Posts Tagged ‘Estate Plan’

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Virginia Advance Health Care Directive Registry

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

In 2008, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation to allow the creation of a secure online registry of advance medical directives. This registry is now available at www.VirginiaRegistry.org

This Registry allows Virginia residents to store copies of their health care related legal documents in a central electronic space so that these documents can be found quickly by their doctors, hospitals, family members, emergency responders and anyone else that is authorized by the resident. This electronic Registry makes it easier for people to distribute the information that is held in the paper legal documents that are otherwise stored in safe deposit boxes, home safes, home fire-proof boxes, or in a drawer in the home.

These health care related legal documents generally include an Advance Medical Directive, a Power of Attorney for Medical Purposes, a HIPAA release and an authorization for anatomical gifts.

There is no charge for the use of this Registry by Virginia residents.

The Online Registry website is a public-private partnership between the Virginia Department of Health, UNIVAL,Inc and Microsoft Corporation to provide a secure environment using a Personal Identification Number (PIN) and a password needed to access your documents. Once you have registered, you will receive an identification card containing the information that can be used by professionals to access your documents when needed. When you sign up for this service, you can also enter the email addresses of those you want to have access to your documents and the system will notify them about the Registry so they will know how to access your documents when they are needed.

According to information on the site, all registered users will need to renew their Advance Directives on an annual basis and the system will send you a reminder. If the user does not renew their documents within 6 months of being notified, their documents will be moved to an archive system and held there for 5 years.

We always encourage our clients to provide paper copies of their Medical Directives to their doctors, hospitals and to the person that is named as their Health Care Power of Attorney. This online Registry is another way to ensure that your Medical Directives will be accessible by those that need to know your wishes.

If you have any questions about this or any other legal subject, please feel free to give us a call at 757-234-4650 or visit our website at http://www.BeaversLaw.com.

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Posted in Estate Planning, Medical Directive | No Comments »

Can I throw away my records?

Monday, February 20th, 2012

I have a friend who does organizing for people as a business and I’ve used her services myself. Why? Because I always think I may need things later. It helps to have someone hold up a t-shirt that I haven’t worn for 15 years, and is in a size that I am sure I’ll never see again and make me say out loud that I really need to keep it. And yes, I now have 2 big bags of clothes to take to the charity resale store.

That works with clothes, but what about my financial records?

Part of me knows that I really don’t need my electric bills from 1994 from a house that has since been sold, but they really don’t take up much room and they would be difficult to recreate if I ever did need them.

This time of year, I hear people recommending that you dispose of financial records that are over 3 years old. This may be correct for tax purposes. I’m not a tax expert so I really can’t say.

But, if you want to apply for Medicaid, you need to be able to ‘look back’ 5 years to see if you’ve made a gift that might create a penalty period. Or rather, you need to be able to prove that you did NOT make a gift in the past 5 years.

And since I’m never sure of what may happen in my life, I want to be prepared, just in case.

So my goal for this spring is to dispose of financial records from 2005 and before. Yes I know that 2006 was 6 years ago and not five, but at least I’ll get rid of those electric bills from 1994!

If you have any questions about this or any other legal subject, please feel free to give us a call at 757-234-4650 or visit our website at http://www.BeaversLaw.com.

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Posted in Elder Law, Estate Planning, General Information | No Comments »

Do you have a blended family?

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

My parents were divorced and my dad remarried a woman who had children, so I come from a ‘blended’ family. I am also divorced from my children’s father and I’m now married to a man who has children from his first marriage. All to say that I know what it’s like to live in a ‘blended’ family.

I’ve heard that the schools now have projects to trace your family ‘bush’ instead of your family ‘tree’. It’s a sign of the times.

But, the laws haven’t quite caught up with society.

A step-child, even if they have been in your household and you have acted as their parent for their entire lives, is not considered your child for inheritance purposes. And problems can arise when a current spouse and children from a previous relationship all want to take ‘their rightful portion’ of an inheritance.

There are ways to take care of the ones you love by talking to an Estate Planning attorney and making sure that your estate is used the way you want. This is important for everyone.

It is even more important if you have a blended family.

If you have any questions about this or any other legal subject, please feel free to give us a call at 757-234-4650 or visit our website at http://www.BeaversLaw.com.

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Posted in Estate Plan, Estate Planning, Trust, Will | No Comments »

When does a Will become effective?

Sunday, October 30th, 2011

I’ve gotten a couple of questions lately about when a Will becomes effective. One of these questions was from a son whose mother had a habit of writing and rewriting her Will on a regular basis to delete one or another of her children as a beneficiary based on who was the last person to visit the mother. Another question was from a man whose brother had died and he wanted to know if a written, but unsigned, copy of a Will was effective.

A Will is a document that tells the world (and most importantly, the court) how you want your ‘stuff’ distributed after you have died. Most people think of this as telling the world about your plan for the inheritance of your estate.

Contrary to popular belief, a Will does not become effective when it is written, or when it is signed, or even when it is executed correctly with all of the proper witnesses and signatures and put in a safe-deposit box.

A properly executed Will becomes effective the moment after the person who is the subject of the Will takes their last breath. That is, only when the person who is the subject of the Will has died.

This is because as long as a person is alive, they can change their minds about what they want to do. Most Wills have some verbiage that says something to the effect that the person revokes any and all existing Wills and that this is now their Last Will and Testament. But if they are still alive, they can always come back next year, or next week, and do the same thing again.

Also, unless the Will was executed with all of the correct processes and procedures, it is just a bunch of words on a paper and basically worthless. If you want your Will to be effective at your death, you need to have the proper execution formalities for your jurisdiction.

The last Will that was properly executed before your death is the one that the courts will find to be effective, even if you had changed your mind and thought you were making the right changes in later documents.

If you have any questions about this or any other legal subject, please feel free to give us a call at 757-234-4650 or visit our website at http://www.BeaversLaw.com.

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Posted in Estate Planning, Will | No Comments »

What is a ‘Life Estate’?

Sunday, September 11th, 2011

I had a question this week from a potential client who knew that her brother was allowed to live in her deceased mother’s house until he died and then the house was supposed to be divided equally between the remaining sisters and brothers. This arrangement is called a ‘life estate’, and it means that the brother has lawful possession as long as he is alive. The other sisters and brothers are called ‘remaindermen’.

A more common example is when a parent (for our example we will say the mother) dies leaving a spouse and children. The spouse later remarries and wants to make sure that his new wife will not need to move out of the family home if something should happen to him. He grants a life estate to his new wife with the remainder of the ownership going to his children at her death.

This sounds like a simple way to handle things and you may wonder why it isn’t used more often.

One problem is that the life estate ends when the named person dies. This means that if the named person is sick or in a nursing home, the remainder owners do not have the right to do anything with the property until the named person dies.

There is also the problem that a person with a ‘life estate’ can only give or sell what he owns. That means that he can’t sell the house to anyone else, or make arrangements for someone else to live in the house either. This has caused problems like the situation where an uncle had a life estate in the family home and put in his Will that the home should go to his favorite niece. She thought it was hers, except that the uncle didn’t have ownership to give! Once he died, the house belonged to the ‘remaindermen’.

In the case of the person who called our office, the brother had gotten married and the family wanted to know if his wife would inherit the house if the brother died. (the answer is no…because once he died, his life estate ended).

Then, there is the problem of who is supposed to pay the bills for the house. You may think that the person living in the house should be paying the bills. But what if the house needs a new roof that is expected to last 30 years? Should a 90 year old person with a life estate be required to put a new roof on the home, even though it is unlikely that he will be in the home long enough to use it all?

A Life Estate can also be set to terminate on the death of someone else. For example, let’s suppose mother has four children. Son 1 is disabled and cannot live on his own. Daughter 1 is not disabled and has agreed to take care of son 1. Son 2 and Daughter 2 are both married and living in another state with their respective families. Mother wants to make sure that Daughter 1 has a home in which to care for Son 1 so she grants a life estate to Daughter 1 for so long as Son 1 is alive, with the remainder being divided equally between the 3 remaining children when Son 1 dies. What this means is that Daughter 1 will probably need to move out of the home after Son 1 dies because otherwise she would need to be able to purchase the other 2/3 of the house from her remaining siblings.

I’ve even seen a case where a cat lover gave a life estate in her home to her friend for so long as her favorite cat was alive so that the friend could take care of the cat and the cat would not need to move to a strange house.

As you can see, a Life Estate can be a useful tool in your estate planning arsenal, but only if it is planned correctly.

If you have any questions about this or any other legal subject, please feel free to give us a call at 757-234-4650 or visit our website at http://www.BeaversLaw.com.

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Posted in Estate Plan, Estate Planning | No Comments »

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