Planning

New Jersey recently launched a free website called NJ FinLit.  This site is sponsored by the New Jersey Department of the Treasury and contains interactive tools, videos and articles which can be used to understand and manage your financial resources. 

While there are many resources on the internet with regard to financial wellness, you must be cautious as some of the sites could prompt you to enter personal information which could hack your identity and access your assets. 

In a quick preview of the site, I found:

• An assessment of finances and recommended tools, content and how to achieve your goals.
• Tools to help you discover your financial personality.
• Tools to help you strengthen your financial skills.

The website has quick reads (5 minutes or less) on various areas of financial wellness.  You can even take online courses to increase your knowledge or help you strengthen your financial wellness.  A couple of the topics include buying or leasing a car, higher education costs and assistance. There are also financial tools that you can use to help you with decision making in various financial areas.

In an age of a higher cost of living, recovering from the pandemic, the supply chain challenges, why not take advantage of a FREE resource to help you improve your financial status, assist in decision making, and just get a better grasp on financial wellness. 

The website is njfinlit.enrich.org. 

You will never forget your birthday (even though you may want to).

Every time you make another trip around the sun (a year), it is good to reflect on what has changed in your life and what you have accomplished. Estate planning is probably something that rarely is among these thoughts.

Many people think that once they have executed their estate plan, they are done and set for life. Realistically, this is not the case. You, as an individual, are never done growing as a person and your life is never static. Things will always change. Each year, especially throughout 2020, people’s circumstances, financial markets, tax laws, and personal goals all changed.

Since you will never forget it and usually there is some type of celebration to remind you, your birthday is the perfect time to review your estate planning. Think back on the past year and decide whether or not you need to make any modifications to your current plan. Maybe you have no plan in place and want (or more appropriately – NEED) one.

Big life events to think about are: Did you get married? Did you get divorced? Did a spouse pass away? Did you start a business? Did you have a child? Did you move? Did you acquire significant assets? Did you start a new job? Did you start a new hobby that may add some risk to your life?

All these questions and possible changes will affect your estate planning. The changes could be as simple as updating your Power of Attorney or Living Will to reflect new healthcare laws or update your agent. It could be that you want more detailed distribution provisions in your Will. You may need to change your beneficiaries on your non-probate assets such as life insurance policies, annuities, and retirement plans.

This time of reflection on your past year may shed some light on changes that you otherwise wouldn’t think about.

Team?  Do you really have a team?  Think about it – you certainly do.  In fact, you probably have several teams – medical, financial/legal, family, friends, etc.  In this blog, I am going to address the importance of your financial/legal team. 

In years gone by, we would go to a doctor who would treat us for everything – almost.  Today, we may have a primary doctor, but if there is a specific issue, we get referred to a specialist.  Your primary and the specialist now become a medical team for you. 

Likewise, in the legal profession, many practitioners are focused on specific areas that complement one another, rather than being a general practitioner.  The benefit to specializing is that their services are focused on the matter at hand and they have more expertise in this practice area. 

In our world today, we are all aware of tax law changes and how frequently they occur.  It is wise to utilize the services of a lawyer who specializes in estates, trusts and taxes. Such lawyers must keep up with these changes and, by doing so, are better versed in how to help you plan to meet your specific situations, needs and wants. 

Regardless of the amount of wealth you have accumulated, it is good to have a financial advisor; not a customer service representative in your local bank branch.  A financial advisor is there to provide financial advice on how to preserve your acquired wealth and how to meet your goals – growth, income, or both.  They follow the economy and the securities markets and can strategize how to get the most bang for your hard-earned buck.  Their focus is on money.

Another member of your team might be an accountant or tax preparer.  This member focuses on finance, but differently than the financial advisor. They will try their best to help with the minimization of tax liability. 

So, you probably have a financial/legal team already and just didn’t realize it.  You may see each of them separately, but imagine how effective they might be if they worked together for your benefit.  The team approach has proven to be very beneficial to clients because of the interaction and collaboration of ideas and strategies.  Speaking with each of your team members separately may not enable them to provide services to their potential.  One of them may know about a specific detail in your life and the others aren’t aware of this.  However, this one detail could have an overall impact. 

Introduce your team and allow them to work together on your behalf.  You might be surprised at the beneficial outcome. 

These days, we hear much about “going green”, leaving an “environmental footprint”, “climate change”, etc.  We are all responsible to do our part to preserve and protect our environment while we are alive.  But, what about after we die?  Can you still do your part? Hmmmmm.

Think about how much wood is used to make caskets.  How many tons of steel and/or concrete are used for burial vaults?  And, what about the amount of embalming fluid used? 

The numbers are staggering – 30 million board feet of wood, 90,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete and 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid.  That would be enough metal to build a Golden Gate Bridge every calendar year!

Many individuals are grabbing the idea of eco-friendly funerals and some of the ideas are centuries old for certain cultures.  This has also created new industries for society. 

Here are but a couple of eco-friendly ideas for consideration:

• If you are firm with a ground burial, you could consider a coffin made out of seagrass, bamboo or woven willow.  These materials decompose naturally.  Also, certain burial garments are made out of materials (such as mushrooms) which will decompose naturally.  Kosher caskets are made of soft pine or poplar wood, with no metal parts – totally biodegradable.  Likewise, Muslim burial traditions are naturally green.  Jewish and Muslim rituals allow for the preservation of a body for a couple of days to give time for families to gather for a funeral, as embalming is avoided.  This keeps formaldehyde out of the ground and the deceased is gently washed and dressed in cotton or linen which will biodegrade naturally.

• If you prefer cremation, biodegradable urns come in a wide range of materials, including handmade paper, sand and gelatin, cornstarch, bamboo and recycled paper. A biodegradable urn in the earth will decompose over time; the rate depending on the material chosen and environmental conditions.  If you wish to be cremated and have your remains scattered, scattering tubes made from recycled paper ease the process from opening a plastic bag.  These scattering tubes are allowed for placement in carryon luggage for airline travel. 

• If you would like to have a part in regeneration of our environment, you might want to explore an Italian burial pod, which focuses on the life cycle.  A biodegradable egg-shaped burial container has been designed for cremated remains and full bodies folded in a fetal position. The Capsula Mundi project has created burial pods meant to be paired with a live tree in a natural burial ground with the pod being buried as a seed planted beneath a tree chosen in life by the deceased.  It is hoped that family and friends would continue to nurture the tree as it grows.

• If you love the ocean, cremains can be cast to the sea in a seashell or turtle-shaped urn that floats for a few moments, then gracefully sinks under the surface. Biodegradable urns for water are made of a variety of natural materials, including recycled paper, rock salt, gelatin and sand.

Regardless of your preference for disposition of your body/remains, it is vital that you have a conversation with your loved ones to let them know your wishes.  Without having what may seem to be a difficult conversation is really a conversation that will relieve your loved ones of trying to decide what your preferences would be.  In fact, you can make the task easier by doing some pre-planning and telling your loved ones that you have done so and exactly where to find the details when that time comes. 

Don’t delay.  It would be a great burden off of your loved ones, whatever choices you make.

When engaging in estate planning for individuals, attorneys must be diligent in asking the right questions, not only for financial purposes and the objects of one’s bounty, but also for religious beliefs and practices and to complete the planning by honoring the wishes of the individual doing their planning.  If you are doing your estate planning, don’t be intimidated or shy when stating your wishes to your attorney. 

So, what are some areas that are important to be recognized in estate planning, according to religion? 

First of all, the selection of fiduciaries is important to anyone doing their estate planning.  Deeply religious individuals may wish to have trustees, executors and agents under powers of attorney and health care directives who are strong in their religious beliefs and who share the same faith.  However, this person may not be the choice for investing and other responsibilities that come along with the role.  Selection of persons to fulfill these fiduciary roles is extremely important. 

Next, let’s look at a few important considerations impacted by religious beliefs:

• Are there provisions for specific priority of distribution of one’s assets based upon relationship?
• What are the beliefs with regard to end-of-life matters?  Be kept alive regardless of the prognosis or allow nature to take its course, and, if so, what comfort measures are permitted? 
• Is organ donation permissible?  If so, are there limitations on the allowable organs for donation? 
• Funeral arrangements and timing?  Is embalming allowed?  Is cremation permitted?  Manner for interment or disposition of cremains?

These are but a few very important matters which should be addressed in your estate planning.  To ensure that your beliefs and wishes are carried out, there should be a form of a statement of last wishes prepared and left, not with your Last Will and Testament, but where your fiduciaries can easily locate the same and be informed to carry out your wishes. 

While estate planning is done between the client and the attorney, it is important that once you have completed your planning, you let your fiduciaries know where to find documentation for guidance and perhaps consider having a conversation with them as to your wishes.  You want to avoid something being done against your wishes when it is too late. 

Please do not assume that your attorney knows what your beliefs are.  Within any religion, practices range from very conservative to very liberal and the only way to ensure that your practices are fulfilled is to be open with your attorney.  Ask them for their suggestion on how to make your wishes known to your loved ones. 

Communicating with loved ones with regard to estate planning is so important.  While your fiduciaries may be very much loved and respected, why would you want to place the burden on them to know what your wishes are without you sharing the same?