Estate Planning Blog Digest

It’s hard to plan for next week, let alone the future, when our environment, the advice from the experts and indeed the outbreak itself, seems to change on a daily basis.

Estate planning generally focuses primarily on lifetime protection and post-death distribution of assets. Special needs planning focuses primarily on the individual beneficiary’s lifestyle and care needs.

We are now in a global pandemic in which many family caregivers will likely experience the same kind of shock, uncertainty and fear that I did. We worry that COVID-19 may sicken our loved ones or as caregivers that we may somehow bring the virus into our homes. We also fear that we might fall ill and leave our care recipients in need.

Medicare beneficiaries would get a reprieve on higher Part B costs next year in the coronavirus relief package proposed by Republicans in the Senate on Monday.

Most people become eligible for Medicare during the months around their 65th birthday. If you don’t sign up for Medicare during this initial enrollment period, you could be charged a late enrollment penalty, for as long as you have Medicare.

Immediate annuities (also known as payout or income annuities) require you to pay to an insurance company. The insurer will send you a stream of payments, starting right away.

One in four American adults live with a disability, according to the Center for Disease Control. One in 10 adults over the age of 65 has Alzheimer’s or dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

During the past four months, more than 141,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the pandemic has prompted some people to get serious about creating or updating their estate plans, according to Christine Benz, Morningstar’s director of personal finance.

I am a social worker at a state facility for people with developmental disabilities. Most of the men I work with function at about 12 to 14 years of age. I am working with a gentleman who makes minimum wage and works six hours a day. He can’t have more than $1,800 in the bank or he will not be eligible for health benefits, so he has to spend his money. Otherwise, the state will take it.

An Uncle (or grandparent, sibling, or parent) died, leaving his IRA to one named niece (or grandchild, sibling, or child). However, everyone, including the named beneficiary, agrees–the decedent should have named all members of the class as equal beneficiaries. After all, he left all his other assets equally to all the class members. He surely meant for all of them to share the IRA equally too, right? Can’t we just ignore this mistake and pay out the IRA to everybody?