Bridgewater New Jersey Estate Planning Law Blog

If you watched a movie where a character passed away, you may have then watched a scene where all of the friends and relatives sat in a room while a lawyer read them that person's will. Does this really happen? Is that how you find out what was left to you?

While this scene can build a lot of suspense and works well in movies, it is not all that realistic in 2018. Instead, the person in charge of the estate makes copies of the will and then mails them out to those who are named in the document. This way, those people have hard copies and they can read them whenever they want. The family members do not have to arrange their schedules to meet up for a will reading, and there's no element of surprise.

You have an heir with special needs, and you are trying to figure out your best course of action during your estate planning. You want to provide for that person and help him or her significantly after you pass away, but you do not accidentally want to do something with unintended consequences. What should you do?

One option is to use a special needs trust. This sets money aside from your estate to help the individual, keeping it in the trust rather than passing it to the person directly. There are some major advantages to doing this, such as:

• Making sure that the individual is still eligible for government assistance in the form of Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The trust can pay any additional costs over what that assistance covers. Leaving money directly may increase a person's wealth so that he or she becomes ineligible, but the trust does not do so.
• Ensuring that the money that you leave behind is actually used to care for that individual. If you worry that others may try to take advantage of the person, a trust is safer than a direct gift.
• Giving you a way to deduct the money for tax purposes.
• Keeping the funds away from any creditors. For instance, if your heir has outstanding debts, creditors cannot take the money from the trust. It is not technically part of your heir's estate, so it is protected, and you know that it will only be used as instructed by the trust -- to care for the beneficiary.

When was the last time you gave some serious thought to your estate plan? If you cannot remember, or if you have never done any estate planning, you are not alone. We will all need it eventually, so why don't we think about it more often?

For one thing, many people do not realize just how fragile life can be. They assume they have all sorts of time -- years or perhaps decades -- to get their affairs in order. Of course, the reality is that anyone can pass away at any age due to accidents, unexpected diseases, violence and a host of other factors. Sometimes, people only start thinking about estate planning when a close friend or family member passes away unexpectedly.

When you're writing your will in New Jersey, you must take into account the state's estate tax laws and how they can impact the money you're leaving behind. A small mistake or oversight could cost your family a lot.

For instance, one man became sick and decided to draft a will. At the time, his sisters were the ones providing him with daily care and assistance, so he opted to leave his money to them instead of his mother.