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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...

What I've Been Reading:  The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You written by Margareta Magnusson June 2, 2023 By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi Are you one of the many Americans who have embraced the Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleanin g (the act of clearing out unnecessary belongings yourself and not leaving the chore to your loved ones), which is described in a 2018 international best-seller?  If you enjoyed Margareta Magnusson’s first book, you may want to pick up her latest work, The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before Yo u.  Primarily written during the pandemic, Magnusson uses her unique style of writing to dispense words of wisdom on how to live life zealously.  She also expands on how to “death clean” in a bit more detail in this latest installment.  Specifically, at the end of the book she offers several questions loved ones can ask of an older fami...