Estate & Tax Planning Library

 

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Estate Planning for the Healthy Wealthy Family
Stanley D. Neeleman, J.D., Carla B. Garrity, PhD., Mitchell A. Barris, PhD. Allworth Press, New York, NY, 2003. 240 pages.
This book offers a unique perspective on estate planning. Instead of focusing solely on wills and trusts and other estate planning methods, Estate Planning for the Healthy Wealthy Family discusses how to create a values-based estate plan.

Written by a law professor and two psychologists, the book asserts that the key to effective estate planning is to pursue objectives that conform to your values and circumstances. For example, if your goal is financial independence, you'll want to explore alternatives to giving away your money in order to qualify for Medicaid. The authors provide a list of questions to help readers prioritize values.

In addition to discussing more typical estate planning topics like using trusts to protect assets, saving on taxes, and advance directives, the book also discusses how to teach children about money, including how to subvert greed. Other topics include divorce, sibling rivalry, and gaining and losing wealth. The book highlights various resources for maintaining a standard of living, how to optimize savings, and how to leave a philanthropic legacy.

Peppered with quotes from philosophers like Aristotle and Hobbes, Estate Planning for the Healthy Wealthy Family places estate planning in a broader context and focuses on family harmony. While not for everyone, the book offers a distinctive take on planning for the future.

 

Women & Money A Practical Guide to Estate Planning.
Patricia M. Annino. BookSurge Publishing. 2004. 214 pages.

According to the author of Women & Money, while women control three-quarters of the personal wealth in the United States, mostwomen do not have a plan in place to protect their assets in the event of their death. Patricia M. Annino, an estate planning attorney in Massachusetts, is trying to change that with this book.

The book provides a straightforward overview of the decisions involved in planning an estate. Annino explains the steps to creating an estate plan, the various ways to avoid estate taxes, and how to plan for a disability. She also offers case studies, examples, and strategies for women--whether the woman is single, married, divorced, remarrying, or widowed.

Annino explains how important it is for single women to have someone in place to handle their affairs if they become incapacitated and for married women to know what assets are in whose name. She also offers advice on life insurance, how to choose a guardian for children, and how to protect an unmarried partner. Throughout the book, she breaks up the text with sidebars that present tips, definitions of legalese, questions and answers, and quotations.

While the book skims over some issues, such as Medicare and Medicaid, it does explain the issues involved in estate planning and makes a persuasive argument for why estate planning is important.

 

The Driving Dilemma: The Complete Resource Guide for Older Drivers and Their Families.
Elizabeth Dugan. New York, NY: Collins, 2006. 283  pages.

For the past 80 years or so, most U.S. communities have been built around the assumption that adults will drive to obtain the essentials of life, including the proverbial quart of milk. But as people age, driving can become more difficult and more dangerous. Given the essential role driving plays in our culture, questioning a loved one's ability to operate a car can be a hot-button issue.

In this book, Elizabeth Dugan, a researcher on geriatric issues, offers a comprehensive resource on improving the safety of an older driver or persuading one to relinquish the wheel, if need be.

As Dugan notes, driving requires healthy functioning in three key areas: vision, thinking and movement. A large section of the book is devoted to how to discuss the issues of driving with a loved one who may be showing deficits in one or more of these areas -- and how to discuss it without triggering an emotional crack-up that can be as devastating to a family as an actual accident. Dugan walks readers through the "motivational interviewing" approach, which has been used successfully to help many people change behavior.  Useful sample dialogue scripts accompany the discussion.

Elsewhere, Dugan explains how to assess driving fitness, the medical conditions and prescription drugs that can affect driving, and how to report an unsafe driver (including a sample letter).

The book's second half is devoted to resources for further help. For example, you'll find each state's driving regulations, including the state's age-based renewal procedures, information on state driver rehabilitation and assessment programs, and national transportation resources.

Soon one in four drivers will be over age 65, and studies suggest that we'll outlive our ability to drive by nearly 10 years. This looming crisis would be far less acute - and this book far less necessary - if more communities offered realistic alternatives to driving. As things stand now, taking away a driver's license usually imposes a sentence of immobility or dependency on others. While this book will be helpful in the interim, the underlying solution to the "driving dilemma" is to find alternatives to the atumobile and to locate the off-ramp from our car-centered culture.

 

Beyond the Grave: The Right Way and the Wrong Way of Leaving Money to Your Children (and Others).
Gerald M. Condon and Jeffrey L. Condon.  New York, N.Y. HarperBusiness. 2001. 450 pages. 

Passing on money to the next generation is not as straightforward as it might seem. Without the proper protections, money your dyour daughter inherits could end up going to your son-in-law's second wife. Or your son's inheritance could wind up in the pockets of his creditors rather than those of your grandchildren. The need for careful planning is no less great if you have remarried but wish to leave the bulk of your estate to the children of your first marriage.

In this helpful and highly readable book, a father-and-son legal team presents the spectrum of potential family conflicts that can arise surrounding inheritance and carefully lays out the options for resolving them.

Among the important topics discussed are:

• The pitfalls of leaving children an unequal inheritance.
• Ensuring that an inheritance will not go to in-laws.
• Planning for the succession of the family business.
• Passing on the family home in a way that is fair to all the children.
• Why it's usually better to make all your children your successor trustees.
• Gifting money to grandchildren fairly.
• Providing for a pet after death.
• How taking your name off the title to your child's house could avoid unnecessary taxes.

Readers shouldn't come to this book looking for Medicaid planning advice, however. Beyond the Grave is about making sure your wishes for passing on your assets are realized, not about protecting those assets while you are still alive.

Also, the authors have the annoying habit of referring to the estate tax as the "death tax," a disparaging term that has been coined by opponents of the estate tax to push for its permanent repeal. But, to their credit, the Condons do an excellent job of explaining the hidden cost of the estate tax repeal.

The many ways that the best-laid inheritance plans can go awry might surprise you. This book does a great job of presenting the potential pitfalls and suggesting strategies to ensure that an estate will pass to the intended beneficiaries with the minimum of family conflicts.

 

Baby Boomer's Guide to Estate & Medicaid Planning.
Jon A. Iverson, JD. Medford, OR. Stonemark Publishing. 2005. 238 pages.

If they aren't concerned with issues involving their parents' possible incapacity and eventual deaths, Baby Boomers will soon be facing questions related to their own demise. This book is a highly readable survey of the estate planning and long-term care choices that could spell the difference between financial stability and ruin for families as one generation gives way to the next.

Author Jon Iverson, an elder law specialist who has been practicing law for more than 30 years, writes in a straightforward style that renders comprehensible even the most confusing tax or Medicaid concepts. The book is also filled with helpful, real-world examples that illustrate the concepts presented.

Readers will learn, for example, what a will can and cannot accomplish, why joint tenancy is not a substitute for estate planning, how trusts and estates are taxed, the role of guardians and conservators, how a credit shelter trust works, and what to look for in a long-term care insurance policy. Two important topics -- living trusts and Medicaid planning – receive their own sections. The book is also particularly useful for those who may serve as an executor, trustee, guardian or conservator of someone else's estate.

Iverson is refreshingly candid in reminding readers that there are no easy answers – each estate planning choice involves some sort of tradeoff. He also stresses that his book is not a "do-it-yourself" substitute for retaining professional advice. But reading it will help Boomers – or anyone else -- work more confidently with the legal or financial professionals they retain.