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The downsides of do-it-yourself wills · The Legal Exchange

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  Speaker 1: This is the Legal Exchange with Todd Lutsky from the
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  Speaker 1: law firm of Cushing and Dolan and Susan Powers of
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  Speaker 1: the Armstrong Advisory Group. Each week, Todd and Susan will
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  Speaker 1: discuss many topics, including estate planning, how to avoid probate,
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  Speaker 1: and protecting your money from a nursing home. If you
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  Speaker 1: need assistance in any of these areas, or have a
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  Speaker 1: question about another issue that may affect your future, call
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  Speaker 1: to make an appointment. That's eight sixty six eight four
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  Speaker 1: eight five six ninety nine. Operators are standing by. Now
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  Speaker 1: Here are your hosts, Todd Lutsky and Susan Powers.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome into the Legal Exchange with Todd Lotsky. I'm Susan Powers,
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  Speaker 2: a financial advisor with the Armstrong Advisory Group, and I'm
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  Speaker 2: joined by Todd Lutsky.
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  Speaker 3: You're right, you got me with a.
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  Speaker 2: Master's in taxation. Welcome Todd. How are you today?
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  Speaker 3: Good?
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  Speaker 1: Susan?
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  Speaker 2: You, I'm great, Thank you. What do you have for
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  Speaker 2: us this week?
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  Speaker 3: I have got a case from Mississippi in appelled court
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  Speaker 3: case and a North Caroline a Pellet court case. The
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  Speaker 3: first one for Mississippi's dealing with a holographic will. You
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  Speaker 3: talk about not planning or maybe almost planning. You know,
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  Speaker 3: they put together a holographic will, and now we have
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  Speaker 3: to decide whether or not this holographic will is actually valid.
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  Speaker 3: But can you imagine doing a holographic will with seven
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  Speaker 3: kids and not being clear in the in the language
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  Speaker 3: and trying to draft it yourself.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just picturing like a star trek beam kind of
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  Speaker 2: thing here. So that's what I think when you say holographic.
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  Speaker 3: So I'll just blind into that what that means to
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  Speaker 3: everybody and how planning maybe do it yourself isn't always
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  Speaker 3: the best, but they tried and in this case. The
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  Speaker 3: next case is the North Carolina pellid cord case, and
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  Speaker 3: it deals with whether or not after borns are in
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  Speaker 3: and out. And it's not really whether or not an
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  Speaker 3: afterborn child or grandchild is in or out. In this case,
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  Speaker 3: it deals with in vitro fertilization and a child born
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  Speaker 3: more than ten months after the death of the father.
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  Speaker 3: So this is kind of an interesting situation. And you
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  Speaker 3: got a draft. We talk about drafting all the time.
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  Speaker 3: Drafting language is so important. In fact, what your documents
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  Speaker 3: say and do after you're gone really is more important
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  Speaker 3: than while you're living in a lot of times, so folk,
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  Speaker 3: we're going to focus on that. We're going to talk
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  Speaker 3: in this case, all of this is all about planning.
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  Speaker 3: But the guide this month is really a tale of
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  Speaker 3: two objectives because this talks about planning that these cases
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  Speaker 3: are about planning or lack thereof. This tale of two
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  Speaker 3: objectives is how do you do your planning? Yes, but
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  Speaker 3: at the same time, reduce your death tax and if
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  Speaker 3: you're interested, protect from a nursing home. But not everybody
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  Speaker 3: wants both, but the guide is for everyone. Just pick
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  Speaker 3: what you want. It has examples of how the taxes
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  Speaker 3: are calculated. The new mass tax is an example in
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  Speaker 3: here on how that is calculated, and it explains how
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  Speaker 3: that can all be done by adding nursing home protection
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  Speaker 3: if you want that. So the ear rev and the
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  Speaker 3: rev are both explained. Folks, call and get this guide
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  Speaker 3: how to reduce your taxes and protect from the nursing
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  Speaker 3: home eight six six eight four eight five six nine
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  Speaker 3: nine or Legal Exchange Show dot com again eight six
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  Speaker 3: six eight four eight five six nine nine or Legal
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  Speaker 3: Exchange Show dot Com. Let's head over to Mississippi.
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  Speaker 2: Great.
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  Speaker 3: What is a holographic will? First of all, I think
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  Speaker 3: we should go star Trek. No, it's not really, although
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  Speaker 3: I think it would be more fun. It's basically when
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  Speaker 3: somebody wants to draft the will in their own writing,
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  Speaker 3: so it's a handwritten document in their own writing and
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  Speaker 3: signed by them. Holographic wills don't require attestation, clauses, witnesses, notaries.
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  Speaker 3: They don't. It's a holographic will. Sounds a lot like
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  Speaker 3: you're doing it yourself, and that oftentimes doesn't work out
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  Speaker 3: so well. So let's give it a shot. So Elijah
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  Speaker 3: in this case dies in June twenty sixth of twenty twenty,
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  Speaker 3: survived by seven kids. Wow. So in May right of
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  Speaker 3: twenty twenty, just a month earlier, he created a handwritten will,
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  Speaker 3: and like I said, it appeared to give most of
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  Speaker 3: his assets to his daughter Mimi, and the will was signed,
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  Speaker 3: handwritten and dated. Well, Mimi filed the will and petitioned
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  Speaker 3: to be the personal representative. Made sense. But Fred and
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  Speaker 3: two other daughters these are some of the seven children,
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  Speaker 3: objected to the will and said it's invalid, or if
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  Speaker 3: it is valid, it's a product of undue influence. Well,
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  Speaker 3: the trial court granted the petition to appoint Mimi and
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  Speaker 3: admitted the handwritten will. As the trial court said, it
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  Speaker 3: appear to meet all the requirements of a holographic will. Yep.
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  Speaker 3: The court went on to say it also determined that
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  Speaker 3: there was no suspicious circumstances around the creation of the
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  Speaker 3: will and it didn't give rise to any presumption of
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  Speaker 3: undue influence. Okay, So, as far as the trial court's concerned,
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  Speaker 3: leitimate the will will looks good. The court did, however,
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  Speaker 3: say that some of the language was ambiguous shocker because
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  Speaker 3: you're drafted from yourself, and declared that some of the
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  Speaker 3: assets do need to pass by intestate succession because we
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  Speaker 3: just can't understand what the will said.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, fair enough.
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  Speaker 3: Well, there were an appeal across appeal. No one's happy here,
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  Speaker 3: right because obviously they didn't want the peeven the peace
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  Speaker 3: with the intestate succession. So you have both parties appealing,
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  Speaker 3: and on appeal the appellate court agreed with the trial
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  Speaker 3: court that the will was valid and that in fact
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  Speaker 3: what they did is they actually had gone to an attorney.
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  Speaker 3: The Elijah showed the attorney the document that he prepared
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  Speaker 3: and that attorney did say it was his signature and
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  Speaker 3: it was in his handwriting. Okay, of course it's not
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  Speaker 3: in the case. But I'm of course saying, well, if
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  Speaker 3: you were with a lawyer to do estate planning, why
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  Speaker 3: didn't you just complete the process the attorney doing the will, right,
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  Speaker 3: So therefore we agree it's a valid will, The court says.
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  Speaker 3: They also agreed that the thirty five acres of land
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  Speaker 3: and the home are going to have to pass by
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  Speaker 3: intestate succession to all seven kids under the Mississippi Intestate
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  Speaker 3: Succession Statute. That's what it said. And the reason they
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  Speaker 3: did that is because the language in the will simply
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  Speaker 3: said that the home, which apparently also had all these
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  Speaker 3: acreage is attached to it. Yep, the home should just
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  Speaker 3: stay as is, But it didn't say who it was
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  Speaker 3: supposed to go to. Right, Oh my goodness. Right, So
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  Speaker 3: I kind of understand why the court said you kind
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  Speaker 3: of have to just let this go on the intestinate
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  Speaker 3: succession statue because you didn't tell us how you wanted
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  Speaker 3: it to go. So that was pretty clear. So you know,
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  Speaker 3: interesting case, right, It's like to me when you have
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  Speaker 3: no planning done in this case, I mean, they were married.
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  Speaker 3: I'm guessing they had seven kids. You know, you're not
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  Speaker 3: even avoiding probate. Land is complicated. Thirty five acres going
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  Speaker 3: through probate is not easy. You know, if they were married,
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  Speaker 3: why didn't they do something to try to reduce their
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  Speaker 3: estate tax? I mean with a trust, they wouldn't have
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  Speaker 3: wasted their exemption for estate tax purposes. I mean, these
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  Speaker 3: are all the things that you think about when you
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  Speaker 3: do your planning. Again, I get the taxes in the
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  Speaker 3: probate or the cold irs part of the planning, but
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  Speaker 3: that's always important. Sure, then we can pass on another
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  Speaker 3: tip or lesson is well, trying to do it yourself
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  Speaker 3: isn't always so easy, right, And I think that's what
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  Speaker 3: they learned here. In fact, I'm just going to jump
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  Speaker 3: to this, you know, real life story I had where
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  Speaker 3: one client came in and they had gone to one
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  Speaker 3: of those online trust wills things that are online, and
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  Speaker 3: I said, well, how's this going for you? Well, we've
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  Speaker 3: been doing it for a year now, a year one year. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: we haven't completed it. Well what's wrong? Well, they charge
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  Speaker 3: us every time we hit print, so we don't want
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  Speaker 3: to print out anything. I'm like, oh, do you talk
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  Speaker 3: to anybody. Well, no, there's really no one to talk to.
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  Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, so you can't do this stuff right
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  Speaker 3: without having a conversation.
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  Speaker 2: So it's too important to just wing it.
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  Speaker 3: Because that never mind, you might not get the tax
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  Speaker 3: formula correct, but how you want to leave stuff is
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  Speaker 3: really important. And some of the things that I that
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  Speaker 3: I run into is, you know, clients will send me
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  Speaker 3: an email while we're drafting, and they'll say here's what
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  Speaker 3: I want you to do, and they say specific things,
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  Speaker 3: and I just have to call them because they're not
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  Speaker 3: thinking about all the other what if this doesn't happen,
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  Speaker 3: What if this doesn't happen? And you know, and so
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  Speaker 3: you have to really have some conversation with people in
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  Speaker 3: order for this, you know, to work. So like, for example,
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  Speaker 3: you might say, I want to leave things to my kids,
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  Speaker 3: equally fine, Otherwise where do you want it to go
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  Speaker 3: to grandkids or do you want it to go to siblings?
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  Speaker 4: Right?
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  Speaker 3: Do you want it to go outright to grandkids or
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  Speaker 3: do you want it held in trust? I mean, they
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  Speaker 3: don't think about these extras right. And you know, one
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  Speaker 3: of the examples I had was a client called recently
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  Speaker 3: and said, you know, I can't. I noticed in my
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  Speaker 3: document it's wrong because they had two pieces of property
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  Speaker 3: going to one daughter each, but the home and everything
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  Speaker 3: else was going equally. But he had forgotten. He goes,
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  Speaker 3: you didn't say where you wanted the home to go.
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  Speaker 3: How come that's not in here?
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  Speaker 1: Like?
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  Speaker 3: Well, because you wanted everything else to go equally. Oh,
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  Speaker 3: I say, but you really have to think through who
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  Speaker 3: you want to get what how when afterborn grandchildren? Folks,
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  Speaker 3: please doing it yourselves not so easy. So to that point,
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: call get the Guide A tale of two objectives. Learn
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  Speaker 3: how to reduce taxes and protect assets from the nursing
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  Speaker 2: Welcome back into the legal exchange with Toddltsky. I'm Susan Powers,
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  Speaker 2: a financial advisor with the Armstrong Advisory Group, and I'm
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  Speaker 2: joined by Todd Lutsky, a partner with the law firm
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  Speaker 2: of Cushing and Dolan with a master's in taxation. Where
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  Speaker 2: we headed down, Todd.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we're gonna go to North Carolina talk about an
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  Speaker 3: appellate court case. But this is one you don't hear
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  Speaker 3: a lot about all the time, but boy, it's out
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  Speaker 3: there for sure. So it deals with in vitro fertilization
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  Speaker 3: and a child born after well after the death of
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  Speaker 3: the father in this case. So Dan and Hasnah I
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  Speaker 3: guess married in twenty eighteen. I don't know exactly when
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  Speaker 3: in twenty eighteen, but in November late in the year
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  Speaker 3: they did some in vitro fertilization treatment and apparently it
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  Speaker 3: was successful. And so then they went out and selected
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  Speaker 3: an embryo for implementation. Well in January of twenty eighteen,
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  Speaker 3: which I think was probably even before they might have
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  Speaker 3: gotten married. If Dan did a will and a revocable
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  Speaker 3: trust and a special needs trust built into his trust
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  Speaker 3: for his daughter from a prior marriage. Her name was
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  Speaker 3: Avra or Ava. Okay, in May of twenty twenty So
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  Speaker 3: Dan dies not that so but never changed anything. Well,
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: if you didn't change anything, what now? So Hassana then
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  Speaker 3: completed the in vitro fertilization process. But they did that
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  Speaker 3: in March sixteenth of twenty twenty one, ten months and
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  Speaker 3: six days after Dan's death, after he passed away, Noah
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  Speaker 3: is born. Yeah. Well, the trust provides for some amounts
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  Speaker 3: to various family members and then the balance to a
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: special needs trust for his daughter Ava. The trust did
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  Speaker 3: not define children. Again, bad drafting right right after bad.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: I'm like drafting, drafting, drafting people. I just say it
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: over and over.
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  Speaker 2: Process.
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  Speaker 3: So so the trust provided, like I said, didn't defy children.
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  Speaker 3: So Mike, the pr then for the estate brings a
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  Speaker 3: declaratory judgment to determine that Noah. That determined Noah's rights
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  Speaker 3: to inherit as an afterborn and to modify the trust
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  Speaker 3: to include Noah as a beneficiary. Well, Deb's the trustee
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  Speaker 3: of the special Needs Trust that's inside this trust that
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  Speaker 3: holds all the assets, and she files a motion to dismiss,
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  Speaker 3: saying that there's no authority to distribute to kids born
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  Speaker 3: more than ten months after the decedent's death. That's apparently
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  Speaker 3: a rule in North Carolina. Well, the trial court granted
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  Speaker 3: Deb's motion to dismiss, so Noah is out. Well, that
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  Speaker 3: didn't go over well, so they appealed. The appellate court
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  Speaker 3: reversed and said stating that there is a conflict between
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  Speaker 3: the fiduciary duties for Mike as pr and Deborah as
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  Speaker 3: trustee of the special Needs Trust. And while Deborah is
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  Speaker 3: correct in stating that a child born within ten months
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  Speaker 3: shall inherit, it is not clear that a child born
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  Speaker 3: after ten months is out. Oh I didn't say that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't necessarily conclude it.
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  Speaker 3: You can't conclude that. So I believe Noah is going
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  Speaker 3: to be in here. But folks, obviously this is important stuff.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: When you talk about planning that the first case and
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: this case really deals with making sure your trust is
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  Speaker 3: drafted correctly after you're gone to really take care of
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: all circumstances.
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  Speaker 2: And biologically it's his child.
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  Speaker 3: And second marriage existed. I mean, there's a lot of
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: red flags here, folks. Well, not only is it important
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: to draft and understand your your trust documents after you're gone,
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: you need to make sure they work right while you're
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: living and have the right tax ramification language in it
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: to take care of that. And that's what this guide
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: is about this month, folks. You know a tale of
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: two objectives. How do you reduce your state tax? And
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: if you want protect from the nursing home. So it
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: does both. It provides an example about the new massive
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: state tax. It talks about a revocable trust if that's
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: all you want, and how the buckets work to shelter
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: taxes for you, gives you an example, does the same
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: thing for the folks that are interested in nursing home planning.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: They then get the example with an irrevocable trust, and
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: it explains how the buckets are drafted and how they work,
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: and they're a little different. So it's important to understand both.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: But it has got something for everybody. So call and
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: get the guide eight six six eight four eight five
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: six nine nine or Legal Exchange Show dot com again
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: eight six six eight four eight five six nine nine
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: or Legal Exchange Show dot com. What do we learn
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: from this? Some tips and lessons? Well, first of all, folks,
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: second marriage jumps off the table at me here right,
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: I'm saying, well, if you've got a second marriage, you
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: do need a trust, you do need a will.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Why do you Yeah, and you have a special needs
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: child from a prior marriage, and.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: Can you imagine?
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: You know, it appears to me that the first will
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: and trust was done early, probably before they got married. Well,
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: when they got married, that's a red flag. We're married.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: You know, I need to you know, you need to
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: tell folks. And I do this all the time. There'll
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: be clients that will come in and say, well, let's
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: say just one one. Let's say the wife, the wife
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: to be comes in and says, you know, I want
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: to do some planning because I'm getting married again, but
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: I want to make sure I have something in place.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: I go, when are you getting married? You know, if
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: you're getting married right away, just wait. I tell clients
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: there's no reason to to just run out and get married,
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: or to spend money doing an estate plan and then
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: you're going to have to come back in it when
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: you get married, Like, don't do that, you know, I
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: try to save him the money, and I just say,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: just wait and make sure you do it. And that's
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: my point here. He did this plan shortly before he
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: got married. Well, folks, when you get married, that's a
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: red flag. Go revisit your plan. You know, in this case,
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: after they got married, they should have updated it, not
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: only to provide for his now second spouse, which I
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: don't know that this this trust did not provide. Remember
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: there was nothing in here that said it went to
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: a spouse. It went to a few family members in Ava.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: So you just should have been updated to prepare or
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: to provide excuse me, for a spouse. And certainly you
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: still could have provided for Ava, a child from a
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: second marriage. You still could have provided the special needs
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: trust for her, but you could have carved out some
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: language to take care of your spouse first, folks, that
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: should have been done. It also would have helped save
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: a state taxes, right just like the guid that would
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: have had the buckets in there, the marital share, the
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: remainder share built in so that when he died it
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: would help reduce you know, the estate taxes as the
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: case may be. Well, I think the most important thing
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: here is that when you have a second marriage, or
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: you have another event that's going to occur, you should
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: plan for it. Here you are doing in vitro fertilization.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, you know you're thinking about having another child,
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: you should probably tell the lawyer that, like when you
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: define in your trust. Remember drafting so important. When you're drafting,
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: please make it clear to say who a child is?
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Child children issue. You know, simple language that could have
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: just said equally to my kids if living, otherwise their kids,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: or you don't even have to say just if living.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: You could just say children of all generations. Something to
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: capture not only afterborn grandchildren which would be included, but
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: perhaps an after born child. Now, I know it's not
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: as often that that's going to happen, but if you're
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: doing planning, you should tell your lawyer that this kind
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: of thing is going on there so you can draft
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: for it. Right, Obviously, I'm stressing drafting and then planning.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: I'll give you another real life story. I had a
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: client came in, they wanted to do planning, and they
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: shared with me the fact that they had stored eggs, right, Okay,
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: we want to make sure we take care of these
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: stored eggs. And if I die, she said, I want
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: my stored eggs to go to my sister. I couldn't
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: understand it, but I'm like, sure, but you have to
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: tell us that would not be something that would normally
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: be in our regular trusts that are drafted. But you
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: know the point is you can take care of that,
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: right And so after you die, the language is almost
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: more important than you know. The I talks about taxes,
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: that's important, but after you die really really important. And
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: what about adopted versus step kids. You really have to
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: define things, folks. And you have to understand how to
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: do tax planning. And that's what this guide is all about.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: A tale of two objectives. Learn how to both reduce
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: your estate tax, understand the formulas for revocable trusts and
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: add irrevocable trusts if you want nursing home protection. They're
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: both here eight sixty six eight forty eight five six
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: nine to nine or Legal Exchange show dot com.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: You've been listening to Todd Lutsky, a partner with the
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: law firm of Cushing and Dolan. I'm Susan Power as
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: a financial advisor with the Armstrong Advisory Group, and Todd
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: will be answering your listener questions when we return to
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: the Legal Exchange with Todd Lutsky.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: If you're retired or nearing retirement and haven't done your
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: planning yet, you could be missing out on opportunities that
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• 24:31
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• 24:34
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• 24:39
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  Speaker 1: solely those of Cushing and Dolan. Cushing and Dolan and
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• 24:48
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• 24:50
  Speaker 4: This is Chucks outa from the Armstrong Advisory Group. Your
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: lifelong financial plan should always be top of mind, and
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  Speaker 4: as another new year approaches, now is the time to
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• 25:02
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  Speaker 4: need to be familiar with for twenty twenty five, especially
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  Speaker 4: for both married couples and single filers, as well as
• 25:16
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• 25:40
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• 25:43
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• 25:46
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• 26:11
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• 26:15
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• 26:18
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• 26:20
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• 26:21
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• 26:52
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the Legal Exchange and it's time for
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Ask Todd, the segment where Tod will answer your questions
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: about anything and everything that's included in the estate planning process.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Once again, here's Todd Lutsky and Susan Powers.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Welcome back, Tob. We have a few questions from listeners
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: for you. Our first question comes from Jeff in Norwood,
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Mass and Jeff Wrights. My mother and father created two
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: irrevocable trusts around ten years ago with your firm. My
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: father is still living, but my mother recently passed away
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: and I'm wondering what we need to do now for
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: next steps. She has around two hundred thousand inner IRA
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: and around nine hundred thousand inner trust. They did not
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: own any real estate as they were living in assisted living.
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: Okay, so so.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Mom passed, Dad still living. What do we do? We
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: have two trusts.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's really the situation. We've got the two trust
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: and lick. It was done ten years ago. So that's
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: another important fact in here. And you have now one
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: that has passed away and one that has survived. You
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: always need to call your lawyer when you've done your
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: estate plan and someone passes. I say that, folks because
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: I have a lot of clients who just tell me
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: when they'll call when the surviving spouse dies, and I'll
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: be like, oh, yeah, I'm sorry for your loss. And
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: then did you call me when the first spouse died?
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: Oh no, we didn't think we needed to. Oh right.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: It just makes my blood boil. So this is important
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: that this question is here. Always call when one spouse dies,
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: so we want to know what the next steps are.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: It says there's two hundred in an IRA, so that's
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: not in a trust, so that's the first thing you
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: need to think about. The nine hundred is in the trust,
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: so that's helpful. So are we saying the entirest state
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: is about a million and one. Yes, oh, her million one,
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: so she could have he could have another million.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: This is a mutual client.
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: So so with a million one the nine hundred in
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: the trust, the first thing we need to do is,
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: you know, get a new ID number for the trust.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: Why it's no longer a grant or trust for income
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: tax purposes. Yeah, and then inside the trust, you're going
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: to break it down into this marital share and remainder share,
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: and you're going to then start allocating the nine hundred thousand,
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: you know, to the remainder share. Now, why am I
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: saying the remainder share. That's the tax formula. The amount
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: in the trust that can go into the remainder share
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: in mass is equal to the state exemption two million. Okay,
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: So as long as she's got less than two million,
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: all of her trust assets will end up in that
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: remainder share under a new tax ID number. Because the
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: trust is not a grant or trust anymore. Fine, the IRA,
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: go check the designated beneficiaries with your financial advisor, and
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: it is her husband. The husband can just go in.
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: They will roll the money right over to the husband
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: and he can actually inherit the era and put it
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: in his name because he's a special beneficiary, so he
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: will have that money and that will pass under the
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: unlimited marital deduction. Then sitting in the trust. Now you
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: read the trust document the trust probably provides and it
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: was an irrevocable trust, so it's going to say income
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: to spouse, but no access to the principle, which is
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: exactly how it was. Well, his spouse was alive, so
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: nothing really changes, but those dollars are subject to tax,
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: but there's a two million dollar exemption which is less
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: than which is nine hundred is less than two hundred
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: two million, and therefore there's no tax due. And the
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: beauty is that that nine hundred, while still available for
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: the surviving spouse to enjoy when the surviving spouse dies,
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: will not be included in the estate of the surviving
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: spouse and therefore sheltered for state taxes, and all the
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: growth will pass on the death of the surviving spouse
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: down to the kids or whatever it says in the document.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: So that's exactly what needs to be done, and it
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: looks like no probate.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: No, and they wouldn't need to file a tax return
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: because it's under the two million.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: No probate no taxes, and if the estate's small enough,
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: you might not file a federal a federal return to
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: elect portability. It depends on the size of the estate overall. Well,
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: well under yeah, so, folks, that's how it works. That's
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: a really good question. A really good example turns out
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: as to exactly what you're going to find in this trust.
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: It's going to give an example. But you can put
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: your own numbers in. You can put your own families
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: of state numbers or state assets into this formula and
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: see how these marital shares and remainder shares operate, and
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: see how they're funded, and see how you can save taxes.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: It does it for federal, it does it for state,
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: and for state in mass it shows you the new
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: Massachusetts of state tax. It's a year later, but it's
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: still considered new. And for you folks who really want
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: to do trust tax planning but also protected from a
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: nursing home, it gives a similar example with an irrevocable trust.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: So please call get the guide something for Everyone here
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: eight six six eight four eight five six nine nine,
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: or Legal Exchange show dot Com again eight sixty six
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: eight four eight five six nine nine or Legal Exchange
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: show dot com.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: Our last question comes from Samantha in Burlington, mass And
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Samantha writes, my father passed away four months ago and
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: he was in the process of drafting a trust, but
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: he never got around to signing it. He didn't have
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: any beneficiaries on his accounts. He was single and had
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: two biological children, myself and my sister, and a step son.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: He was worth around one point eight million. What will
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: happen now with his house and his investment against So
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: no Benny's and no.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: No trust, no legal Do you think he didn't even
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: have the will sign.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: So he wouldn't asigned the will and not the trust.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: The trust, So we're basically dying what they call intestate folks.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: No estate plan, no will, no trust, you have nothing.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: So now you have not told the world where you
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: want your assets. We are all at a loss. So
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: if we're at a complete loss as to your wishes,
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: we now have to look to the intestate succession statute.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: And let's begin with the easiest result here. So I
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: saw the word step son in there. He's out. So
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: he's already out. We don't even need to go any
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: further for him, and he doesn't even have standing to
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: bring an action to say I should be in you're nothing. Unfortunately,
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: as a step son, legally you're not in that. You're
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: not going to hit the intestate succession statute at all.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: It never roll to him. So that's one issue that's gone.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: I had two biological children, so they're going to be
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: in Yep, how much we're gonna have to look to
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: the intestate succession statute. So in this case I will
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: have to double check. But if he has no spouse,
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: no spouse and his and he's got children, they won't
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: even get to the parents. So assuming his parents are gone,
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: but yeah, it'll probably end up stopping at this child
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: level with his two daughters and they will end up
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: sharing equally in this case because there's no spouse. So
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: that that's my initial gut feeling is that both of
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: these kids will get equally. So now maybe that was
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: his wish and he will luck out in this case,
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: but again not by design. It just happened to work
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: that way.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: So what happens if he was in the process of
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: drafting his trust, what if he said to the attorney
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: that was drafting, Hey, I want to split between my
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: two daughters and my step son equally between the three.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: Maybe he thinks of him as a child.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: Do you know, Well, again, I think you might have
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: a problem here because I'm not sure that that rises
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: to the level of giving the step son standing to
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: bring an action to bring all this evidence into play.
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: So I don't know that that'll get you there.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: Could the daughters voluntarily share it with them, or they
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: have to gift it after they get Oh.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: No, it would probably be gifted after I mean you
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: say voluntarily share, Yeah, it's going to be divide this up.
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: And then if they say, well, look we know that
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: you know, Dad wanted you to have this, they're just
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: going to have to make a gift. And again, so
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: what we have a thirteen point nine million dollars gift
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: tax exemption effective January one, twenty twenty five, so it's
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: right around the corner, so you know we have that's
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: a huge number. So probably that what the biological children
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: would be giving to the step son cause a big
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: tax problem for them at all? Right? Or none? Right? Really? Right?
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: I think the other thing you need to think about
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: here is, you know, when you die, are their taxes? Well,
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: wipe your brow here, because you have one point eight million,
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: which is just below the exemption, so won't even have
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: to file. So they lucked out, folks, But don't you
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: luck out? Learn how to do your planning correctly, protect
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: assets from the nursing home and if you like, save
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: from the or reduce taxes as well. Eight six six
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: eight four eight five six nine nine or Legal Exchange
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: Show dot com.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: If you have a question you would like to ask Tod,
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: visit his website Legal Exchange Show dot com and click
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: on the ask Tod tab. Maybe I'll be able to
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: read your question on the air, and hopefully his answer
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  Speaker 2: life stories. You've been listening to Todd Lutsky, a partner
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• 36:59
  Speaker 2: a financial advice with the Armstrong Advisory Group. We'll be
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: at back with more after this quick break on the
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: Legal Exchange with Todd Lutsky.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: If you're retired or nearing retirement and haven't done your
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: planning yet, you could be missing out on opportunities that
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: can save you thousands of dollars. Cushing and Dolan are
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: experts in elder law and taxation. And they have a
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: new guide out this month called Balancing Asset Protection and
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Avoiding Estate Taxes. Early estate planning can have many benefits,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: especially if you want to protect the assets, but there's
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: another big advantage. Doing your planning the right way might
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: also help you eliminate your estate taxes. Learn how to
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: keep your assets in your family and avoid probate. Get
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Cushing and Dolan's brand new guide called Balancing Asset Protection
• 37:41
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• 37:50
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• 37:53
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• 37:58
  Speaker 1: The proceeding was paid for in the views expressed solely
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: those of cushingon Dolan. Cushing and Dolan and or Armstrong
• 38:02
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  Speaker 1: The proceeding was paid for by Armstrong Advisory Group, a
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  Speaker 1: registered investment advisor. Nothing in the ad or in any
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Armstrong Guide a specific financial, legal, or tax advice. Consult
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: your own financial tax into state planning advisors before making
• 40:06
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• 40:10
  Speaker 6: I'm Michael Valila, adjudent of the Disabled American Veterans Department
• 40:13
  Speaker 6: of Massachusetts. The dav of Massachusetts provides thousands of hours
• 40:17
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• 40:26
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• 40:29
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• 40:31
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• 40:35
  Speaker 6: DAV FIVEK dot Boston. That's DAV FIVEK dot Boston.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Your tune to the Legal Exchange with Todd Lutsky. If
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: you were a loved one needs a nursing homestay, call
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Todd right now at eight six six eight for eight
• 40:48
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• 40:50
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• 40:53
  Speaker 1: five six nine nine, or visit him online at Legal
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Exchange show dot com.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: Welcome back into the Legal Exchange with Todd Lutsky. I'm
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: Susan Power as a financial advisor with the Armstrong Advisory Group,
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: and I'm joined, of course by Todd Lutsky, a partner
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: with the law firm of Cushing and Dolan with a
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: master's in taxation. So Todd last week we talked about
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: how married couples can not only protect assets, but reduce
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: and oftentimes eliminate their estate taxes. Married couples, check sure,
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: what about the single people out there? What can they
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: do to possibly reduce the size of their estate and
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: their taxes? So is there anything?
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah? There is? There absolutely is. Again, it's always going
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: to depend on the size of the estate, right. And
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: I say that because while the government makes gifting attractive,
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: I mean you can give away, as we said a
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: minute ago, thirteen point nine million January one, twenty twenty
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: six without paying a gift tax federally yep, because you
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: will just eat into that exemption. Of course, at least
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: for Massachusetts and every state except Connecticut that I'm aware of,
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: there's no state gift tax, so I don't have to
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: worry about Massachusetts, and federally I have can give away
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: thirteen point nine million. So wow, that's easy way to
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: reduce your taxes, you would think. But it's not so easy.
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: They make it attractive, but it's a trap a lot
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: of times. So for a single person, if you come
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: in and your single and you're worth like, you know,
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: four million, and you say, well, Massachusetts has a two
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: million dollar exemption.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: So I'll just give away two million bucks.
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: Well, right, and by the way, with the new Massachusetts
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: a state tax law, right, you really could do that.
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: There's no Cliff rule anymore. Remember that Cliff rule that
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: went away. You don't just pay tax on every dollar
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: from dollar one. It's it's the amount over and then
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: you get a credit. We didn't have the credit before,
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: so so that could work. But remember, I'm only doing
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: that for mass I don't need to do it for federal.
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: Federal's a forty percent.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: Tax hit, right, that's the big one.
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: Mass is about a ten percent tax hit. So I
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: have to be mindful that I don't need to do
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: this gifting for federal because I can die owning it
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: and have no federal tax. Now, if you happen to
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: have two million dollars in your example susan of cash
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: kicking around and you don't need it, and you want
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: to make a gift to a either outright to the children,
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: or I would probably propose a gifting trust. You can
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: do that because I'm not worried about basis. Okay, cash
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: is king right.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: Dive into that a little more, because most people don't
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: have two million dollars in cash kicking around.
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: Right, So what if they've got a two million dollar
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: investment portfolio with a million dollars of built in gain.
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: Mm hmm, Well, if you give away that asset, now,
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: I've trapped a million dollars at twenty eight point eight
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: percent capital gains tax for the kids to pay when
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: they sell it.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: So when you gift something, you gift away your cost basis.
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: Right, So you have to run the numbers. You have
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: to say, well, if I died with four million minus
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: two is two, the tax on two is about after
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: I back out the exemption, it's about one hundred and
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: eighty thousand.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: If I have a million dollars of capital gain that
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: I gave away at almost thirty percent capital gains tax,
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: I've trapped three hundred thousand dollars of tax liability. Well,
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: onein eighty versus three hundred, I'm better off keeping it,
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: paying mass the tax and getting a step up in basis.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: So the children don't have capital gains tax because that
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: gain will be wiped out by dying owning it. Giving
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: the children a brand new basis equal to fair market
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: value on the data death. So gifting not so easy.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to really figure out the type of
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: asset that you're gifting in the gain, the bas versus leader.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: All that needs to be considered. But can you Yeah,
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: gifting works. If you happen to have three million, you
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: give away one million, and it was cash. Home run
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: because now when you die with two million under the
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: new law in Massachusetts, you would have tax of ninety
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: nine six, which is the tax on two million, about
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: ten percent, you know. So with the credit you're going
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: to get a credit of ninety nine six and there'll
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: be no tax, right, So it's a home run.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: I don't want to give away a million bucks in cash, prettily.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: I want to keep my dollars and make the taxes
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: their problem.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: And folks, you might not have to give it away either. Again,
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: for if you want to learn about doing estate tax
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: planning and reducing or eliminating your estate taxes both in
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: the revocable trust setting and in the irrevocable trust setting,
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: this guide is for you. It can teach you how
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: to reduce the taxes and protect assets from the nursing
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: home and give you two separate examples, and teaches you
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: about the new mass state tax law. One year later
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: call and get it eight six six eight four eight
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: five six nine nine or Legal Exchange Show dot com
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: again eight six six eight four eight five six nine
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: nine or Legal Exchange Show dot com.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: So, Todd, one of our questions for you, you made
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: a comment about electing portability for that married couple, and
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: that's something that we've talked about in the past, but
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: not a lot probably not people aren't familiar with that term.
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: So can we dive into that with what is portability
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: and kind of the pros and cons.
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: Sure of it? Sure portability is really it's a miracle.
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: It's the best thing. I think, one of the best
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: things that we've we've gotten in the estate tax planning world.
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: Came about, I believe, back in around twenty ten or something,
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: and it's seemingly here to stay, which is which is
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: good news. What it simply means is under the old rule,
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: if you if you had like let's just say you
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: had a ten million dollar exemption, yep, just for easy numbers,
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: and we know it's thirteen point nine, right, If you
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: had a ten million dollar exemption and you died and
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: all your assets went to your spouse because you didn't
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: do any planning. Oops, I forgot right, right, Well, your
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: ten million dollar exemption is gone forever. That's the old rule, wasted,
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: old rule, new rule. Oops, I forgot. Surviving spouse still
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: has to take some steps. It's not automatic, so that's
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: very important. Not automatic. You have to file a return,
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: a federal return for the deceased spouse, okay, even if
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: one is not required. So deceeas spouse died with only
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: five million dollars, had a ten million dollar threshold. Obviously
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: you don't have to file because you're less than the
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: ten million dollar exemption. You have to file in order
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: to elect portability. Why would you do that? Well, if
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: there was no planning down or even if there's some
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: whatever is unused, you want.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: To capture rexemption.
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: Right, So whatever the surviving spouse did not use you
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: want to grab and capture as a coupon. That's portability.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: So you file a federal return, which by the way,
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: has to be filed timely with extensions if the spouse
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: was over the ten million in my example, over the
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: filing threshold or within five years. This gives a lot
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: of spouses time. If you are under the filing threshold
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: and you were not required to file federally. Right, then,
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: the surviving spouse has five years to file the federal
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: return for the deceased spouse and elect portability. How do
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: you elect it? You file automatically. By filing, you've elected portability.
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: And what that means is, in our example, if it
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: was a ten million dollar exemption and no planning was
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: done when husband died and everything just passed to the
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: surviving spouse, you can file and now that to see
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: spouse's unused exemption of ten million, yeah, becomes a coupon
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: for the surviving spouse.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: And what do you do with that coupon?
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: You put it in your pocket. So now you have
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: this coupon of ten million dollars. And let's say the
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: surviving spouse was to die a year later, but for
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: whatever reason, maybe there was an election change, a law change,
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: and they lowered the exemption yep, down to like two million.
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: For whatever reason, they need money and they lowered that exemption.
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: So now the surviving spouse only has her own personal
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: exemption of two million. Yeap. Oh wait, she's got a
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: coupon in her pocket for ten so if she dies,
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: she has ten plus two or twelve.
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: Has a twelve million dollar exemption. So if they don't
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: lower it and it's ten million, now they have twenty.
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: That's right. So there's almost never a reason not to
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: elect portability folks. But you know, check the size.
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: How still say, do your planning.
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: You still got to do your planning. To me, it's
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: better to grab the exemption than necessarily use what you
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: can and only port what you don't need. That's what
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: I would do. So do your planning. Get the guide
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: and learn how to do your planning, reduce taxes and
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: protect assets from the nursing home at the same time.
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: Two examples are given eight six six eight four eight
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: five six nine nine, or go to our website Legal
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: Exchange show dot com and you can download it there.
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: Todd Lutsky from the law firm of Cushing and Dolan,
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: thank you so much.
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Susan, always a pleasure.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: I'm Susan Powers, a financial advisor with the Armstrong Advisory Group.
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: We thank you for joining us today and we'll be
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: back again next week on the Legal Exchange with Todd Lutsky.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: If you're retired or nearing retirement and haven't done your
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: planning yet, you could be missing out on opportunities that
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: can save you thousands of dollars. Cushing and Dolan are
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: experts in elder law and taxation, and they have a
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: new guide out this month called Balancing Asset Protection and
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: Avoiding Estate Taxes. Early estate planning can have many benefits,
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: especially if you want to protect the assets, but there's
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: another big advantage. Doing your planning the right way might
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: also help you eliminate your estate taxes. Learn how to
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: keep your assets in your family and avoid probate. Get
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: Cushing and Dolan's brand new guide called Balancing Asset Protection
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: and Avoiding Estate Taxes. Call right now eight six six
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: eight four eight five six ninety nine. That number again
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: is eight six six eight four eight five six nine nine,
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: or you can request your guide online from our website
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: Legal exchange show dot com. That's Legal exchange show dot com.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: The proceeding was paid for in The views expressed are
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: solely those of Cushing and Dolan. Cushing and Dolan and
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: or Armstrong Advisory may contact you offering legal or investment services.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: Cushing and Dolan and Armstrong Advisory do not endorse each
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: other and are not affiliated HI.
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: This is chucks outa from the Armstrong advisory group. Your
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: lifelong financial plan should always be top of mind, and
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: as another new year approaches, now is the time to
• 52:08
  Speaker 4: review some key numbers that may affect your strategy going forward.
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: Our guide walks you through several important numbers that you'll
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: need to be familiar with for twenty twenty five, especially
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: from a tax standpoint. It's called Key Numbers for twenty
• 52:20
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• 52:23
  Speaker 4: for both married couples and single filers, as well as
• 52:26
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• 52:29
  Speaker 4: financial planning strategy. We'll also explore other areas like the
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: federal estate tax and gifting limits. Call us right now
• 52:36
  Speaker 4: at eight hundred thirty nine three for zero zero one
• 52:39
  Speaker 4: and ask for your free guide today. That's eight hundred
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: three nine three for zero zero one.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: The proceeding was paid for by Armstrong Advisory Group, a
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: registered investment advisor. Nothing in the ad or in any
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Armstrong guide a specific financial, legal, or tax advice. Consult
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: your own financial, tax, and estate planning advisors before making
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: any investment decisions. Armstrong may contact you to offer investment
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: advisory services protect your assets and avoid tax consequences. By
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: getting Cushing and Dolan's new guide called Balancing Asset Protection
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: and Avoiding Estate Taxes, you'll learn how to keep your
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: assets away from the nursing home while potentially eliminating your
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: estate taxes. Get yours today by calling eight six six
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: eight four eight five six ninety nine. That's eight six
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: six eight four eight five six nine nine, or request
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: it online by visiting Legal exchange show dot com. The
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: proceeding was paid for in The views expressed are solely
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: those of Cushing and Dolan. Cushing and Dolan and or
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: Armstrong Advisory may contact you offering legal investment services. Cushing
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: and Dolan and Armstrong Advisory do not endorse each other
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: and are not affiliated.
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: Hi.
• 53:30
  Speaker 6: I'm Michael Valila, adjuedent of the Disabled American Veterans Department
• 53:33
  Speaker 6: of Massachusetts. The DAV of Massachusetts provides thousands of hours
• 53:37
  Speaker 6: of voluntary services at our VA medical centers and soldiers' homes,
• 53:41
  Speaker 6: and is the only DAV department in the country to
• 53:43
  Speaker 6: lead a veterans housing initiative for both single veterans and
• 53:46
  Speaker 6: those with families. These programs are critical to serving our
• 53:50
  Speaker 6: veterans and their time and need. You can help our
• 53:52
  Speaker 6: great American heroes by making a donation today. Please visit
• 53:55
  Speaker 6: Dav fivek dot Boston. That's Dav fivek dot Boston.