Generation to Generation

I have lost count of all the women in my life reading “Strangers – A Memoir of Marriage” by Belle Burden. Burden’s story of the arc, from beginning to end, of her marriage to “James” is heartbreaking, cautionary, and triumphant all at the same time. I picked it up because my book club selected it; most others have been motivated by friends or BookTok influencers who say it’s a must-read for anyone who is married or intending to marry. This word-of-mouth endorsement can be credited to Burden’s willingness to pinpoint where she could have protected herself better – not emotionally, but legally and financially – from the possibility that her marriage to James might end.

One of the best ways for parents and grandparents to put money aside for the college educations of their children and grandchildren is through tax-favored vehicles authorized by Internal Revenue Code section 529 called “529 Savings Accounts.” During this era of ever-increasing college costs, when you first create a 529 Savings Account for a child, it is hard to fathom that – years down the line – the account could have any money left over after all the tuition bills are paid. But it can happen. The child’s college degree is earned in three years, not four; the undergraduate experience proves disappointing; or the graduate school tuition is covered by an employer instead. Whatever the reason, an overfunded 529 Savings Account can still lead to a good financial outcome if you know your options.

Now that sunshine and blue skies are upon us, people are opening their summer homes for the season. Happy memories of family vacations and gatherings often motivate parents to seek out ways to preserve their second home for their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Whether you’ve got a compound on the Cape or a cabin on Winnipesaukee, it’s an appropriate time to think about how these properties currently fit into your estate plan. It’s also crucial to consider how such decisions will affect those who love and use these properties now and might want to continue doing so after you’ve passed away.

During the Perkins School for the Blind annual fundraising gala, Perkins Possibilities 2016, we witnessed the launch of the powerful social change campaign called BlindNewWorld. The campaign aims to help the sighted population break down barriers to blind inclusion like discomfort and fear and create a more blind-friendly world. This got us thinking: how can we do a better job of taking the needs of clients who are blind or visually impaired into account when designing our estate planning services? We came up with three ideas we want to share.

If you already understand what a typical estate plan looks like, you can skip to the next paragraph. Put simply, it is more than just a will. Instead, a typical estate plan contains four documents: a will, revocable trust, health care proxy and power of attorney. The health care proxy and power of attorney are designed to operate during your lifetime, while the will and revocable trust control how your property is dealt with after your death. The will tends to be a relatively simple document by which you give away your personal belongings and name the personal representatives who are to administer your estate. The trust, on the other hand, distributes the balance of your assets among the people (and charities) you care about and names the trustees who will administer the trust property according to your wishes. The trust is necessarily more complex than the will, because it is where the tax planning provisions are found.