Estate planning often has a more dramatic effect on women due to elongated life expectancy and the tendency to marry older spouses. As a result, they are three times more likely to be widowed at 65 than men. Estate planning is an imperative component in retirement planning, and with a greater probability of surviving their spouses, women often have the final word about how much wealth goes to family, charity or the taxman.

(Read more: The New Age Of Estate Planning)

1. Caring For Yourself Is Priority No. 1
Appointing a trusted individual to act on your behalf in financial and legal matters is an integral part of estate planning in the event you are unable (even temporarily) to do so because of illness or disability. This person is a “durable power of attorney”, separate from a living will, which expresses your end-of-life care preferences, and a health care proxy which authorizes someone to make medical decisions for your.

2. Everyone Has An Estate
An estate plan is not reserved for only the wealthy. An estate is everything you own upon death: your home, personal property, investments, bank accounts, retirement plans and any interests in a family business or partnership. Without a will or living trust to indicate who should receive those assets, state law will make the decisions for you.

(Read more: “Pound Foolish” Author Warns Americans From Taking Foolish Financial Advice)

3. A Will and Living Trust Are Not The Same
While each can be used to transfer assets upon death, unique uses apply to both. A living trust can take effect during life or at death and may also hold assets for your benefit while you are alive — in the instance of dementia, for example. A will doesn’t not take effect until death and is used to name guardians for children who are minors, creates trusts that begin after death and cover assets that you haven’t included in a living trust.

(Read more: Living Together and Property Agreements)

4. Trusts Are Not Only For the Rich
A trust is often the best way to reach your goals. It can safeguard assets in the event you are no longer able to manage your affairs, provide for children from a previous marriage, hold money for minors, and prevent funds from being eroded by spendthrift family members. Furthermore, a trust can protect assets from creditors and former spouses.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/pictures/efik45ehjjg/estate-planning-is-a-womens-issue-2/

Mr. Witzke practices in the areas of estate and gift tax planning, financial planning, retirement planning, LGBT civil rights, charitable giving, elder law, and small business planning. He focuses on helping clients grow, protect, and transfer wealth efficiently. Mr. Witzke is a past president and board member of the Financial Planning Association of Michigan, a member of the board of directors for Leadership Oakland, and a member of the planned giving advisory committees of Wayne State University and the Community House in Birmingham. Follow Mr. Witzke on Twitter @gr8estatelawyer.

Estate planning lawyers worked themselves ragged to close out 2012 in preparation for the approaching fiscal cliff. Lawyers worked overtime during the holiday season to set up trusts and fund them with gifts that made maximum use of what was then the $5.12 million per person tax-free amount.

(Read more: “Pound Foolish” Author Warns Americans From Taking Foolish Financial Advice)

But in less than three pages in the 157-page law, Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 or ATRA, and put to rest the looming uncertainty that had haunted wealthy taxpayers for the past 12 years. As it came to pass, ATRA did not adjust the amount you can pass tax-free during life or at death. On Jan. 11 the IRS announced that with the inflation adjustment, that amount will be $5.25 million in 2013 ($10.50 million for married couples).

(Read more: Living Together and Property Agreements)

With fewer people worrying about estate tax, lawyers are uncertain what their next career move will be. Clients are calling to ask if they did the right thing, expressing concern about whether they will have enough for themselves down the road and whether they gave too much away. Other residual work for lawyers in 2013 will include preparing gift tax returns for 2012 gifts, which are due on April 15.

(Read more: Saying ‘I Do’ to a Prenup)

Gift tax audits will begin in 2014, while the IRS challenges some of the cute text tricks used to leverage or pack even more into the lifetime exemption amount. But looking ahead, there is less work to be done. Some firms plan to engage in strategic planning, while others look for growth in the field of elder law, dealing with asset transfer and the quality of life as people age.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2013/01/15/morphing-into-the-new-age-of-estate-planning/?goback=.gde_1701677_member_204612620

Mr. Witzke practices in the areas of estate and gift tax planning, financial planning, retirement planning, LGBT civil rights, charitable giving, elder law, and small business planning. He focuses on helping clients grow, protect, and transfer wealth efficiently. Mr. Witzke is a past president and board member of the Financial Planning Association of Michigan, a member of the board of directors for Leadership Oakland, and a member of the planned giving advisory committees of Wayne State University and the Community House in Birmingham. Follow Mr. Witzke on Twitter @gr8estatelawyer.

Managing personal finances is not an easy task for most. Each year millions of dollars are spent on books and seminars with the hopes of getting rich and out of debt.

Helaine Olen, author of the new book “Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry”’ and former editor of the Money Makeover series in the Los Angeles Times warns Americans of being fooled by the short-sighted money decisions of even the best-known personal finance experts.

(Read more: Technology Companies and the Deceased)

In an interview with The Daily Ticker, Olen claims these financial gurus offer either platitudes or dreadful advice that don’t apply to most people’s lives or situations.

“The idea that anyone can give specific advice to millions of people first of all doesn’t really work,” she says. “We’re not archetypes.”

(Read more: 8 Life Stages of Estate Planning: Part 1)

The average American suffers from serious financial strain and the advice parroted by these alleged experts is “easier said than done,” Olen argued.

The author uses alarming stats to draw the picture of a typical American:

Americans possess less than $100,000 saved in dedicated retirement accounts and 43% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Salaries have stagnated and Americans’ net worth has fallen nearly 40% between 2007 and 2010.

Thousands of dollars in credit card bills due to unexpected medical emergencies, divorce or long bouts of unemployment are the main reasons American find themselves drowning in debt.

(Read more: Living Together and Property Agreements)

Olen takes great distaste in the assertion that an individual can become a millionaire by investing all of one’s savings in the stock market. Suze Orman is among the “experts” that has promoted this suggestion before on CNBC and in her multiple books, yet Orman has admitted that she rarely invests in stocks and prefers the safety of municipal bonds, according to Olen. Equities are extremely volatile and rarely provide the 12% annual return that Orman and Dave Ramsey tout for people looking to quadruple their income, Olen adds.

Olen agrees with most personal finance experts that Americans should pay off high-interest credit cards and reduce their overall debt burdens.

Olen purposely avoids making her own personal finance recommendations in “Pound Foolish” but does proffer one tip she’s learned over the years as a personal finance journalist: invest in market index funds. They won’t make one rich but they offer the best return with the least amount of risk, she says.

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/don-t-money-advice-suze-orman-dave-ramsey-122754956.html

Marc H. Wander is a partner of the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke, Berry, Carter &Wander, PLLC. Marc has been licensed to practice law in Michigan since 1992. Marc’s practice is devoted to estate planning and business succession planning.  Marc is a member of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan and is a prior Chairperson of the Oakland County Bar Association Tax Committee. He is a frequent continuing education speaker to insurance agents, financial advisors, CPA’s and financial industry organizations. He has also been heard on WJR Radio. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcWander

With so much of our lives online these days, many are curious as to what exactly happens to your digital stuff when you die? Currently, neither the U.S. nor Canada have consistent laws that treat digital data and accounts like physical goods, to be distributed via an estate plan after death.

Too often families are caught between estate laws (which grant them access to digital data) and privacy laws (which would forbid it). Some people create “social media wills” or share their passwords with a trusted person, while others use commercial services like LegacyLocker.com and SecureSafe.com, which allow people to store their account information in one place.

(Read more: Why Your Clients Should Be Concerned With the Federal “Death Tax”)

Without access to passwords and account details for the deceased, families must work within the guidelines of each individual tech company to gain access to their loved ones’ data. This can be a difficult process because most companies approach these situations differently.

This is a guide to navigate how some major internet companies handle the accounts of the deceased as of the end of 2012.

Google

• Won’t disclose passwords for Gmail or for its social network, Google+, or transfer ownership of an account.
• Won’t deactivate an account without a court order.
• May provide contents of a dead user’s account if family mails or faxes proof of the death and family connection, and family meets additional legal requirements such as an order from a U.S. court.
• Doesn’t offer Facebook-style “memorialization” for Google+ accounts.

(Read more: Estate Tax On the Rise, Don’t Panic, Plan)

Facebook

• Won’t disclose passwords or transfer ownership of an account.
• Will remove an account upon request of the family
• Will “memorialize” accounts if notified (not necessarily by a family member) that the user has died. Memorialization prevents anybody from logging into the account but allows friends to post remembrances and memorials to the deceased person’s account.
• Won’t disclose the contents of a deceased user’s account without a legal process.

Yahoo

• Won’t disclose passwords.

• If a user wants his family to have access to his account and after his death, Yahoo recommends he provide consent and his account information (username, password and/or answers to challenge questions) in his estate plans. Otherwise Yahoo won’t provide families data from the accounts of dead people.
• Will deactivate an account if the estate provides a death certificate via fax or email.

(Read more: Why You Need to Put Your Living Together Agreement in Writing)

Microsoft

• Won’t disclose passwords or transfer ownership of a Hotmail/Outlook.com account.
• Doesn’t consider it a violation for surviving family that gets a court order or otherwise has authority from the deceased to use his or her password to log into the account.
• Will deactivate an account upon the request of family.
• May provide contents of a dead user’s email if family contacts Microsoft via email and provides other documentation, which depends on location.

Twitter

• Won’t disclose passwords.
• Doesn’t disclose account data without a court order in the U.S.
• Doesn’t offer Facebook-style “memorialization” of accounts.
• Will deactivate an account if a family contacts Twitter with a copy of death certificate, a notarized statement, and other details.

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• Won’t disclose passwords or transfer ownership of an account.
• Will remove an account from public view if requested by immediate family.
• Won’t disclose account data without a court order in the U.S.
• Doesn’t offer “memorialization” of accounts.

LinkedIn

• Won’t disclose passwords for accounts, or transfer ownership of an account.
• Allows others (even beyond family members or executors) to report the death of a member, which causes the account and its data to be hidden from public view. People reporting deceased members usually must know the email address associated with the deceased person’s account.
• If a family specifically requests it, will delete an account and all of its data.
• Will not provide account data to others, including family members, unless required by a court.
• Doesn’t offer Facebook-style “memorialization” for accounts.

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/01/04/what-to-do-online-when-a-loved-one-dies/

Marc H. Wander is a partner of the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke, Berry, Carter &Wander, PLLC. Marc has been licensed to practice law in Michigan since 1992. Marc’s practice is devoted to estate planning and business succession planning.  Marc is a member of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan and is a prior Chairperson of the Oakland County Bar Association Tax Committee. He is a frequent continuing education speaker to insurance agents, financial advisors, CPA’s and financial industry organizations. He has also been heard on WJR Radio. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcWander

Marc H. Wander is a partner of the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke, Berry, Carter &Wander, PLLC. Marc has been licensed to practice law in Michigan since 1992. Marc’s practice is devoted to estate planning and business succession planning.  Marc is a member of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan and is a prior Chairperson of the Oakland County Bar Association Tax Committee. He is a frequent continuing education speaker to insurance agents, financial advisors, CPA’s and financial industry organizations. He has also been heard on WJR Radio. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcWander

Preparing for the “fiscal cliff” deadline, a widow with $4 million in disposable assets is inquiring how to give away a sizable portion of her fortune as soon as possible. With the tax hikes fast approaching, the Chicago-area millionaire wanted to vacate the money from her accounts by the end of the year so the federal government could not take a giant bite out of it in the form of estate taxes.

With the $5 million exemption on estate taxes and lifetime gifts set to evaporate on Dec. 31, lawyers and financial planners are scrambling across the country to ease client’s concerns. Without a consensus in Congress, the tax rate on estates and lifetime gifts will rise from 35 to 55 percent. Even more of a concern is the amount of money exposed to the tax: Currently the tax rates only apply to estate more than $5 millions. The end of the Bush tax cuts would reduce this exemption to $1 million.

(Read more: 8 Life Stages of Estate Planning: Part 1)

An average American can have 1 or 2, or even 3 million dollars and not be wealthy, which is why many financial planners believe that the estate tax and the lifetime gift exemption will be reset closer to $3 million. And since spouses have the ability to give away an amount up to the exemption without incurring taxes, the exemption for a married couple would be $6 million.

“It’s a relatively small group of people who really need to worry now,” said Michael S. Beriss, a former tax attorney who is now a financial planner with Ameriprise. To take full advantage of the current $5 million exemption, a married couple would have to have a spare $10 million in the bank. “If you give away $1 million today, you’re not using your $5 million exemption,” he said.

(Read more: 8 Life Stages of Estate Planning: Part 2)

An older investor with investable assets and a home worth more than $3 million should not panic, rather, do some planning. Consider what you are trying to accomplish, and the legacy you would like to leave. The legacy you envision will determine the type of tax relief you choose.

If you want to send your grandchildren to college, a 529 college fund is the best solution; if you want to support your a cause that is close to your heart, a charitable contribution may be the best way to protect your money.Trusts may be the smartest answer if your main objective is to make your kids’ lives easier financially without leaving them with tax headaches themselves.

(Read more: Who Needs a Living Together Contract?)

However, a money-minded taxpayer may simply desire to pay as little a percentage in tax possible, to preserve their cash legacy and keep the government’s hand off it. For these savers, even the worst case scenario – a return to the 55 percent tax on any amount greater than $1 million – is a salvageable situation. Estate tax, said Beriss, “is probably one of the holiest areas in tax code, and I don’t mean it in the religious sense.”

Read more:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/estate-tax-going-people-arent-193631304.html

Marc H. Wander is a partner of the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke, Berry, Carter &Wander, PLLC. Marc has been licensed to practice law in Michigan since 1992. Marc’s practice is devoted to estate planning and business succession planning.  Marc is a member of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan and is a prior Chairperson of the Oakland County Bar Association Tax Committee. He is a frequent continuing education speaker to insurance agents, financial advisors, CPA’s and financial industry organizations. He has also been heard on WJR Radio. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcWander