Elder Law Issues

The initial client interview with your new lawyer can be a daunting experience. We are not actually very intimidating, but clients often feel a little overwhelmed by that first interview. We’d like to put you at ease.

Want to know what we’re looking for in the interview? We want to get to know you a little bit, find out what concerns motivate you, what you hope to accomplish. We’d like to understand your family dynamics, and what is important to you.

We realize we’re not going to get to know everything about you in that first contact. But if you’ll give us some of the data (family names, ages and location; kinds of assets you own; identification of the people you think could manage your estate), that will help us get started. That’s why we’ve sent you a questionnaire; it gets us some of the basic information so we don’t have to spend out time together going over spelling and arithmetic. Bring (or send) that to us, and then let’s talk.

In this week’s podcast, we discuss what we hope to learn in your initial client interview.

Good for you! You signed your will and powers of attorney! Maybe you even finalized your living trust, and transferred all (or most) of your assets into the trust’s name. You’re done, right? You never have to update your estate plan again, right?

Wrong. Of course. But how soon do we want to see you back in our office? Every year? Once every two or three years? On a five-year cycle?

Join us for our podcast episode, in which we suggest a schedule. Spoiler alert: we want to see you again in about five years. We explain why. And it’s not because we think the law will change within five years, incidentally.

We are SO pleased to announce that Jacque Mingle, partner here at Fleming & Curti, PLC, just learned that she has been certified as a specialist in Estate and Trust law by the State Bar of Arizona. We’re very happy for and proud of her.

Join us for this podcast episode to hear Jacque explain what that means, and what she had to do to obtain the certification. We also explain some of the other identifications a well-seasoned estate and trust law practitioner might aspire to obtain.

Here’s an important part of your estate plan that you may not know about: personal property lists.

In Arizona (and a number of other states — talk to your local attorney) your will can make specific reference to a list of personal property items and who should receive them. It’s a great device to handle small items, like family heirlooms, jewelry and household contents. Look at your Arizona will and see if it mentions personal property lists.

If your will makes reference to it, you should complete such a list. It’s good for you, good for your family and good for the recipients. They will appreciate you identifying special items for particular individuals.

In 2014, the federal government allowed states to establish ABLE Act accounts. Do you understand who they are for and when you might want to explore the idea further?

In this week’s podcast episode, we discuss ABLE Act accounts in Arizona. The accounts were first permitted under the federal Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014, and Arizona’s version was established in 2018.

We’ve also written about ABLE Act accounts in our weekly newsletter. You can read more on the subject — even while listening to our podcast.

The last in our series of podcasts on selecting a fiduciary. Should you consider our firm, Fleming & Curti, as fiduciary?

We started this cycle with a general discussion: what does “fiduciary” mean, anyway? And how do you select a successor trustee, personal representative or agent for your powers of attorney? If you don’t think family members are the best choice (or you don’t want to burden them), what professional fiduciary options are available?

At Fleming & Curti, PLC, we occasionally act as fiduciary for our estate planning clients. We also act as fiduciary in other settings. There are, of course, plenty of other options — and we are not the right choice in every case. But you should feel free to discuss the possibility, the costs and how we can address any possible conflicts of interest.

Choosing your fiduciary can be challenging. Even understanding the duties and challenges facing your fiduciary can be difficult. Sometimes you need to consider professional fiduciaries.

What is a professional fiduciary? In Arizona and some other states, there is an industry of professional fiduciaries. Some have legal backgrounds, some social service or financial backgrounds. One of them might be a good fit for your estate planning.

In this podcast episode, we talk about professional fiduciaries and the prevailing practices in Arizona. Not from Arizona? Check with a local elder law attorney about whether you have similar choices in your community.

One of the most difficult tasks connected with your estate plan is too easily overlooked. Choosing your fiduciary should be more than just naming your oldest child, or all of your children.

Being a fiduciary is actually hard work. You should pay attention to which potential fiduciary is actually up to the task.

In last week’s podcast episode, we addressed the question: what is a fiduciary? But now that you know the answer to that question, your next problem is choosing your fiduciary.

Here’s an important principle to keep in mind as you make your choice: you are not disfavoring a child by not naming them as your fiduciary. It is a challenging role, and no one should feel badly that they didn’t get chosen.

As you make the decision, you might think to look for more information about fiduciaries and the fiduciary duty. Note that there is a lot of discussion in the media in recent years about the concept of a fiduciary duty as applied to financial advisors. That’s an important concept, and we applaud anyone looking up the question in selecting their own financial advisor. But that fiduciary duty is different from the one at issue when you choose your personal representative (executor), agent on your power of attorney or other person to handle your personal affairs for you.

You may have heard or read the term: fiduciary. But what is a fiduciary?

In this podcast episode, we go through some of the kinds of relationships that are included. The term covers at least these:

Being a fiduciary can be challenging — even hard — work. Understand what job you’re assigning before you sign your will, trust or power of attorney.

Everyone seems to know about gifts and gift tax rules. The thing is, “everyone” tends to be wrong.

In this podcast episode, we explain the basics of gifts and gift tax liability. Do you think that there is a rule limiting how much money or property you can give away? There isn’t. Do you think that you will pay a tax on gifts? You won’t — unless you make really huge gifts.

You probably realize that there is a $15,000 limit on how much each person can give to each other person in a calendar year. You may know that the number goes up every few years (the last increase was in 2015). What you may not realize is that the penalty for exceeding that amount is very modest, indeed. Very few people will have any tax or other liability for making larger gifts, as Fleming & Curti, PLC, partner Jacque Mingle explains in a separate video.

That doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to make gifts. There are other things to consider, like what will happen when the recipient of a gift sells property they have been given. Then there is the key practical consideration: do you really want to give away substantial portions of your assets?