Archive for Family
The Romance Business
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are getting married soon, CONGRATULATIONS! So many details… planning, family and friend invitations, caterers, details details details. But don’t forget some of the most enduring decisions you will make BEFORE you tie the knot! Protecting your new family with sound planning and decisions can literally prevent divorce down the road.
With the number one reason for divorce being financial conflict, you’ll want to make sure that you have a plan for handling these issues BEFORE you take the leap to becoming husband and wife. Everything flowers, romance, spontaneous hugs and kisses makes the natural progression to real life issues like bills, wills, financial planning, children, in-laws and division of responsibility sometimes taking precedence in the relationship.
Settling these issues while you’re planning the wedding can save years of heartache and eventual divorce.
Let’s say you’re planning on buying a house. It looks good, it feels good when you walk inside (most people buy a house for purely emotional reasons), and it seems to fit what you envision your lifestyle being when you move in.
But don’t forget: Check for termites. How’s the plumbing? The electrical system? The roof? Is it in a flood zone? Does it have a clear title?
While it’s not very romantic to compare getting married to buying a new house, you are smart enough to know that you have to make sure it’s not going to fall apart or cost you more than you planned once you’ve made the commitment. With marriage, when you invest so heavily emotionally, financially, professionally, and socially, any edge you can have beforehand is going to greatly reduce the chances of divorce and disappointment.
I’m not encouraging you to plan for divorce, but I am saying it’s imperative that you plan NOT to be divorced.
Here are some conversations you will want to consider having before saying, “I do.”
1. Make sure you both know exactly what your financial situation is now and what your prospects are for the future. Make a list of credit cards, loan balances, other debts and monthly bills you currently have and what will continue after the wedding. Share this list with each other, keeping detailed, permanent records of these items so that, in the future, if a dispute arises, you know exactly what your status was at the time you married. Include bank statements, credit card statements, information about life insurance, tax records, and everything that you will need to avoid disagreements in the future. Generally, in community property states, spouses can be liable for each other’s debts.
2. Do you need a pre-nup? In the past, requesting your intended to sign a pre-nup was sometimes akin to being received as, “I don’t trust you.” A pre-nup may be important in situations where one spouse comes into the marriage with substantially more assets or in second marriage situations. You can fix what is considered separate property and community and decide in advance on such things as spousal support, taxes,and bills. Today, we know that in many marriages it’s just good business and is to protect both parties in case of divorce or lawsuits.
3 Make a list of all property you own that is not in already in a trust and decide how it’s to be “distributed” after the wedding. As unnecessary as you think it might be, discuss what will happen to property that is accumulated in the future. What if one of you inherits a substantial sum of money or property from a parent or family member? Get it in writing beforehand if you do not want these future assets to become community property in a divorce.
2. Discuss life insurance, health insurance, and other related issues and determine if you are both in agreement as to what should be acceptable when you are a couple and what levels of coverage you both feel would be best for each of you.
3. Discuss your estate plan – your Will or Trust. Do you have one now? Whether you do or not, discuss with your Personal Family Lawyer ® a will or trust that will go into effect once you have become a married couple. Married couples have certain tax advantages that can be lost without the proper planning. These things should not be filed away mentally as something you’ll take care of when you have kids or get close to retirement. Do it now!
4. Discuss your taxes and how you will handle filing and tax liabilities for the future.
5. Discuss health and medical issues. Determine your current health status and decide for the future what you would want to happen should you become incapacitated – will you want to remain on life support and receive nutrition and hydration? As your Personal Family Lawyer, I can help you create an Advanced Health Care Directive that will avoid stress and anxiety should something happen requiring one of you to make these decisions without knowing what your spouse’s wishes might be.
There are so many things you need to decide before getting married. Which flowers and what colors the attendants will wear should be accompanied by deciding some of the issues I’ve listed above. And keep in mind, these are just a few topics to start a dialog allowing both of you to get married with your eyes wide open and avoid serious pitfalls in the future.
Who Cares For Ya, Baby? (Client Care Program Information)
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are too young to remember Kojak’s (Telly Savalas’ tv series) famous line, “Who loves ya, Baby?” then, you may not get my question, but no matter.. . It’s a quote just too fitting for me to let you know about our improved Client Care Membership Program. (It’s goooood stuff!)
Read on to learn about how changes in your life can cause havoc if you don’t keep up your planning to match your current lifestyle…
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Changes in our lives can bring a wealth of opportunity or surprising disappointment.
We can anticipate some changes, like getting married or the birth of a child, and other times, change just struts in and makes itself at home without warning.
It’s easy to evaluate and plan for those big or significant changes that we know are going to happen: what they entail, when they will happen, how they will affect our lives, and how we can be better prepared when change does occur. 
Fortunately, most changes in our lives don’t require the assistance of outsiders to help us get through it; but there are those that require an auto mechanic, a plumber, a doctor, or… a lawyer.
If you plan for those times when you need to rely on a professional, you can save a lot of money, time, aggravation, and heartache.
A true story is told by Alexis Martin Neely, Personal Planing Lawyer and Founder of the Personal Planing Lawyer program, of her grandfather’s estate. Years before his passing, he’d done what he thought was all the right things to plan for the day when his family had to live without him. He did an estate plan, put it away, and marked that off his list of what he needed to do to prepare.
When he passed away, the family learned that he’d not titled anything to the trust – and his attorney had not ensured that he did, plus the fact that their assets and their family had changed over the years, led to the estate plan’s complete failure. It was a nightmare for the family and took its toll financially and emotionally.
If you have done your estate planning, that’s wonderful. But if you have not had it reviewed in the last three years, you are in danger of its failure, too. Estate plans are not something that you can do one time and put on a shelf. It must be changed as your life changes.
Here are some examples of when your estate plan needs to be updated:
- You get married or divorced
- You have a child
- You buy or sell a house
- You inherit property, receive a settlement other “windfall” asset
- Your beneficiary dies
- You invest in or sell your stocks or bonds
- You buy or sell a business or there are changes in your share of a business
- Your life insurance changes
These are only a few examples of what needs to be updated about your estate plan. And, if you think about it, paying a lawyer to make these changes can be very expensive. Even if you “save” them all up for a one time amendment every few years, you can pay a lot of money for it and you run the risk that something may happen to you before you get to your target date of having all of the changes incorporated into your plan.
If you are very wealthy – and even if you are not wealthy but still worry about how your kids will handle their inheritance when you’re gone – you certainly would like to know that your children are prepared to receive the wealth they are due so that it’s not squandered or lost.
How do you go about doing all of these things and still not lose your mind or your “shirt” taking care of them?
Our Client Care Program is one of the benefits of working with our firm and makes us unique. This is one sure fire way of getting your plan updated at the time there are changes in your life, your family or your business at no additional cost. If you are in Client Care, you can call us with confidence that you can take care of your plan updates at the time they happen without a loss of integrity. If you have not contacted us for changes, we will contact you after 12 months to remind you to come in for a update to your plan at no additional cost.
All of our clients receive a free review of their estate plan every three years. We do that because it’s our mission to make sure that families are not left at the mercy of a failed estate plan. You can have confidence in your plan and its integrity. While we will offer the review free, we do charge for the changes necessary to update your plan.
That’s why we encourage our clients to join the Client Care Membership program. It’s easier to pay a little each month than to be faced with a large updating fee later. And it’s much less expensive. One change in your plan could conceivably pay for the entire year’s membership investment or more. And the most important thing is that you have it as a benefit, so you have no excuse for making sure your plan stays up to date for when your family needs it most.
To also give you incentives for making sure you take advantage of keeping your plan absolutely up to date, we also offer over $4,000 in enrollment bonuses to our clients. If you’d like to see everything that you can get by joining our Client Care Program, please click here.
Benefits include annual family meetings to prepare your children to receive their inheritance and to create your Priceless Conversation when you will document your most valuable wealth: Who you are and what’s important to you. Also, you can add to your Priceless Conversations so that you have a complete Legacy Library that you can pass down for future generations. (Wouldn’t you just love to, right now, be able to hear in your great grandmother’s own words her dreams, ideals, and take on life? You can do that for your family.)
As your Personal Planning Lawyer, I encourage you to take advantage of our Client Care Membership programs. We want to help you and your family make the best decisions possible and, then, leave the world a better place.
Call us today to learn more at 818-905-6088.
Then, when life throws a curve ball your way, you have peace of mind knowing that you’ve provided for it in your plan and it will work when it needs to and will not have it lost or diminished through improper handling by a broken down court system who doesn’t know you or your family.
All About The Family
Posted by: | CommentsThe holidays are here! This time of year is supposed to be about celebrating life, love, and family. It’s a time when we should really reflect on how blessed most of us are, and it’s an opportunity for us to show and share our love to the people who mean the most to us. That is the opportunity we’re given during the holidays, and it really is a shame that so much of the true essence of celebration has been shifted to materialism – to shopping, gifting, and all out consumerism. There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving gifts, especially if they are from the heart and not given just because it’s “that time of year,” but there are other purposes that can be served by this season of giving. What should be celebrated, above and beyond all else, is the relationships you have.
Thinking of Others? Give Yourself
If you are young and successful – a combination that’s pretty common these days – then you are probably looking forward to being with your family this holiday season and showing your appreciation for them. Giving gifts, especially to children, is a big part of that. But before getting into the material things you can give, take a moment to think about and reflect upon whether you’ve given all the support you should. Without support and the true genuine expressions that lead to security in relationships, all the material possessions in the world don’t matter – no matter how much you have or how much you give.
Giving of yourself comes first, and many times the gift of self is an unsung one. There is no fancy wrapping, no particular occasion for it to be enjoyed, and no elaborate ceremony to celebrate. In fact, in many cases the gift of self goes completely unnoticed. Yet the irony is that the gift of self is the baseline for all stable relationships and families.
The Gift of Security
Immersing yourself into creating a happy family and a successful career is one of the most rewarding decisions you can make, and it is a decision that will pay dividends for a lifetime. Here’s the question: Despite all your hard work, have you taken worry off the table? Have you done everything within your power to make sure that your legacy lives on after you’re gone (because it can happen tomorrow), to make sure that your loved ones are cared for financially, to guarantee that your children will be raised in the way you would want and by the people you would want to raise them?
If you haven’t given yourself this gift of security, if you’re just hoping for the best – hoping that nothing will happen to you, hoping that things will work out, hoping that wishes you haven’t fully expressed are actually followed – then you’re taking a huge risk. You can give yourself and your family the gift of security right now by formulating a plan that ensures they’re cared for no matter what happens to you. Hopefully that’s a gift they won’t know about for a long time, but it’s a gift that you’ll thank yourself for every day after it’s implemented.
Because it’s the holidays, we’re going to spend some time meeting with young families for free this month. Young families aren’t normally the demographic associated with estate planning, but they are actually more in need of it that anyone. Why? Because you need to plan for your children who would otherwise be defenseless without you! We normally charge $750 for a Family Wealth Planning Session, but call us today and mention this article, and we’ll meet with you for no charge so that you can begin thinking about how you should plan for an unknown future. It really is the best gift you can give!
