Putnam County Estate Planning & Medicaid

Estate Planning Documents Needed When You’re Not Dead

Consider what would happen if you are seriously injured with no estate plan in place? The resulting expense, stress and potential for conflict in the family could be worse than you might think.

With a dramatic flourish, a recent article in AgPro, “4 Estate Planning Documents You Need Beyond a Will,” asks a blunt question: what would happen to your family and your business, if you got hit by a bus tomorrow?

Estate planning attorneys advise that you should make your estate plan to match your current situation, rather than “what-if’s” that may or may not occur many years in the future. If you get hit by a bus, you might die or you might not, so you need a portfolio of “not dead yet documents.” In addition to a will and/or a trust, the documents should include the following:

Power of Attorney. Signing this document means that you give a trusted agent the power to act on your behalf if you become incapacitated. You can also create two separate powers of attorney: one that gives authority to a business partner to make decisions concerning your farm or company; and one naming a spouse or family member to handle your personal finances.

Living Will. This document states your intent that, under certain circumstances, you want medical efforts to be withheld or withdrawn and that you want to be allowed to die naturally with only medication and procedures necessary for comfort and to alleviate pain. A living will can reduce some of the stress and burden from family members, in the event that they have to make an end-of-life decision.

Healthcare Directive. This is a life-prolonging procedure declaration and is the opposite of a living will. It states your intent for healthcare providers to use and continue all life-prolonging procedures that might possibly extend your life.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Release. Because of this federal law, a loved one or agent will not be able to access your medical records without a HIPAA release that authorizes access. Having this document in place, will eliminate delays if making decisions requires a look at your medical records.

By having these “not dead yet” documents in place, you provide your family with the tools they need to take care of you in an already highly stressful situation.

Reference: AgPro (November 21, 2016) “4 Estate Planning Documents You Need Beyond a Will”

Before the Thanksgiving Leftovers are Gone, a Gift for Your Family

Of all the gifts on your holiday list, perhaps the best one is to have your financial and estate paperwork organized, sparing your family the stress and misery of an estate scavenger hunt.

This year’s Thanksgiving brought families together to share memories and to talk turkey and football.  However, one topic often overlooked during family gatherings is the more difficult conversation about family, assets, and plans for the future. CBS Boston’s “Our Families: The Important Papers,” explains how frank discussions about important papers and their locations, including wills, contact lists and more, can be a gift to those you love.

It’s a wise plan to have a responsible person in your life who can access your important papers at every age. You should also make sure that your important paperwork is organized and filed so they can find it, so they don’t have to ransack your home looking for these documents.

Begin by making a list of important people and their contact information. You should also make the list of where the important documents are located.

Think about this for a minute: you live in State A, and your widowed sister lives in State B. If something should happen to your sis, you may be hundreds of miles away. Do you have the phone numbers for her friends and the next-door neighbor? What about a list of the important people in her life. How about her doctor’s info? Get that contact information, just in case you need it.

OK, now think about what would happen if you had an accident in another state while visiting this week for Thanksgiving and needed someone back home to find your important documents. Are you organized and prepared so you could tell them exactly where to find them? Could they pay the bills while you were in the hospital out of state?

Next, think about your estate planning. If you don’t have a will when you pass away, your assets will be divided by a judge according to the state statutes.

Before you finish that last bite of turkey, make an appointment to meet with an estate attorney about creating a durable power of attorney and a health care proxy. The power of attorney will allow someone to make legal and financial decisions if you are unable to. The health care proxy lets someone make important medical decisions for you. You can name different people for each, so that someone who is great with finances can help in that arena, while a wise and trusted person can become named as your health care proxy.

Reference: CBS Boston (November 21, 2016) “Our Families: The Important Papers”

Not Named in the Will Means No Inheritance for Woman

Even a long-standing relationship of more than a decade does not entitle a partner to an inheritance, if the person is not included in the will.

A recent ruling by the Pennsylvania Court of Appeals may spark some interesting conversations between unmarried couples about estate planning. The woman, who was not named in her long-time romantic partner’s will, has lost an appeal and as a result will not receive any assets from her partner’s estate. Even the existence of a cohabitation agreement between the two does not give her any legal leverage.

Penn Live’s article, “Woman who isn't named in lover's will can't get a penny from his estate, Pa. court says,” reports that the decision which leaves Galinac empty-handed came in an opinion issued by Judge Anne E. Lazarus.

The decision of the Court of Appeals upholds the ruling by a Westmoreland County judge who honored a request by Tito's four children to dismiss a claim Galinac filed against their father's estate.

Judge Lazarus’ ruling found that Tito and Galinac had been in a romantic relationship for 13 years when Tito died, but that only Tito's kids were named as beneficiaries in his will. The will provided nothing for Galinac, the judge noted.

Galinac claimed that Tito's children were keeping her from even retrieving her property from Tito's home. In reply, Ralph Tito's kids demanded that she give back thousands of dollars they claimed she withdrew from his checking account. The children also argued that a cohabitation agreement Galinac signed barred her from making claims against the estate.

On appeal, Galinac argued that the trial judge Lazarus erred in deciding she had waited too long to contest Tito's will. Judge Lazarus should have allowed her the opportunity to prove she and Tito were common-law spouses, Galinac argued. She also insisted that Tito's children misled her by telling her she was "merely (Tito's) girlfriend" and, as a result, had no legitimate claim to his estate.

Judge Lazarus found Galinac's arguments to be "illogical, irreconcilable and legally untenable," which sunk her chances of success in court. The judge noted that she claimed she had a common-law marriage on one hand, and yet on the other hand said she didn't know if she and Tito were legally wed.

The Judge explained that both parties needed to acknowledge that a common-law marriage existed, but that would have had to have occurred before January 1, 2005, since Pennsylvania no longer recognizes common-law marriages contracted after that date. Since there was no mutual agreement and the pair had never married, Galinac was not entitled to any portion of Tito’s estate.

The lesson here is straightforward: unmarried couples who wish to take care of their partners after one passes, need to meet with an estate planning attorney and have their wishes made clear in estate planning documents.

Reference: Penn Live (November 17, 2016) “Woman who isn't named in lover's will can't get a penny from his estate, Pa. court says”