MORE ON GUARDIANSHIP
July 2024. Q: I’m the court-appointed guardian for my brother. He just died. What do I have to do? A: I’m sorry, both that your brother passed away and that you have to go through all the steps required for the termination of a guardianship. First, you have to petition the court to terminate the guardianship. The process is different for guardianship of the person and guardianship of the property. Strangely, even though your brother is deceased, the guardianship of his person doesn’t terminate until the court says so. It’s important to note that you only have 45 days from the date of his death to do this. For guardianship of the property, you have to give a final account of his financial affairs, and petition the court to terminate the...
THE DIFFICULTIES OF GUARDIANSHIP
June 2024. Q: My sister can’t pay her own bills anymore and can’t take care of herself. What can I do? She never signed a power of attorney. A: Your only option is to file in the courts for guardianship. Unfortunately, that’s a long, expensive and frustrating process. You have to file numerous forms with the court, including certificates from two medical providers attesting that they have examined your sister and found that she is unable to take care of her own needs. That form itself is about 6 pages long, and there are about 5 more that you need to file. The law requires that the court appoint an attorney for your sister, who will meet with her and probably with you and the doctors to see if your sister objects to the appointment of a...
FLY AWAY
May 2024. The vacation is all planned, tickets bought, pet sitters engaged, but … “Hon, did we ever sign that will?” “What will? The one you downloaded? No, because we could never figure out the thing for the kids’ money.” “Oh, yeah. Well, do you want to pull it up again?” “Are you kidding? After the argument we got into last time?” “Well, what about talking to a lawyer? There’s this guy the neighbors mentioned …” Before you board the plane, make sure you’re not leaving legal chaos behind. Your Will: Is your will up-to-date? Does it still name your deceased brother as executor? Your Powers of Attorney: If you weren’t able to make decisions for yourself – or if you weren’t able to get home when you plan to – is there someone still local...
YOUR QUESTIONS ON DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP. PART 2.
April 2024. Q: I’m not married to my partner, but want to leave everything to my partner when I die. I’ve heard that there are huge taxes. What can I do? A: If you and your partner are “domestic partners,” the Maryland inheritance tax that levies a 10% tax when your partner inherits from you can be eliminated. You become “domestic partners” by either (a) registering your partnership as a domestic partnership with the Register of Wills, or (b) signing an affidavit that says you’re domestic partners and providing evidence of the “relationship of mutual interdependence.” Oddly enough, the law does not require intimate relations or even living together, so you and your roommate can be “domestic partners” even if you aren’t intimate; and you...
YOUR QUESTIONS ON DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP. PART 1.
March 2024. Q: I’m not married to my partner. I have kids from my marriage. Why do I need a will? Won’t everything just go to my kids, since my partner and I aren’t married? A: As of last year, your “domestic partner” becomes like a spouse, and will get half of your estate if you don’t have a will. Your “partner” might be your “domestic partner” if you have agreed “to be in a relationship of mutual interdependence in which each individual contributes to the maintenance and support of the other individual and the relationship, even if both individuals are not required to contribute equally to the relationship.” That agreement might be substantiated by an affidavit signed by you and your partner, but doesn’t have to be, so it’s best to...
WHO TO TELL?
February 2024. Q: When I sign a power of attorney or will, who knows about it? A: Only you, your attorney, and anyone you tell. Your attorney can’t even disclose that he or she has met you, and certainly can’t disclose that you’ve signed a power of attorney or will, or what its contents might be. There’s no “registry” or database that contains this information. It’s up to you who you tell that you’ve signed a power of attorney or will. If you don’t tell anyone that you signed these documents, then no one will know to look for them, and your affairs might be administered without regard to your documents, which might result in guardianship proceedings before the court or your estate being distributed to the wrong people. Many of my clients...
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED – JANUARY ’24
January 2024. Q: I need a trust so my kids don’t have to pay a boatload of taxes. A: Actually, a trust doesn’t avoid taxes. In fact, a trust might actually increase the taxes due if your estate plan is not correctly set up. For example, if your IRA or 401(k) pays to your trust and your trust isn’t drafted correctly, the entire payment might be taxed as income to the trust, and trusts can pay much more in taxes on a dollar of income. But aside from IRA’s, 401(k)’s and other retirement plans or annuities, inheritances are not income, so there’s no tax on the inheritance itself. Let’s look at your situation to see if a trust is best for you, or whether there is a simpler way to plan your estate and benefit your kids without the expense of a...
INTESTACY
December 2023. Q: What happens if everyone named in my will is deceased? A: Under Maryland law, if you are not survived by the beneficiaries named in your will, your estate will be distributed as if you had no will (“intestacy”). Assuming your spouse and children and their descendants (your grandchildren) have already died, this would be as follows: 1) To your parents or the survivor of them, or, if both are deceased, to their descendants (your siblings, or nieces and nephews), or, if none, 2) To your grandparents or the survivor of each pair, or, if both of one pair is deceased, to their descendants (your aunts and uncles, or cousins), or, if none, all to the other pair or the one of them who is living, or to their descendants; or, if...
THANK YOU!
November 2023. The man plucked at my elbow in the Post Office the other day. “You're that guy!” he exclaimed, “that guy who writes for the paper.” Relieved that he had not mistaken me for some old enemy, I nodded and smiled. “Wait a minute, I know you!” said the lady in Wal-Mart a few weeks later. “You write about wills for the paper.” Pleased to be thus recognized, I allowed myself to be finagled into a short conversation on the topic of trusts. “I can't take you anywhere,” muttered my wife. “People keep stopping us to chat.” The wonderful thing about doing business in a small town like Mount Airy is that people know people, and people care. Next year will mark twenty-nine years of this writer's business in our town, and long ago I...
SOME QUESTIONS ON TRUSTS – PART TWO
October 2023. Q: I have a disabled daughter. Do I really need a trust? Can’t I just leave everything to my son to use for his sister? A: Yes, you can do that, but I’m not sure you should do that. If you leave everything to your son to use for his sister without any written direction, nobody knows that the assets aren’t the property of your son. That means that if your son has an auto accident, or becomes ill and unable to pay his debts or living costs, or gets a divorce, everything you’ve left him, including the amount that he was to use for his sister, is available to his creditors, or to his soon-to-be-ex-spouse. If you do leave written direction, you’ve just created a trust, and the written direction you’ve left is the terms of the...
SOME QUESTIONS ON TRUSTS – PART ONE
September 2023. Q: Do I need a trust? A: A trust is a bucket to hold money, for someone – a “beneficiary” – that needs the money but can’t have it in their own name. The classic beneficiary is a young child, someone with special needs, or someone consistently making bad or dangerous life choices such as drug or alcohol use. They need help but can’t or shouldn’t have the money themselves. A trust holds the money and the “trustee” who manages the trust uses the money as you direct. The trust can pay out to the beneficiary at a certain point, such as the attainment of adulthood or a later age, or can hold the funds until the death of the beneficiary and then pay to someone else, such as your other children, or to a charity. You are in...
MEDICAL DIRECTIVES: YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
August 2023. Q: Do I need a MOLST? A: The MOLST (the Maryland Medical Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment) is a way you can indicate your preferences and intentions about end-of-life care and treatment. For example, you can make it clear that you want, or do not want, CPR. You can be very detailed about your intentions, for example, that you don't want intubation for ventilation, but that you would be OK with the CPAP or BiPAP mask, but not for longer than 2 weeks. These decisions should be thoughtful and reflective, not reflexive. A friend of mine was on "life support" for 8 years before he died, but that "life support" enabled him to fly out to California to visit his son and get to know and to baptize his grandson, to fly to Vancouver...