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RLG Informative Brochures
Rehberg Law Group provides free informative brochures on estate planning. There are currently four brochures available, with more to come in the near future.
Rehberg Law Group, PLLC
This brochure provides an overview of the firm, the attorneys, and which estate planning services the firm provides.
Estate Planning: Compassionate, Client-Centered Approach to Planning
This brochure provides information on how RLG approaches estate planning. It also includes client testimonials.
A Helping Hand When a Loved One Dies
This brochure provides information on what steps to take after a loved one dies. It also provides information on the services Rehberg Law Group offers to help survivors navigate the process of probate or trust and estate administration. Also included are more client testimonials.
Professional Trust Administration Services
This brochure provides information on the importance of choosing the right trustee and what responsibilities a trustee holds. It also provides information on Rehberg Trust Services, Rehberg Law Group's trust management arm, as well as its fee structure.
Coming Soon:
Special Needs Planning
This brochure provides information on the three types of support a Trustee of a Special Needs Trust or an individual may provide to a beneficiary receiving government benefits. It also includes information on the types of trusts available for individuals with special needs.
Medicaid and Veterans Affairs Planning
This brochure provides information on long-term care planning, the most common Medicaid myths and the qualifications required to receive VA benefits. It also includes information on resources available to protect against financial abuse of the elderly and elder abuse in general.
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This issue of our Trusted Advisor semi-annual newsletter features articles especially written with advisors, like you, in mind. The following topics to be covered are:
1.
How Can You Help Your Clients Protect Their Retirement Accounts From Irresponsible Beneficiaries? The Stand-Alone Irrevocable IRA Trust.
2.
How Can Rehberg Law Group Help You Help Your Clients?
3
. How Will Washington's New Power of Attorney Act Affect Your Client's Current Powers of Attorney?
4. Save the Date: Rehberg Law Group Open House and Mini-Seminars on November 10, 2016.
Please contact us with any questions you may have about this Newsletter.
Sincerely,
Ryan Y Rehberg
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How Can You Help Your Clients Protect Their Retirement Accounts From Irresponsible Beneficiaries? The Stand-Alone Irrevocable IRA Trust.
Do retirement accounts make up a large portion of your clients' estate? Are your clients worried that his or her retirement accounts would be used unwisely by his or her beneficiaries? Are your clients concerned about protecting his or her IRAs from the creditors of his or her beneficiaries?
In 2014, the Supreme Court in Clark v. Rameker took the position that an inherited IRA is
not protected from creditors under the bankruptcy code because it is not considered a "retirement fund." Now, not only can a beneficiary "cash out" an inherited IRA, the inherited IRA is no longer protected from his or her creditors.
A Stand-Alone Irrevocable IRA Trust was designed to address the issue of protecting retirement accounts from irresponsible beneficiaries and his or her creditors. In lieu of naming potentially irresponsible individuals or minors as beneficiary of an IRA account, the IRA Trust is named as the beneficiary of the IRA.
The following are some of the advantages of executing a Stand-Alone Irrevocable IRA Trust :
- It prevents the death benefits from being accelerated by the designated beneficiary;
- It prevents the right of election of the surviving spouse of the designated beneficiary upon his or her death;
- It protects the death benefits from the designated beneficiary's creditors;
- It can use each beneficiary's life expectancy, if separate IRAs are payable to separate IRA Trusts for beneficiaries;
- It can protect financially irresponsible adult beneficiaries from themselves;
- It can take advantage of the generation-skipping transfer tax exemption; and
- It can make the administration of the IRAs go smoother because it is consistent with the IRS regulations and rulings.
Testamentary trusts are often used to protect assets because testamentary trusts offer protection from a beneficiary's creditors, his or her predators, from estate taxes, and for future beneficiaries. However, a retirement account is not normally placed in a testamentary trust because of the tax consequences (i.e., the retirement account may lose its "qualified" status and income tax on the full value is required to be paid within five years). Now an option is available that would offer your clients the protections of a testamentary trust for their retirement accounts, without losing the retirement accounts' "qualified" status.
A Stand-Alone Irrevocable IRA Trust can protect your clients' retirement accounts from his or her beneficiary's creditors, his or her predators, from estate taxes, and for your client's future beneficiaries. Moreover, since it is consistent with the IRS regulations and rulings regarding qualified accounts, the retirement accounts will keep its "qualified" status, even though the beneficiary designation of the retirement account is to a Trust.
If you would like to learn more about IRA Trusts or
receive a copy of the "Estate Planning with IRA Trusts" article by Seymour Goldberg, please call Rehberg Law Group at (206) 246-8772 or go to the website at rehberglaw.com.
A special thank you to Seymour Goldberg of Goldberg & Goldberg, P.C. for his article "Estate Planning with IRA Trusts," May 2015 from which this article is derived.
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How Can Rehberg Law Group (RLG) Help You Help Your Clients?
As a trusted advisor, your clients look to you for advice. As one of your resources, RLG can help you help your clients in the following areas:
Estate Planning. RLG can help your clients prepare for the "now" with Powers of Attorney for Financial and for Health Care, and a Directive to Physicians, and for "later" with Wills or Trusts.
Elder Law. RLG can help your clients prepare for the issues that are of particular concern to the elderly, including maintaining quality of life, long-term care needs, and asset protection strategies.
Probate and Estate Administration. RLG can help your clients through the Probate and Estate Administration process of their loved one's estate.
Estate Tax Planning. RLG can help your clients maximize the wealth transfer to their beneficiaries and minimize estate taxes upon their deaths.
Special Needs Planning. RLG can help your clients plan for the needs of their child or grandchild who has special needs. Charitable Giving and Foundations. RLG can help your charitably-inclined clients create a legacy.
LLC Formation and Business Succession Planning. RLG can help your clients limit their personal liability by creating LLCs and corporations, and help your clients prepare for the future of their business by ensuring that there is a succession plan.
IRA Trust. RLG can help your clients protect their retirement accounts from irresponsible or minor beneficiaries. Please refer to prior article. Trust Administration. RLG can serve as trustee to navigate the waters of administering your client's Trusts. |
How Will Washington's New Power of Attorney Act Affect Your Client's Current Powers of Attorney?
How can you help your clients who currently have Powers of Attorney? Washington State's Uniform Power of Attorney Act will become effective on January 1, 2017. The goal of the Act is to bring more uniformity to Washington law governing Powers of Attorney with those of other states.
The Act represents a radical reformation of current law. Among other things, the Act provides:
- For greater detail and scope to the specific powers granted to a Power of Attorney;
- That the principal may exonerate the agent from liability for a breach of duty;
- An agent's fiduciary duties are expanded to acting in accordance with the principal's reasonable expectations and best interest;
- An agent who is allowed to change a principal's estate plan and beneficiary designations may do so only if doing so preserves the principal's estate plan; and
- A definition for "incapacity" as the inability to manage one's affairs because of impaired ability or communication, an absentee, or outside of the U.S. and unable to return.
The Act will affect all Powers of Attorney in Washington, regardless of whether or not they were created prior to January 1, 2017. Your clients already should be reviewing and updating their Powers of Attorney every three to five years. As a result of the new Act, an agent's reliance on provisions in current Powers of Attorney may be misleading, wrong, or even illegal after 2016. Consequently, one way you can help your clients is to strongly encourage them to update their Powers of Attorney to conform to the new Act.
If you want to learn more about the new Power of Attorney Act, or if your client needs to update his or her Power of Attorney, please call Rehberg Law Group at (206) 246-8772 to schedule an appointment.
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Save the Date: Rehberg Law Group Open House and Mini-Seminars on November 10, 2016
Please join us for an Open House on Thursday, November 10, at the SeaTac office from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Meet and mingle with the attorneys and staff of Rehberg Law Group in an informal setting.
During the Open House, there will be two mini-seminars (about 20 to 30 minutes each).
Seminar 1 - How Could the Election Affect Your Estate Plan? We will elect a new president on November 8. The Republican candidate, Donald Trump, has a very different estate tax position than the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton. Learn how the new President's estate tax plan will affect your or your client's current Estate Plan. We recommend that clients review their Estate Planning documents if there is a significant life event, this year, a new President is a significant event. This seminar will be held at 2:00 p.m. and at 7:00 p.m.
Seminar 2 -
How Can My Estate Planning Help Me Age With Confidence? Appropriate Estate Planning can help you address the risks of long term care costs on your clients' finances. Learn about resources, programs, housing alternatives, insurance plans and benefits available that, when coordinated together, may enable you to protect assets, maintain a high quality of life and bring stability to your clients' families and lives when facing long-term care needs. This seminar will summarize the preventative planning options to protect assets and quality of life from long-term care costs as well as the remedies for protecting your clients from being the victim of abuse. This seminar will be held at 3:00 p.m. and at 6:30 p.m.
Space is limited. Call or use the link below to sign up for one or both of the seminars.
Please RSVP to Alli Humphreys by email or phone at:
ahumphreys@rehberglaw.com
(206) 246-8772 | (877) 246-8772
Or register online using the link below:
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