Get a check-up for your estate plan from time to time
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Estate Administration When there is no Will
What do you do if a person passes away without a Last Will and Testament?
A Last Will and Testament designates an Executor who has legal authority to handle the estate assets. The Will also specifies who receives what, and in what way. The estate of someone who dies without a Will is called “intestacy” or “an intestate estate,” which is Latin for “without a Will.” If a person owns assets that...
Estate Recovery Bill Limits Medicaid Services That Can Be Recovered
New Jersey expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, (ACA, also called Obamacare) causing terrific health coverage gains for its residents. One unfortunate byproduct of Medicaid expansion is Estate Recovery, which can be assessed against any Medicaid recipient over the age of 55. The purpose of estate recovery is to reimburse the State for Medicaid benefits provided, and typically the...
Don’t be the Executor if you can’t do the Job
When you create an estate plan, you are selecting people whom you trust to perform various jobs for you and your beneficiaries. You may be selecting an agent to act as your Power of Attorney. You may select a medical decision-maker in case you become mentally incapacitated. You may have a Trust and select the Trustee who will manage the money for the beneficiaries. And you may be selecting an...
Questions the Executor should ask the Estate’s Accountant
The house is sold, the estate’s debts and bills have all been paid, the accounting has been presented to the beneficiaries, they have signed off on the Release & Refunding Bonds, and now it’s time for the estate’s Executor or Administrator to distribute the estate to the beneficiaries according to the Will or according to the requirements of the law. The estate may have...
Watch out for Transfer Inheritance Tax when you do your estate planning
Most of the publicity in the news concerning changes to New Jersey’s “death tax” has focused on its raising of the estate tax thresholds. Now, if a person dies and has less than two million dollars in his or her estate, there will be no estate tax regardless of who is receiving that bounty. Not so for the Transfer Inheritance tax, which is based on the relationship of the...
When the caregiving ends, new problems to tackle as Executor
In our legal practice, we advise many family caregivers who are managing and supporting the lives of their frail loved ones, and we also advise executors in the administration of estates. Very often, the person who was our client in their role of caregiver is now the client in the role of executor. It’s a very tender time when that transition occurs.
They may have spent years involved...
A Cautionary Tale: Estate distribution is “income” that affects eligibility for NJ Homestead Rebate
A New Jersey homeowner’s acceptance of a $90,000 inheritance from his late sister’s estate in 2014 resulted in loss of his eligibility for the Homestead Rebate, because the inheritance was countable as “income.” . Although receipt of an inheritance by an estate beneficiary is not “income” under NJ or federal income tax regulations, it is still considered...
“Avoiding Probate” can cause more problems than it prevents
You may have heard that you should set things up to “avoid probate.” Bank or brokerage personnel may have recommended that you ” add a pay on death beneficiary, or a joint owner, so you can avoid probate.” There are fallacies built into that advice which can lead to unintended complications after death.
Estate administration is a process that can include many elements...