It was mortgage life insurance, I believe.
@mominva yes H and I both born after 1/1/54 so more limited in options. The āfile and suspendā strategy taken away. But there is a āfile and restrictā option but the example I saw was not the path we are taking (our full monthly benefits are at 66 years 4 months). I want to see what exactly we are āgiving upā with DH filing earlier, and if I have other option - what it means if I delay. It seems I may have a higher benefit under my own and therefore I can decide to take SS with delay and gain higher benefit than when taking when DH does.
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@great_lakes_mom it seems your term life insurance policy was āownedā by your exH; if you own the life insurance policy, you can change the beneficiary/beneficiaries - unless stipulated by divorce agreement perhaps?
All the term policies I have taken out have been 30 year term insurance, so level premiums. I have found up to this point to continue to pay the premiums.
I really like the idea mentioned of having one attorney (or, maybe wealth manager?) set up a financial structure (investments, insurance, etc.) and have another check it! Since Iām relatively new to all this, having an experienced person cross-check makes a lot of sense!
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Probably a lawyer would be most useful on the estate planning docs (will, power of attorney, heathcare proxy, medical power of attorneye). A wealth manager or financial planner could make related recommendations. Question to the group - Is it common for lawyers to be involved in review of investments, insurance etc?
In our case, we already had will etc when we started with our fee-only financial planner. He reviewed pros/cons of adding a Trust (which is normally a few thousand dollars but is a free service for this firmās customers). We discussed our situation with the provided lawyer but decided not to create a trust. Then we had them create newer wills etc, with some small tweaks based on our discussion. But honestly the quick/easy wills etc that we did a a community class 8 years ago were not much different from the new ones.
REMINDER: Itās a good idea to do comprehensive check of all your investments and accounts to ensure that beneficiaries are assigned as desired (unless there are reasons in your situation that it would be better covered by the Will and probate). Now that we are older and our children are grown, weāve made them alternate beneficiaries (in case something happens to both of us at same time OR surviving spouse does not get around to updating things, which often happens).
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SosConcern, I owned the policy, initiated it and paid for it. Per the company, I could not change the beneficiary without the his signed permission. Typically simple, but dementia ruins all sorts of things.
Regarding lawyers and investments - usually they are only involved in making sure ownership and beneficiary designations are correct. An attorney will be part of a team and often confer with clientās accountant, wealth manager, insurance advisor and others to make sure all are on the same page.
Some wealth managers have attorneys in-house who will consult with high net worth clients but drafting of the estate planning docs is usually done by clientās personal attorney.
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Interesting about the different roles of attorney/wealth manager, etc. I contemplated a trust too - if something happened to my H and myself at the same time - would we want both kids to have a dump of money on them in their 20s? (not that itās a huge amount, but between life insurance, 401k. and sale of house it could be significant enough).
Have a trusts and estates attorney friend - she doesnāt seem deep into the investment side of thingsā¦
We have a broker/financial planner, attorney, and CPA. The attorney set up our trust and prepared our estate docs (living will, healthcare power of attorney, financial power of attorney, funeral arrangements). DH and I review these documents annually and engage the attorney for changes as necessary. Our financial planner has a copy of our documents as well and asked us last year if we still felt we needed a trust administrator to handle age-related payouts to our son should we die at the same time. This is something we had discussed earlier and had forgotten to initiate with the lawyer, so we recently made the change to remove the administrator. Every time we make changes, we send a copy of the updated docs to our planner and our son so everyoneās on the same page. Our son knows and uses our planner and attorney and has always known who to call should the unthinkable happen.
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Regarding attorneys, make sure you deal with ones that specialize in estate planning. Have relationships with a few and much of their work is redoing work previously done by other attorneys (assume generalists). In fairness, peopleās plans and goals change so Iām sure thatās involved as well but I here lots of stories from them about docs that would execute different than clientās wishes. I know from personal experience most lay people have no idea how any of this works, havenāt updated beneficiaries, think a will or trust supersede beneficiaries, etc. Thought adjusting a will changed who they left their IRA or other investments to.
Just make sure your docs are consistent with your wishes. All of them.
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Depending on the amount of assets one has, tax/estate attorneys are beneficial for a variety of reasons in addition to preparing the typical estate docs. If may be in your best interest to use gifting strategies now to save on taxes later, or form trusts as a method of asset protection and so on also depending on what kind of assets you have and protecting yourself from potential liability.
Having your home in TBE if married and your state allows is also beneficial as is having an irrevocable trust to avoid probate upon death. The beneficiary then of your assets, 401k plans, IRAs etc. should be your trust not your descendants and then your trust can distribute the assets accordingly.
Lastly, donāt ever make the trustee of your estate a bank. They will charge outrageous fees and once the bank is a trustee it is virtually impossible to get rid of them. You should always find a valued and trusted third person to do this and potentially have 2 people. One being a beneficiary and co-trustee. The other the co-trustee. THat way there is somewhat of a ācheckā on the beneficiary.
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We opted to designate beneficiary on all our investments, accounts, 401k etc as follows: Spouse is co-owner or beneficiary ā¦ secondary beneficiary is 50/50 split to our kids. Thus after we pass, very little will be subject to probate (except our house, if we are still homeowners at that point - CO is one of the states that does not allow us to assign a beneficiary). Doing it this simple way, without a trust, might mean more tax consequences for our heirs - at this point that is OK with me. Down the road if there are grandchildren we may (or may not) refine that approach.
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Whatever any of you choose to do, be sure to update things every so often. My Hās aunt did her will in 1965 and never updated it before she died in 2005. She left everything to several nieces and nephews. A relative who was not in the will, and who was born prior to the will (so was apparently not in the will because she didnāt put them in it), objected. The judge threw out the will, saying it was too old. Everything went through probate, and the end result was that those named in the will ended up with considerably less than the aunt intended - and others who had not been named, including the person who objected - got money that the aunt had not intended for them to have. Since the money was not something H ever expected, he wasnāt upset ā¦ but it was not what the aunt had intended.
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Excellent advice. Of course, it would also be beneficial for those that donāt have wills or estate plans to make sure they have them! No one wants to deal with this issue and constantly puts them off but death unfortunately is certain so it is important we have these things taken care of sooner than later. Iām guilty of this as well. Iāve been divorced since 2008 and updated my will at that time but I also have been remarried since 2012 and have not updated it since then. My current husband is not left out in the cold if I die before him because we have a prenuptial agreement plus I would come back from the dead and kill my kids if they were a-holes to him and vice versa but I know I need to update things as far as executor and trustee because my father is turning 83 in a few weeks and I should arrange for one of my siblings to replace him as well as make sure there are things squared away with my husband so any money of mine he would receive transfers back to my estate/trust upon his death so that my heirs receive it, not his. Itās all so complicated but we do what we have to do!
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The current topic is helpful to me. Full confession here - we re-did wills about a year and a half ago. Set up revocable trusts at that time. Have I moved a single thing over into the trust name? Nope. Really only have one brokerage account that I have to contend with. I know dh hasnāt moved stuff over either. Itās not really a āmoving overā - just renaming. I contacted my financial managerās assistant today. Forms arenāt arduous, but one does require a notary. So yāall have lit a fire under me. And, I can serve as your bad example because it does no good if oneās attorney sets things up as you want them (our goal was to avoid probate) and then you donāt take the necessary subsequent steps that YOU are responsible for to make whatever is set up effective/do what it is supposed to do.
We do have beneficiaries named on retirement accounts, but other assets need to be dealt with.
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Make sure they are NOT with the same firm!
Our does. But why would we trust the FA to work with an attorney of THEIR choosing and not ours. We want to make sure everyone has checks and balances. And we are paying them to catch mistakes and pitfalls which is not going to happen if thatās their bvest client. We purposefully use our own attorney, CPA and FA. They all play nice together. If you live in a small town or suburb, itās likely they will know each other.
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This made me laugh. I married my first husband in 1995 and left one brokerage account in my maiden name. It was so much easier to leave it. In 2008 I set up my irrevocable trust after my divorce. It wasnāt for a few years after that when I finally moved that brokerage account over. Itās a pain but once done itās easy. The number of times Iāve been asked for a copy of the trust is annoying but these days everything you can just send as a pdf so itās a lot easier than even in 2008.
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No - the client always has their own attorney. The person who works in-house for the FA is just helpful at spotting issues and telling the client it is a good idea to go back to their attorney for an update. Usually no extra charge for this service, part of the overall investment fee. You wouldnāt believe how many people put together wills, trusts, etc with an attorney and never update even after tax law changes and family events. The in-house person also helps with making sure beneficiary designations are on file and that the assets are titled properly. Most attorneys donāt get into that follow up and/or it is expensive to have them do that at their billing rate.
It was impressed upon me, by my attorney, that my money would be wasted, if, after setting up the trust, I never got around to funding it.
She said that was the biggest pitfall for so many folks.
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