The December holidays don’t need to be the only time of the year that you give charitably! Halloween is the perfect excuse to do something sweet in the spirit of the spooky. Let’s be honest, most years you have way too much leftover candy. You never want to leave any trick-or-treaters empty bucketed. Combine that with the haul the kiddos heave home and it’s a recipe for a cavity (and some extra pounds). Satisfy your sweet tooth and then do something good with your candy!
This Halloween, I challenge you to make a simple, but significant donation of un-opened, wrapped candy in lieu of an unnecessary sugar rush. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Treats for Troops
Treats for Troops, run by 501(c)(3)Soldiers’ Angels, collaborates with businesses (like dentist offices!) to be candy collection centers. The treats are then collected and distributed to soldiers stationed overseas, wounded service personnel, and veterans. By searching for a drop-off site near me, I found two within a reasonable distance.
Ronald McDonald House
The Ronald McDonald House does amazing work assisting families of sick children by providing a comfortable, affordable place to stay during treatment as well as good food (anything is better than hospital food!). There’s a local Ronald McDonald House here in Iowa City; contact them about dropping off your Halloween candy to make some kiddos (who may not have been able to trick-or-treat) very happy.
Operation Gratitude
Similar to Treats for Troops, Operation Gratitude compiles and sends care packages to first responders in the U.S. and service personnel stationed overseas. The organization’s mission is simple, but significant: to put a smile on soldiers’ faces. Along with donations of leftover candy, you can send encouraging letters, postcards, and pictures. Drop-off locations can be located on their map.
Pay attention to their do’s and don’ts, including the instruction to “fill out and submit an online Donation Form with the total pounds of candy and any additional donated items. You will receive an email confirmation with a printable barcode to include in your package, along with shipping instructions.” The organization needs your candy shipped by 11/9!
What other ideas do you have for donating leftover, extra candy? Let me know on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!
https://www.gordonfischerlawfirm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Screen-Shot-2018-11-01-at-7.25.41-PM-e1541118545202.png4611038Gordon Fischerhttps://www.gordonfischerlawfirm.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GFLF-logo-300x141.pngGordon Fischer2019-10-29 23:43:182020-05-18 11:28:42No Tricks, Just Treats for Charity this Halloween
I love a good podcast. They’re perfect for diving into a story or learning about something new while driving, walking, or just chilling on a quiet weekend morning. Don’t worry. I’m not here to suggest an estate planning podcast. (While I would queue that up, not many people share my affinity for the nuances of trusts and estates.) However, Dateline NBC‘s new podcast, “The Thing About Pam” does involve some estate planning aspects. I don’t want to give away the true-crime plot as it’s super interesting and definitely a bit spooky, which is fitting for Halloween, but life insurance policies play a major role in a few ways.
The Thing About Pam
Allegedly, a victim was killed just four days after changing the beneficiary to her life insurance premium (around $150,000). Furthermore, an elderly woman with dementia supposedly fell off a balcony and the beneficiary received around $100,000 from the senior citizen’s life insurance. Perhaps not so coincidently, the same person was the beneficiary of both life insurance policies—and both policyholders died under suspicious circumstances.
Life insurance was also used at a suspect’s homicide trial as one of the main motives for premeditated murder.
For fans of true crime tales, there’s a lot to unpack in this podcast and for Iowans, in general, it’s a good reminder about the role life insurance beneficiary designations work with your estate plan.
Life insurance is a vehicle for non-probate wealth transfer. This means that life insurance passes outside of probate (the legal procedure by which a decedent’s estate is distributed) to the beneficiary named on the policy. Multiple persons can be named, but generally, most policies don’t allow for class beneficiaries such as “my children” or “my nephews.”
Life insurance can be a great tool to provide estate liquidity and achieve estate planning goals such as passing along a family allowance for surviving spouses and dependents. Life insurance can provide debt relief, income replacement, and be a step toward wealth accumulation. Additionally, proceeds are paid to beneficiaries income tax-free!
Where life insurance can get complicated or leave intended beneficiaries named elsewhere in estate planning documents without remedy is where the policyholder passed away and left someone no longer a part of their life as a named beneficiary.
For instance, let’s say Annie had named her ex-husband Bob as her life insurance beneficiary back before they got divorced. Divorce does not automatically remove an ex from the policy. Because most life insurance policies are revocable (meaning the policy owner could change the beneficiary at any time) Annie could have changed the beneficiary designation, but for whatever reason forgot to. Consequently, Bob takes the life insurance money, despite the fact that Annie, at the time of her death, would have likely preferred to name someone else (like her brother Cam or niece Deb) on the policy. and then died without ever changing it.
Smart Estate Planning
In the world of wills and trusts, planning ahead means planning for many different scenarios to ensure that your property passes to who you want when you want. Of course, no one (like the victim in the recommended podcast) tends to think their life insurance policy will be part of litigation (or a criminal murder case for that matter), but that’s why it’s important to enlist an estate planner who can analyze the whole picture, not just individual pieces.
I offer a free estate planning consultation as well as this free estate plan questionnaire to help you get started on the important set of legal documents. I’d also love to hear what you think about the podcast and get your recommendations for other great series to listen to! Contact me via email or by phone at 515-371-6077.
https://www.gordonfischerlawfirm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Screen-Shot-2019-10-29-at-11.07.09-PM.png6161000Gordon Fischerhttps://www.gordonfischerlawfirm.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/GFLF-logo-300x141.pngGordon Fischer2019-10-28 22:36:232020-05-18 11:28:42Podcast Recommendation: The Thing about Pam
Here in Iowa, the weather this weekend was bright and shiny in that perfect fall day kind of way. Almost as if the universe itself was celebrating NEPAW 2019.
All good things come to an end, we sure had fun, didn’t we? We took a deep dive into the history of estate planning itself. Estate planning, in some form or another, has been an important aspect of societies in the world for hundreds and hundreds of years. In almost every society folks wanted to pass along their assets to the people they care about and want to provide for.
We were reminded of the importance of powers of attorney. In particular, everyone should have a power of attorney for health care, a legal instrument that allows you to select the person that you want to make health care decisions for you, if and when you become unable to make such decisions for yourself.
The ultimate estate planning checklist makes it easy to visualize your completion rate of the important documents and estate plan-related tasks. It’s an easy-to-read, handy dandy cheat sheet of items to accomplish to get you from zero to hero in the estate planning world.
While we’ll have to wait a whole year until the next National Estate Planning Awareness Week, let’s always choose to be aware of the importance of estate planning regardless of the day. With a quality estate plan crafted by an experienced lawyer, every single day of our lives can be like a day of National Estate Planning Awareness Week!
Talk to your family, friends, colleagues, and others, about your own estate planning experiences. If it was easier and less expensive than you thought it might be, share that info. If having six basic documents, brought you great peace of mind, tell them so.
Subscribe to my free e-newsletter, GoFisch, delivered to your inbox every month. It’s chock full of helpful information and may be the least boring legal newsletter ever.
I’d love to talk with you (even if you’re not as disappointed to see National Estate Planning Awareness Week pass as I am). Contact me by phone or email at any time to discuss your estate planning situation and goals.
No Tricks, Just Treats for Charity this Halloween
Charitable Giving, From Gordon's Desk...The December holidays don’t need to be the only time of the year that you give charitably! Halloween is the perfect excuse to do something sweet in the spirit of the spooky. Let’s be honest, most years you have way too much leftover candy. You never want to leave any trick-or-treaters empty bucketed. Combine that with the haul the kiddos heave home and it’s a recipe for a cavity (and some extra pounds). Satisfy your sweet tooth and then do something good with your candy!
This Halloween, I challenge you to make a simple, but significant donation of un-opened, wrapped candy in lieu of an unnecessary sugar rush. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Treats for Troops
Treats for Troops, run by 501(c)(3) Soldiers’ Angels, collaborates with businesses (like dentist offices!) to be candy collection centers. The treats are then collected and distributed to soldiers stationed overseas, wounded service personnel, and veterans. By searching for a drop-off site near me, I found two within a reasonable distance.
Ronald McDonald House
The Ronald McDonald House does amazing work assisting families of sick children by providing a comfortable, affordable place to stay during treatment as well as good food (anything is better than hospital food!). There’s a local Ronald McDonald House here in Iowa City; contact them about dropping off your Halloween candy to make some kiddos (who may not have been able to trick-or-treat) very happy.
Operation Gratitude
Similar to Treats for Troops, Operation Gratitude compiles and sends care packages to first responders in the U.S. and service personnel stationed overseas. The organization’s mission is simple, but significant: to put a smile on soldiers’ faces. Along with donations of leftover candy, you can send encouraging letters, postcards, and pictures. Drop-off locations can be located on their map.
Pay attention to their do’s and don’ts, including the instruction to “fill out and submit an online Donation Form with the total pounds of candy and any additional donated items. You will receive an email confirmation with a printable barcode to include in your package, along with shipping instructions.” The organization needs your candy shipped by 11/9!
What other ideas do you have for donating leftover, extra candy? Let me know on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!
Podcast Recommendation: The Thing about Pam
Estates & Estate PlanningI love a good podcast. They’re perfect for diving into a story or learning about something new while driving, walking, or just chilling on a quiet weekend morning. Don’t worry. I’m not here to suggest an estate planning podcast. (While I would queue that up, not many people share my affinity for the nuances of trusts and estates.) However, Dateline NBC‘s new podcast, “The Thing About Pam” does involve some estate planning aspects. I don’t want to give away the true-crime plot as it’s super interesting and definitely a bit spooky, which is fitting for Halloween, but life insurance policies play a major role in a few ways.
The Thing About Pam
Allegedly, a victim was killed just four days after changing the beneficiary to her life insurance premium (around $150,000). Furthermore, an elderly woman with dementia supposedly fell off a balcony and the beneficiary received around $100,000 from the senior citizen’s life insurance. Perhaps not so coincidently, the same person was the beneficiary of both life insurance policies—and both policyholders died under suspicious circumstances.
Life insurance was also used at a suspect’s homicide trial as one of the main motives for premeditated murder.
For fans of true crime tales, there’s a lot to unpack in this podcast and for Iowans, in general, it’s a good reminder about the role life insurance beneficiary designations work with your estate plan.
Quick Lowdown on Life Insurance
Life insurance is a vehicle for non-probate wealth transfer. This means that life insurance passes outside of probate (the legal procedure by which a decedent’s estate is distributed) to the beneficiary named on the policy. Multiple persons can be named, but generally, most policies don’t allow for class beneficiaries such as “my children” or “my nephews.”
Life insurance can be a great tool to provide estate liquidity and achieve estate planning goals such as passing along a family allowance for surviving spouses and dependents. Life insurance can provide debt relief, income replacement, and be a step toward wealth accumulation. Additionally, proceeds are paid to beneficiaries income tax-free!
Where life insurance can get complicated or leave intended beneficiaries named elsewhere in estate planning documents without remedy is where the policyholder passed away and left someone no longer a part of their life as a named beneficiary.
For instance, let’s say Annie had named her ex-husband Bob as her life insurance beneficiary back before they got divorced. Divorce does not automatically remove an ex from the policy. Because most life insurance policies are revocable (meaning the policy owner could change the beneficiary at any time) Annie could have changed the beneficiary designation, but for whatever reason forgot to. Consequently, Bob takes the life insurance money, despite the fact that Annie, at the time of her death, would have likely preferred to name someone else (like her brother Cam or niece Deb) on the policy. and then died without ever changing it.
Smart Estate Planning
In the world of wills and trusts, planning ahead means planning for many different scenarios to ensure that your property passes to who you want when you want. Of course, no one (like the victim in the recommended podcast) tends to think their life insurance policy will be part of litigation (or a criminal murder case for that matter), but that’s why it’s important to enlist an estate planner who can analyze the whole picture, not just individual pieces.
I offer a free estate planning consultation as well as this free estate plan questionnaire to help you get started on the important set of legal documents. I’d also love to hear what you think about the podcast and get your recommendations for other great series to listen to! Contact me via email or by phone at 515-371-6077.
Farewell National Estate Planning Awareness Week 2019
Estates & Estate Planning, Events, Wills, Trusts & EstatesIt’s the saddest day of the year. You all know what I am talking about: the last day of National Estate Planning Awareness Week.
Here in Iowa, the weather this weekend was bright and shiny in that perfect fall day kind of way. Almost as if the universe itself was celebrating NEPAW 2019.
All good things come to an end, we sure had fun, didn’t we? We took a deep dive into the history of estate planning itself. Estate planning, in some form or another, has been an important aspect of societies in the world for hundreds and hundreds of years. In almost every society folks wanted to pass along their assets to the people they care about and want to provide for.
We were reminded of the importance of powers of attorney. In particular, everyone should have a power of attorney for health care, a legal instrument that allows you to select the person that you want to make health care decisions for you, if and when you become unable to make such decisions for yourself.
We delved into a hypothetical situation that is fairly improbable (but it can and does happen) regarding the death of a buyer or seller during sales of real estate.
The ultimate estate planning checklist makes it easy to visualize your completion rate of the important documents and estate plan-related tasks. It’s an easy-to-read, handy dandy cheat sheet of items to accomplish to get you from zero to hero in the estate planning world.
While we’ll have to wait a whole year until the next National Estate Planning Awareness Week, let’s always choose to be aware of the importance of estate planning regardless of the day. With a quality estate plan crafted by an experienced lawyer, every single day of our lives can be like a day of National Estate Planning Awareness Week!
Here are three things you can do to keep the spirit of National Estate Planning Awareness Week alive regardless of the date on the calendar:
I’d love to talk with you (even if you’re not as disappointed to see National Estate Planning Awareness Week pass as I am). Contact me by phone or email at any time to discuss your estate planning situation and goals.