should keep gift tax issues in mind when you give them away. That said, the IRS has a high annual gift tax exclusion ($16,000 in 2022) and an equally high lifetime exclusion ($12.06 million in 2022), so few people will need to worry about such taxes.

Keep in mind, the lifetime exclusion amount will revert back to its pre-2018 level of around $5 million per individual in 2026, so if you are considering gifting high-value possessions, you may want to do it sooner, rather than later. In any case, if you have possessions you want to give away that might trigger gift taxes, meet with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to discuss your options.

Include items in your estate plan using a personal property memorandum: As with other assets you want to pass on after your death, you should include heirlooms and keepsakes in your estate plan by adding them to your will or trust. The best way to do this is by using what’s known as a personal property memorandum.

A personal property memorandum is a separate document that is referenced in your will or living trust. The memorandum allows you to list which items you wish to leave to each individual and detail the reasons you are giving each item. In many states, if it’s properly incorporated into your will or trust, a personal property memorandum is a legally binding document.

Furthermore, unlike a will or trust, you can create and update your memorandum without a lawyer’s help. You can change your memorandum as many times as you like, just make sure you sign and date it each time to ensure authenticity. Your memorandum can be as long or short as you like, which allows you to account for even the smallest or seemingly insignificant possessions.

Most types of tangible personal property can be included in your memorandum, but it’s important to note that you cannot list certain assets in a memorandum, including titled property, such as real estate and vehicles; assets with a beneficiary designation, such as life insurance, 401(k)s, and bank accounts; or intellectual property, such as works protected by a copyrights or trademark. If you are unsure if you should include a certain possession in your personal property memorandum, consult with us.

Although you don’t need a lawyer to create or modify your personal property memorandum, if you need any help or support with yours, reach out to us, your Personal Family Lawyer®. That said, you should always enlist our assistance if you’d like to create or update your will or trust.

Pass on the values & stories behind the possessions: You may want to consider making audio recordings to accompany your heirlooms and keepsakes. In this way, your loved ones not only get to hear your voice, but they will also be able to learn the stories behind the possessions, as well as the reasons why you gave each person a particular item.

These stories not only help connect you with future generations, but having a strong family narrative also helps young people develop strong personal identities and boosts their self esteem. In the New York Times article, “The Stories that Bind Us,” author Bruce Feiler comments on this phenomenon: “The more children knew about their family’s history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem, and the more successfully they believed their families functioned.”

Best of all, you don’t have to worry about creating these recordings yourself, as we offer this exact service during our Family Wealth Legacy Interviews. In every estate plan we create for our clients, we will personally guide you to create a customized recording for the people you love, and then we will provide you with the recording digitally to ensure it will survive long after you are gone.

Don’t Let Anything Fall Through The Cracks
Of course, if no one can find your heirlooms and keepsakes, they aren’t going to do anybody any good. For this reason, it’s vital that you create and maintain a comprehensive inventory of all of your assets, including each of your family heirlooms and keepsakes. Fortunately, this is another service we offer all of our clients at no additional charge. Indeed, we will not only help you create a comprehensive asset inventory, we have systems in place to make sure your inventory stays consistently updated throughout your lifetime. 

To learn more and get your inventory started for free right now, visit the Personal Resource Map website to watch a webinar by Ali Katz, founder of Personal Family Lawyer®. Then, schedule a meeting with us, your local Personal Family Lawyer® to incorporate your inventory with your other estate planning strategies.

Keep The Peace After You Are Gone
To ensure your heirlooms and keepsakes don’t create any unnecessary conflicts among your heirs, make sure that your estate plan includes all of your assets, especially your family heirlooms and keepsakes. As your Personal Family Lawyer, we can support you to ensure these precious treasures are protected and preserved as part of your Life & Legacy Plan, and that they pass to each of your loved ones in exactly the manner you would want, without causing a family feud. Contact us today to learn more.

This article is a service of Marsala Law Firm, Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge. 

Whether it’s to avoid probate, or reduce your tax burden, transferring ownership of your home to your adult child during your lifetime may seem like a smart move. But in nearly all cases, it’s actually a huge mistake, which can lead to dire consequences for everyone involved.

With this in mind, before you sign over the title to your family’s beloved homestead, consider the following potential risks.  

Your Child Could Be Stuck With A Massive Tax Bill

Another drawback to transferring ownership of your home in this way is the potential tax liability for your child. If you’re elderly, you’ve probably owned your house for a long time, and its value has dramatically increased, leading you to believe that by transferring your home to your child, he or she can make a windfall by selling it. And by transferring the property before you die, you may think that you can save your child both time and money by avoiding the need for probate.

Probate is the court process used to distribute your assets according to the wishes outlined in your will or according to our state’s intestate succession laws if you don’t have a will. Depending on the complexity of your estate, probate can be a long and expensive process for your loved ones; however, that expense is likely to be relatively minor compared to the tax bill your heirs could face.

That’s because if you transfer your home to your child during your lifetime, he or she will have to pay capital gains tax on the difference between your home’s value when you purchased it and the home’s selling price at the time it’s sold by your child. Depending on your home’s value, that tax bill can be astronomical.

In contrast, by transferring your home at the time of your death via your estate plan, your child will receive what’s known as a “step-up in basis.” This tax savings is one of the only benefits of death, and it allows your child to pay capital gains taxes when he or she sells your home, based only on the difference between the value of the home at the time of inheritance and its sales price, rather than paying taxes based on the home’s value at the time you bought it.

For example, say you originally purchased your home for $80,000, and when you die, the home had appreciated in value to $250,000. Your daughter inherits the home upon your death, and then she sells it five years later for $300,000. With the step-up in basis in effect, she would only owe capital gains taxes on the $50,000 of difference between the home’s value when it was inherited and when it was sold.

However, if you transferred ownership of the home to her while you were still living, your daughter would lose the step-up in basis, and would face a capital gains tax bill of $220,000.

Capital gains tax is only one kind of tax that could be impacted by a transfer of your home during your lifetime. You may also destroy valuable property tax basis, which could cause a re-assessment of your home for property tax purposes, depending on the county or state your home is located in. 

There are much better ways to avoid probate using estate planning, such as by putting your home into a revocable living trust, in which case your home would immediately pass to your loved ones upon your death, without the need for any court intervention. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we can help you choose the most advantageous estate planning strategies to minimize your beneficiaries’ tax liability and ensure they get the most out of their inheritance, all while allowing them to avoid court and conflict.

Your Home Could Be Vulnerable To Debt, Divorce, Disability, & Death

There are a number of other reasons why transferring ownership of your house to your child is a bad idea. If your child takes ownership of your home and has significant debt, for example, his or her creditors can make claims against the property to recoup what they’re owed, potentially forcing your child to sell the home to pay those debts.

Divorce is another potentially thorny issue. If your child goes through a divorce while the house is in his or her name, the home may be considered marital property. Depending on the outcome of the divorce, the settlement decree may force your child to sell the home or pay his or her ex spouse a share of the home’s value.

The disability or death of your child can also lead to trouble. If your child becomes disabled and seeks Medicaid or other government benefits, having the home in his or her name could compromise their eligibility, just like it would your own. And if your child dies before you and owns the house, the property could be considered part of your child’s estate and end up being passed on to your child’s heirs, leaving you homeless.

There’s Simply No Substitute For Proper Estate Planning

Given these potential risks, transferring ownership of your home to your adult child as a means of “poor-man’s estate planning” is almost never a good idea. Instead, you should consult with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®, to find alternative solutions. We can help you find much better ways to qualify for Medicaid and other benefits to offset the hefty price tag of long-term care, and at the same time, we will keep your family out of court and conflict in the event of your death or incapacity.

As your Personal Family Lawyer®, we offer a variety of different estate planning packages at a variety of different price points as part of our Life & Legacy Planning Process. With our guidance and support, we will not only help you protect and pass on your home, but all of your family’s wealth and assets, while also enabling you to better afford whatever long-term healthcare services you might require. Contact us today to learn more.

This article is a service of Marsala Law Firm, Personal Family Lawyer®. We do not just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session™, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.