How the SECURE Act Impacts Your Estate Plan

The SECURE Act made major changes to beneficiary distributions you should consider in your estate plan.

The SECURE Act has made big changes to how certain retirement plans, such as IRAs, 401(k)s, and 403(b)s, distribute after death. Anyone who owns such a retirement plan, regardless of its size, needs to examine their retirement savings plan and their estate plan to see how these changes will have an impact. The article “SECURE Act New IRA Rules: Change Your Estate Plan” from Forbes explains what the changes are and the steps that need be taken.  Our firm has mentioned the SECURE Act in past blogs, such as here:  https://galligan-law.com/proposed-ira-rules-and-their-effect-on-stretch-iras/ on Kevin’s Korner and will address the impact of these changes in the future, but today I wanted to focus on some key issues as mentioned in the article.

First, the SECURE Act means changes to some existing estate plans, especially ones including provisions creating conduit trusts that had been created to hold retirement plan death benefits and preserve the stretch benefit, while the retirement plan owner was still alive.  Existing conduit trusts may need to be modified before the owner’s death to address how the SECURE Act might undermine the intent of the trust or to evaluate possible plans.

This first change will apply to many, many clients.  A typical client who may be affected by the SECURE Act is a parent creating a trust for their children’s inheritance.  These types of trusts typically serve to provide creditor or divorce protection for their beneficiaries while maximizing the tax benefits of stretching the retirement.  Now that the stretch benefit may not apply to a beneficiary, it may make sense to alter the trust to maximize asset protection instead of the tax savings that are no longer available.  If you have this situation, you definitely want to review your plan.

Another potential strategy for clients who are including charities in their estate plan be making a charity the beneficiary of the retirement account, and possibly using life insurance or other planning strategies to create a replacement for the value of the charitable donation to heirs.

One more creative alternative is to pay the retirement account balance to a Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT) on death that will stretch out the distributions to the beneficiary of the CRT over that beneficiary’s lifetime under the CRT rules. Paired with a life insurance trust, this might replace the assets that will ultimately pass to the charity under the CRT rules.  This is a more complex strategy, but may be effective for charitably minded clients.

The biggest change in the SECURE Act being examined by estate planning and tax planning attorneys is the loss of the stretch treatment for beneficiaries inheriting retirement plans after 2019. Most beneficiaries who inherit a retirement account after 2019 will be required to completely withdraw all plan assets within ten years of the date of death.

One result of the change of this law will be to generate tax revenues. In the past, the ability to stretch retirement payments out over many years, even decades, allowed families to pass wealth across generations with minimal taxes, while the retirement account continued to grow tax free.

Another interesting change: No withdrawals need be made during that ten-year period, if that is the beneficiary’s wish. However, at the ten-year mark, ALL assets must be withdrawn, and taxes paid.

Under the prior law, the period in which the retirement assets needed to be distributed was based on whether the plan owner died before or after the RMD and the age of the beneficiary.

The deferral of withdrawals and income tax benefits encouraged many retirement account owners to bequeath a large retirement balance completely to their heirs. Others, with larger retirement accounts, used a conduit trust to flow the RMDs to the beneficiary and protect the balance of the plan.

There are exceptions to the 10-year SECURE Act payout rule. Certain “eligible designated beneficiaries” are not required to follow the ten-year rule. They include the surviving spouse, chronically ill heirs, disabled heirs and some individuals not less than 10 years younger than the account owner. Minor children are also considered eligible beneficiaries, but when they become legal adults, the ten year distribution rule applies to them. Therefore, by age 28 (ten years after attaining legal majority), they must take all assets from the retirement plan and pay the taxes as applicable.

The new law and its ramifications are under intense scrutiny by members of the estate planning and elder law bar because of these and other changes. If you believe these changes affect you, contact our office at 713-522-9220 to review your estate plan to ensure that your goals will be achieved in light of these changes.

Reference: Forbes (Dec. 25, 2019) “SECURE Act New IRA Rules: Change Your Estate Plan”

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Understanding Why a Will is Important

A Will is an important estate planning tool that describes your wishes for your property after death and who is responsible to see your wishes through.

These questions presented by The Westerly Sun in the article “Making a will is an important legal step,” may seem very basic, but many people don’t really understand how a will works and why they are such an important part of estate planning. Let’s go through these fundamentals about wills.

A will is a legal document that must be prepared under very strict standards to explain your wishes about how you want your estate–that is, your property, money, tangible possessions, and real estate—distributed after you die.

A will also does more than that.  A will, which is sometimes referred to as a “Last Will and Testament,” also makes clear who is going to be in charge of your affairs after death, by naming them as executor of your estate.

A complete estate plan includes a will and several other documents, including a power of attorney, healthcare power of attorney and potentially a trust.  The goal of all of these documents is to make it easier for your surviving spouse or loved ones to take care of you and your affairs, if you become too ill to speak on your own behalf or when you die.

Your will provides instructions about what happens to your estate. Who should receive your money and property? These instructions must be followed by the person you choose as your executor. The local probate court must give its approval, and then the estate can be distributed.

If you have a valid will, it is admitted to probate (a court process) upon your death, and then your wishes are followed. If you don’t have a will, you are said to have died “intestate.” The laws of the state, and not you, and not your loved ones, decide what will happen to everything you own that is subject to the intestacy process. Usually this means that assets are distributed to family members based on their degree of kinship with you.  In Texas, it also means there may be a separate process to determine who those heirs are, which can be time intensive and costly.

It also may not be what you wanted. If you have minor children, the Court may appoint a guardian for those children, or may establish a court monitored trust for the property they receive until they are old enough to handle their own affairs.  All of these extra steps and complexity make a will necessary.

Many clients chose to also use trusts as part of their estate plan and coordinate the trust with the will.  This provides the added benefit of avoiding the probate process, making administration even easier.  Even if you use a trust in your estate plan, you may still need a will in conjunction with that trust.   See here for more details.  https://galligan-law.com/how-do-trusts-work-in-your-estate-plan/

No one likes to think about dying, or becoming incapacitated, but by planning ahead and working with an experienced estate planning attorney to prepare a will, you can determine what you want to happen, and protect those you love.

Reference: The Westerly Sun (August 18, 2019) “Making a will is an important legal step”

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Why an Attorney Should Help with a Medicaid Application

Seniors should consider medicaid asset protection planning as part of their estate plan.
Hiring an attorney to prepare a Medicaid application may save money in the long run and get your loved one the care they need.

Elder law attorneys can be very helpful when it is time to complete a Medicaid application, and they can save money in the long run, ensuring that you (or a loved one) get the best care. Instead of waiting to see how wrong the process can get, says The Middletown Press, it’s best to “Use a lawyer for Medicaid planning” right from the start. Here’s why.

Conflict of interests. When a nursing home refers a family to people for preparing the Medicaid application or offers to complete it themselves, very often the person has dual loyalties: to the nursing home who refers them the work (or signs their checks), and to the family who will pay them a fee for help with applying for benefits. Whose interests comes first?

Everyone wants the Medicaid application to be successful, but let’s be realistic. It’s in the nursing home’s best interest that the resident pays privately for as long as possible, before going on Medicaid. It’s in the resident or family member’s best interest to protect the family’s assets for care for the resident’s spouse or family.

An attorney has a duty of loyalty only to his client. He also has an ethical and professional responsibility to put her client’s needs ahead of her own.

Saving money is possible. Nursing homes in some areas cost as much as $15,000 a month, in Texas they tend to be cheaper, but still in the several thousands.  While every market and every law practice is different, it would be unusual for legal fees to cost more than a month in the facility. With an experienced attorney’s help, you might save more than her fee in long-term care and related costs.

Further, attorneys can find ways to complete a Medicaid application and successfully obtain benefits without simply spending all of your assets before applying.  Many times nursing home staff will offer to do the Medicaid application after the assets are nearly entirely spent.  A quality elder law attorney will find ways to complete and file a successful Medicaid application while protecting your legacy.

The benefit of experience. It’s all well and good to read through pages of online information (Google, Esq.), but nothing beats the years of experience that an attorney who practices in this area can bring provide.  Any professional in any field develops knowledge of the ins and outs of an area and applying for Medicaid is no different. Without experience, it’s hard to know how it all works.  See Mary’s blog for more detail about how an attorney helps with this process.  https://galligan-law.com/when-you-need-an-elder-law-attorney/

Peace of mind from a reliable, reputable source. Consulting with an experienced attorney about a Medicaid application will help you avoid years of wondering, if there was more you could have done to help yourself or your loved one.

There are multiple opportunities for nursing home residents to preserve assets for themselves and spouses, children and grandchildren, particularly when a family member has long term care needs. However, here’s a key fact: if you wait for the last minute, there will be far less options than if you begin planning long before there’s a need for a Medicaid application.

Reference: The Middletown Press (July 29, 2019) “Use a lawyer for Medicaid planning”

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