Kentucky Estates: articles on estate planning issues
This week I’ve been reading Claire Tomalin’s Jane Austen: A Life. That’s risky for me to admit, as surveys show the female/male ratio of “Janeites” runs about 25:1. Mockery from readers may be unavoidable, and even deserved. I think one of the most interesting aspects of Tomalin’s biography is how it shows the Austens and […]
Broadly speaking, I have observed Upper Class families use three types of inheritance strategies: deferral, ad hoc gifts, and income streams. Deferral is a traditional strategy: pay to raise and educate your child, and then give them not very much (if anything) until they inherit as your survivor. Ad hoc gifts are transfers for a […]
Although class is discussed frequently and openly in Britain, it makes many of us on this side of the Pond uncomfortable. Even so, class in America has been covered humorously by Paul Fussell, and with great color and insight by the New York Times. Because I am a trust and estates lawyer, my practice offers a fascinating […]
Whether you’re wealthy or not, and whether your estate planning issues are complicated or simple, if you have a child under age 18, you need a Will, because you should nominate a guardian for your child. The guardian will act for your child (the “ward”) with the range of parental responsibilities and authority you’d have, […]
Whether or not to get a prenuptial agreement before getting married isn’t an easy decision. The advisability of a prenup turns in large part on whether the default law that will govern the marriage if it ends by death or divorce is agreeable. If you can live with the default rules, a prenup might not […]
I believe effective life cycle estate and financial planning is anchored in the Quadrant of Facts, Forecasts, Life Stages, and Unexpected Events. Over the past several weeks, ten posts covered a lot of territory about Facts and Forecasts. This is a pivot point at which we begin exploring planning issues in the first of several Life […]
A financial plan should be a thoughtful alignment of your income, expenses, saving, and asset allocation that makes it more likely you’ll achieve what matters most to you. Your estate plan is financial plan’s autopilot, ensuring that your capabilities carry out your goals, even if you’re not around to supervise things yourself. Using the Quadrant-based life cycle planning […]
It’s unclear whether Auguste Comte really said that “demography is destiny,” but you can and should use demographic data to make better estate and financial planning decisions. As we’ve noted, an estate plan often represents a set of predictions about a family’s future, predictions that will be improved when the plan considers the family’s Longevity Distribution. Your […]
It’s not uncommon for an old irrevocable trust to no longer fit a family’s circumstances, for the simple reason that Yogi Berra was right when he noted that “It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future.” Trusts provide advantages, including protection from creditors, divorce, or spendthrift behavior. To obtain these advantages, trusts place restrictions on a beneficiary’s access to […]
It’s wintertime, when one can’t help but think about Florida’s many advantages as a retirement haven compared to northern states. In addition to no state income taxes and better weather, a lesser-known but important Florida feature is its homestead laws. “Homestead” presents deceptively complex issues in snowbirds’ estate and tax planning when they finally become […]
Even in an era of relatively high estate tax exemptions, I work with many families who want to use a trust to provide for the management of a child’s inheritance. How a son in law or daughter in law should be treated in a parent’s estate plan, though, is a more subtle issue that families […]
Youth. A time when the average person might say (as Ferris Bueller did 28 years ago): “I don’t believe in isms. I believe in Me.” Usually putting things off works out, but if a young person is prudent (or has family members around them who are prudent), a Will may be one thing that’s unwise […]