Anyone browsing the available information on estate planning may notice that much of it is devoted towards married people, or those with children and grandchildren. For single people, especially single retirees who are not parents, you may sometimes feel as if you’ve been left out of estate planning materials. While it’s true that many of these materials don’t spend a lot of time focusing on you, there are some particular issues you will want to pay special attention to as you make your own plan.

Elder Care

As a single retiree gets older he or she may, just like anyone else, require additional help and support. When you don’t have a spouse or close family members to rely on, finding a good source of support is often difficult. This is why it’s especially important for single retirees to approach estate planning earlier than their married counterparts. If you suddenly need the help and cannot find it, this will be far more difficult than if you had planned ahead.

Power of Attorney

Estate plans often incorporate various types of powers of attorney. Through a power of attorney you get to choose someone else who can act as your representative and make decisions on your behalf. If you are single and don’t have children or other close family members, you will need to choose another representative whom you can rely upon. This can be anyone you like, including a close friend, distant family member, or even a professional advisor.

It isn’t uncommon for people creating their estate plans to face a difficult decision when it comes time to leaving an inheritance to a troubled family member, child, or grandchild. Whether your loved one has a drug addiction, mental health problems, or other difficulties that could hinder his or her ability to manage an inheritance, you need to structure your plan to take this into account. Here are three tips to help you face this issue.

Be honest.

As much as we would love to change or guide our loved ones for the better, sometimes that is not in our power. This is especially true when it comes to inheritances. The prospect of a large inheritance will not be enough to change your loved one’s ways, and you should always be honest with yourself about how that person will be able to manage an inheritance.

Create a trust.

A trust is almost a necessary tool when you have a family member who is not able to manage an inheritance properly. By creating a trust you can still pass on an inheritance but, at the same time, better ensure that the family member will not squander it. Through the trust, a trustee will manage the inheritance for the recipient and do so under the terms that you create.

Proceed with caution.

Creating a trust that will best protect the interests of a troubled family member is sometimes difficult to do. You’ll have to be careful to create specific terms that the trustee can follow while preserving the interests of your loved one. This can be difficult, and you should always speak to an attorney for qualified advice.

It sometimes comes as a shock to find that your parents have recently begun showing their age much more than before. Whether it comes as a result of a recent visit you had with your parents or after the news that a parent has been involved in a car accident or some other mishap, you may need to find your parent help that he or she is currently not getting.

Unfortunately, when it comes to elder care, there is no one clear solution to every situation. Some people require more, or less, help than others, and determining the appropriate course of action is not always easy to do. If you think your parent needs more assistance but don’t know how much, here are some tips.

Get some basic information.

Ask your parent to schedule an appointment with a geriatric care specialist. The specialist will be able to perform a geriatric assessment, a test specifically designed to evaluate an elderly person on a range of criteria. The assessment is also a good opportunity for you to accompany your parent and ask the doctor about any concerns.

Work to develop an elder care plan.

Once you know the basic information, you and your parents can discuss the options available to you and determine which one fits best into your parent’s life. Whether you decide on some simple changes, such as simplifying the home and adding more senior friendly appliances, or a more drastic change such as a transition to an assisted living facility, it’s important to remember that you and your parent should discuss it freely and come to a decision together.

The promise that a good power of attorney offers is the ability to delegate your decision-making rights to others. Whether you want your bank to handle your bills or need someone to make decisions for you should you become incapacitated, powers of attorney are very flexible documents that can help you in any number of situations.

Yet the strength of a good power of attorney is entirely dependent on how well it is made. Making your own power of attorney, while legally possible, is not a very good idea. Here’s why.

Precision and Brevity

A carefully crafted power of attorney serves the specific purposes you identify without granting your attorney-in-fact too much power, while at the same time making the document easily understandable. People who make their own legal documents will often not know how to manage these different requirements. Self-made powers of attorney are often either too thin or too dense, making them practically unusable.

Individually Tailored

A good power of attorney fits you like a piece of tailored clothing. No two powers of attorney are identical and all need to both serve the desires of the person making it and comply with the laws of your state. Knowing how to do this is often a matter of experience even if you have the legal knowledge needed. A good estate planning attorney can walk you through the process and create a power of attorney that fits any need.

Whenever you create a living trust you should always know under what circumstances you can change the trust terms should you later desire to do so. There are any number of reasons why you might want to change the terms, such as entering into a new marriage, having a child, or acquiring property that increases in value, but regardless of the reason, changing the terms requires you to act in one of two main ways.

Restatement

If you want to make large changes to your trust, or make so many changes that the original terms of the trust are almost completely gone, it’s probably best to replace the trust by creating a restatement. When you create a restatement you effectively end the previous trust and form a new one.

Amendment

For simple changes to a revocable living trust, such as adding the name of a new child as a beneficiary, you can usually accomplish your goals by creating an amendment. A trust amendment changes one or more of the previous trust terms and replaces it with new terms.

Irrevocability

It’s important to remember that while you can change the terms of a revocable living trust, an irrevocable living trust is not the same thing. When you create an irrevocable trust those terms are effectively written in stone. You may be able to change some minor provisions of the trust or address clerical errors or mistakes, but irrevocable trusts are largely unchangeable after you create them.

The baby boomer generation is reaching retirement age in droves, and for many the recent financial downturn has hit their bottom line fairly hard. Instead of relying on a comfortable retirement many boomers are finding that they are going into retirement age on shaky ground. For those in such a situation the concern is not just finding a way to retire comfortably, but also worrying about becoming a financial burden on their families. Here are a couple of tips that can help ease your concerns.

Loans don’t have to come from family.

When baby boomers fall on financial hardships they often ask family members for loans. This can cause difficulty as some family members may be reluctant to say no yet may not be totally comfortable providing the loan funds. But boomers should also consider other avenues before they ask friends and family.  You can consider, for example, using the equity in your home as a way to borrow funds and use those funds as an investment that will generate cash. As a last resort you can think about a hardship withdrawal from your retirement account.

Learn to talk about money.

While the baby boomer generation is not as notoriously close lipped about money as their parents, some are still hesitant to speak about it openly. If you are one of those people you should consider being more open about your financial situation. Not only will this help you discuss financial difficulties in the future, but can lead you to frank and open discussions that could lead to better solutions or options you hadn’t thought about.

Almost everybody knows that having a comprehensive estate plan in place is a necessity in our modern world. Nevertheless, many people delay crafting such an estate plan because of mental impediments that they strive to justify, or deny exists.
 
Some of these procrastinators avoid drafting an estate plan because they just do not like making decisions, especially when the options from which to choose are often unappealing. After all, no one enjoys sitting down to decide who will raise their children should they die simultaneously, or deciding who will get that family heirloom, or figuring out how to divvy up your financial assets among your potential survivors.
 
Other procrastinators avoid it because the topic is just too overwhelming. Making an inventory of all of your assets is a time consuming process, and the more assets you have the longer it will take. For some people, simply thinking about this task can send them into a panic. Still, the task is a necessary one, and even though you’re undertaking all of these phone calls, sorting through financial statements, etc., there’s still that ever-present voice in the back of your mind reminding you that everything you’re doing revolves around your death.
 
Still others procrastinate because they just feel that it’s not the right time. They say that they’ll get to it later because they’re too busy working now. But if someone is really that concerned with working, wouldn’t they want to ensure that everything they worked is appropriately passed on to succeeding generations?
 
If you’re one of these people, stop delaying and start planning.

Do you have a pet that you love like your own child? Have you ever wondered about how, if at all, you could provide for that pet’s well-being if you were to suddenly become incapacitated or killed? If the answer to one or both questions is yes, then perhaps you’d be interested in learning about pet trusts.

So what is a pet trust? For that matter, what is a trust?

Basically, a trust is a situation in which the legal title to property is held by one party, known as the trustee, for the benefit of another – the beneficiary of the trust. Traditionally, for a trust to be valid there must be an identifiable, legally-recognized beneficiary. Since animals are viewed by the law as property, traditional trusts couldn’t be used to provide for a beloved pet that outlived its owner. Along came the “pet trust,” which is not, per se, a traditional trust, but an application of what’s known as an honorary trust. This type of trust may be created for virtually any specific, designated purpose, so long as it’s not based on whimsy.

Why is it called an “honorary” trust?

It’s called an honorary trust because the person to whom the property comprising the trust is transferred, has no legal obligation to carry out the trust’s purpose; that is, he or she chooses to honor the trust’s purpose. However, if they decline to uphold the trust’s purpose, the property must be returned to the trust’s creator or the creator’s successors.

To learn how to establish a pet trust, contact a qualified estate planning attorney.

Method 1: Ignore the court.

Executors, also called personal representatives, are appointed to manage an estate during the probate process. Even though this process is supervised by the probate court, executors are responsible for most of the important steps. This means you can ignore the court whenever you like, not show up at hearings, be rude to court employees, and otherwise act as if the court is an annoying afterthought.

Method 2: Take advantage of your new position to benefit yourself, your friends, and your family.

If you’ve been suddenly appointed to serve as a personal representative, you may find yourself in the position of having personal control over the decedent’s bank accounts, investments, and other valuable property. Use this property as your own personal entertainment account and indulge in any whim you see fit. Do not act responsibly and manage the property as a fiduciary, keeping the best interests of the beneficiaries in mind.

Method 3: Be your own lawyer.

You don’t need to understand the intricacies of probate laws or court rulings to know how to act as a personal representative. All you have to do is wing it, or better yet, rely on what you see in the movies or on TV. A good Internet connection can be helpful true. After all, if it’s written on the internet it has to be true. There’s absolutely no need to speak to an experienced probate attorney to protect your interests and advise you about properly managing an estate.