A family vacation home—whether it’s a summer house on the beach or a winter skiing bungalow in the mountains—can be just the thing that brings a family together. Unfortunately, it can also be just the thing that tears a family apart when parents pass away and the time comes to decide what to do with this wonderful family treasure. This article in the Wall Street Journal mentions that “Tensions often mount when a family figures out what to do with a property that could be a lightning rod for sibling rivalries—not to mention a sizable chunk of an estate.”

There are a number of issues that can be brought to the surface when adult children or grandchildren try to share a family property. “One big friction point in such an arrangement is how to pay the costs involved in maintaining a home—including taxes, insurance, utility bills.” But that’s only the beginning. “Other factors to consider: How the family gets along, where they live, what happens when the children who inherit a home get married and who is going to use the property.”

Fortunately, this is one family fight that can be prevented (or at least softened) by a little bit of forethought and planning. One of the first suggestions in the WSJ article is to leave family property to the next generation in a trust funded by life insurance. “That way, a professional trustee can manage the property, and the insurance proceeds can cover expenses.” A Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT) or a Dynasty Trust can both be useful for this purpose.

Another beneficial safeguard is to form a Limited Liability Company (LLC) for the property. An LLC can help establish an operating agreement to “cover rights of use and property management,” as well as shield heirs from estate taxes.

Having a good plan in place for your family vacation home can be the determining factor which allows the property to continue to serve as a place where your entire family can come together, to create happy memories that will last a lifetime.

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Before we move away from the topic of New Year’s resolutions, there’s one more New Year’s Resolution we’d like to address—that of taking control of your destiny and starting your own business.  The desire to move away from corporate America and work for oneself is not at all unusual. Unfortunately, not all who make this resolution will follow through with it. This is not because these brave entrepreneurs can’t make it, but because they get discouraged.  Branching out on your own is a scary venture, especially if you aren’t sure where or how to start; but making that start is a lot easier if you have a plan and know that you’re not alone.

The following article from Kiplinger.com, Six Steps to Starting Your Own Business, can help you with the first part, and your attorney can help you with the second.

That’s right; your attorney can help you start your business, and in fact should help you start your business.  Although the idea and impetus behind this new venture will be all yours, you should absolutely talk to your attorney about the formal incorporation and formation.  Many attorneys are small business owners themselves, and can also help with the challenging and daunting tasks of structuring and formalizing a business plan.  Once your business is off the ground and making money (as it undoubtedly will) your attorney can also help you protect it from creditors and lawsuits.

With a clear plan, and a friend in your corner, starting a business seems almost too easy.

If you’ve ever considered starting your own business, this could be the year to do it.  Make a plan, call your attorney, and take control of your own destiny.

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If you are looking for a reliable way to leave financial gifts to family members you may find that a Crummey trust is the right estate planning strategy for your family. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal explains that “Crummey trusts are used in many circumstances, but are best suited for making gifts to minors—especially when a parent is giving money to a young child who isn’t ready to handle a large sum.”

While it’s true that Crummey trusts can be a very convenient and reliable estate planning tool, they do require a certain amount of annual attention and maintenance, and may not be the right strategy for everyone.

Crummey trusts can be used for many different kinds of assets, but they are most commonly used to protect life insurance policies from estate taxes. Your estate planner can help you set up the Crummey trust and use it to purchase a life insurance policy. Then you “fund the premiums with annual gifts… That gets money out of the estate while skirting the gift tax. Since the trust owns the policy, the death benefit ultimately goes to the trust, shielding it from federal estate taxes.”

Once the initial work of setting up the trust and buying the insurance policy is done, “The trustee must send out ‘Crummey letters’ each year, informing beneficiaries that they can withdraw the gifted amount during a window of time, say 30 days. Usually, the beneficiary leaves the money in the trust. But the IRS considers it a tax-free gift only if the person has the right to take it in the short term, and the Crummey letter proves that he has that right.”

Sending letters once a year isn’t a difficult task, but forgetting even once can lead to consequences with the IRS. Our advice is to be very careful to select a trustee you can count on to be timely and detail-oriented with the Crummey letters. Alternatively, the estate planner who set up your trust will often be willing to take over the administrative task of sending annual Crummey letters as well. Contact our office for more information.

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When it comes to chores many families are not so different from businesses, with members tending to “specialize” in something they enjoy or are good at. Certain chores will often become the domain of one family member or another, lessening the daily burden all around. This may work well for tasks such as cooking, doing the laundry, mowing the lawn, etc.; but when it comes to finances this “specialization” can create long term problems.

While it may be convenient for one partner to pay bills every month, if both partners aren’t aware of the family budget and month-to-month financial status there can be a tremendous disconnect in spending habits, leading to resentment and often a slow decline into debt. Even more frightening, disaster can strike quickly if the “accountant spouse” dies or becomes incapacitated. Quite often the surviving spouse has no idea what the family financial status is, or even where accounts or investments are located and how to access that money.

The best solution is for couples to talk about their finances often, or take turns being the family CFO. You may even want to consider involving the kids in the family financial planning once they’re old enough. Having a regular allowance or earning pocket money for chores not only teaches kids about money management, but also helps them understand when they have to wait to get that new video game, or when the family may have to cut back on certain luxuries.

Furthermore, children are natural problem solvers and activists, and including them in financial decisions such as which charities the family should support, or how to spend surplus cash can make them feel useful and important, as well as teaching them financial accountability.

Many of us look upon our finances with dread; but it doesn’t have to be that way. Skill with money matters can bring us just as much pride and joy as skill with a paintbrush, tennis racquet, or any other skill that must be acquired with practice and hard work. With a little education, and the involvement of the entire family, we can all become the masters of our own financial futures.

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It’s all over the news lately that Prince William and his fiancé Kate Middleton will likely not sign a prenuptial agreement before the royal wedding on April 29^th. Although many reasons have been given as to why the couple will forgo signing a prenup, one of the reasons is that “while prenuptial agreements are common in the United States, they are far less prevalent in the UK. Only in the last year have British courts agreed to recognize such deals.” This is a statement that has some Americans asking exactly how legally binding are prenuptial agreements here in the States?

The answer to that question depends on a number of factors: your state of residence, the terms of your prenuptial agreement, how long you stay married, and more. Fortunately, the longer prenuptial agreements are around, and the more common they become, the more respect they get from the courts. But if you’re worried that your prenuptial agreement won’t hold up in court, here are few tips to help ensure the validity of your agreement.

Neither party must be signing under duress. The more time each party has to review the agreement before the wedding the better. Any prenuptial agreement signed the day of or the day before the wedding could be looked upon as being signed under duress.

The agreement should include full disclosure of income and assets. If you live in a state where it is possible to waive full disclosure of assets then BOTH parties should specify that they do so knowingly.

Each party should have their own legal representation. In order to be sure that neither party is being taken advantage of, each party should have their own independent attorney review the document before it is signed.

Details regarding children or child support in a prenuptial agreement may not be enforced by most courts. Partners my want to include details about possible custody or child support arrangements in a prenuptial agreement, but keep in mind that any court will always give the best interests of a child the highest priority, even if it means disregarding those sections of the agreement between spouses.

Of course, every couple hopes that a prenuptial agreement will never come into play, but these tips can help ensure that your agreement will be considered valid by a court if the worst should happen. Contact our office if you have any questions about prenuptial or marital agreements, we’d like to help.

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Marriage is not just a mingling of hearts and households; it’s also a mingling of assets and property. This may not seem like a big deal if both partners are young and have little to their names yet, but if either partner (or both partners) is well established, with a career or business of their own a prenuptial agreement is particularly well advised. A prenuptial agreement can also be a good idea if one partner has children (or assets, or debt) from a previous marriage, or is an expectant heir or heiress.

Contrary to what many people may think, a prenuptial agreement isn’t just for the rich and famous, and a prenuptial agreement doesn’t mean you aren’t sure your marriage will really make it. In fact, this article in the Huffington Post details 10 reasons why a prenuptial agreement is a good idea—and not one of those reasons is “You don’t think your marriage can make it.” Here are just some of the reasons why you should consider a prenuptial agreement:

• Writing a prenup will help you learn about each other.
• Separate property before you marry should often remain separate property when you married.
• A prenuptial agreement can help keep the peace in your extended families.
• Prenuptial agreements can provide freedom from each other’s debts.
• Expectations for the marriage can be addressed in advance with a prenuptial agreement.

No matter what your age or position in life, creating a prenuptial agreement before you wed can be beneficial to your family, your finances, and your marriage. Don’t let old-fashioned notions about prenups and the rich and famous keep you from protecting your assets. Talk to your partner and consult your attorney before you walk down the aisle.

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“Retirement”—It’s a word that goes hand-in-hand with “Baby Boomer” these days. After all, as has been pointed out over and over again, retirement is the issue of the hour as the first round of Baby Boomers hits that magic age. But what about the younger set? Is there anything that twenty- or thirty-somethings should be considering regarding retirement at this point in their lives?

Actually, according to this article by Steve Vernon at MoneyWatch.com, it is never too early to start thinking about retirement; and there is plenty for adults in their twenties or thirties to consider right now that can help them get a jump on retirement a couple decades down the line.

According to the article, “The challenge facing most people in their 20s and 30s is juggling competing priorities — usually there isn’t enough money in the budget to do it all… ‘Should I save money for retirement, a down payment on a house, or for my kid’s college education?’… How do you prioritize?” While all of these things are important, Vernon suggests that your first priority in your twenties should be yourself. He suggests that the best investments you can make at this time are in your career, your home, your health, and your spending habits.

What our firm would like to point out is that a large part of investing in those things mentioned above is protecting those things. An estate planner can help you decide how to best protect your home from taxes, lawsuits, or divorce; an estate planner can also help you protect your health with a living will or healthcare directive. Additionally, many young adults (frustrated with the current state of the job market) have decided to take employment into their own hands by starting their own businesses—and many have been very successful! An estate planner can help you with the overwhelming but necessary task of protecting and planning for the future of your small business.

The news may be flush with stories about (and advice for) Baby Boomers entering or nearing retirement, but we know that everybody can use help and advice when it comes to planning for the future. Our office can help you prepare for your best future—regardless of your age. Call us today.

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Planning for retirement can be tricky business. When we discuss our clients’ estate plans and assets with them we can’t help touching on retirement plans, so we hear a lot about the worries that go along with preparing for an uncertain future. There are many variables and unknowns that can crop up between starting out in your 20s or 30s and your eventual retirement at 60 or 70; and there are a lot of myths about retirement which are daunting, discouraging, or just plain misleading.

U.S. News and World Report recently published an article which attempts to address some of these myths and set readers back on the right track to retirement. We hope that all of our readers are already saving for retirement, but because we know just how important it is to save early and save often we’d like to list some of the myths here for our readers:

#1 You don’t make enough money to save for retirement.

#6 You need to be debt free before you can invest for retirement.

#8 Social Security benefits will be enough to retire on.

#9 You have to retire at age ___.

These are only 4 of the 10 myths covered in the article. Click on the link above for a full list of commonly-held assumptions about retirement that may be preventing you from making the most of your retirement savings.

At our office we help our clients protect and plan for the future, retirement is often a part of that future. If you have any questions about how to protect your retirement investments, or how to ensure that they transfer properly to your heirs if anything should happen to you, please call our office.

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We write a lot on this blog about what estate planning is truly about: it’s about laws, taxes, assets, and documents of course; but deep down, estate planning is about relationships.

As estate planners and advisors, an important part of what we do is creating the best estate planning or asset protection vehicle we can for our clients; but achieving this goal involves far more than simply writing a document—it also involves listening to our clients, reading between the lines of sensitive family interactions, and it often involves looking into the future to catch potential problems before they happen.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal describes the unorthodox lengths to which advisors will go to help clients achieve their goals. “For the family with the gridlocked siblings, [their financial advisor] arranged a session of personality-type charting with an outside expert. The tests showed one of the brothers-in-conflict to be a hard-driver who loved to make decisions on the fly. His brother was more analytical, and needed time to reach conclusions… Establishing that these conflicting traits are permanent characteristics has helped the brothers understand each other’s work habits and function better as a team. “

Our firm may not yet have had to arrange personality-type charting sessions, but this “running interference” or acting as a mediator and guide is exactly what we do. Evaluating goals, assessing relationships, identifying priorities and facilitating productive discussions is part and parcel of being a good estate planner and a great family attorney and advisor.

Estate planning and asset protection may sound like it’s about things and wealth, but a good advisor knows that it is always about family and relationships. Consider this when you’re looking for an estate planner: Do you want an advisor who is simply protecting your wealth, or do you want an advisor who is looking out for your future and your family?

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You may have your doubts about the sentiment above (which is also the opening line of a recent article in the Wall Street Journal) but many couples are beginning to see the truth of this statement. Younger couples, older couples embarking on second marriages, and couples with family businesses or assets to protect are coming to realize that prenuptial agreements can actually take the pressure off a relationship, making more room for romance rather than less.

A recent ruling in Britain’s Supreme Court has thrown prenuptial agreements back into the limelight, not only in the U.K. and Europe, but also here in the United States. The above-mentioned article in the Wall Street Journal offers a few basic guidelines for couples considering drawing up a pre-nup, the most important of which include: there must be no signs of duress, each party must have their own legal counsel, and nothing concerning children can be fixed in a pre-nup.

But if you’re on the fence about whether or not a prenuptial agreement is right for you and your spouse-to-be you may be most interested in the final paragraph of the article, which states that “Prenups are romantic… You’re making a provision for somebody. You’re saying, ‘I want you to know now that you’ll be alright’… this should be part of the process of falling in love and going forward with that commitment.”

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