Elder Law Issues

It’s unusual for a law firm to employ a property manager. But that’s what Heidi Hauschild does at Fleming & Curti, PLC.

Fleming & Curti, PLC, occasionally acts as trustee. Sometimes we are personal representative of an estate, court-appointed conservator, or agent in a durable power of attorney. Because of that role, we frequently have to deal with real estate, vehicles — and occasionally airplanes, race horses and other unusual assets.

Join us for this week’s podcast episode. We interviewed Heidi about some of the unusual and arcane things she’s had to learn on the job.

Heidi is also the first-line legal assistant handling probate proceedings — where there can be a lot of overlap. Do you imagine that your family will all get along when it comes time to settle your estate? That hasn’t necessarily been Heidi’s experience.

Join us for a fun conversation with Heidi Hauschild — property manager and probate administrator.

Hospice programs exist in pretty much every American community. From their first appearance in this country in the mid-1970s, the movement has grown dramatically.

There are two obvious reasons for the growth in hospice programs in the past half-century:

But do patients (and their family members) find the care comforting and helpful? In our experience, the answer is almost always a resounding “yes!”

In this podcast episode, we discuss our (local) experiences with hospice programs. The Tucson community has long embraced the hospice movement. In fact, the Hillhaven Corporation opened the first free-standing hospice program in the country here in Tucson, in 1973. While that program eventually failed, there has been a strong hospice presence in the Tucson area for almost fifty years.

Fleming & Curti, PLC, began in its first form just three years after that first hospice opening. With that rich background, we have had a lot of opportunities to observe hospice in actual real-world cases. We’ve always been impressed by what we see.

As individuals, we’ve also had a number of experiences with various hospice organizations. Join us for our discussion of hospice programs in Tucson, and our real-world experiences.

At Fleming & Curti, PLC, we think 529 Plan accounts are a great way to help educate your children and (especially) grandchildren. Coordinating 529 Plan accounts in your estate planning is challenging, and important.

There is certainly a big industry of financial planners pushing for you to consider such plans, and we generally approve. But most of the writing about education accounts focuses on selecting among the various options. Less attention focuses on ownership, succession and tax treatment of the plans.

Who should own the 529 Plan account you set up for a child or grandchild? Generally, the person who sets it up will be the owner. The Plan may allow a successor owner who can take over on your death. Note, though, that if a parent owns the 529 Plan account, it may interfere with eligibility for some scholarships or student loans.

Coordinating 529 Plan accounts with your estate planning means, among other things, setting up a succession of ownership. It may also mean allowing the owner to change beneficiaries if, for instance, one child decides not to attend college. It can also be important to consider how the tax-free growth in a 529 Plan account might disproportionately benefit some heirs.

We discuss these — and other — considerations (like the relationship between 529 Plan and ABLE Act accounts) in this week’s Elder Law Issues podcast episode. Join us for the discussion.

Goodbye Odin Tyvlytter. We miss you terribly.

We are very sad to report the death of Odin, one of our canine employees. As a blue merle Cardigan Welsh Corgi, he was hard-working, loyal and reliable. He came to work virtually every day for ten seasons. He might not have been quite as reliable as The Iron Man, but he came close.

For the last few years, Odin had mentored Duncan, a Golden Doodle with long legs and a bubbly personality. Duncan now gets to mentor the newest canine addition to the office staff, Rosalind Franklin. Rosalind’s name, by the way, is a nod to an important but often overlooked scientist who made terrific contributions to chemistry and biology in a tragically short career.

Talking about dogs makes us think (and talk) about Wyatt Earp, the first full-time office corgi. We miss him, too. Fortunately, Roz is so enthusiastic about everything that she and Duncan keep us focused on the present. Maybe you’d like to come by and meet this dynamic duo. Bring your own treats, or borrow some from us.

Goodbye, Odin. You were a terrific companion. When you first arrived, we knew you wouldn’t likely outlive us. But it’s still hard to lose a beloved pet.

Great! You’ve signed your will, your powers of attorney, and your trust. You have retitled your real estate to the trust (or perhaps to a beneficiary deed). Did you complete your personal property list yet?

In this Elder Law Issues podcast episode, we talk about the usefulness of a list of items of tangible property — and recipients for each listed item — in your Arizona estate plan. As always, we limit our discussion to Arizona law, though we do know that other states may have similar provisions.

What is the list? Is it a mandatory list that you must complete showing all of your personal property? No. Is it required for your will and trust to be effective? No. But it is a great help to your family, heirs and beneficiaries.

We have written and talked about the value of these lists of personal items before. In this podcast episode, we go into a little more depth about how such a list can be used to augment your estate plan.

Remember that you can only include tangible personal items (not real estate, not cash, not bank accounts). Also, you can update, add to, discard or change your list whenever you want. We explain how that works, and how you might use the list.

Have you ever thought about having group meetings as part of your estate planning review? Your lawyer, CPA, financial planner, life insurance professional and others could meet once every year. That way we could all review your current documents, beneficiary designations, tax situation and other issues.

Would such a group meeting be a good idea? Of course it would add costs to preparation and maintenance of your estate plan. But it might also help assure that your wishes get carried out.

What’s the big deal? you ask. I’ve signed the documents and shared them with family members and professionals I work with. Isn’t that the end of the process?

No, it’s not. Estate planning is a continuing process. Your family situation changes, your assets change — everything changes. A group meeting might be one way to stay on top of the constantly shifting dynamics in your personal (and, maybe, professional) life.

For some clients, group meetings are a heck of a good idea. For most, the idea might be overkill. Listen in as we talk about the concept. Our clients should feel free to talk about such meetings and review the pros and cons. Want to discuss it more? Feel free to schedule a time to talk with us.

A family member gave you (or you inherited) a piece of property, which you now want to sell. Do you know how to calculate basis for income tax purposes? And how do you determine what capital gains tax you might owe?

Most people understand that there is no tax due on a gift or an inheritance. Unfortunately, that understanding is too simplistic. You might owe some income tax even in cases where there is no estate tax to pay. You might pay income taxes, for instance, when you decide to sell inherited assets (or assets that were given to you).

But how much tax might you owe? For most kinds of inherited assets, it depends on how much capital gain you recognize on sale of the asset. And that requires an understanding of the concept of basis for income tax purposes.

In this podcast episode, we discuss the concept of basis and explain the basic (did you see what we did there?) rules. This information might not reduce your tax bill. But it should help you understand how to control when income taxes have to be paid.

Challenges of aging: everyone knows that there are plenty. In this podcast episode, we discuss some of those challenges.

What special knowledge do we have about the challenges of aging? Well, for one thing, some of us are aging. But more importantly, we’ve worked with a lot of elderly clients since they weren’t all that elderly.

In our role as Tucson elder law attorneys, we see aging up close and over time. We have seen too many clients (and friends) learn about mobility issues, fall risks, and other concerns.

Join Fleming & Curti partners Elizabeth Noble Rollings Friman and Robert B. Fleming for a discussion of the challenges each of us faces as we age. Maybe we’ll get you thinking about how to plan for your own odyssey. Perhaps we’ll spark questions or observations you’d like to share with us. If so, we will have succeeded in our goals.

Though it is little-known, every county in Arizona has one. But what is the role of the Public Fiduciary in Arizona?

No other state has precisely the same kind of position. Other states may have a public guardian, public conservator or public administrator. Some may have two of those offices. One or two states even have all three. But no other state has rolled all three positions into a single public office.

In this podcast episode, we review a little bit of the history of the Public Fiduciary’s office, and particularly the one in Pima County (Tucson). We have some insight into the role of the Public Fiduciary — one of us held the position for five years in the early 1980s.

Using your power of attorney should be pretty straightforward. You signed the document so that someone could handle your finances and health decisions. Those are the two main “types” of power of attorney — though different commentators variously insist that there are six, or five, or four, or three different kinds of documents.

But what happens when your agent needs to act?

Experiences vary widely. One big variable: the person reviewing your documents likely has no legal training. They might think the document is invalid, or insufficient. They might misunderstand its purpose and your authority.

We only know about Arizona law (it’s what we practice), but even within one state experiences can be different. In this discussion, we hope to give you some reassurance that your documents will be effective. We also hope to help your agent understand that they should insist on being able to use your power of attorney.

This week’s podcast is in response to a question we received from a regular listener:

My wife’s mother (currently 93), signed a durable power of attorney 15 years ago. Mother’s attorney told my wife that the POA could be used to place Mother in a care facility. My wife began managing Mother’s finances when she turned 86 (seven years ago). My wife has been told repeatedly, however, that her mother’s attorney was incorrect, and that no POA stretched the legal distance to allow her to sign her mother into a facility without a guardianship. Mother had to personally sign the necessary 22-page contract, initialing each page. Why cannot a POA be used for the agent to make placement of Mother into the care facility?