As we enter 2025, it’s time to stop pushing those thoughts aside and take action to protect the people you love most. Many people avoid estate planning because they think it will be complicated, expensive, too time-consuming, or emotionally challenging. But the truth is, not having a plan, or having an out-of-date plan, is far more costly – financially,  emotionally, and time-wise – for the people you love. 

Let’s take a look at five things you can do right now to create lasting peace of mind.

Step 1: Get Financially Organized

One of the biggest challenges people face after losing a loved one is trying to piece together their financial life. Where are all the accounts? What insurance policies exist? What bills need to be paid? Without proper organization, your family could spend months or even years trying to track everything down. Worse yet, anything they don’t find will be turned over to the State Department of Unclaimed Property, where there are approximately $60 billion in lost assets nationwide.  

As important as it is, financial organization isn’t just about making lists – it’s about creating a clear roadmap for the people who will handle your affairs when you cannot. This includes documenting all your accounts, insurance policies, important passwords, and key contacts. When your loved ones need access to this information, it should be readily available, updated, and easy to handle. This is why our Life & Legacy Planning process begins with a financial organization, and then our ongoing Life & Legacy Planning service supports you to maintain your financial organization throughout your life, so it’s handled with as much ease as possible for the people you love when something happens to you.

Step 2: Create a Lasting Message for Your Loved Ones

When someone dies, their loved ones often wish they had one more conversation, one more chance to hear their loved one’s voice or read their words. That’s why recording a Life & Legacy Interview is part of our planning process. It’s truly one of the most meaningful gifts you can give the people you love, and who love you. 

This message isn’t just about saying goodbye – it’s about sharing your values, hopes, and life lessons. Think about what you want future generations to know about your life journey. 

What wisdom do you want to pass down? 

What family stories, or even recipes, should be preserved? 

While you may think “generational wealth” is just about money, the truth is that people who are able to learn from the recorded history of past generations have true generational wealth that’s far greater and irreplaceable than any dollar ever could be.

Your words will become a treasured part of your legacy, offering comfort and guidance long after you’re gone.

Step 3: Learn About Tax Planning

Many people don’t realize that proper estate planning can help minimize or eliminate taxes their loved ones might otherwise have to pay. Without planning, they could lose a significant portion of their inheritance to estate taxes, income taxes, or capital gains taxes. 

Strategic tax planning isn’t about avoiding your obligations – it’s about ensuring more of your hard-earned assets go to the people you love rather than the government. Working with a trusted advisor who understands both estate and tax law can help you identify opportunities to protect your loved ones’ financial future.

Step 4: Plan Your Final Farewell (and Your Last Days)

While it might feel uncomfortable to think about your funeral, planning and paying for it in advance is one of the most loving things you can do for the people you love. When you’re gone, they will be grieving. The last thing they need is to make difficult decisions about your funeral while trying to guess what you would have wanted.

By planning ahead, you not only ensure your wishes are honored but you also protect the people you love from emotional overspending during a vulnerable time. You can choose and pay for exactly what you want, locking in today’s prices and relieving your loved ones of this financial burden.

Even more importantly, consider how you want to spend your last years, months, or even days and discuss that with the people who will be responsible for your care now. This could be a conversation we can help facilitate if bringing it up or even thinking about it alone feels too challenging or if you keep putting it off. This courageous conversation is one of the best gifts you can give to the people you love. 

Step 5: Create a Comprehensive Life & Legacy Plan

All these elements come together in our comprehensive Life & Legacy Planning® process, which guides you to understand the law and how it will apply to your unique situation, considering your family dynamics and assets, so you can make educated and informed choices to ensure your loved ones stay out of court and out of conflict when something happens to you. This isn’t just about creating legal documents – it’s about creating a plan, maintaining it, and ensuring your loved ones know who to turn to when something happens to you. 

When you create a Life & Legacy Plan with me, it includes clear instructions about who gets what, who’s in charge of what, and most importantly, how to find and access everything when needed. It also includes specific directives about what happens if you become incapacitated. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to outline your memorial service, and we’ll support you to record a Life & Legacy Interview that your loved ones will cherish for the rest of their lives.

The start of a new year is the perfect time to take these essential steps to protect the people you love. Don’t wait until it’s too late – the greatest gift you can give your loved ones is the gift of preparation and peace of mind.

How We Help You Get Started

As your Personal Family Lawyer® Firm, we help you put these essential protections in place. Through our Life & Legacy Planning® process, we’ll guide you in creating a lasting message for your loved ones, implementing smart tax strategies, planning your final arrangements, getting your finances organized, and creating a comprehensive plan that ensures the people you love stay out of court and conflict. Most importantly, we’ll help you make informed decisions that align with your values and wishes. So don’t delay! Let us help you start the new year by doing the right thing for your loved ones.

Click here to schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation to learn more:

The post Five Essential Steps to Protect Your Loved Ones in 2025 appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

This week, I’m covering two more reasons why every LGBTQ+ family needs custom estate planning. 

And if you missed last week’s blog, make sure to read it here to get the full scoop.

Let’s get started!

03 | Most Traditional Lawyers Aren’t Well Equipped to Serve LGBTQ+ Families

Although same-gender and LGBTQ+ relationships are more publicly recognized now than ever, creating effective estate plans for LGBTQ+ clients is still new territory for many traditional lawyers. 

Some lawyers simply lack experience serving LGBTQ+ families because these families didn’t have the same rights as cisgender couples until just eight years ago – and while that’s nearly a decade, it’s only a fraction of most lawyers’ practicing careers. For traditional lawyers who are in their 30th year of practice, new developments in LGBTQ+ planning are still fairly foreign.

The same is true for many LGBTQ+ families. In addition to same-gender marriage being relatively new, many LGBTQ+ families haven’t pursued estate planning due to a lack of knowledge about its importance or its availability to them. After all, only 30% of American adults have an estate plan, (yikes!), and only a small portion of that 30% are in a LGBTQ+ relationship.

For lawyers who create cookie-cutter plans for their clients (which is more lawyers than you’d like to think), the amount of custom estate planning language necessary to make an effective plan for an LGBTQ+ family is more than many lawyers know how to do or want to do. 

That leaves a shocking number of traditional attorneys who simply aren’t prepared or experienced enough to serve LGBTQ+ families in a way that creates effective plans and also honors their family and their legacy.

Sadly, some traditional lawyers don’t feel comfortable serving LGBTQ+ families and don’t even accept them as clients! 

Because of this, it’s crucial to work with an attorney who isn’t just comfortable working with LGBTQ+ families, but is passionate about getting to know your family on a personal level and creating a plan that celebrates all that you’ve done and all that you hope for your family in the future.

04 | Keep Your Kids with the Ones They Love

If you’re in an LGBTQ+ relationship, you know that family isn’t just about bloodlines – it’s also about your chosen family and the bond and love you share for each other. 

And if you have children, you know that ensuring their well-being and protection is of the utmost importance. 

In the event that something happens to you, it’s crucial to have a plan in place that addresses who will be your children’s legal guardian, and this is especially true if the children in your family aren’t biologically related to one of the parents, such as step-children or children born to same-sex parents who aren’t married.

Not only can these situations create some unique legal planning, but LGBTQ+ parents may also face resistance from family members who may not support children living with a biologically unrelated guardian or an LGBTQ+ guardian, whether you and your partner were married or not.

Similarly, if your family is resistant to certain lifestyle or parenting choices you have made – such as gender fluidity in how you raise your child or the topics you discuss within your family – it’s incredibly important to name guardians who align with your beliefs and who will honor your wishes for how you want your children to be raised.

Legal Guardians Are Even More Important for LGBTQ+ Families

To avoid potential disputes and ensure the continuity of care for your children, it’s essential to designate legal guardians for your children explicitly in your estate plan. By doing so, you can legally establish who you want to care for your children in your absence regardless of the guardian’s relationship to your children or their sexual orientation.

By documenting who you would want to raise your children clearly and legally, you help ensure that your children will always be raised by the people you choose and the people your children love. 

Otherwise, you leave space for relatives who do not agree with your beliefs to try to take over the position of guardian and raise your children in a way you would not agree with – possibly even keeping them away from the other parent figures in their life.

Choose a Lawyer Who Understands and Honors Your Unique Family

Finding a lawyer who truly understands your unique situation is crucial in making sure your loved ones are taken care of by people who love and respect them, regardless of biology or sexual orientation. You deserve a plan that celebrates your love, family, and future.

This Pride Month, celebrate all that you are by protecting everything you love. As your Personal Family Lawyer®, I understand the unique challenges that LGBTQ+ families face. That’s why I don’t practice law in the traditional way.

Instead, I put heart at the center of my practice – making sure to truly get to know you, your loved ones, and your needs so you can not only protect your family and document your wishes but create a legacy and a story for your loved ones that they’ll cherish for years to come.

To learn more about how I serve LGBTQ+ families differently, schedule a free 15-minute discovery call at the link below.

Happy Pride Month!

The post The Importance of Customized Estate Planning for LGBTQ+ Relationships (Part 2) appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

Estate planning laws are still written for hetero, cisgender individuals, and many lawyers aren’t well equipped to customize their estate plans to account for the unique family dynamics and wishes of LGBTQ+ clients. Sadly, if you have LGBTQ+ family members or are in a non-traditional family dynamic of any kind and don’t have a custom estate plan, the people you love most could find themselves accidentally disinherited from your estate or stuck in a lengthy and expensive court battle.

To make sure your family is well-cared for no matter how the law defines you, keep reading to learn why customized estate planning is so crucial for LGBTQ+ and all non-traditional humans.

01 | Care for Your Family as You Define It

The concept of family has expanded far beyond the confines of the traditional “nuclear family.” Gratefully, we now celebrate the beautiful diversity of family structures, encompassing same-gender couples, unmarried partners, civil unions, polyamorous relationships, and an array of other unique family dynamics. However, when it comes to death or incapacity, the law still lags behind, often failing to accommodate non-traditional family units in ways that you would choose.

If you die without an estate plan in place, the law will apply the state’s default estate plan to your unique situation. Under the law’s default plan, your possessions and money will pass to your next closest relatives by blood or marriage. If you aren’t legally married to your partner or partners, the people you love will be automatically disinherited in the event of your death.

Likewise, if you have children that are unrelated to you genetically who you haven’t formally adopted, like a partner’s child or stepchild, those children will not receive anything from your estate after you die. Even if you’re married to the child’s parent, the law does not recognize a stepchild as a direct descendant and therefore doesn’t include them in its default plan.

To make sure the people you love — your chosen family – are taken care of, no matter how the law labels your family, it’s important to create a custom estate plan that ensures your assets are distributed according to your wishes and that your partners, children, and chosen family members are protected and cared for if something happens to you, even if may not be recognized under default inheritance laws.

02 | Protect Your Financial and Health Care Rights

If you ever wondered who would take care of you and your things if you become ill or incapacitated, your first thought is probably your partner. Right? After all, it seems like common sense that your partner of ten years (or 2 years, or 5 years, or 20!) should be the one to make healthcare decisions for you or pay your bills.

But unfortunately, the law doesn’t operate based on what might seem like common sense when we look at our everyday lives and relationships. The law doesn’t assume that you’d want any particular person making decisions for you if you become incapacitated. Instead, your family members will need to go through a stressful court guardianship procedure to be granted decision-making power by a judge.

If your family members can’t come to an agreement on who should be your decision-maker, the court may assign a professional guardian – a complete stranger – to make decisions for you instead!

To avoid court involvement altogether, it’s vital to name your chosen decision-makers – your Powers of Attorney –  long in advance of ever needing them. This is especially important if you want to choose a decision-maker who isn’t related to you by blood or if you want to make sure that any certain lifestyle choices or beliefs such as a special diet, style of dress, or hormone therapy are still carried out if you’re incapacitated. 

If you don’t put these wishes on paper and name someone you trust to uphold them, it’s likely a judge won’t appoint your chosen decision-maker. In this case, the person the judge chooses can make whatever decisions for you they feel is best, even if that means ignoring your chosen gender expression or identity.

No one expects to become incapacitated due to an illness or injury, but sadly, it happens. Legally naming a decision maker in advance and talking about your wishes with them and your extended family helps safeguard your rights and ensures that your wishes for how you are cared for are honored while avoiding family conflict as much as possible.

Work With a Lawyer Who Understands You

Protecting your family and your wishes as an LGBTQ+ individual requires the guidance and expertise of a lawyer who understands your unique circumstances and desires for your family. That’s where we come in.

While the law may still fall short in accommodating the diverse family structures and dynamics that exist today, we understand that every family is different, and we know how to craft a custom plan that not only protects your loved ones and ensures your wishes are honored, but also embodies the values, beliefs, and stories that make your family unique.

If you want to make sure your LGBTQ+ family will be cared for and supported no matter what the future holds, schedule a free 15-minute discovery call with us to learn more about how I serve LGBTQ+ families differently than other lawyers. Then, check back in two weeks when I cover part two of this blog.

The post The Importance of Customized Estate Planning for LGBTQ+ Relationships (Part 1) appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

Green burial is now making a comeback. In a recent AARP poll, 45% of respondents said they would choose green burial over modern burial or cremation if given the choice. If you’ve worried about the impact of human burials on the environment, you may want to consider the solution offered by two Italian designers; an all-natural burial pod that uses human remains as food for a tree.

Capsula Mundi

Every day, we become more cognizant of the effect our conduct has on the environment. Most people have heard about progress in areas such as hybrid and alternate-power cars. Fewer people, however, are aware of alternatives relating to the burial of human remains.

Capsula Mundi is one such alternative to traditional burial in a coffin. The capsule, which is shaped like an egg, serves as a 100% biodegradable container for human remains. The body is placed in a fetal position inside the capsule, which is made of derivatives like potatoes and corn. A tree is planted immediately above the capsule, so the remains serve to nourish the growing tree.

Advocates of this idea point out it causes a new tree to be planted while saving others by preventing old growth trees from being cut down to make caskets. The newly planted tree can be a monument to the deceased, families can tend to the growing tree, and loved ones can be buried close together, creating a family forest.

Green Burials

The benefits of the Capsula Mundi mirror the guidelines issued by the Green Burial Council in determining whether burials are “green”:

• No embalming or the use of only postmortem fluids that are nontoxic;
• Natural, plant-based casket materials that release no toxic byproducts when made or when placed in the ground; and
• No use of vaults, concrete, slabs, or liners in burial plots.

Unfortunately, before these capsules will be in widespread use in the United States, both laws and cemetery regulations must be changed. Many states prohibit the burial of human remains without a casket, and cemeteries often require vaults to prevent the ground from settling.

We, the Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher, are here to help you plan a meaningful and eco-friendly goodbye. Click the button below to book a FREE 15-minute consultation to discuss green burial options.

The post A Gift To Your Family And The Environment: Green Burial appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

Two Types Of Trusts

There are two primary types of trusts — revocable living trusts and irrevocable trusts — and each one comes with different tax consequences.

Revocable Living Trust

A revocable living trust, also known simply as a living trust, is by far the most commonly used form of trust in estate planning. And as long as you are living, there is absolutely no tax impact of creating a living trust. 

A living trust uses your Social Security Number as its tax identifier, and this type of trust is not a separate entity from you for tax purposes. However, a living trust is a separate entity from you for the purpose of avoiding the court process called probate, and this is where the confusion regarding taxes often comes from. But before we explain the tax implications of a living trust, let’s first describe how a living trust works. 

A living trust is simply an agreement between a person known as the grantor, who gives assets to a person or entity known as a trustee, to hold those assets for the benefit of a beneficiary(s). In the case of a revocable living trust, the reason there are no tax consequences is because you can revoke the trust agreement or take the assets back from the trustee at any time, for any reason. In fact, as long as you are living, you can change the terms of the trust, change the trustee, change the beneficiaries, or terminate the trust altogether.

However, upon your death, a revocable living trust becomes irrevocable, and this is when tax consequences come into play. Following your death, the trustee you’ve named will step in and take over the management of the trust assets, and one of the first things that your trustee will do is to apply for a tax ID number for the trust. At this point, the trust becomes a taxable entity, and any income earned inside of the trust that is not distributed in that year would be subject to income taxes, at the taxable rates of the trust (or at the tax rates of the beneficiaries, if income is distributed to the beneficiaries). 

Irrevocable Trusts

An irrevocable trust is created when you make a gift to a trustee to hold assets for the benefit of the beneficiary, and you cannot take back the gift you’ve made to that individual.

When you create an irrevocable trust, either during your lifetime, or at death through a testamentary trust (a trust that arises at the time of your death through your will), or through a revocable living trust creating during your lifetime, the trust is a separate tax-paying entity, and it is either subject to income tax on the earnings of the trust at the rates of the trust or at the rates of the beneficiaries.

Unlike a revocable living trust, an irrevocable trust is (as the name implies) irrevocable. This means that the trust’s terms cannot be changed, and the trust cannot be terminated once it’s been executed. When you transfer assets into an irrevocable trust, you relinquish all ownership of those assets, and your chosen trustee takes total control of the assets transferred into the name of the trust. Because you no longer own the assets held by the trust, those assets are no longer considered part of your estate, and as long as the trust has been properly maintained, the assets held by the trust are also protected from lawsuits, creditors, divorce, serious illness and accidents, and even bankruptcy. 

However, as mentioned earlier, irrevocable trusts also come with tax consequences. As of 2024, the income earned by an irrevocable trust is taxed at the highest individual tax bracket of 37% as soon as the undistributed taxable income reaches more than $13,450. To avoid this high tax rate, in some cases, an irrevocable trust can be prepared so that the tax consequences pass through to the beneficiary and are taxed at his or her rates, which are typically much lower. 

We often set up a trust in this way when creating a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust for a beneficiary. When set up like this, the trust can provide the beneficiary with protection from common life events, such as serious debt, divorce, debilitating illness, crippling accidents, lawsuits, and bankruptcy, without being taxed at such a high rate on such little income.

If you have a trust set up, and would like us to review its income tax consequences for your loved ones upon your death, meet with us, your local Personal Family Lawyer®.

The Estate Tax: What It Is & Who Pays It

The estate tax is a tax on the value of a person’s assets at the time of their death. Upon your death, if the total value of your estate is above a certain threshold amount, known as the federal estate tax exemption, the IRS requires your estate to pay a tax, known as the estate tax, before any assets can be passed to your beneficiaries.

As of 2024 federal estate tax exemption is 13.61 million per individual and 27.22 million for a married couple. Simply put, if you die in 2024, and your assets are worth $13.61 million or less, your estate won’t owe any federal estate tax. However, if your estate is worth more than $13.61 million, the amount of your assets that are greater than $13.61 million will be taxed at a whopping 40% tax rate. 

You can reduce your estate tax liability—or even eliminate it all together—by using various estate planning strategies. Most of these strategies are fairly complex and involve the use of irrevocable trusts, but such strategies are without question worth it, if you can save your family such a massive tax bill. To learn how to save your family from such a major tax burden, meet with us, your Personal Family Lawyer® to discuss your options.

And please note, we are only speaking about the federal estate tax here. Currently, 12 states have their own estate tax, which are separate from the federal estate tax. We’ll cover the specifics of what happens in our state regarding your estate tax, when we have a Family Wealth Planning Session. Give us a call to schedule yours, if you have not yet had a Planning Session with us.

The Future Estate Tax

The current $13.61 million estate tax exemption is set to expire on Jan. 1, 2026, and return to its previous level of $5 million, which when adjusted for inflation is expected to be around $6.03 million. Here’s one thing we know for sure: We don’t know what the estate tax exemption will be at the time of your death, and we also don’t know what the value of your assets will be at the time of your death. Because of this, when you plan with us, we will ensure that we put in place planning strategies to protect your estate from estate taxes, regardless of the amount of the estate tax exemption or the size of your assets.

We’re Here For You

If you are trying to decide whether a revocable living trust, irrevocable trust, Lifetime Asset Protection Trust, or some other estate planning vehicle is the right solution for you and your family, meet with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®. We will support you in making that decision, so your estate can provide the maximum benefit for the people you love most, while paying the least amount of taxes possible. Call us today to schedule your visit.

The post Trusts & Taxes: What You Need To Know appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

These are just a few reasons why it is important for you to know the following about estate planning:

A will and a living trust are both essential estate planning tools, and although both can be used to transfer assets upon death, they serve separate purposes. A living trust can take effect while you are alive or after death. It allows you to hold assets for your benefit during your life, which may prove useful if you become incapacitated in the future. A living will can also be beneficial if you own real estate in another state. A will only takes effect upon death, and is used to appoint guardians for minor children, cover assets that are not part of a living trust and create trusts that kick in after death.

Women need to execute financial and healthcare durable powers of attorney and consider choosing a member of the family if that person is willing to assume the responsibility of making financial and/or medical decisions on their behalf in case of incapacity. And, if you are married or partnered, make sure your spouse or partner does the same because you’ll be the one who is handling things if anything happens to your spouse/partner and you want it to be as easy as possible.

Make sure your partner/spouse has life insurance to support you for as long as you will need support and that there’s enough to last your whole lifetime, unless you will have your own savings.

Don’t own your own life insurance policy as the proceeds will be subject to estate tax after you die. Instead, if your life insurance is designed to pay estate taxes, designate a spouse or other family member as owner or set up an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT), which buys the policy and holds the proceeds for beneficiaries. And again, if you have a taxable estate, make sure the same is set up for your spouse’s life insurance.

Keep beneficiary forms for retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s, etc.) up to date, as they determine who receives the assets of each one of your accounts.

Make sure there is enough cash held in a joint account to handle any immediate expenses if your spouse dies suddenly. You may not be able to access a deceased spouse’s separate bank account right away.

Surviving spouses are allowed to add the unused portion of a deceased spouse’s estate tax exclusion to their own. However, this exclusion transfer must be claimed by the deceased spouse’s executor filing an estate tax return. There’s other critical items that must happen when your spouse dies that can easily be overlooked. Contact an estate planning attorney within a few weeks of your spouse’s death whether you have a sizable estate or not.

Married couples can participate in “gift splitting” during life. We recommend you transfer as much as possible during life for many reasons. Ask us about it.

The best way to learn about protecting yourself and your family is to talk with us about a Legacy Vision Planning Session, where we can identify the best strategies for you to provide for and protect the financial security of your loved ones.

Register for our Proactive Planning for Women (PPW) Workshop and Webinar on March 25 & 26, respectively!

The post What Women Need To Know About Estate Planning appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

For plenty of folks, it’s easy to know what to do when it comes to home organization, but the idea of legal and financial ordering can be complex and confusing. This article will give you a few places to start:

01 | Review Your Beneficiary Designations

Request updated beneficiary designation forms from your life insurance account and retirement account custodians. Look at the form and identify whether you have a minor designated as either a primary or contingent beneficiary. If you do, those assets will be tied up in Court, unnecessarily, and may not be available to the people you’ve named to care for your children.

Consider designating your life insurance and retirement accounts to be distributed to a trust for the benefit of your heirs, providing Court and creditor protection, and ensuring your children do not inherit money before they are properly prepared.

02 | Update Your Family Wealth Inventory

Your Family Wealth Inventory is where we document the assets that you own, so that in the event you become incapacitated or when you die, your family will know how to find what you own.

Without an updated Family Wealth Inventory, your assets could be lost to the State Department of Unclaimed Property. There are millions of dollars of assets in our state department of unclaimed property because most people do not leave a clear record of their assets at the time of their incapacity or death.

03 | Consider If You Need To Name Guardians (Long Or Short-Term)

Review your guardian nomination designations. Have you named guardians for both the short-term (local) and the long-term (people you would trust to raise your kids fully)? If so, do they need to change? Is there anyone you would wish to exclude? Does the ID card for your wallet need to be updated? This is the time to check.

04 | Check Out The Title Of Your House

Get a copy of the deed to your house and make sure that your trust is listed as the owner on the deed, if you want your house to stay out of court in the event of your incapacity or death. If you see your personal name on the deed, and there is not a trust listed, you can be sure that would result in your house having to go through the court process of probate in the event of your death. If you don’t want that, now is the perfect time to spruce up your planning.

05 | Come In And Meet With Us For A Legacy Vision Planning Session

Last, but far from least, this is the perfect time of year to come in and meet with us for a Legacy Vision Planning Session, whether you’ve done planning in the past or not. We will have a two-hour working meeting that will get you more financially organized than you’ve likely ever been before (unless you’ve already done planning with us) and give you the confidence of knowing you’ve made the most empowered, informed and educated legal and financial decisions for the people you love.

The post Spring Cleaning For Your Legal And Financial Affairs appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

From LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer to TrustandWill.com and FreeWill.com, these DIY legal documents may seem like a cheap and easy way to finally cross estate planning off your to-do list—and do so without having to pay a lawyer big bucks to assist you. After all, you’ve been able to prepare and file your taxes online for years, is estate planning really that much different? And aren’t lawyers using the very same forms you find on these DIY document websites?

An Inconvenient Truth

This kind of thinking is exactly what DIY and online estate planning services would like you to believe, but it’s far from true. In fact, relying on DIY or online estate planning documents can be one of the costliest mistakes you can make for your loved ones.

Keep in mind, just because you created “legal” estate planning documents that doesn’t mean they will actually work when you—or most importantly, the people you love—need them. Without a thorough understanding of your family dynamics, the nature of your assets, and how the legal process works upon your death or incapacity, you are likely to make serious mistakes when creating a DIY or online estate plan.

Even worse, these mistakes won’t be discovered until it’s too late—and the loved ones you were trying to protect will be the very ones forced to clean up your mess or get stuck in a costly and traumatic court process that can drag out for months or even years.

In the end, relying on DIY or online estate planning documents can actually be worse than having no estate plan at all—and here’s why:

A False Sense of Security

Creating your estate plan using online document services can give you a false sense of security—you think you’ve got estate planning covered, when you most likely do not. DIY plans may even lead you to believe that you no longer need to worry about estate planning, causing you to put it off creating a proper plan off until it’s too late.

In this way, relying on DIY estate planning documents is one of the most dangerous choices you can make. In the end, such generic forms could end up costing your family even more money and heartache than if you’d never gotten around to doing any planning at all.

At least with no plan at all, estate planning would likely remain at the front of your mind, where it rightfully belongs until it’s been handled by you and trusted counsel to guide you.

Planning to Fail

The primary purpose of estate planning is to keep your family out of court and out of conflict in the event of your death or incapacity. Yet, as cheap online document services become more and more popular, millions of people are learning—or will soon learn—that taking the DIY route can not only fail to achieve this purpose, it can make things even more complex and costly for the people you love.

Most people assume that estate planning is all about filling out the right legal documents. But in reality, the true value of estate planning is not about the documents themselves—it’s the planning aspect that’s most important, not the documents. Documents are the byproducts of the plan and the outcome of counseling and decisions that require thought, consideration, and a true understanding of all the options and their potential consequences.

Without proper planning and consideration, the documents themselves—wills, trusts, health care directives, and powers of attorney—aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. And by proper planning, we mean having a trusted advisor who can help you anticipate all of the potential problem areas and conflicts—as well as potential opportunities—that could impact your plan, and then help you adapt your plan accordingly and create documents to ensure the maximum benefit (and minimum heartache) for your loved ones.

When done right, the value of this kind of estate planning is truly priceless because it results in the right plan for your family at the right budget for you, and it leaves your loved ones with not just a set of documents, but with a trusted advisor who will be there for them when you cannot be. This is exactly what the Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher provides every client we serve through our Life & Legacy Planning Process.

One Size Does Not Fit All

“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but PLANNING is indispensable.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower, Former U.S. President and Commander of Allied Forces during WWII

A typical set of documents that you get from an online DIY estate planning service (and even many estate plans created by lawyers) will usually include three to five basic legal documents: a will, a financial power of attorney, a healthcare directive, possibly a trust, and a legal guardian nomination, if you have minor children. By now, it’s fairly common knowledge that these are the legal documents needed in case you become incapacitated or when you die.

But what isn’t common knowledge and what isn’t adequately covered by any online legal document service or even by many lawyers is what needs to go into those documents, and what’s needed to ensure those documents actually work for the people you love when they need them.

You see, standard documents simply cannot address the real-life complexities of your family dynamics, your assets, and the ever-changing circumstances of your life. Contrary to what the DIY services would like you to believe, estate planning is not a one-size-fits-all, once-and-done kind of deal. Even if you think your particular assets and family situation are simple, that turns out to almost never be the case, and you are likely to face one of the following issues that can leave your loved ones at risk.

5 Ways Your DIY Plan Can Fail

1 | Thinking a Will is Enough

One of the ironic things about estate planning is that the one legal document everyone thinks they need most is the one legal document that actually accomplishes the least. Yes, you know you need a will, but a will alone doesn’t do much.

A will can ensure the people you choose are the ones who handle your affairs and who ensure your assets go where you want them to go in the event of your death. But a will does not keep your family out of court. In fact, relying on a will alone ensures your family and friends have to go to court when you die. Plus, a will doesn’t even come into play if you are incapacitated. And if you have minor children, relying on a will alone to designate their legal guardians could leave your kids vulnerable to being taken out of your home and into the care of strangers.

2 | Improper Execution

You could have the best documents in the world, but if you fail to sign them, or sign them improperly, they will fail. It may seem silly, but it’s true. We’ve seen family after family who brought us an estate plan after the death or incapacity of a loved one that we were not able to support them and act upon because the documents were either not signed, or were signed improperly.

To be considered legally valid, certain estate planning documents like wills must be executed (i.e. signed, witnessed, and/or notarized) following very strict legal procedures. For example, many states require that you and every witness to your will must sign it in the presence of one another. If your DIY will doesn’t mention that condition (or you don’t read the fine print) and you fail to follow this procedure, the document can end up worthless.

If you have created or started a DIY estate plan and wish to have it reviewed, contact us to see how you can get a Family Wealth Planning Session at no cost to you. During this 2-hour session, we will review what would happen to your family and your assets with your current plan and discuss the best next steps for protecting your family.

3 | Choosing The Wrong Executors or Trustees

State laws are also very specific about who can serve in certain roles like executor, trustee, or financial power of attorney. In some states, for instance, the executor of your will must either be a family member or an in-law, and if not, the person must live in your state. If your chosen executor doesn’t meet those requirements, he or she cannot serve.

Furthermore, some states require the person you name as your executor to get a bond, which is like an insurance policy, before he or she can serve. Such bonds can be difficult to get for someone who has a less-than-stellar credit score. If your executor cannot get a bond, it would be up to the court to appoint your executor, which could end up being someone you would never want managing your assets or a third-party professional, who could drain your estate with costly fees.

4 | Lost and Unclaimed Assets

Unless your family knows exactly what assets you own and how to locate and access those assets, that property is as good as gone when you die—and your online will won’t be of any use to your family. In fact, there’s currently more than $50 billion worth of unclaimed property sitting in the different state Departments of Unclaimed Property across the U.S. because a family member died and their loved ones lost track of their assets.

To ensure that none of your assets end up in our state’s Department of Unclaimed Property, and your family will know exactly what you have and how to find everything if something happens to you, it’s essential that you keep a regularly updated inventory of all your assets. The Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher will not only help you create a comprehensive asset inventory but also make sure it stays regularly updated throughout your lifetime.

5 | Unforeseen Conflict Between Family Members

Family dynamics are—to put it lightly—quite complex. This is particularly true for blended families, where spouses have children from previous relationships. A DIY service cannot help you consider all the potential areas where conflict might arise among your family members and help you plan ahead of time to avoid such disputes. Even the best set of documents will be unable to anticipate and navigate these complex emotional matters—but we can.

Every day we see families ripped apart due to poor estate planning. Yet, we also see families brought closer together as a result of handling these matters the right way. When done right, the estate planning process is actually a huge opportunity to build new connections within your family, and we are specifically trained to help you with that.

In fact, preventing family conflict with proactive estate planning is our special sauce and one of the primary reasons to work with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer, rather than relying on DIY planning documents.

The Kind of Planning Your Family Deserves

When it comes to estate planning, the documents you use are only as good as the understanding your lawyer has about your family dynamics, the nature of your assets, and how the law will apply to your situation upon your death or incapacity. And in most cases, you will need far more than just a few fill-in-the blank documents to properly address all of those complexities.

If you truly want things to be as simple as possible for the people you love when something happens to you, you want a trusted counsel who can prepare an estate plan that will achieve your desired objectives with a minimum amount of stress and conflict for the loved ones you are leaving behind, not just someone who has the best documents. This is where we come in.

If, as a result of this process, we determine that you really do have a very simple situation, and you want to create your own planning documents yourself online, we will support you to do that. However, if as a result of the process, you decide you would like us to draft a plan for you, we’ll support you to find the optimal level of planning for a price that’s right for you.

As part of our planning process, we will inventory all of your assets and ensure they are titled in a way that will keep your family out of court and out of conflict no matter what happens to you. Moreover, we take the time to get to know your family members and include them in the planning process, so 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 if you are the parent of minor children, we will put safeguards in place to ensure that your kids are never placed into the care of strangers, even temporarily.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, our Life & Legacy Planning process will ensure that it’s not just your money and tangible assets that get preserved and passed on, but also your family’s intangible legacy, which includes your family’s most treasured values, insights, stories, and mementos. We capture and record your family’s legacy using a unique process known as a Family Wealth Legacy Interview, which is included with every estate plan we create.

Life & Legacy Planning

Ultimately, we’ve discovered that estate planning is about far more than planning for your death and passing on your “estate” 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.

As your Personal Family Lawyer, we are specifically trained to educate, empower, and support you to make the right decisions for the people you love, and get to know what really matters most to you. Furthermore, because your plan is designed to protect and provide for your loved ones in the event of your death or incapacity, we aren’t just here to serve you—we’re here to serve your entire family.

In the end, as your Personal Family Lawyer, our Life & Legacy Planning services go far beyond simply creating documents and then never seeing you again. We will develop a relationship with you and your family that lasts not only for your lifetime but for the lifetime of your children and their children if that’s your wish.

While the DIY approach might be a good idea if you’re looking to build a new deck for your backyard, when it comes to estate planning, it’s one of the worst choices you can make. Are you really willing to put your family’s well-being and wealth at risk just to save a few bucks? If you want to truly do right by those you love, contact us, to get your Life & Legacy Plan started today.

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But asking your relatives how they want their assets handled when they die or if they become incapacitated might not go over well while opening presents or carving a turkey. 

To keep your family from feeling blindsided and to make the most of your conversation, consider the following three tips:

1 | Share Your Intention Ahead of Time

Many people feel uncomfortable talking about their finances. They may have grown up in a family where money talk was considered taboo or perhaps they simply don’t want the details of their finances to create family tension. Some people also feel like talking about estate planning and making a plan for their money is plain bad luck (but we’re happy to report that planning for your assets does not increase your chance of dying, as you’ve already got a 100% chance of death, but it does increase your chances of leaving behind a happy, well-adjusted family). 

To help your loved ones feel at ease, don’t bring money talk up for the first time while the family is gathered around the TV watching football. Instead, approach the topic weeks ahead of time if possible.

If you have regular visits or phone calls with your loved ones, let them know you’ve been thinking about creating a plan for your own money and the care of the family in case something happens to you. Casually mentioning that it’s on your mind will help plant the seed for a future conversation with your loved ones and likely get them thinking about their own plan or lack of a plan. 

As your family gathering approaches, bring up the subject again, this time with more intention and detail. Consider asking the host of your family gatherings, whether it’s your sibling, parent, or adult child when the best time would be to have an all-family conversation about money for 90 minutes. Schedule it and let everyone know that you’ve got something meaningful planned.

If the host pushes back against the idea, respond with curiosity about their experience, what they feel apprehensive about, and if there is a way that you could mitigate their apprehension perhaps by speaking with other family members in advance. 

If you’ve already completed your own planning, use your experience as a springboard for the conversation. More on this below.

2 | Set Aside a Time and Place to Talk

Discussing money while opening Christmas gifts isn’t likely to have the results you want. Your best bet is to schedule a time to gather to talk without distractions or interruptions.

Be upfront with your family about the meeting’s purpose so no one is taken by surprise and so they come prepared for the talk. Choose a setting that’s comfortable, quiet, and private. The more relaxed everyone is, the more likely they’ll be comfortable opening up.

Begin by sharing the context of why it’s important to you that your family begin having conversations about money, life and death. You may even want to share that the topic is uncomfortable for you, but that it’s important enough that you are willing to be uncomfortable because you know that these conversations can bring your family closer together, create more family resilience, and ensure you are all financially well-cared for, always. 

Finally, as part of setting context, set a start and stop time for the conversation. Remember, the goal is to simply get the conversation started, not work out all of the details or dollar amounts, so don’t expect this to be the one and only conversation you have – its a start.

3 | Share Your Planning Experience 

If you’ve already created your own plan, and it includes an inventory of your assets, a look at what is enough, and what would happen to it all when something happens to you (which is what we do during our first Planning Session with you), you can start by explaining how you felt during the process, how easy it was, and how you feel now knowing that your assets and loved ones will be cared for the way you want if something happens to you. 

If you’ve worked with us at The Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher, describe how the process unfolded and how we supported you to create a plan designed for your unique wishes and needs.

Share any concerns or doubts you initially had about planning and how we worked with you to address them. If you have loved ones who’ve yet to do any planning and have doubts about its usefulness, empathize with them in a supportive and understanding way, and share your own journey learning the benefits of planning for your money and your wishes.

If you haven’t created a plan yet, or have doubts about a plan you created with another attorney, be open about why you want to create a plan for your life and death, such as a desire to avoid family conflict,  to ensure that a child,  disabled relative, or senior parent is cared for in the future, or to build generational wealth and a legacy for your family. Focus on the benefits that planning will have for both your immediate family and your extended family as a whole.

Bringing Families Together

Talking to loved ones about money and estate planning can be difficult, but with The Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher, we can guide and support you in having these intimate discussions with your loved ones. When done right, planning can put your life and relationships into a much clearer focus and offer peace of mind knowing that your assets will be protected and that the people you love most will be provided for no matter what. 

If you’ve already created a plan with us, be sure to share our library of blog resources with your loved ones. If you haven’t created your own estate plan, doing so before you talk with your family can help your loved ones be more open to the idea and can help them see the incredible benefit of planning from one of their own family members.

Schedule a complimentary call with us using the button below to learn more.

The post How to Talk Money With Your Family Over The Holidays appeared first on Law Office of Ruby Steinbrecher.

Things to Consider When Beginning Your Retirement

With this new chapter come certain estate planning issues that you need to consider.

If You Have an Existing Estate Plan

Having a properly executed and legally binding estate plan is a great first step toward ensuring that you and your loved ones are cared for. However, estate planning is not a one-and-done event. It is important that you review your plan every year or so, and especially after major life events such as the beginning of your retirement. When considering your existing plan, ask yourself the following key questions:

• Do you still own the same property or have the same account balances as when your plan was first created? What will the balances be like at your death? Chances are, you put money into investment or retirement accounts during your working years to prepare for this next chapter. While you may have a lot today, you need to be aware that this value may decrease once you start withdrawing from those accounts.
• Does your plan assume that your children or other young beneficiaries are still minors? A birth usually prompts parents to have an estate plan created. However, once it has been drafted, many parents continue living their lives without giving much thought to their estate plan. If it has been some time since your estate plan was created, your then-minor children are likely now adults or approaching adulthood. Your focus may no longer be on choosing the right guardians but on ensuring that your adult children’s needs are properly addressed in your documents.
• Does your plan rely on proceeds from an employer-provided life insurance policy? As part of an employment package, many employers offer life insurance. However, this policy may no longer exist once you are no longer working. If you were relying on these proceeds to provide for your loved ones at death, you will need to explore other options.
• Do you want to change how much your beneficiaries inherit and how they receive their inheritance? Now that some time has passed, are the amounts and ways the money and property are being given still appropriate or possible? For example, imagine that your will or trust provided that $300,000 be held in a trust for your only child’s benefit and then distributed to them when they turned thirty-five. Is it likely that you will have less than $300,000 at your death, and what wishes will have to be sacrificed as a result? Also, if your child is now thirty-five or older, any money and property would be given to them automatically based on the provisions in your documents. Are you still okay with that? Now that your child is older and you have a better understanding of their needs and abilities, you may want to consider changing how they receive the money and property. They may require more than you had originally planned, or perhaps they are successful enough that they would be fine without an inheritance from you.

If You Do Not Have an Estate Plan or Have Not Completed It

Do not procrastinate any longer. The only way to truly protect yourself and your loved ones is to have an intentional and legally enforceable estate plan. To begin thinking about your estate plan, you need to evaluate your new lifestyle and answer questions such as the following:

• What accounts and property do you own? To make sure that we craft a comprehensive plan, we all need to be on the same page about what you own and the value of your money and property. From there, we can help you determine what will happen to this money and property if you are unable to care for yourself and at your death.
• What are the current needs of your loved ones? Based upon your unique situation, you should determine the needs of your loved ones and whether you are able to support their needs during your lifetime (if necessary) and at your death.
• Can you accomplish your goals with what you have? Working with an experienced professional, you can consider the answers to the first two questions and determine how likely it is that you will be able to carry out all of your wishes. Together, we can examine all options and come up with the best possible solution for you and your loved ones.

We are excited to help you celebrate this new chapter in your life. Part of this celebration should include a visit with your financial and estate planning team to ensure that the celebration can continue for many years to come. If you are interested in discussing your existing estate plan or creating your first one, please contact us.

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