New Jersey Estate Planning

A successful estate plan is built on the collaboration of several professions working together to ensure that your goals and wishes are properly implemented.  Your team should include a CPA, a financial advisor, an insurance professional and an attorney specializing in estate planning and tax law.  The team of professionals you select should work well together and should collaborate annually on your behalf to ensure that your plan is maintained up-to-date.

Working with a team of professionals is the best way to ensure a thorough strategic plan for protecting assets and loved ones. Each member of the team brings specific expertise important to the planning process.   The team approach does not necessarily dictate endless in person meetings, rather it requires a sharing of information and discussions which in many cases can occur via e-mail or by phone.

Getting Legal Help

Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Elga Goodman knows the current tax laws and can help you understand the tax consequences of your estate planning decisions on your loved ones. Contact us today at 973-841-5111.

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The current estate, gift and generation skipping transfer tax laws are set to expire at the end of 2012.  The President and Congress will have to decide whether they extend the current laws or implement new laws. Politicians have been arguing about the value of the “death tax” for many years.  The U.S. Department of Treasury estimates that in 2008 they collected over $25 billion in estate taxes.

Mitt Romney on Estate Taxes

Mitt Romney, the current front runner in the 2012 Republican Presidential race shared his philosophy on the death tax in his book “The Man, His Values & His Vision” and stated: “It doesn’t make sense to me that people get taxed when they can earn their money, get taxed when they save their money, and get taxed when they die. We should get rid of the death tax” (p. 115).

President Obama on Estate Taxes

President Obama has stated that his goal is to eliminate tax burdens for 95% of Americans and relieve small businesses of taxes. He believes the wealthiest Americans should carry a bigger load of the tax burdens and would likely be in favor of estate taxes which would only tax very large estates.

Regardless of who is elected President in 2012, Congress will have to act and will hopefully enact a permanent solution to the estate tax issue rather than the temporary “kick the can down the road” approach we have been seeing over the last decade. Taxes affect all of us and are an important issue to watch as the elections of 2012 draw near.

Getting Legal Help

Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Elga Goodman knows the current tax laws and can help you understand the tax consequences of your estate planning decisions on your loved ones. Contact us today at 973-841-5111.

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Estate Taxes Change with New White House Administration

With each new administration in the White House and new Congress there are new tax laws and changed agendas.  In 1937 whenAmerica’s first billionaire John D. Rockefeller died, the estate tax was 70%! Estate taxes have fluctuated over the years but have decreased over the last decade or so.

Extending the Bush Tax Cuts

When the “Bush Tax Cuts” were set to expire at the end of 2009, the Democrats and Republicans could not come up with an agreement and allowed the estate tax to expire in 2010. By the end of 2010,Washingtonpatched together a “compromise” which gave us the current estate  and gift tax exemption of $5 million for individuals and $10 million for married couples. The tax rate for amounts over the exemption is 35 percent.

The current law which was signed in 2010 expires on December 31, 2012!  If nothing is done then the exemption amount drops to $1 million per person or $ 2 million per married couple.  Once again we will be waiting onWashington to renew or change the tax laws at the end of 2012.

Getting Legal Help

No one knows what the future will hold for estate and gift taxes but working with an experienced estate planning attorney can help you create a flexible estate plan which makes the most of your assets. Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Elga Goodman knows the current tax laws and can help you understand the consequences of your estate planning decisions on your loved ones. Contact us today at 973-841-5111.

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There is a television program airing on Oprah Winfrey’s new network called “The Will: Family Secrets Revealed”. The title alone should inspire people to get their estate plans in order and avoid litigation over an estate but if the title doesn’t do it, watching just one show will probably have you picking up the phone to an estate planning attorney.

Airing Personal Details

The show takes public court documents and media reports and pieces together very intimate details from cases which involved claims made against an estate. Many of the programs are about celebrities. Airing the details of the troubled personal lives of celebrities always brings big ratings.

Private Papers Become Public in Court

The interesting, and scary, part of the show is the level of detail courts sometimes need to go into order to decide a case.  In some cases parties submit private letters written to lovers in order to support their claims against  an estate. Parties submit information regarding the decedent’s prescriptions and diaries and all sorts of intimate writings never intended for public eyes. Once the documents become public court records, the media can access them as well. The writers of this television program use the court documents to retell stories of families we might not otherwise know.

While most of us won’t have the media looking through court documents for details, our friends and relatives are likely to be involved in any litigation regarding the estate and they may see the intimate writings or information never intended for everyone to see.

Getting Legal Help

The best way to avoid estate litigation is to have a solid estate plan.  Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Elga Goodman can help you create a plan which protects your assets, saves tax consequences, and protects loved ones. Call us today at 973-841-5111.

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The Hadley case inRhode Islandwhich was decided in 2005 is a well-known case for good intentions gone awry in estate planning. Art Hadley created a trust for his adult children and his wife. When he died his wife established a trust of her own which named their children as beneficiaries along with common provisions in a trust. When the last child named in the trust passed away, the trusts had to be distributed and the Trustee, Fleet Bank, asked the Court to intervene to help determine the proper beneficiaries of the trusts.  Understandably Fleet Bank didn’t want to be responsible for untangling the claims made on the trust.

According to public court documents the following people had an interest in the trusts:

“The parties who have asserted an interest in the Hadley Trusts, and their relationship to the Hadley’s, are the following: (1) Janet Hunt and Lucille Foster are the adopted children of Thomas Hadley; (2) Marcia Hanrahan is the executrix and a potential beneficiary of Sarah Hadley’s estate; (3) Cynthia Gay is a potential beneficiary of Sarah Hadley’s estate; (4) Allyson Gay, Wendy Gay, Robert Seeley, Diana Robertson, Suzanne Beyer, Cynthia Gay, Sheila Gay Franklin, Reverend Ronald Gay and Wylma Cooley are potential beneficiaries of Art Hadley’s estate; (5) Stephen Lucas, Donald Lucas, Jeffery C. Lucas, Fay C. Drummond, Raymond J. Harrison, R. Carol Justice, Clair Perry, Elizabeth Perry Robinson, Brigette Perry  Young, Sigrid Perry Reddon, Sharon Perry Glover, Eugene E. Perry II, Jane Cranston and Bruce Allsop are potential beneficiaries of Frances Hadley’s estate.”

How could this happen? There were layers of beneficiaries and family members for each child who had an interest in the trust.  Updating trust documents and making documents which are flexible enough to handle future consequences can help reduce situations like that of the Hadley family.

Getting Legal Help

Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Elga Goodman can help you create a plan and trust documents which protect your assets, save tax consequences, and protect loved ones. Call us today at 973-841-5111.

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In our last post we discussed people who make claims against an estate as a beneficiary. It is also possible for a lawsuit to be filed against an estate.  Lawsuits occur against estates for a variety of reasons. One example is a lawsuit filed against the estate of a reckless driver who passed away as a result of the accident.  The people injured by the reckless driver and the family members of the innocent person who may have died in the accident may file a lawsuit against the estate of the reckless driver.

The estate is treated like an individual in that the estate is represented by an attorney and the estate can settle claims made against it.  If someone wins an award of damages and/or punitive damages, the payment must come from the estate. The estate can only pay out what it has. Beneficiaries of the estate are not required to use their own money to pay the damages to the injured person but beneficiaries of the estate may lose their entire inheritance if the damages are equal to or exceed the value of the assets in the estate.

Getting Legal Help

Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Elga Goodman can help you create a plan which protects your assets, saves tax consequences, and protects loved ones. Call us today at 973-841-5111.

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Claims Made Against Estates

When someone claims an asset in an estate belongs to him/her but it is not left to him/her in the will or any trust document, he/she may make a claim against an estate. Similarly, if a person is owed money from the decedent or if a person wants to sue the decedent for an action occurring before the decedent passed away, that individual may make a claim against the estate.  A claim is made by filing documents with the court and the court decides whether the estate does in fact owe someone an asset.

Who Would Make a Claim against an Estate?

A family member or partner of a decedent might make a claim against an estate if they have evidence that the decedent either owed them money or promised them money in exchange for something.   A claim against an estate must be defended by the estate representative.

Getting Legal Help

An updated estate plan is the best way to protect against claims against an estate made by family or acquaintances. As relationships change and as friendships fade and grow, it is important to update your estate planning documents to reflect your current relationships and promises made to friends or loved ones. Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Elga Goodman can help you create a plan which protects your assets, saves tax consequences, and protects loved ones. Call us today at 973-841-5111.

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In order to create an accurate estate plan, people need to organize their documents and take a complete inventory of all their assets and liabilities.  Creating an inventory not only helps in creating an estate plan, but it helps in getting a handle on eliminating debt and may help in uncovering assets which haven’t been managed properly and should be sold or adjusted.

Collect and Summarize Statements

By the end of January, every financial institution must send year end statements to all account holders in order to prepare income tax returns.  As these statements come in the mail, keep a file or large envelope where you keep the mail and put them all inside.

At the end of the month, you will have all your statements in one place and you can easily transfer account numbers, balances and contact information for each financial institution to one file on your computer or one page to summarize your assets and liabilities (student loan and mortgage statements should also arrive by the end of January). An updated inventory of assets and liabilities is important for reviewing, updating or a creating an estate plan.

Getting Legal Help

Working as a team with an estate planning attorney you can create plan which preserves assets, minimizes taxes and protects loved ones. Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Elga Goodman can help you understand your options for estate planning strategies.

Call us today at 973-841-5111.

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