Yes, at my advanced age, it should have been done, but it's not - until now. We met with an attorney last night and started getting things rolling. I'm just curious how many of you are putting your assets in Trust and how much you paid, on average, for your Estate Planning.

We are going to set up Trusts, make wills, Healthcare Directives/Living Wills, etc. I was surprised at the cost to get all of this done properly.

By Kim on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 07:30 am:

Karen, when I owned my own company we did this and I cannot remember how much it was. I don't remember it being too terribly expensive. I'll see if I can find the papers.

By Karen~moderator on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 07:59 am:

I guess it's going to be more than I thought because of the need to review the documents regarding my inlaws' estate, and us wanting to put all of our assets into trust.

By Kaye on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 08:06 am:

WE paid 400 dollars in Ohio to have our wills written, appoint guardianship, and have our living will directive drawn up. We did not do a trust though.

But if you read carefully you see that I live in Texas now and all but the living will don't count and have to be redone. We haven't done that because I hate to spend that money again! It has only been 4 years.

By Ginny~moderator on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 09:34 am:

It is so very important to do this properly, Karen. Having been involved in handling 3 estates personally, plus a few professionally, I cannot emphasize how much misery and frustration there can be if things are ot set up properly.

I assume you mean a trust that doesn't take effect until after your's and dh's death, with the assets/money being held for a minor. If not, think carefully.

If you put assets/money that is meant to take care of you or dh in a trust, it might not be accessible if it is desperately needed because of the terms of the trust. In other words, if you are putting current assets into a trust simply to avoid some form of estate taxes or possible deeming by Medicaid in case of nursing home needs, I strongly suggest you rethink this. My parents did this, and it didn't make a particle of difference. Most states rewrote or will rewrite their Medicaid laws so that trusts which are for the use/care of the beneficiary are deemable, and, upon the beneficiary's death, in Pennsylvania the assets are part of the inheritance taxable estate.

And, picking a trustee is really tricky, especially as there are several adult children who could be selected. If you pick the lawyer, the lawyer can charge fees to the trust for administration, at the lawyer's usual hourly rate. If a bank, the bank charges annual fees which are a percentage of the assets of the trust, and more than one beneficiary has been made very unhappy by the way a bank manages/invests trust assets.

By Karen~moderator on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 12:39 pm:

Yes, Ginny, we can put it all in a Revocable Trust. That is what my inlaws had and they were able to draw on it. All - or as much as we can find - of their assets including their condo are held in Trust. The terms of the distribution are 1/3 a year for 3 years. That was set up in FL. Louisiana does not have estate taxes at this point up to something like $4,000,000.00, which we certainly don't have! The attorney said that a Trust would protect the assets taxes and going through probate.

We are going to pick a separate, fee only Trustee as opposed to a commission paid Trustee. The attorney is getting us some references and information on several sources. We have also pretty much outlined our preferences for what will go into Trust for all the kids upon both of our deaths.

Jen is being designated as the Executrix and is named on some other stuff. And other than a few specific legacies, including 2 items of jewelry which will specifically go to her, everything else will be split evenly between the 4 kids. As we go on, if there is anything someone specifically wants, or asks for, or we decide they are going to have, we are going to put that in writing as well.

The Trust for the kids will also not be an immediate pay-out, but there are certain conditions we are setting forth for which they can encroach on principal, plus they'd get annual distributions, at this point. We will re-evaluate in a few years. DH laughed and said hopefully we will live long enough to spend whatever we might have. LOL

The attorney we went to specializes in this area, so we think he is giving us good advice. He was recommended highly by someone DH knows, who used him for the same thing.

By Crystal915 on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 01:00 pm:

We don't have much to plan for estate-wise, besides the kids and life insurance policies. We do have a will with everything set up, but we didn't have to pay because JAG does them for free. The most complicated part of ours was guardianship, since technically my ex would get the children, but my mom and dad would sue for custody because of his history and unstable life. **sigh** I tell Nate I can't die until they are at least 18, so I hope I have a really good guardian angel!

By Beth on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 01:24 pm:

Something you said Crystal has me thinking. I actually had been thinking about this before with my sister. Does anyone know if the ex spouse would automatically get custody. My sis is divorced to a real unstable person also. Has had no contact with the kids for over a year. My one nephew is autistic. It scares me that something could happen to my sister and we would never see those kids again. My parents as of know would have them but as they get older it would be my dh and I. I know this is a lot of what if's but it scares me to even think about. We kind of are glad he is out of the picture and maybe he wouldn't find out if something did happen to may sister. I wonder if she set up a will if this would protect the kids at all? Anyone know?Thanks. I need to do something myself but we already have someone named if something happened to Dh and I but not in writing. The cost always deters us. I know it's terrible.

By Bea on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 02:06 pm:

At this point we have our advanced medical directives and our wills set up. Like Crystal we used the JAG Office to do this. At this time, we are more concerned with providing annuities to finance our old age, than protecting a legacy for our kids. My desire is to blow it all travelling for as long as I can afford it, anyway. LOL

By Karen~moderator on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 02:20 pm:

We're not necessarily trying to protect a legacy for the kids. We certainly don't have a fortune. DH will inherit something from his parents' estate, we plan to invest it for our retirement and hopefully it will see us through and we will live to enjoy it. I AM leaving those 2 specific things to Jen and I want to make sure she gets them.

However, we are making sure everything is set up for the kids, in the event there is anything to leave to them.

We'd love to travel travel travel too!

By Kate on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 07:27 pm:

Kaye, why would your will be invalid just because you moved out of state?!

By Ginny~moderator on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 08:26 pm:

If you make your residence in a different state - i.e., sign a lease, buy a house, register to vote, change your car registration and your driver's license - you should check with a lawyer to see if your wills are valid in the new state of residence. They usually are, but each state has its own rules and only a lawyer in that state will know. Each state often has its own health care directive / health care surrogate forms also. AARP, I believe, has the forms for each state on its website (or at least they did at one time).

The state of residence is the state whose rules govern wills and the rest. Yes, it's a shame to have to redo it, but better to redo it than to have things done incorrectly for your state of residence and have things not go as you wished or planned.

By Crystal915 on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 09:33 pm:

RE: custody, my ex will get them, because he is a joint conservator (TX law speak for partial custody, he has visitation rights)
If your sister's ex has parental rights, he'll probably get them in the event of her death, unless he gives them up. A will won't override a divorce/custody agreement.

By Kaye on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 08:03 am:

And we checked they are invalid

By Beth on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 08:54 am:

Thanks Crystal. He has no custody now. She has sole custody. He disappeared right before the divorce. His way of making her pay for the whole thing. He has no visitation the courts said he had to come back to court to get it. So like I said hopefully he wouldn't find out if something happened. I think we would have a pretty good case against him anyway. He is one of those guys that doesn't want the kids but would take them just to spite us. So my sister just better be careful and nothing can happen to her!

By Ginny~moderator on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 10:06 am:

Beth, I suggest your sister consult an attorney to get a court order that removes parental rights from her ex, on the basis of his disappearance and not taking the steps to claim visitation rights, so that in the extremely unlikely event of her death, her will can direct guardianship of the children, especially since there is a special needs child to be considered. I have never worked in "family" law (thank heaven) but I am sure there is some way to do this. I know courts remove parental rights from disappearing fathers when an unwed mother wants to put her child up for adoption and the father hasn't shown up to pay or visit, but each state will have different guidelines - some of them very, very different.

By Crystal915 on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 10:45 am:

Well, she should talk to her lawyer, or even call Legal Aid, just to find out what would happen. *If* something happened, your family needs to be prepared for any court battles that make come.