Posted on 11/25/2007 11:00:53 AM PST by KJC1
Over the next 50 years, it's expected that $45 trillion will be transferred to heirs and charities via estates - the largest wealth transfer in history.
How much of it is siphoned by trustees or lost to estate taxes, administrative fees, lawyers' fees, appraiser fees, accountants' fees or poor investment acumen surely will be a record, as well.
Estate planning, in particular trusts and their administration by financial institutions, can be mind-numbingly complex. Talk of them turns on the unpleasant subject of death. But unless consumers remain vigilant - and technology is employed for checks and balances - assets will continue to be lost in an industry largely unchanged for centuries and ever ripe for litigation.
"It's not a trustworthy system," says Barbara Suzanne "Sue" Farley, who has practiced law in the Bay Area for more than 30 years, specializing in litigation surrounding trusts and estates.
Farley says that nebulous and wide-open terminology in these documents - such as provisions for "health, education and welfare" - can lead to distortion of intentions. As she puts it, these are words "you could drive a truck through."
Warring and dysfunctional families and, often, veils of secrecy around family wealth also may be responsible for the lack of progress toward making the trust system more efficient and effective, said Farley.
People need to "be more vigilant about how they set up their estate, how they structure the way their money goes to their children and the supervision of their family and to assume you must be ever vigilant in oversight of your trustee, because if you are not it is very likely that your money will be diminished or dissipated entirely," said Farley.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I’m trying to execute my Mom’s trust. For her estate, a trust was a waste of money - she could have done the same thing by using pay on death accounts. Add in a very simple will for the house, and she would have been finished.
And second wives after the first wife dies. Plenty
Some years ago I worked for an attorney who had two cases — families at war over inheritances. They both involved questionable language in the estate planning documents. One of them involved a family owned business — it was the company’s attorney who prepared the documents, and apparently, this attorney was not well versed in estate planning. It was the widow vs. the children and both cases were ugly. A tragic shame.
There are some businesses which sell these estate planning kits — I know there’s one on tv with that attorney from the OJ trial. Sorry, I wouldn’t advise anyone to use those kits. Best to have an attorney who knows estate planning, especially the law in your state and who is up on any recent changes in the law.
For reference for folks “conveying” large estates:
Foundations of Betrayal: How the Liberal Super Rich Undermine America
by Phil Kent
http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Betrayal-Liberal-Undermine-America/dp/0971985111/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196018196&sr=8-1
"One of the problems is financial institutions recognize that the system is broken, but they don't know how to fix it," Farley said. "And because they don't know how to fix it, alerting people to the fact it is broken doesn't do any good." She said that one banker told her, "Litigation is the cost of doing business."
The truth, I believe, is that the financial institutions don't want to fix it!
As I have told my kids “Hopefully I will drop dead in a casino with my very last dollar clutched in my hand.”
Managing Family Trusts: Taking Control of Inherited Wealth by Robert A. Rikoon
For folks looking for a serious treatment of the subject. Read them, then go see your lawyer.
The problem is with the gubberment dipping their greedy little hands into your estate. Like they did anythng to help you build it. And now they rob you while your corpse lies dead in the grave.
Eliminate all taxation except sales tax. That is the only thing that will fix the problem.
Carolyn
My folks were sold a “Living Trust” back in the ‘80s. Their estate MIGHT amount to $200,000 when the time comes, depending on the real estate market.
I’m not looking forward to unraveling that mess. I’m anticipating hiring an attorney to figure it all out.
Sounds like what the DemocRats did with the Constitution's "provide for the general welfare" clause.
I’ve been trying to find out the issues for heirs that live outside the US, both for heirs that are US citizens and non-US citizens. I get vague answers from my attorney, and there is surprisingly little information available off the Internet.
Pathetic. All the estate planning companies are punting now as they expected a positive shift with Bush and R led house and senate and now they are instead preparing for a Democratic president and the socialist policies that will follow.
The Consitution says “provide for the common defense” and simply “promote the general welfare”.
That being said, you want a will for your estate. Do *NOT* dictate behavior of heirs in your will, as that invalidates it.
Likewise, you want a living will (e.g. keep me on life support if I become paralyzed) and you want a “power of attorney” document in case you are incapacitated or jailed.
Setup guardianship for your children if both parents die or become vegetables, too.
Thanks!
Apparently the rats switched the words around the way I did!
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