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+Lessons From Fisk: Family Fights and the Role of Wills By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi December 29, 2023 The final episode of Season One of the Australian comedy Fisk has two parallel storylines.  One storyline features two men who, may or may not, be brothers.  Their confrontation in the law offices of Gruber & Associates ends with fisticuffs in the waiting area.  The second storyline involves an elderly man seeking to write a will.  His intent is to be prescriptive and thus avoid fighting after his death.  Helen grabs her pen and paper to begin taking notes and chuckles a bit when the man says "let's start with the fitted sheet sets".  He was not joking. The client painstakingly created the most detailed list of the contents of his home.  Listing each item and stated who should inherit. The take-away from this final episode of season one of Fisk is that a well thought-out will may prevent or reduce family fighting that can occur in the wake of a ...

Lessons From Fisk: Finding an Estate Planning Attorney You Want to Work With By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi December 22, 2023 Episode Five, Season One, of the Australian comedy Fisk pushes Helen beyond the paperwork of being an associate and into the work of client development. In the opening scene, Roz Gruber shoos Helen away from the conference table saying "Helen, why don't you go and work on bringing in some new business?" As the episode unfolds, Helen keeps her eyes open for the middle-aged people squabbling over an inheritance, which were described as the ideal client by Office Manager Roz Gruber (who is temporarily suspended from practicing law for unknown reasons). It's at the book club hosted by her Aunt and Uncle, with whom she is couch surfing, where Helen finds her first client with a squabble over a will. She ends up passing out business cards to the outstretched hands of the book club members.   My take-away for you from this episode are the following ways...

Lessons From Fisk: Hoarding, Tech and the Post-It Note is Your Friend By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi December 15, 2023 Episode Four of Season One of the Australian comedy Fisk is filled to the brim the take-aways.  First, there is a plot line about addressing the post-death cleanup of a hoarder (or "rubbish bin challenged individual as coined by Ray Gruber).  When the executor of the estate is not coping well with the clean-up, Gruber & Gruber brings in a temp worker to lend a hand.  The take-away here, purge what you can now in life to make handling your final affairs easier on your loved ones.  Also, if you are find yourself in the role of cleaning up the final affairs for someone who did not get this message, remember, you can outsource some of these tasks.   Second, Helen when faced with the possibly of having to argue in court, turns to her father for help.  Helen's father, Anthony Fisk, is a retired Australian Supreme Court Justice.  Along...

Lessons From Fisk: Powers of Attorney, Elderly Parents, and Well-Meaning Adult Children By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi December 8, 2023 Episode three, Season One of the Australian comedy Fisk introduces Helen to return clients of Gruber & Gruber, the Popovitch mother and daughter duo.  Launched with comedic style, in this episode the new associate finds herself in a common situation: the adult child of a elderly parent with memory issues seeks power of attorney over the mother's finances.  Gruber & Gruber handle the situation far differently than I would in my office, likely because they are in a different country and the story is written for entertainment value. Laws related to creating powers of attorney are written by state legislatures, meaning the laws and regulations vary from state to state.  Under Wisconsin law our statutes state : 244.05  Execution of power of attorney. To execute a power of attorney the principal must sign the power of attorney or another ...

Lessons From Fisk: Do Not Include Burial Instructions in Your Will By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi December 1, 2023 The second episode in Season 1 of the Australian ABC show Fisk   finds Helen in the middle of negotiations over the clause in a will that states the decedent's cremains shall be divided between his family and his much, much younger girlfriend.  The quirky factor is turned up high in this episode. I want to avoid ever having to run a ratio analysis of the time a decedent spent with family members to calculate the percentage of ashes each party shall receive, as Helen did in the episode. Here are a few other reasons I avoid addressing funeral instructions in a will: In Wisconsin, the authority allowing an agent to make health care decisions for another person ends when the person who wrote the document dies; Wisconsin has a free, fill-in-law blank form called the Authorization for Final Disposition which allows a person to name a first person, back-up, and second bac...

Lessons From Fisk: Limits on Testamentary Freedom By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi November 24, 2024 There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor. ― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol Seeking a dose of laughter to offset the heaviness of world news and the increasingly shorter days of sunlight?  If you have Netflix, you may enjoy the Australian ABC comedy that first aired in March of 2021, Fisk .  Starring Kitty Flanagan as Helen Fisk, it is a witty comedy set in the law office of Gruber & Gruber, a small (shabby) suburban office that focuses on estate planning and probate.  Recently I laughed my way through all six episodes of Season One.  I enjoyed them so much that I rewatched them with my husband.  With hyperbolic scenarios, the show explores accurate aspects of my everyday work life.  Today, and for the remainder of the calendar year, my weekly blog post will examine each episode and a take-away for the viewer se...

How to Get Your Elderly Parents Talking About End-of-Life Issues - Use a Book to Spark Conversation By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi November 17, 2023 "Seriously Mom, maybe you could try read something a little less depressing.  What is this?" Wisecracked my 13 year old daughter as she passed my home desk one evening.   "Oh, that.  It's a book I've read already.  Gail gave it to me as sort of a gag 50th birthday gift.  Gail's sort of doing Swedish Death Cleaning and thought I'd be a good place to re-home the book." Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi, the author's 50th ice cream birthday cake The book is the graphic novel, a memoir technically, by Roz Chast, titled Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant .  Released in 2014 it was a National Book Award Finalist, and it may be just the thing to take with you when you go home for the Thanksgiving Holiday or if you are hosting this year, set it out on the coffee table.  The book caught the curiosity...

Middle Class Philanthropist - How Anyone Can Leave a Legacy By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi November 10, 2023 Ten years ago I published a small book, designed to be read in an afternoon while enjoy a mug of coffee or a cup of tea.  The intent behind Middle Class Philanthropist: How Anyone Can Leave a Legacy was to inspire the average American to be philanthropic when creating or updating an estate plan. Much is written about philanthropy in November because the 15th of the month is National Philanthropy Day . All too often the stories of giving involving multi-millionaires donating sums most of us cannot wrap our minds around.  But there is another path to philanthropy, one any of us can take.  I hold the core belief that anyone can leave a legacy. It does not require excessive wealth when directed with intention and purpose.  If you want to leave this world with a final gift, here are a few options noted in my book: Designate an In Lieu of Flowers charitable cause....

3 Situations When A Living Revocable Trust May Make Sense By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi November 3, 2023 America is made up for fifty different states.  Laws related to estate planning and probate are written at the state level.  That means there are fifty different sets of laws and regulations governing end-of-life matters.  It is critical to know the ins and outs of the laws of the state you reside in when creating an estate plan because terms, fees, and responsibilities can vary greatly.  For example, the cost of going through probate in Wisconsin is quite low compared to an estate in California.  More specifically, under Wis. Stats. 814.66 the fee assessed on a probate estate is 0.2 percent.  In contrast, according to online research the fee in California is more complicated and costly: In California, statutory probate fees are based on the gross value of the estate and are as follows: 4% on the first $100,000; 3% on the next $100,000; 2% on the next $80...

Annual Checklist for Estate Planning By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi October 27, 2023 Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi, 2023 Monday, the 30th of October, ushers in National Checklist Day .  Yes, it is a real thing according to the internet.  It's origins are tied to the aviation industry, specifically pilots and flight attendants created safety checklists to make the new era of aviation safer.  Defined, a checklist is a list of requirements, things to be done, points to be considered and or a reminder.     Within the area of estate planning and probate, here are 7 items to include on your annual checklist to ensure your plan is up-to-date and accessible: Copies of your power of attorney for health care are on file with your primary care doctor, any specialist you use, and your hospital of record as well as with the agent(s) you named to speak for you if you are too sick; Copies of your power of attorney for finances are with the agent(s) you have named to ha...

Buyer Beware - Spotting Trouble in the Land of Trusts By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi October 20, 2023 After a decade of public speaking on the ins and outs of estate planning and probate, mainly as a guest presenter for a financial education nonprofit or a local library, my words flowed freely during my talks.  After covering the basics of powers of attorneys, wills, and probate, I would briefly comment on the roles of trusts in estate planning. "A trust is a tool that functions like a basket, it holds your assets. A trust can be created during your lifetime, known as a Living Revocable Trust.  Or a trust can be formed at your death, called a Testamentary Trust.  One feature of a Living Revocable Trust is that the assets inside avoid probate at your death, and transfer directly to the people and or organizations you designate in the paperwork.  For a Living Revocable Trust to work you have to transfer your assets from your name to the name of the trust.  For examp...

Friday the 13th: Dying in the Age of Tech By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi October 13, 2023 Friday the 13th , is a day associated with all things bad luck.  From the Biblical account of 13 people attending the Last Super to the 1980s pop culture hit movie with Jason in a ski mask, this is a day known for darkness.  So it seems appropriate for today's post to mix two areas of doom and gloom: death and tech, more specifically, tech that is not easy to operate. Marriage to an electronics engineer has amped up my luddite tendencies, leaving me with less than adequate skills to operate our tech devices.   Over the years when a cell phone needed an update or it was time to install a new printer or adjust our Smart thermostat, I commonly let my spouse take the lead.  He is more more efficient, capable, and considers these tasks fun.  His professional hours are spent designing circuit boards, so the decision was a no brainer.  However, with my entrance to a new d...

Celebrating 50 -- The Gift of Decluttering By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi October 6, 2023 You only turn 50 once, so I decided to embrace the transition to a new decade rather than shun or ignore the event.  Turning 50 is far better than the alternative, something I am reminded daily as an estate planning and probate attorney.  After a celebratory weekend, complete with a bonfire with friends and quality time with my family on the University of Wisconsin - Madison campus, I spent a Monday giving myself the gift of decluttering.  More specifically, I pulled EVERYTHING out of my closet and dresser, and put back about one-third of the items.  The remainder I packed up and dropped off at my favorite local thrift store - The Dane County Humane Society Thrift Store .  It is easy for me to release my hold on a item I sort of enjoy knowing it will be generate much needed cash for animals in need.  The impact of open space was exhilarating, and I wanted more. Which le...

Lights, Camera, Action -- Making a Wise Selection for Your Power of Attorney for Health Care By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi September 29, 2023 Hollywood sets are dark at the moment because of the SAG-AFTRA strike, but you can still cast your agent for Power of Attorney for Health Care in your estate plan.  Whether you are creating the document for the first time or completing a much-needed update, here are a few traits I think make for a high-quality power of attorney: An advocate -- who will champion your needs in today's health care system? Comfortable with Medical Jargon -- who will not shy away from medical speak and lingo? Follow Your Wishes -- who will speak for you rather than fly into town and start advancing their desires and wishes? Has the Time -- who can set aside a large portion of their life to pick-up managing your health care needs? Once you have this person in mind, and ideally a back-up, figure out if you can audition them for the role.  Have they provided this...

Is the Private College Named in your Will Still Operating? By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi September 22, 2023 September brings apple picking, bonfires and back-to-school rhythms.  Sadly, for several private colleges in the US, the hallways remain empty due to permanent closures.  Here in my home state of Wisconsin, Cardinal Stritch University , a small private Catholic college in Milwaukee, closed operations after 85 years of educating young adults. According to CNBC, since 2016, 91 US private colleges have closed, merged with another facility, or announced plans to stop operating .  More than half of those announcements cam after the 2020 pandemic began. Many of my clients name a college in a will as a recipient of a specific gift or a contingent beneficiary. Recent headlines suggest those clients should review their plans and check-in with the higher education entity named in the will.  Is it still operating?  Are there plans to merge or close?  What is the ...

From Good to Great, Where to Keep Your Power of Attorney for Health Care By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi September 15, 2023 The green illuminated numbers on my alarm clock glowed 1:57 am; nearly 20 years later, I can still see the time in my memory and recall the groggy phone call I had with the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics hospitalist who was calling in the middle of the night.   "Is this Melinda Gustafson Gervasi" barked the voice on the other end of my phone. "Yes" said with a rising tone indicating I wanted to know who was calling. "This is Doctor [a name I do not recall] with University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics calling about your mother, Sharon."  She then launched into rapid fire details of my mother's deteriorating health condition, ending with declaring her incapacitated and asking me to consent to an emergent procedure. In less than a minute the power of attorney for health care that had been added to my mother's hos...

Back-to-School Mode: Eight Items to Review in Your Estate Plan  September 8, 2023 By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi, 2023 The final whistle at the outdoor pools here in Madison, Wisconsin blew earlier this week and school bells rang summoning students back to the classroom.  Whether your household runs on an academic calendar or does not, it is a good time of year to pull out your Estate Plan and complete a quick review.  Is everything up to date? Do you know the location of your original will and or living trust?  If you created a plan but cannot find it, it is as though you have no plan; Is your Power of Attorney for Healthcare on file with your primary care physician and hospital of record?  If not, contact their patient records department and find out how to place it on file for easy access if you are suddenly too ill to pull it out of your own files; Do you have an easy access list of phone numbers for the important people to call i...

What Does Fiduciary Mean? August 11, 2023 By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi Without fail, when explaining a Wisconsin Power of Attorney for Finances document to a client, I point out the last page.  It requires the signature of the primary and secondary agents appointed by the principal.  In simple terms, the first and second person my client appointed to handle their financial matters if they were alive but too sick to act, needs to sign-off of being a fiduciary.  "What exactly is a fiduciary?" many clients ask. According to Dictionary.com, a fiduciary is a person to whom property or power is entrusted for the benefit of another.  Building on that basis, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau states that a Fiduciary is someone who manages money or property for someone else.  A key concept is that they are managing the money for someone; it is not their own money.  How is this implemented you might wonder.  Keep the following in mind if you have been as...

Estate Planning & Probate for the Bibliophile August 4, 2023 By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi Bibliophile -- is an adjective that should be included in any online profile I write for myself.   Some people have a "to read" pile of books on the nightstand.  I have a "to read" book shelf.  As a young child I remember summer days spent organizing and reorganizing my book collection.  It has been a lifelong trait since my mother first started buying me Golden Books as a toddler.   Now, as I approach the 50 year milestone, my book collection is extensive.   My love of books and reading was a significant influence in my decision to enter law school and engage in the practice of law.  After nearly twenty years of handling estate planning and probate cases, I am acutely aware of the fact that one day someone (my husband, my kids, or my banker) will need to figure out what to do with all of those books I accumulated.  Apparently I am not the ...

Sorting Out a Guardian: Happy Birthday Harry Potter! July 29, 2023 By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi  Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi, 2023 The weekend is nearly here.  For my home it is not just any old summer weekend, it is a threshold weekend.  My youngest child will turn 13, marking a time when we leave behind the little kid and tween years.  Tucked away on the shelves in our basement are Spot It game cards, stuffies adopted on our travels, and her Harry Potter books.  Potterheads (the term for diehard fans of Harry Potter) will be quick to tell you that Harry celebrates his birthday this time of year, specificially July 31st.   The boy wizzard at the center of the seven book series (and movies) is an orphan; just about every protagonist is an orphan in children's literature. An estimated 153 million children in the world are orphans , according to SOS Children's Villages.  A will is the one legal way a parent can nominate another person to become t...

Aretha Franklin & Estate Planning: Think By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi July 21, 2023 At some point in 2014 American Singer-Songwriter and Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, tucked a notebook with a handwritten document titled "my will" into the cushions of her sofa.  It went unnoticed after her death for sometime and was only found by chance when relatives started searching through her home after her death.  Now, in July of 2023, a Michigan jury has found the document to be a valid will, undoing prior documents created by the American icon.  We can only speculate as to why Aretha Franklin stored such an important document in the seats of her sofa -- perhaps illness prevented her from physically leaving her home and putting the document in a more secure location.  Nevertheless, the last thing any family needs when grieving is a scavenger hunt for the will.  Here are three options to THINK about if your only option is keeping a will at home: Order a fireproof and ...

Estate Planning Wisdom From Frank Sinatra By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi July 14, 2023 Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi, 2023 On a recent vacation to New York City my family found itself on the banks of the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey .  We had an amazing lunch at the Blue Eyes restaurant, snapped a few selfies with the Frank Sinatra statue (pictured above), and then headed into Manhattan for a week of exploring the city.  During our road trip east we listened to Sinatra's greatest hits, and a few lines from My Way hung in my mind.  My thoughts twisted and turned as I made the transition from "work mode" to "vacation mode",  "I faced it all and I stood tall and I did it my way."  Hitting the ear of an estate planning and probate attorney, I heard: Face the facts of your life situation; Be confident in what you think is best; and Express what you want to happen. Much has been written about why people do not set up a will; oftentimes, when asked why ...

7 Steps to Ease the Probate Process By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi July 7, 2023 Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi, 2023 Probate is a court process to handle a person's financial affairs at death.  In a nutshell, assets (those without beneficiaries) are gathered, final bills of the deceased are paid, and the remainder is distributed according to the will, or if no will, by state statute.  The following are 7 steps you can take to make this process as easy as possible on your loved ones: Write a Will:  a will is a legal document that says who is in charge of handling your final affairs and distributing the assets you have at death.  If you have not written a will, your State Legislature has one for you in the statutes -- most likely giving assets to your relatives. Gather titles and deeds to your property: easy access to the deed or title to your assets (home, car, boats, cabin, etc) allows the person in charge to quickly understand what assets are in your estate, and will f...

Naming a Trustee: Consider the Professional Option By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi June 30, 2023 Weekly I work with clients to establish testamentary trusts.  A testamentary trust essentially is a will with additional instructions that direct the court to create a trust when the person writing the will dies. Unlike other trusts, this is not created during your lifetime, but rather at your death.  They are most commonly used by clients with minor children; the trust is designed to hold and use assets until the children reach an age where they can assume control of the funds.  During that time a trustee manages the trust.  More specifically, a trustee does the following: Invests and manages the trust assets; Pays bills of the trust beneficiary; Maintains records of all transactions made on behalf of the beneficiary; and Files federal and state tax returns associated with the trust. Many people opt to name the guardian of the child(ren) to serve as trustee.  However, ...

Marriage and Estate Planning: Going Beyond a Name Change By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi June 23, 2023 The author and her spouse, June 2006 June -- the month of weddings, mine included back in 2006.  Should you Google "marriage and estate planning" the results skew heavily to where and how to change your name following a marriage. From my vantage point behind the lawyer's desk, I can tell you that saying "I Do" involves much more than updating your name with the DMV, Social Security and the bank.  Or at least it should. Probate, a word we are conditioned to dread, occurs when a person dies and an asset did not have a co-owner or named beneficiary.  Probate assets, those without a co-owner or named beneficiary, are distributed at death per state statutes or under the terms of a will if one was created.  Becoming married does not create an auto-default to an asset going to your spouse.  If, after you walk down the aisle, you want an asset to pass to your spouse, you ...

Estate Planning and the Family Tree June 16, 2023 By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi  This weekend we celebrate the fathers among us, sparking thoughts of family trees that make up our villages.  Estate planning focuses our attention on future generations, the limbs of the tree to come. We ask who and/or what will follow us, which helps us decide where to give the assets we leave behind at death. Yet there is the flipside to the family tree: the question of where we came from.  According to a New Yorker article from May 2022, more than twenty-six million people have completed a genetic ancestry test since 2012. Genealogy is now reported to be America's second most popular hobby after gardening.  As you complete or update your estate planning documents, you may want to consider including some fashion of a family tree for the loved ones handling your final affairs.  Administering an estate is more than simply completing tax filings, selling property and donating clothi...

A Parting Gift: 9 Things To Tell Your Personal Representative or Executor By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi June 9, 2023 For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned. -Benjamin Franklin A will and a power of attorney are the basic foundational documents of an estate plan.  For those wishing to make the end-of-life paperwork as easy as possible for loved ones left behind I encourage you to roll up your sleeves and dig a bit deeper.  Here are 9 things to write in a letter to your Personal Representative (the term we use here in my home state of Wisconsin, but known as Executor elsewhere in the United States): Personal data, including: date of birth, dates of marriage(s) and divorce(s); Social Security Number; educational achievements along with the institution and date awarded; People's contact information -- the phone number, email, mailing address of those named in your documents, relatives, close family friends, support network (childcare, pet sitter, etc.); Pet care in...