Why the Holidays are a great time to talk about Estate Planning

Transcript

good afternoon everyone welcome to pink mic legal confessions it's been a while so thank you so much for joining me today today we're going to be talking about why the holidays are a great time to talk about estate planning with your family with your friends and those loved ones we have to see once a year really the focus today is try to really convey how important it is to bring up these topics amongst family members and what better way than the holiday so as the holiday season is among us we now know that we're going to be able to see families spend quality time with them and often than not we see family members that live far away or perhaps we only see them once in a great while now spending quality time with family is great but it's also a great time to really focus on some of the things that are important that maybe are kind of uncomfortable topics or things that maybe people don't talk about as openly as we should so um that's really one of the things that i wanted to to really brief you guys on today um as you know i'm stephanie garces donat owner of garces law firm in arlington heights where we help parents prepare for the unexpected and we actually are helping people secure their legacy at the same time so the holidays are here and personally i really really like this time of year because things are a little bit slower we can sort of cozy up with family and really with um you know getting in tune with some of the holiday traditions that we all have and so it's really great to just spend time together and enjoy meals together uh many times we don't get to do that during the year with uh especially family members that are far away or ones we don't see very often so as always it's really important to think about protecting your family you know every possible step in life um is something we can't predict right so sometimes it's good to think about these things and with our families and loved ones we can actually avoid um some of the challenges that people face in life uh by just putting together a basic estate plan so many people often overlook this easy way to make their lives easier in the long run and to really have the proper documentation in place so in today's episode i'm going to cover a couple of things but as i mentioned it's going to be why the holidays are a great time to talk about estate planning you're probably wondering i don't want to talk about that because why would i want to talk about that of all the things i have to talk about well yes that's true but we can always prepare for the unexpected and that's part of my job so how you decide to approach state planning is really up to you it can be more of a formal conversation um people have like family meetings where they talk about these things it could be like a casual request that's totally fine really just to address some of the family members that really just haven't taken the time to do this sort of thing some people put this off i can't tell you how many times people put this off but it's a great time to really just try to connect with family about this topic now today i'm going to share the most crucial estate planning documents to talk about during the holidays how to get started and really what the differences are about them so that you can talk about them intent intelligently with your family so most of all i want to thank everyone really for taking the time in advance to talk with your family your parents your spouse about putting something in place really the one of the greatest gifts we can give each other is really preparing for unexpected situations and getting some documentation for estate planning and order is really one of the most underrated and very valuable gifts that you can give your family so as we know life is unexpected unexpected situations do happen so when they don't have proper documentation in place this can really cause stress it can cause uncertainty it can cause confusion and quite frankly it can cause a lot of family drama so it really makes it more difficult for people for example many people look to google or online to get forms but the forms are not just a way to say i'm done i got it online um plenty of people will say to me well i've already gotten some place i got something online i'm good i'm covered that is not necessarily true when you get something online it could certainly not be proper meaning it doesn't actually cover what it should cover um really depending on the state as well there are very nuances in the law there's certain things that you need to have in place to make sure these documents actually uphold that they're actually valid in my experience i've seen online forms be very cheap easy but they lack what i prepare which is essentially the nooks and crannies of of everything in your life and actually covering it so it really leaves you open it doesn't actually do what it's supposed to do so that's kind of silly why would someone do that but it's definitely something people are doing so something to think about with that is just to talk to family members about the fact that meeting with an attorney has a lot more value than just something you find online uh for one um we can certainly cater to the person and whatever their needs are every person is different everyone has different assets different family dynamics so those are the types of things that an attorney can handle like myself and an online form or an online robot won't they cannot anticipate things that are in your particular scenario so um that's really why i wanted to to bring that up because a lot of people are misled by the online thing so it's just good to have an experienced lawyer that can actually kind of craft what you're looking for really protect your assets because that's essentially the goal right the goal is to make sure that you're protected everything you worked hard for is protected and your legacy is also protected because you obviously have a legacy coming your way no matter who you are so you certainly want to make sure you protect the assets that you have now an experienced lawyer will also tell you what's required in the state so depending on where you live that could really just mean what are the laws in the state when it comes to getting these estate plan docs in order what makes them valid do you need a witness does it need to be notarized does an attorney have to prepare it what happens if i have x amount of money in this asset or i have a house in this state all of that really comes to light when we do a consultation of what kind of estate plan you actually need now the laws and the regulation in every state are different you've heard me say this before if you haven't already i always talk about the fact that you don't actually know what the laws of a particular state are until you meet with an attorney and again this is one of the benefits and uh really a unique opportunity for you to understand what is expected for these documents to to have to make them valid so that when you actually need them they're usable not that they're invalid and it's really essential to review and revisit your documents every couple years and for people that already have something in place there's plenty of people that have a will they have a trust they have a maybe elaine whatever they have it's in place but nine times out of ten not everyone revisits their documents they think oh i made this back in you know 1990 and it's fine well news flash is it's probably not fine you should always be revisiting your document especially if you had a big change in your life for example you got married you had a kid maybe more than one kid maybe you got divorced maybe you want more property it's inevitable that in life things are going to change at all phases there's just different phases of life maybe you recently retired maybe you're planning for retirement these are all things to consider because the documents can always be updated within reason of course so the person should actually be someone that is competent and can make these decisions but assuming they are you can always update your documents and you certainly want to do that especially if you have any big changes in your life because if you don't update them then who will so you really have to go and make sure your documents are timely and they do actually have everything that you want in them especially that they've accounted for some of the life changes you've experienced so we're going to dive in a little bit and we'll begin with the most basic and essential documents that every person should have one of the one things that i talk about often on the show is the powers of attorney and these are basically really important documents because these are documents that are used while you're living so they're important because when you go to a hospital for example they'll ask for a power of attorney for medical and that basically is the medical power of attorney that covers who is going to make decisions on your behalf if something happens to you and you cannot make decisions on your behalf for example if you have an accident and you're in a coma or in the event you are on life support or if there's anything where you just really are not able to make decisions and lack the capacity to do that the medical power of attorney puts someone in charge that you picked to make those decisions on your behalf so that's one of the medical power of attorney documents that i talk about a lot on this show um there's also the healthcare power of attorney uh that's what they call it they call medical or healthcare power of attorney that's another name for it uh the one that's completely separate from that is the financial power of attorney this is the power of attorney for property that's also um the way it's known that is a document that is different from the other one but still the same in that you can use it while you're living this actually allows someone to step into your shoes and really make decisions financially on your behalf if you became incapacitated or something happened where you lack capacity so these things are very important there's two stroke differences now keep in mind that the powers of attorney do have to be signed there has to be a witness there has to be um you know the person that's signing is actually the person that knows who they've picked and it has to be done in person this is the sort of thing that you certainly want to get an attorney for because there are documents that can really be um important in that if you don't have them done properly it's like you don't have one so just keep in mind our differences and powers of attorney for when you explain to your family they're both documents worth having and different from a will the power of attorney is used when you're living notice i never mentioned anything about death because the power of attorney is used while you're living and you cannot make decisions on your behalf that's the basic way to explain it it is not a will and that's completely separate because we'll talk about that in a little bit but the will is when you've already passed that's when it becomes effective and really just usable so those are some of the requirements and really the the nuances when it comes to powers of attorney when it comes to a will i know we talked about that a little bit the will is different in that it talks about what your wishes are you can put some sentimental things in there you can say how you wish to be um whether it's burial information or maybe you want to donate your body to science all of that is part of a will and the will are documents that you can also use to appoint guardian for your minor children so those are important documents and ones you should really consider when it comes to explaining to your family everyone no matter what socioeconomic status you have should consider a well because it does actually create a good foundation for a basic estate plan so i always say no matter what background you have how much you have you should at least consider that so it's just something to keep in mind the other thing too is we've talked a lot about estate planning in general but kind of going back to the health care um there are health care directives where are we used so health care issues can become um an issue at any time point in your life so you don't want to wait to have those documents in place for example you could have a directive that's or hipaa release that really tells the doctor who has access to your medical records do you want to be resuscitated or not these are very important questions and documents that really have a lot of weight when life's most unexpected things happen and during those challenging moments now establishing a trust is something other another topic we talk about it's another thing worth discussing at the family table here because when you think about estate plans the trust is a whole other ballgame very effective and really has more of an encompassing um role than a will now people always say well aren't they the same thing not necessarily because the trust what it does it actually protects all of the assets that you have and actually could even avoid your family going to probate now depending on the amount of assets you have or your family member has will determine whether you will have a trust or a will or you know whatever is recommended because there are different things and and recommendations depending on the assets that somebody has but as a whole the trust really provides the family a better protection if someone is of a certain um you know asset level because it really allows someone to um protect assets and actually not just in the event of death but it also is if you become incapacitated it puts someone in line to sort of step into your shoes and follow the instructions that you left this could be who's going to be getting your assets who's going to be getting your your homes uh there's a number of ways you can customize a trust but these are just basic um explanations for what it does so there's a lot of benefits of having to trust one of the main ones is avoiding probate which is what everybody wants to avoid because of this costly nature and how time consuming it is but it is still something to consider and it's worth discussing with family now one of the things that comes up a lot is individuals that are not married and have children we all have family members or know somebody that may have children with someone else with a significant other but they're not necessarily married this is still a great conversation to have with these individuals because they have a legacy they have children to protect married or not so there are documents that you can certainly offer to adults who are unmarried that are still just as valuable a will as i already mentioned is always a good idea especially for individuals that don't have any estate plan and maybe they don't have a lot of money in general to protect it doesn't mean they won't have it but it's at least a basic principle to put into your estate plan regardless of your your savings what you have so far now the powers of attorney that i had mentioned before are really really good especially when someone has a significant other um necessarily doesn't have to necessarily be married or unmarried but just in general people that don't have any estate plan and have children and maybe unmarried this is a good option for you as well because it actually puts the person in that you want in charge of your medical affairs same thing you can still create a will two for your children and you do not have to be married or anything like that to put together a will for your child so that's one of the the myths that i've come across so i just want to make sure you're understanding that and the hip authorization as i mentioned before that is also a very important document that we can offer adults that are unmarried because when it comes to medical records there's a lot of laws especially hipaa that does not allow anyone to just have access to those documents and so signing off on what's called a hipaa authorization ahead of time is a really effective way to have your family members or spouse or significant other life partner whatever to have access to those records in the event they need them because remember when you can't make decisions on your behalf having the proper paperwork allow someone to really care for you in the way that you would want so i just want to call a timeout really quick because i just want to make sure i recap for anyone that is just joining us now my name is attorney stephanie garces donat owner of garces law firm in arlington heights law firm in illinois serving parents individuals to secure their legacy especially preparing for the unexpected now protecting your children and protecting your family is one of the topics we're talking about today especially one of the holidays so we are sharing tips today on how do you bring up this conversation during the holidays especially when estate planning and death or illness is not a super exciting topic and it could be quite sensitive but you actually want to make sure you convey to your family that this is one of the greatest gifts you can give your family is a proper estate plan because in the event something happens that is unexpected then these situations that are very difficult become a little easier if you have prepared the proper documents ahead of time now we welcome you to join us here every tuesday at one o'clock to discuss estate planning information we talk about real estate we talk about a lot of legal issues that people are always wondering and it's free so you can always share it with your family members and i always try to use this platform to make sure that the viewers are educated on some of the stuff that we're talking about and i really enjoy trying to make sure that everyone knows what to talk about how to talk about it intelligently and at the very least you've already you've put the the the seed in somebody's head that estate plant is always a good option no matter what walk of life you've come from so i know many of you have questions as viewers so i want to make sure i address them and some of the questions that we've had along the way um with previous episodes and also this episode is really talking about um some of the things that may be on your mind that maybe we haven't specifically addressed so one of the questions that i get often is do you do i always have to have all the documents at one time do i have to do them all at the same time the short answer is not necessarily you can always do them piecemeal but i'm always going to recommend we do them at the same time because you hear me preach about what's unexpected or what do we know um what do we know about anything is that life is unpredictable so in my recommendation is try to get your documents done all at once at the same time if at all possible because it allows a couple of things it allows all your bases to be covered it minimizes the chances that we haven't covered something and it also minimizes the chances that something will happen and we didn't get to that one document so i usually recommend everything get done ahead of time at the same time that way you don't have to make multiple visits but of course if you have to make multiple visits for some odd reason we can certainly accommodate that now one of the questions of yours had is what is the most important document to have done while my family is together this is a great great question and i would say at the very least having powers of attorney and a will are really one of the most important documents even if you don't have the full blown estate plan i think always having something basic like that is something you can do with family um and quite frankly keep in mind that when your family is together you do get to talk about these things like how rare is it for family members to just come out and talk to start talking about this out of the blue so having these documents and talking about how important they are to have them done when your family is together is very important another question that we get is do all estate plan documents have to be signed in person with a witness well that's a great question because now there has been some changes in the law that does allow for signings to be remote although i will say there's a lot of requirements and nuances with that so they it can be done and yes you do need a witness but uh i would say if it's possible in person is always you know more recommended because it's quicker we can make sure that the signatures are done properly and it's doable can it be done remotely absolutely it can there is a way to do that as well the other question that we get every so often is can non-family members be given power of attorney rights this is a great question as well because people always wonder does it have to be someone that i'm related to the answer is no you can really set the power of attorney to whoever you want and that's really the beauty of these documents is you have control you get to choose um and actually you can choose whoever that you want it just it would be someone that i would recommend is responsible and is local that can actually be there when they're called upon so yes it can be a non-family member another question that i get every every so often is what advice do you have for selecting a guardian for my minor children well this is a great question because having a guardian is a really important and very serious decision to make so i would say when it comes to picking someone you certainly want to select someone that would be raising your children in the way that you would want whether that is where they're located what kind of religion or non-religion would they would they be pursuing um what are they what are those person's goals are they going to be um are they wanting to raise your child in the way that you would want and and do the goals align with that these are things to think about you want to get someone that is responsible but someone that can really just follow your instructions and when i say instructions it really would be i want my child to grow up and do this or be raised in this way so those are things to consider and those are super vital conversations to have with the guardians that you may be selecting so i think getting someone that is really in tune with what your desires are and that you trust to actually raise your children in the way that you want that is the way you want to select the guardian now sometimes people will say well i want my parents to be the guardian you can certainly pick your parents to be the guardian but also keep in mind age so someone is a lot older than you and you've named them as guardian you do have to consider if that person will outlive you or not so there are always considerations when it comes to that but i can certainly help you if that's what you're interested in doing selecting a guardian but there's a lot of advice and a lot of tips for that but certainly it's up to you at the end of the day now one of the questions that i got from one of the viewers is how much does it cost to create an estate plan well this is always a great answer because it could really range and if it's something simple it could be as little as 500 if it's something more complex it can be closer to 35 or 4500 it could be more sometimes but it really just depends so really depends on the assets that you have and the goals so it really is a wide range because everything is not cookie cutter everyone has a different uh situation but i would say it really ranges from that sort of sort of range and we're happy to discuss payments and options for fees upfront so we usually do talk about that right away and we always work with your budget so feel free um to ask me anytime if you have any questions about that the other question i get every so often that i think i talk about a couple of times in this show probably more than once is do i offer virtual consultations and on-site visits absolutely we absolutely do offer that because virtual appointments are now the new norm so certainly we can do virtual appointments and we can also do online um like google meets or zoom if you're if you're comfortable with that we can do in in-person like on-site visits that's not a problem at all we can accommodate both and keep in mind that we will do whatever you're comfortable with so we do um have people wearing masks at the office if you are comfortable with doing that but there really is many ways for us to have consultations with you including virtual so one of the things that i always talk about is you know contacting me so we have different ways of contacting myself or my office you can always text us at 773-373-9592 you could also call you can email it really just depends on what you're comfortable with i would say for us to always make sure that we can service you the best way is definitely give us a call we speak spanish fluently as well for anyone that needs a spanish-speaking attorney that is something that we are big on so that we make sure that the person that we're representing is represented to the fullest so that we can make sure they understand the documents even if english is not their first language so that is one of the things that you know we always talk about is how to contact me but i really hope in all of this you thought about how to really talk with your family during the holidays this is such a great time i know it's not the most exciting and i already said that but i do want you to maybe take away a little bit from this show so that you can actually relay this to your family and never be shy about talking about this because i always tell my clients it's better to talk about this now than never have had the opportunity to do so and you know what i mean by that sometimes we want to have these conversations with their family but the opportunity never presents itself so i'm telling you this holiday please make sure to convey some of this information to your family and casually bring up if possible estate planning we're always here to help you and answer your questions i want to thank all the viewers for watching and for all your questions as always and for joining us this season with pink mic legal confessions we always encourage you to come back and ask questions if you have any feedback i welcome it and don't wait to reach out to us so that we can help you with your estate plan and your and your children as well they're depending on you to protect them so make sure you you give us a call as always too if you want to make sure to tune in it's on tuesdays at one o'clock and we cover a range of topics so make sure you save the dates on those pink mic legal confessions and as always these recordings are available on youtube and on facebook so thank you friends thank you viewers and happy holidays to everyone i hope to see you again in the new year