Have you had ‘the conversation’ with your parents?

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Trudy Beerman

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Helping you help your retired parents

Your parents are now 65 or older, and retirement is imminent or already started. The tick tock of the life clock now seems louder than ever. Your parent seem to have more invitations to funerals than weddings and their mortality is ever on their minds; and now for the first time – on yours too!

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What if…??? What if….? What if…?

So if your parent gets ill and needs care, will they come live with you? Do they have Life Insurance in place to bring care to them in their own home? Are they open to living in an Assisted Living Facility (ALF)? Do you even know? Many families are destroyed because of the unmet expectations surrounding these issues.

If your parent dies, do you know if there is enough money to pay for a decent farewell? Will you have to dip into your funds or credit card to make it happen? This issue alone has turned a sad farewell into a resentful, angry send off.

Do your parents have a will in place? Is it a current depiction of their current assets? If an old will gives the now Ex spouse all the goodies because the will was not updated – will that be ok with you? Is there money to pay Uncle Sam his share of the wealth in death taxes, or will you have to sell of Momma’s heirloom gold watch to pay it? This issue has changed those left behind from grieving siblings, to eternal enemies.

Many families avoid these important discussions and then scramble to deal with the end result, an avoidance dance that creates stress and destroys families. A lot of debt is created when the needs and care of aging parents becomes the responsibility of their adult children and no strategy is in place in anticipation of this time.

Debt Free Wealth Building, Corp., is a non-profit money education organization helping those who desire it, achieve debt free wealth by deleting debt, building wealth, and protecting family assets. This website as well as www.debtfreewealth.org, offers resources to the 35-50 year old adult children of aging parents as they seek help their retired parents continue to live an independent, or comfortable life in their retirement years.

Please visit this site again, or look around now that you are here and see if we already have the resource you need, and if not – please send us your request so we can address this area of need if applicable.

Sincerely

Trudy Beerman

Posted in Estate planning, family trusts, final expenses, help my retired parents, Probate, retirement planning, Trusts, Writing a will | Tagged adult living facility, ALF, before the funeral, burial expenses, caring for elderly parents, creating a will, estate planning, family trusts, final plans, funeral expenses, funeral planning, help my retired parents, in-home medical assistance, life insurance, long term care insurance, probate, retirement planning, term insurance, term life insurance, Trusts, updating a will | 2 Comments

What is The Status of Your Parent’s Nest Egg?

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Trudy Beerman

nest egg retirement finances investing golden years

The Nest Egg Disappearing Act”

Your parents did the right things – at least as they were taught at the time. They had a very nice nest egg and things were looking pretty secure. They were planning to retire early, or have already retired. They trusted the experts to help make the decisions, they contributed to the 401K, saved, invested in real estate, bought gold, lived below their means, and shopped frugally.

With the recession brought on by the housing bubble, their real estate investments are now upside down, their 401 K depleted, some by as much as 75%.

You may be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but chances are, your parent’s money habits are already engraved and not likely to change easily. So, you may find yourself overwhelmed with hearing about their debt, or you may need to take matters into your own hands to help rebuild their nest egg before their entire existence is built into your budget.

Become more involved in the Nest Egg Protection process:

Hopefully, your parents trust you and will open up about their finances, let you see the check book, and so on.

The experts did a horrible job, yet they bankrolled while our parents lost. That not only p….d me off, but it made me wonder how that was possible. It turns out, these investment Brokers make money on the transaction, regardless of the performance of their investment decisions. The more transactions they process, the more money they make. Cha ching! They don’t really need to care if they make us money or not. The good ones will. Their reputations are on the line, but even then, there are few guarantees with teeth in this business, so even money invested with Warren Buffet Brokers still lose money from time to time.

I took courses and trained as a Paralegal, learned how to Day Trade, got licensed in insurance, and took the course in securities, and hunted till I found a way to earn money in the precious metals industry. I actively went on a self-instruction journey to learn everything I could about money and finances.

To have a nest egg is important because with age comes the need for labor free income and this is when your parents begin to cash in on their retirement fund. In order to help them protect it, there are some action steps I strongly urge you to consider and help them implement, whether you are doing it for them, or using a financial planner.

Protecting the nest egg:

Identify and Inventory. What are the treasures? Whatever you are likely to say, rethink it through the eyes of a Katrina, or home-fire victim. Now, let me ask you again. What are the treasures? Is the answer different this time? If you decided that there are some trinkets, pictures, locks of hair, first tooths and any other items that matter to your parents, then as you identify and inventory the treasures – include ways to preserve them as well. Of course, the traditional stuff like jewelry and land titles count as well – but I just wanted you to think this through, because protecting your nest egg is the process of protecting your legacy. For the Christian, this is an important question to ask and answer because the Bible says Luke 12:21 “So is he [ a fool] that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God”, and in verse 34 “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Diversify. I agree with Tony Robbins’ suggestion to have 3 buckets: (a) a security bucket; with low risk investing (b) a growth bucket; with riskier, higher returns promised adventures, and (c) a dream bucket; where money is put toward the cool, just because stuff your parents want. Their risk tolerance will determine how that money is divide up that money, but do not ignore this strategy. The all your eggs in one basket – no matter how sure a thing it is, may as well be called gambling. The game here is PROTECTING.

Learn about Money. You don’t have to be an expert at art to know I am telling you garbage if I say blue and red make yellow. Basic fundamental knowledge will allow you to have your ears and mind ready to filter out the industry noise and know when you are being sold ice even though you live in Alaska. Have you heard the saying, when the rich and the experienced get together, the rich get experience and the experienced gets rich?

Your parents know what level of risk they can tolerate. They know the goals they have for their nest egg money. Even if they use a professional, they have every right to dictate how they handle the account, to demand a review of their stewardship, and to hold them to a higher standard. There is no reason to avoid learning how to help your parents handle their money. You may need to help them understand what the experts are saying.

Insure. Well, stuff happens; and if they are insured, they are covered! Insurance is one of the area many are tight fisted about, and unless mandated (as in auto insurance), some would never voluntarily buy insurance. Too late is the cry if your parents find themselves in a situation where insurance would have saved them from absolute loss; what is worse, with a crisis in their history, it may now find it impossible to find insurance no matter how much they are willing to pay. Insurance is JUST IN CASE protection, and no matter how much is paid into it, if the policy ever has to pay on a claim, the claim is usually way more than was put in, and way less than if your parents would need to be out of pocket.
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Buy gold and silver. Cash is devaluing faster than you could fill a bath tub. Has your parents considered using money (cash) to buy money (gold and silver), to make more money (profits as the value holds against the dollar, or increases) ? It just makes sense. Almost any portfolio will have investments in some form of gold and silver today. Personally, I hold the actual asset and not the paper printed ink version called a statement from some institution. Numismatic coins, bars and ungraded coins are tangible, easy to liquidate, and portable.

Secure it. Meet with a lawyer, financial planner or banker to discuss if transferring their nest egg assets to a Trust is right for them; keeping valuables and important documents – such as a will, deeds, gold, etc, in a bank safety deposit box, or a home safe, or keeping it off shore in a secret, investment friendly country are just some of the strategies that should be considered.

Create a Will and Living Trust

To your Debt Free Wealth!

nest egg, nest egg, nest egg, nest egg

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How to Avoid or Minimize the Probate Process.

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Trudy Beerman

How to Avoid or Minimize the Probate Process:

Prefer to listen rather than read? The content of this blog and more is available in my Debt Free Wealth Radio archives. A link appears further down in this blog.

No matter who you are, or how your life works out – the common denominator for us all is death. It is not an IF, but a WHEN – and ignoring it has never been a strategy that makes it go away. Ignoring the reality of death leads to disastrous departures.

For the adult children left behind, the loss of a parent, no matter how old at death, is traumatic. However, this trauma can be further escalated when that person, during their lifetime, ignored simple action steps to reduce this inevitable pain for those left behind. Parents and caregivers that takes their responsibility to provide seriously, often look ahead to the future and plan for the what ifs, as well as their desired goals.

As morbid as it may seem at the time, preparing a will, taking out life insurance, and other strategies we will discuss later, are loving steps taken now, just in case – so those left behind won’t have chaos added to their grief at an unexpected passing.

probate will final plans Dividing up the treasures of a lost love is a difficult process. Before the funeral service is over, it seems the ‘vultures’ are already gathering to preview and fight over the bounty or the slim pickings of the dearly departed. Uncle Sam is also standing by for his share.

Here is a news clip on that:

“Pennsylvania families currently pay inheritance taxes essentially on the first dollar of value of the decedent’s taxable estate. Since many farmers are land rich, but cash poor, they may be forced to sell off assets or farmland in order to pay off inheritance taxes. Such action can reduce the productivity of the farm and threaten its viability in the future,” said PFB President Carl T. Shaffer.

Thankfully, state Representative Stephen Bloom (Republican) sponsored a bill to correct this wrong, helping to preserve Pennsylvania family wealth.

Today we are chatting with Florida Lawyer, Liz Potts who will share tips and strategies for holding on to more, by learning how to protect family assets from Probate and Death Taxes.

This is a natural follow up to our prior discussion with Liz titled, Helping Our Retired Parents. Have you had ‘The Conversation’? If you missed that show, please check our show archives.

The issues discussed here are to help generate urgent family conversations, because the families that have this discussion now will have the least chaos when their parent, or parents die.

Upon death, in addition to the shock and grief, panic tends to set in because of the unanswered questions. Does mom or dad have money to pay for this funeral? How can we get to it? Do they have a will? How will mom or dad cope now that their spouse has gone? Are they functionally and financially capable of continuing on, or will I need to step in and help? How will I afford to help my surviving parent? And so on…

So, following up on our discussion Helping Our Retired Parents. Have you had ‘The Conversation’?, we now pick up at the point after the funeral is over.

Now the estate of the decease comes up for review and distribution.

My main goal today is to help this audience avoid or limit Probate as much as possible. Going through the Probate process is time consuming, depletes the estate, deprives the heirs, and in general, adds to the grief.

8 Ways to Avoid Probate

Let me open the floor now to Liz as she helps us understand Probate and why taking action now, is the best way to go.

Please listen to this radio broadcast to hear Liz address these issues below:

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What is Probate?
Probate can be avoided. What are some ways we can avoid the probate process all together?
Let us talk about life insurance for a moment. As you know, I sell life insurance so please tell us, how having a life insurance policy helps avoid probate.
What is the biggest benefit to having a will with regards to the Probate process?
What would trigger a Probate to happen?
What is a Personal Representative, and who would qualify for this job?
If a parent selects one of their adult children to be the Personal Representative, does this limit that person’s ability to benefit equally from the other siblings?
Once Probate begins, what is the average time frame for family members to be able to take possession of their portion of the estate?
Does the size of your estate influence the process? (small estate v. large estate)
What if someone does not have a will, how is the probate process different?
What if a married couple already had their partner’s name on bank accounts, property titles, and so on – what happens when one of the partners passes away?
What if both partners die in the same accident?
In the time of deep grief, the ‘vultures’ so to speak, come sniffing around to see what of an estate they might be able to claim. Inevitably, there are EXes, ‘disowned’ children, unknown children born in secret, undocumented promises to others; what are some of the strategies or documents families can put in place to ensure the family assets are protected from these outsiders?
What if someone has special needs children, or other dependents?
In this day of Do-it-Yourself TV and other self-help products, is this process DIY possible, and why would it still be a good idea to use the services of a Lawyer.