The Social Security Administration has announced a new planning tool: Advance Designation. This tool allows competent adults to name up to three individuals they wish to serve as their representative payee in the future.
Fiduciary
Between Now and Dead: The Critical Time Period
The term “estate plan” usually invokes thoughts of death and money. Most often people seek out an estate planning attorney to draft complex instructions for how their money will be handled after death. Clients spend hours thinking about how much money will go to...
Teamwork: A Client Story
Mr. W lived in the community with his beloved wife until she died due to COVID complications. Following her death, Mr. W lost the ability to care for his personal needs, his home, and his finances. Unfortunately, his neighbors had to call 911 and Mr. W was admitted to...
Naming Scout as Health Care Representative: A Client Story
Planning ahead for a health care crisis is an essential step toward being certain you will have someone looking out for your best interests if/when you are temporarily or permanently unable to do so yourself. This plan usually includes a health care representative...
Building a World Class Guardianship System Part 3: Improving Quality
In this blog series, I am discussing the need for a better guardianship system in Indiana. In the first installment, I introduced the idea of the three-legged guardianship stool of access, quality, and accountability. In my last blog post I discussed ways to increase...
Client Story: Mr. C
Many individuals name their family members as their agent under a power of attorney simply as the default option. However, the agent almost always has a life of their own and serving as a power of attorney can be overwhelming and difficult. Read how one daughter and...
Building a World Class Guardianship System: Part 1
Guardianship is receiving national attention following the wake of the movie I Care A Lot (2020) and coverage of Britney Spears’ guardianship. A Hollywood movie and press coverage of one unique guardianship case is not necessarily prescriptive of the problems with...
Creating a Response Team
Last month, we discussed transactional versus relational estate planning. A transactional approach focuses only on preparing estate planning documents, while a relationship approach is much more comprehensive and long-term. It allows a practitioner to get to know a...
Transactional versus relational estate planning
The concept of “estate planning” has evolved dramatically over the last half-century, in tandem with the dramatic evolution in health care (and long-term care in particular) during that same time. Whereas before estate planning was focused almost entirely on the...
Tips for filing taxes as a guardian or power of attorney.
Tax season is just around the corner and with it come feelings of panic, dread, and procrastination. Now, imagine not only doing your own taxes, but taxes for someone else. Guardians and agents serving under a power of attorney often have to file taxes on behalf of a...
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