Ronald Morton's Elder Law Blog

Financial Planning for an Alzheimer’s Patient

Alzheimer’s not only affects the individual and his/her family, but their finances as well. A recenbt article lays out some planning methods to carry out once an individual has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The Alzheimer patient needs a team of individuals to help make sure their planning goes the way they intended. A certified Elder Law Attorney and a Certified Financial Planner are some of the individuals that need to be involved in helping make sure the Alzheimer patient’s planning goes according to plan. See here.

Frequently Overlooked Estate Planning Tool: Prenuptial Agreements

In addition to more traditional estate planning documents like wills and trusts, a prenuptial agreement can be another estate planning tool. These agreements are not only for the rich and famous.  Anyone getting getting married who has already accumulated a separate estate should consider executing a prenuptial agreement prior to marriage. This document can help protect your family during death or divorce by providing certainty and predictability should one of those events occur. Fro a good article on the subject, see here.  While not the most romantic pre-marriage conversation, for couples on their second marriage, it is a conversation worth having, especially if one spouse has children from a prior marriage.  Without a prenuptial agreement, the death of one spouse may result in many if not all of the deceased spouses assets being paid to the survivor, to the complete exclusion of the dead spouses children.  Conversely, the death could result in the lion's share of the estate being paid to the children, even though the plan was for those assets to support the surviving spouse during his or her remaining lifetime. 

Age is not a factor in Estate Planning

No matter how old or young you are you should have some kind of estate planning in place. A collegue in Florida accounts a recent encounter with a young couple who did not plan.  The couple was young and a second marriage, and had a young child.  The two of them executed identical wills and then the wife died a month later. While the couple did do some planning, the wife failed to change beneficiary on a retirement account from ex-husband to her new husband or child. As a result, it was the ex husband, not the child or new spouse, who was beneficiary of her retirement.  When you have children and assets involved no matter your age you should consult an estate planning attorney, so that they make sure your estate plan plays out the way you intended. See here for the complete story.