New York Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog

Downsizing as Seniors, One Step at a Time

Published on: January 14, 2015 | by Ettinger Law Firm

As people age and children leave the house, many parents entering retirement age use the opportunity to downsize their home and belongings. Rather than downsizing all at once, a growing trend among seniors is to do so in steps over a period of years. In earlier generations, the elderly usually downsized all at once and only once. Now, an overwhelming number of older people are taking a more gradual approach to downsizing, choosing to reduce a house or career but not doing so all at once.

Trends in Downsizing

Rather than selling the house and moving to a warmer climate, many downsizing elders are opting to stay in the same neighborhood or at least the same town. A survey by the AARP’s Public Policy Institute found that 87% of those age 65 years old and older, and 71% of those ages 50 to 64, preferred to stay close to their longtime neighborhoods instead of making the traditional choice of packing up and moving to a resort area or assisted living facility.

When to Get Power of Attorney for a Parent

Published on: January 10, 2015 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Caregiving is about more than just tending to the physical needs of an elderly parent. If your parent is also dealing with dementia or another degenerative disease, you must also prepare to cope with effects on both the body and mind. In the event that your parent becomes incapacitated, you need to decide whether your or someone that you trust will fill the decision making role. The ability to do so comes in the form of a Power of Attorney document.

How to Make a Power of Attorney

It is vitally important that you and your parent discuss and designate a power of attorney before incapacitation occurs. A power of attorney (POA) is a formal, legally binding agreement between the person who needs it (“grantor”) and the person designated to act on the grantor’s behalf (“agent”). An experienced attorney will be able to draft a POA for you and your parent, especially if there are financial matters or assets that may complicate decision making.

Biggest Estate Planning Celebrity Lessons from 2014, Pt. 2

Published on: January 8, 2015 | by Ettinger Law Firm

The first part of this article listed some of this year’s most notable celebrity deaths and the estate planning issues that arose as a result. This next part of the article is a continuation of lessons that can be learned by the estate planning problems of celebrities who passed away this year.

Paul Walker

Mr. Walker tragically died at the young age of forty this year in a car accident. He did take the steps to plan for his estate at a young age, but at the time of his death he had not updated his documents in over twelve years. His estate had a will, trust, and over $25 million in assets when he died.

Green House Homes for the Elderly

Published on: January 7, 2015 | by Ettinger Law Firm

In decades and centuries past, when people got old their children and younger relatives would care for them until they died. Now, when elderly Americans are too old to care for themselves and assisted living is not an option for financial, physical, or mental reasons many are sent to live in a sterile, hospital-like nursing home. However, one geriatrician is working on developing another option for where frail seniors can live and thrive: Green House homes.

Green House Project

Dr. Bill Thomas helped to create and develop the Green House project, a model for long-term care that nurtures the elderly and helps frail seniors thrive. The project was co-founded by Dr. Thomas and Steve McAlilly of Mississippi Methodist Senior Services in 2003, and it has since spread to 27 states.

Five Retirement Changes for 2015

Published on: January 4, 2015 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Factoring in retirement to an estate plan can be confusing, tiresome, and complex. In fact, this aspect is arguably the most difficult part of estate planning because you can never be positive about exactly how much money you will need in retirement. With the influx of new estate planning tools this year also came some changes in the way retirement planning should be approached. Here are five changes that could affect the way that you plan for retirement next year.

Decreased Creditor Protection in Inherited IRAs

This year, the United States Supreme Court ruled that creditors can gain access to the funds in an inherited IRA. As discussed in a previous post, the justices in Clark v. Rameker found that inherited IRAs are not considered retirement funds for the heir, and therefore they do not get the same protections as the original IRA holder under federal law.

Estate Disputes Continue in Estate of James Brown

Published on: December 31, 2014 | by Ettinger Law Firm

James Brown’s life was full of life, music, and manic energy. It was also full of broken marriages, estranged children, tax liens, and legal problems related to drugs, guns, and domestic violence. However, James Brown’s estate was meant to be a mea culpa for his transgressions in life and to help others after his death. Yet, almost eight years after his passing the charity that was supposed to receive a significant portion of James Brown’s estate has not seen a dime, his family is entangled in lawsuits, and even the state has attempted to intervene.

Estate Problems

James Brown signed his most recent will in 2000, and he explained on audio tape that he wanted a portion of his estate set aside for the use of a scholarship fund to benefit black and white children in his home state of Georgia as well as South Carolina. In addition, the will provided $2 million in scholarships for his seven grandchildren and divided his other personal property worth another $2 million between the six children that he recognized. Any heir who challenged the estate would be disinherited.

Cohousing a Growing Trend for Elderly Living

Published on: December 30, 2014 | by Ettinger Law Firm

One common concern for seniors living alone is the lack of community and companionship. Not only can it be dangerous for an elderly person to live alone, but loneliness can have a physical, emotional, and mental toll on someone of advanced age. However, in order to combat the issues associated with living alone, a growing trend amongst the elderly is the concept of cohousing.

Cohousing Communities

Cohousing is different than a retirement home or assisted living facility. A cohousing, or “coho” community, combines private apartments or homes designed around a communal space. The common area typically includes the kitchen, large dining room, laundry facilities, and recreational areas.

Americans Fail in Retirement Literacy

Published on: December 26, 2014 | by Ettinger Law Firm

In multiple surveys and studies, senior Americans and retirees have not scored well on retirement literacy tests. In the latest study, U.S. citizens between the ages of sixty and 75 who were polled had an eighty percent failure rate of the retirement literacy test. The results of the poll and subsequent survey were released this week by the American College of Financial Services.

Results of the Study

The poll was conducted by the American College of Financial Services through online interviews of 1,019 people between the ages of sixty to 75 who had at least $100,000 in household assets. The participants were asked a series of 38 questions regarding retirement literacy basics. This included questions about Social Security, life expectancy, IRAs and other retirement accounts, life insurance, investments, and how bonds work. Only two in ten participants had passing grades.

Joan Rivers’ Estate Lesson: Choosing Place of Residence

Published on: December 24, 2014 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Joan Rivers’ estate continues to be a topic of interest as it has been recently discovered that she reduced her estate tax burden by claiming residence in one state while actually living in another. Ms. Rivers’ died in September at the age of 81, and she had a will on file at the Surrogate’s Court in New York that was dated November 16, 2011. The will is of interest to estate planning attorneys and experts because of some of the wording regarding her place of residence.

Joan Rivers’ Will

The will on file states that Joan Rivers was a resident of New York state, but it also states that her state of domicile where she intended to stay “indefinitely and on a permanent basis” was California. Furthermore, her estate document contends that New York estate law will apply to the validity, interpretation, and administration of the will unless she died in California. If that was the case, California law would apply.

How Freezing Eggs Can Affect an Estate Plan

Published on: December 22, 2014 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Recently, Apple and Facebook made the headlines when both companies announced that it is paying the expenses for its female employees to freeze their eggs. Most people do not assume that an announcement like this will affect their estate plan, but if you have a daughter or granddaughter you may want to reconsider that opinion. If either decides to use assisted reproductive techniques and freeze their eggs, you must consider whether you would like to include these potential descendants in your estate plan.

Defining Descendants and Heirs

For estate planning purposes, descendants and heirs are people who are genetically, biologically, or legally related to you. However, with the advent of egg freezing there is a chance that you will have a descendant that is not biologically or genetically related to you, and you must decide whether to include them in your estate.