Estate Planning Checkup Mid-year is a good time to review your existing estate plan to ensure that it is up-to-date. There are several things that you should review or consider when going through this, many of which I have listed below. Look at any trust or existing will agreements. If you have a trust, have…
Details
New IRS Ruling Extends Deadline to Elect Portability on Behalf of Surviving Spouse The IRS recently issued Revenue Procedure 2017-34 which grants another round of relief for personal representatives who mistakenly forget to file an estate tax return that elects portability on behalf of the decedent’s surviving spouse. One of the major misconceptions with the…
Details
The American Health Care Act (AHCA) and its Potential Effect on Medicaid The last few months have involved a flurry of activity from both President Trump and Congress over the issue of health care. The House Republicans in Congress have been working on legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) also known…
Details
Standalone IRA Beneficiary Trusts for Inherited IRAs It is pretty safe to say that almost everyone has heard of an individual retirement account (IRA), but not many people know about an IRA beneficiary trust. Part of this may be that IRAs were not originally designed to be wealth transfer vehicles for anyone other than a…
Details
It’s time to “put“ my mom in assisted living This was submitted to us by a client. It’s a very touching story that needs to be shared. If you have a story that you would like to share, please submit to TanyaB@MontanaEstateLawyer.com It is time to “put” my mom in assisted living For the last two years my mother has…
Details
Healthcare Documents – Nothing to Sneeze At! No matter what your age or health status, you ought to have healthcare documents in place. That way, if you can’t make your own decisions about your healthcare, someone whom you trust can make the decisions for you. The tools we use for this are: a healthcare power…
Details
Don’t Be an Estate Plan Procrastinator I recently read a book that I hope will help me both personally and professionally. It is “The Procrastination Equation – How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done,” by Piers Steel. Although the book is more about the science behind why we procrastinate, it does…
Details
Cyber security. What can we do to protect ourselves? Every day we hear about people losing money and having their privacy violated by criminals who steal financial information. And the criminals don’t just go after the “big guys.” They go after small businesses and individuals too. So, even though it may seem like a lot…
Details
Third-Party Special Needs Trusts I have previously posted a discussion of planning with special needs trusts (see my post of April 8, 2011) which focused on the two types of special needs trusts – – one created with the beneficiary’s money (self-settled or first-party trust), and one created with someone else’s money, such as the…
Details
Update on the Military’s Survivor Benefit Plan and the Disabled Child About four years ago I posted a blog noting that there was a dilemma for military families planning for a disabled child through the use of special needs trusts and the military’s Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP). At the time, it was a problem that…
Details