New York Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog

INHERITANCE RIGHTS OF ADOPTIVE CHILDREN

Published on: February 29, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

NOT CUT OFF FROM BIOLOGICAL PARENTS IN EVERY CASE

It is not unheard of for adoptive children to seek out their biological parents and reestablish contact once they are old enough and understand the world much better. The drive to understand who your biological ancestors are, to know where they came from and their story is practically innate or inborn. This is a healthy endeavor as it helps to fill out and expand the adult child’s world view of who they are and may help to explain certain personality quarks. There are also legitimate medical reasons for the decision to reach out to the biological parents, so as to understand medical risks, family medical histories or perhaps even obtain a pool of possible bone marrow or organ donors in the unlikely event that something like that is needed. Those issues speak to the social and emotional issues that revolve around adoption. Legally, however, an adopted child is a veritable stranger to the biological parent in non-stepparent adoptions. Inheritance rights are created in the adoptive child vis-a-vis the adoptive parents. Inheritance rights via the biological parents are severed. The only way that a biological parent can pass property or money on to the child adopted out from them is to specifically include them in their will. A class gift to “all of my children” from a biological parent excludes from its scope children adopted out from them and includes any children that that person adopted.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ADOPTION LAW AND INHERITANCE LAWS COLLIDE

PRE-PAID FUNERAL S IN NEW YORK

Published on: February 26, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

NEW YORK PROTECTIONS

Many people are leary about purchasing a pre-paid funeral. This blog discussed some of the issues common to prepaid funerals. In 2002, the American Association of Retired People (AARP) issued a consumer “scam alert” warning people to preplan but not prepay for their funerals. Indeed, often this is good advice. What really should be discussed and should be planned for and paid for is an irrevocable prepaid funeral fund.

It will not render a person ineligible for Medicaid, as Medicaid treats irrevocable trusts as an exempt asset. Some prepaid funeral plans incur account maintenance fees or various other unforeseen problems could result from prepaying for a funeral. It is important to note, however, that New York has some of the strongest consumer protection laws in place for prepaid funerals. Most specifically, the law requires that the money be put into an individual account – as opposed to an account for all of the individuals who prepay for their funeral through a particular funeral director or funeral home – that is both interest bearing and insured, which remains the property of the consumer. If the funds are in a revocable account, the consumer may request a full refund at any time. The funeral home or funeral director also ensures that the consumer receives a notice of what bank the funds are held in and as well as a statement of any interested earned.

THE GRAT – GRANTOR RETAINED ANNUITY TRUST – NOT JUST A TOOL FOR THE UBER WEALTHY

Published on: February 26, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Grantor retained annuity trust (GRATs) are tremendous tools not just for the ultra wealthy, such as Mark Zuckerberg and the other founders of facebook, it is an estate planning technique that allows for a trust grantor to avoid paying gift taxes on the assets that they place into the trust with the intention that they will pass that asset on to the next generation. They are ideal for any asset that will likely quickly appreciate in value and that will also pay a dividend. Most people automatically think of stocks, which makes sense, but it could also include real estate, patents, trademarks or other intellectual property or even a valuable piece of art or perhaps even valuable machinery or some other object that can be rented.

HOW IT WORKS

To create a GRAT, a person places their property into the trust and pays tax on the property at that time, with the lower value. The trust is structured such that during the life of the trust the grantor received an annuity payment from the corpus of the trust. If the grantor is alive at the end of the trust term, the beneficiary receives the property tax free. The grantor sets the term for a number of years for the GRAT to exist in advance. Basis is a tricky and can be a very beneficial advantage to use of the GRAT because the GRAT allows the grantor to substitute two different assets of the same value but different basis amounts at any time. Since the grantor paid from an annuity during the life of the trust, the grantor still enjoys largely the same benefits.

ADULT PROTECTIVE SERVICES VOLUNTARY DRAFT GUIDELINES

Published on: February 24, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

UNIFORMITY OF LAWS

Many laws across the country are the result of non-profit civic minded legal entities. The American Legal Institute is perhaps the most well known of these groups. Not all laws are “laws” in the traditional sense. Some are written by these legal entities and the various states adopt them as compacts, which are in essence legal contracts between states as to how they will handle intra-state legal problems. For example, there is a drivers compact that enables one state to recognize and punish out of state drivers for driver under the influence infractions.

For example, New Jersey driver receives a driving under the influence infraction in New York. The worst thing that New York can do is to revoke that driver’s right to operate a vehicle in New York state. Indeed this does happen. In addition, under the driver’s compact, New York also forwards this conviction to New Jersey and New Jersey then punishes the driver in accordance with New Jersey law, thereby suspending his/her driving privileges. Congress has never weighed in on this issue because there was no need to. Almost every state partakes in the Driver’s compact. States also cooperate with the placement of foster children across state lines to relatives or family friends via a compact. Once again, Congress has not created any statutory framework for the states. At the current moment there is some general agreement between the states when it comes to the laws that deal with Adult Protective Services (“APS”). The key term is that there is “general agreement.”

GENERATION SKIPPING TRANSFER TAX

Published on: February 24, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

CLOSING PERCEIVED LOOPHOLE

Congress created the generation skipping tax almost 40 years ago in 1976 and ushered in an age of increasing complexity for the tax code, always complicated and cumbersome, to fix a problem perceived at the time (and since) of avoiding taxable events by transferring assets to “several generations while avoiding the Federal Estate Tax” via use of trusts and other transfers of property rights. At the time, Congress saw how wealthy families were creating life estates in their kids, followed by a life estate in their grandkids and followed by a life estate of their great grandkids.

Life estates are not subject to federal estate tax. This meant that wealthy families who had the inclination to create these arrangements and the money to pay an attorney to do so avoided paying large amounts of taxes and smaller families and estates were paying more in taxes than wealthier ones. As such, Congress decided to tax any transfer of property or assets from an individual to another individual that is more than one generation away from the grantor, in the case of family members, or from one person to another who is at least 37 1/2 years younger than the grantor, in the case of nonfamily members. The tax applies even if the transfer is via a trust

UNDERSTANDING HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS

Published on: February 22, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

GOOD FOR CERTAIN SUBSET OF POPULATION

A health savings account is another way to save your money, tax free, for an inevitable expense that everyone will have to face and deal with eventually. Unfortunately one of the variables of retirement is that you will never know how much you will spend on health care costs. At the same time, as the body ages health invariably declines with more visits to the family doctor or perhaps even more expensive specialists. To further add to the expense, modern medicine has added significantly to the life expectancy of the majority of people who do not meet some unfortunate trauma or accident.

This is often the result of more expensive treatments, more costly medicines and more diagnostic tests or procedures that occur more often. Often these treatments, medicines, tests and procedures are medically appropriate, so any money spent is money well spent. But as with anything in life, the question must be asked, from where did the money come from? Insurance does not cover all medicines, tests and procedures and even when it does, it does not one hundred percent of their costs. You can pay for better insurance plans, with the inevitable higher monthly premiums, which leads back to the original question of where does the money come from for these costs? A more sound approach to these unknown variable but inevitable costs is a health savings account. Health savings accounts are not for everyone, but for a sizable portion of the population they are a good fit.

NOT JUST ANOTHER CELEBRITY ESTATE

Published on: February 19, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

ROBIN WILLIAMS UNIQUE ESTATE PLANNING GENIUS

This blog discussed some of the aspects of Robin Williams estate in the past. Mr. Williams will be remembered for a long time due to his many accomplishments, with a long, funny, inciteful and compassionate comedic wit. While it seems fairly certain that Mr. Williams mental state was brought on by a biological or, more accurately, a neurological condition that spawned a profound depression. Mr. Williams will also be remembered for his estate which was perhaps the first of many to come from actors, singers or other celebrities who have value in their likenesses or other unique personal attributes.

While Mr. Williams created a multi-tiered estate plan, he was sure to include the right to profit, or, more accurately, to curtail a person, company or entity from profiting from his likeness and publicity for 25 years following his death. In other words, movie studios, music producers or producers of Mr. Williams stand up comedy routine cannot take Mr. Williams image, voice or any other asset tied to his likeness or even his publicity and profit from it. While some pundits commented on the novelty of it and the breadth of the prohibition on his likeness and the length of time, it is not surprising that someone created such a blanket prohibition. Look at what the producers of Forrest Gump did with John Lennon or President Lyndon B, Johnson. To someone unaware of the times, they would be unaware that the producers of the movie morphed and cut and pasted the images and footage into the movie and could believe that Mr. Lennon or President Johnson personally appeared in the movie.

GERIATRIC CARE MANAGER

Published on: February 18, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

DISTANCE AND PROFESSIONALISM

The New York Times ran an article on December 23, 2015 discussing the distance that the average American lives from their mother. As revealed in longitudinal study published in 2010, half of Americans live 18 miles or less from their their mother. As shown in the graph plotting these distances, the half of Americans who live less than 18 miles usually live extremely close. 40 percent live five miles or less. It seems as if the 40 percent and five mile mark is where the divergence occurs. 55 percent live less than 28, 60 percent live at least 47 miles or less, 65 percent live 80 miles or less and 70 percent live 129 miles. Depending on whether you live in the suburbs, the far suburbs, rural America or in the inner city with a reliable and timely public transportation system, these percentages and distances mean different things. 128 miles is not insurmountable and is actually a common commute if you live in Philadelphia and have to commute to Manhattan.

If you live in Southern New Jersey and have to battle the daily commute to Manhattan the same 128 miles is entirely different. Other factors also play out in your ability to see your parents as often as you want or need to. If you are a busy emergency room physician, working 24 hour shifts, you may not be able to see them anywhere near as often as need be or as you want. If your parents rely on you for basic assistance with medical issues or long term care decision making and you cannot dedicate the time to help them, you may want to consider a relatively under utilized service in the form of a geriatric care manager. In addition to assisting their clients and families make informed decisions, they are professionals who almost always work in the community and have a better working knowledge of different issues that may crop up with one provider or facility but not another.

INHERITING A ROTH IRA ACCOUNT

Published on: February 17, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

ROTH IRA ACCOUNTS ARE FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT

This blog explored the topic of inheriting an individual retirement account (IRA) in a previous blog. It is necessary to explore the topic of inheriting a Roth IRA, as a Roth IRA is fundamentally different from a traditional IRA. Some of the differences between a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA:

Taxing event – The money going into a Roth IRA is taxed prior to going into the account, while a traditional IRA is generally deposited as pre-taxed income and only taxed after withdrawal from the IRA.

SPECIAL NEEDS, THIRD PARTY AND SELF SETTLED TRUSTS – WHATS WITH ALL THE NAMES?

Published on: February 17, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

LEGAL DISTINCTIONS THAT MATTER

When a person applies for Medicaid eligibility there are many pitfalls that an unsuspecting or unsophisticated applicant can run afoul of. To help them retain the benefit of certain monies that they would normally have access to third parties or the applicant themselves can create a special needs trust to help keep the public benefits and still benefit from the money in the trust. The various different trusts have different legal requirements that must be met to qualify as that type of trusts.

Moreover, different trusts accomplish different goals and yet other types of trusts exist that have nothing to do with Medicaid or other public entitlement program eligibility but help to reduce tax liability. Some trusts accomplish two tasks, such as a third party special needs trusts, which allow seniors to live a relatively modest and respectable life and qualify for Medicaid at the same time. While other types of trusts only satisfy just one legal goal, such as a grantor retained annuity trust, which allows a person to make a gift of an asset that will likely appreciate rather quickly, but incur no gift tax liability. Finally, there are other types of trusts that outlive their utility, such as pooled trusts.