CDP Video: Millennials Create Living Trust After Birth of Son, Charlie

While a large segment of our LivingTrust clientele tends to be older couples, we’re now seeing more Millennials and Gen-Xers creating Trusts. It starts with buying a home–scraping together a down payment and buying a Bay Area home is a sobering experience. But the big motivator is the birth of a child. As parents, our clients feel the need to provide a safety net for their children if something happens to them. Watch California Document Preparer’s Video: Millennials Create Living Trust After Birth of Son, Charlie!

CDP video on one young couple’s Living Trust

We recently made a video that highlights the Living Trust process for one of these representative young couples—they have good jobs, a bright future and a home in Oakland. With the birth of their son Charlie, they felt the need for financial planning. They began working with a financial adviser who recommended creating a Living Trust as part of the process, and he referred them to California Document Preparers’ Oakland office.

The Living Trust process

• Getting started. Our savvy younger clients like that they can begin the process online. We’re still available by phone and email with questions.
• The intake process. You will need to gather all of your financial documents, to include bank and brokerage account statements, mortgage information and other investment and financial data. Life insurance policies and retirement accounts are not included in Living Trusts.
• We prepare the legal documents.Once we have all of your financial information, we prepare the legal documents.
• Our Trust package includes a Power of Attorney and an Advance Healthcare Directive. You will want to be thinking about whom you will name to be your Agent as well as your backup. If there are children, you will want to identify a Guardian who will be responsible for raising your children until they turn 18.
• Finalizing your Trust. We call you when your Trust is ready to be signed and notarized.
• Funding your Trust. A Trust needs to be funded—all of your assets need to be moved into your Trust. We create a Trust Transfer Deed to move real property into your Trust.

Our deliverable is a bound Trust and a pdf file for your records

We recommend storing your Trust in a secure place. Share its location with a family member or someone you trust. If no one can find it, it doesn’t exist. A Trust needs to be updated with important life events—the birth of another child, new investments, etc. We keep a soft copy of your Trust and can help you with this as your family grows.

To be thinking about: Your growing list of digital assets

Our Living Trust package includes a section to identify important contacts, including healthcare providers, veterinarians, accountants, financial advisors, CPAs, etc. Try to be thinking about all those people with whom your family would need to be interacting if you were not available.

Start thinking about your online accounts

You’ll want to make a list of your digital assets and login information. This list will include computers, hard drives, flash drives, smartphones, tablets, files stored on the cloud and accounts with online retailers and healthcare providers. Social media sites, video gaming accounts, domain names, forums, your dropbox, websites and blogs you manage. You can consolidate this information in an excel file store it on a flash drive.

A note about banks and other financial institutions

Banks and financial technology companies tend to merge and constantly upgrade their technology. Because of that, beneficiary data might get lost. Keep a paper copy of all beneficiary data or store a digital copy of important documents on a password-protected flash drive.

A Living Trust is an important part of estate planning, and our Trust package includes a Power of Attorney and an Advance Healthcare Directive. Without a Trust, your family will need to go through Probate. Schedule an appointment today to get started on your Living Trust by contacting us at one of our three Bay Area offices. Our dedicated team is helpful, compassionate and affordable.

Who Inherits Your Selfies?

When a loved one dies, there are laws governing the distribution of property. If that person had a Will or Living Trust, the legal document identifies the way the estate will be distributed. If the deceased did not have a Will or Trust, the estate goes through Probate, which follows its own predefined set of rules.

But the laws governing digital media are not so well defined

The rules get murkier and more restrictive when it comes to our electronic files. Just what happens to all of the family pictures you’ve posted to Instagram and Facebook, the emails you’ve sent to friends or relatives and the financial records you’ve stored in the cloud on some remote server farm?

California’s AB 691 governs the process of managing online accounts after owner’s death

California’s Probate Code was amended by AB 691, signed into law by Governor Brown and took effect in January 2017. AB 691 governs the process for managing online accounts and other digital assets after their owner’s death. According to AB 691, there are three approaches for dealing with a deceased person’s digital assets in descending order of priority.

1. Instructions provided in the online tool itself:A user may designate a representative on the application to make specific or discretionary changes to the digital contents. For example, Facebook can allow you to specify within your account which person should have the right to make changes to your profile upon your death, and you can leave directions on how that representative should carry out that responsibility. This designation overrides any contrary direction that may have been left in a Will or other legal document.
2. Will, Power of Attorney or other legal document:If the user has left no specific instructions within the online tool itself, that person may direct a representative to handle their digital assets through a Will, Power of Attorney, Living Trust or other record.
3. Terms of service agreement:If there is no instruction left by the user for an online tool, and there is no Will or other legal document specifying how digital assets should be handled, the online tool’s service agreement will control how the account should be handled upon a user’s death.

Protect your digital legacy rather than leaving it up to online accounts

Today’s online accounts have replaced the traditional photo albums of the past, and a digital legacy can last indefinitely. It’s here where we document our lives with pictures and accounts of our activities, friends and families through the years. It’s important to identify how you want these accounts—and your memories–handled after your death. If not identified in the application itself or in your Will or Living Trust, their future is regulated by the service agreement to which you agreed when you created your account–the same one you likely did not bother to read.

Update your Living Trust to include your digital assets

We always recommend updating Living Trusts with important life events. Adding that person who will manage your online accounts is another very good reason to update a Trust. Contact California Document Preparers at one of our three Bay Area offices today to schedule an appointment today. Our dedicated team is helpful, compassionate and affordable.

Countdown for a Stress-free New Year

End of life planning can be an unsettling process. No one wants to think about death, much less plan for it. Yet while the majority of our Living Trust clients are older, often retired or thinking about it, anyone who has assets and a family should have a Trust. It documents how you want your property to be distributed, how you want your children cared for if something should happen to you. Rather than being unsettling, many of our clients tell us that creating their Living Trust provides important peace of mind.

A New Year and a fresh start

There’s a good chance that you’ve been putting this off for a while, so here’s a countdown to a stress-free 2018. Make this the year you finish creating your Living Trust and related documents.

5. Create an Advance Health Care Directive

Creating an Advance Healthcare Directive is an important part of long-term planning. Unless your wishes are stated explicitly in writing, doctors, hospitals and EMTs are taught to keep people alive—not necessarily to follow their wishes. Healthcare professionals are not legally bound to listen to your loved ones.

Think about how you want to spend your final days. If you should become incapacitated, do you want to be at home, surrounded by family, perhaps with the help of an aide or hospice, or in a nursing facility? You will need to think about whether you want to sign a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order. Whatever your wishes, you need to share them with your family and your doctor. Make sure you choose people whom you trust to carry out your wishes—even if their views conflict with their own beliefs or feelings.

4. Appoint a Power of Attorney whom you trust

A Power of Attorney is that person whom you trust to manage your life if for some reason you are no longer able to do this yourself. A Power of Attorney will be responsible for paying your bills, taking care of your taxes and other financial commitments as well as making important healthcare decisions. This can be a demanding role that requires time as well as the ability to manage financial matters, so choose this person carefully.

3. Review a Will or Trust if it is more than five years old

Surprisingly, more than 50% of Americans die without a Will or a Living Trust. The result? Their families will have to go through Probate—a lengthy and expensive process at what will already be a very difficult time.

Many people create their Trusts but fail to update them. That can be a problem if someone dies and his/her Trust is 20 years old–there were likely a number of significant life changes over those 20 years that were not reflected in the Trust.

Consider updating your Trust if it is an AB Trust

There have also been several significant law changes over the last 20 years that affect married couples with Trusts. Many couples did “AB” Trusts in the past because the estate tax threshold was much lower than it is today. Those AB Trusts come with very onerous administration after the first spouse dies, including segregating assets and filing an additional annual tax for the Trust.  The surviving spouse is also prohibited from changing part of the terms of the Trust because it partly becomes irrevocable.

With the recent tax bill, estates under $10,000,000 are not subject to the estate tax, so a married couple should check their joint trust to see whether it is an AB Trust, and whether that is still appropriate for them.  We can help convert an old AB Trust into a simpler and more flexible plan.

Anything that will affect the inheritance of your family is a reason to update a Trust. Births, deaths, divorces, purchases of property and assets need to be reflected in your Trust.

2. Make provisions for your pets

Pets these days are spoiled and pampered for good reason—they’re funny and charming and provide comfort and companionship to millions of people who might otherwise be lonely. If something were to happen to you, whom would you trust to care for your pets? Think about the costs of feeding your pets and trips to the vet. Most important, identify someone who will love your pets as much as you do.

1. Provide access to your digital assets and accounts

Most of us conduct the bulk of our personal business online, but what happens to these online assets and accounts after you die? Take some steps now to help your family deal with your digital property.

• Make a list of all of your online accounts, including e-mail, financial records, Facebook and other social media accounts–anywhere you conduct business online.
• Include your username and password for each account.
• Include access information for your digital devices, including smartphones, tablets and computers.
• Make sure the Agent for your Power of Attorney and the Successor Trustee of your Trust have authority to access your online accounts.

California Document Preparers makes it easy for our clients

Our comprehensive Living Trust package includes a Power of Attorney and Advance Healthcare Directive. We help our clients through every step of the process. Contact California Document Preparers at one of our three Bay Area offices todayto schedule an appointment. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable.

Is it Time to Update Your Living Trust With Your Constantly Changing Digital Assets?

California Document Preparers’ comprehensive Living Trust package includes a section for listing contact information for key service providers--your doctors, financial advisors, CPA, pharmacy, etc. We want you to be thinking about those people your spouse or children would need to contact in an emergency or if something happened to you.

We manage our lives via our online accounts

These days, many people manage their lives via their online accounts, so providing access to these digital accounts has become a critical part of the information transfer process. Below are some of the ways that we use our online accounts; but remember that for every account, there’s a login and password: 

• The cloud. The cloud has become a huge repository of data. Think you’re not using the cloud? You may need to rethink this if you’re sharing files on Dropbox.
• Social media. Social media has transcended generations; many grandparents log in to Facebook every day to stay in touch with colleagues and friends and find out what their kids and grandkids are up to.
• Online billpay. We pay our bills online, but in many cases, even that transcends a single online banking account. We create logins and passwords for our PG&E account, our insurance and telephone carriers. If we have brokerage accounts, we follow the ups and downs of the market via our accounts’ login information.
• Online pharmacies. Those of us who’ve wearied of waiting in endless lines at the pharmacy love the ease of logging in to our Walgreens or CVS accounts, ordering our meds and having them mailed to our homes.
• Loyalty programs. Don’t forget loyalty program benefits--frequent flyer miles and credit card rewards--all of these are accessed via logins and passwords.

While we love the convenience of our online lives, password-protected information can wreak havoc on the families and fiduciaries who are trying to wrap up estates or deal with probate after the death of a family member. There are potential risks in not being able to quickly access account information.

• Identity theft. Family members need to access account information quickly so that a deceased’s identity is not stolen. Until authorities update their databases regarding a new death, criminals can open credit cards, apply for jobs and get state identification cards under a dead person’s name.
• Cancellation of services until the estate is closed. Electronic bills for utilities, loans, insurance and other expenses need to be discovered quickly and paid to prevent cancellations. Without power the furnace may not run, which means the pipes may freeze. If the security system is shut off, a home may be burglarized.
• Avoid losing personal stories. Assets that are stored behind login information may have little monetary value but tremendous personal value to family members. In the old days, people kept letters, journals and scrapbooks. Today this material is stored online and often is never printed. Personal blogs and Twitter feeds have replaced physical diaries, and email messages have replaced letters. If family members don’t have access to these accounts, important stories may be lost forever.
• Protecting secrets. An attorney or physician may have files containing confidential client information.

Not enough to just list your digital assets; you need to update them

Planning for digital assets may be the price we pay for the convenience of our online accounts. Digital asset information changes constantly—we’re continually opening new accounts or changing passwords. The legal documents that contain this information must be updated accordingly or they become meaningless.

When was the last time you updated your Living Trust to include your digital assets? Make an appointment today at one of our three Bay Area locations.