By: Stephen R. Elville, J.D, LL.M., Principal and Lead Attorney – Elville and Associates, P.C.
OK, it’s time to “get real” as we used to say in the seventies. A wonderful financial advisor friend of mine, a Certified Financial Planner actually, once said to me over dinner, “Steve, you do a stellar job of educating clients and their families about estate planning, elder law, and special needs planning, but what about organization?” The dinner had been going extremely well up to that point, and I had just reached for another shrimp cocktail when he dropped this verbal bomb. Unbeknownst to him, I temporarily froze, and my mind went blank like a computer screen that has just lost power. Feeling the need to keep my composure and continue impressing my friend with my knowledge and intellectual prowess, I quickly realized that I had no good answer. After stumbling around a bit, I mumbled something about estate planning binders, thumb drives, and rooms full of file cabinets. He smiled gently and calmly said something I will never forget: “What good is education without organization?” To this day, based on my experiences with thousands of clients, I believe he was absolutely right. Organization is one of the key elements of estate planning.
When the COVID-19 health disaster began, and continuing for many weeks thereafter, our government, and most individuals and families, were caught unprepared. Vital supplies, supply lines, contingency plans, services, and more were either in a state of shortage or non-existence, interrupted, disorganized, or understaffed. The negative results and effects of our national and individual unpreparedness need no explanation here – they were and are tragic and are known to everyone, never to be forgotten during our lifetimes and for decades and even centuries to come. A general lack of preparedness and organization likely caused the illness or death of many people, proving that our country and our citizens largely disbelieved that such a catastrophe could occur.
I believe that the cataclysmic COVID-19 pandemic is a metaphor for life and its relationship to estate planning. If the health crisis disaster suggests anything to or about the social order, and if events over the past 100 years are indicative of anything, we must collectively realize that anything is possible and that our modern technology-driven society is not insulated from the effects of nature. We must accept that life represents a series of risks and mitigate those risks through preparedness and organization. In estate planning, preparedness means planning for life (incapacity planning with powers of attorney and advance medical directives) and planning for your legacy (death planning with wills or trusts), along with collaborative financial and tax planning with financial advisors and CPAs. This estate planning, financial planning, and tax planning should be coupled with on-going lifetime continuing education to ensure that your planning ultimately works as you intend it to, and that it does not fail. But this comprehensive planning is not enough without intentional and purposeful organization. We could even go as far as saying that this organization must be extreme.
Along these lines, consider two scenarios – one during your lifetime, and one after your death. Let us talk about the lifetime example first, and let’s assume you’ve already taken care of the preparedness aspect – you already have a will or trust, along with powers of attorney and an advance medical directive, and you’ve worked with your collaborative team of advisors to ensure that all assets are properly aligned with your plan, and you’ve continued to educate yourself and your fiduciaries about your planning and their responsibilities relating thereto. Now imagine that you’ve become disabled and cannot manage your own affairs. Where are your financial powers of attorney and advance medical directive located? Where have you stored them? Do you know? Does your agent know where the original documents are? Can they access them? If you’ve utilized a safe deposit box arrangement, does your agent have access to that safe deposit box? If you’ve chosen to utilize a home safe or other similar arrangement, can the agent get access? Where are the keys, codes, or combinations kept? Are your documents stored digitally? If so, where are they and how can they be accessed? Have you authorized your agent(s) to manage your digital assets? Have you organized a digital asset spreadsheet? Do you have a digital archive, and if so, is your agent aware of this? How will your agents find your passwords? Have you provided a set of instructions for your agent about how to manage your affairs during your lifetime – a lifetime memorandum of intent? Are there any persons who are dependent on you, and if so, have you provided instructions to your agent outlining about how they are to provide for those persons? This list is not exclusive, and there may be many other considerations depending on your family’s unique circumstances.
Turning now to the death example, many of the same above-mentioned questions and examples apply. Does your personal representative or trustee know where your will or trust is located? Have you educated them about the nature of these documents and how to access them? If you have a will, is it registered? Have you carefully identified your assets and provided a spreadsheet or list for easy review, including digital assets? Have you clarified how the assets are titled, and how those assets will flow at your death in relationship to your will or trust? Have you provided a letter of wishes or memorandum of intent for your trustee? Have you prepared written instructions for your fiduciaries giving them guidance about what next steps they should take after your death, how to administer your estate or trust, and who your attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors are?
It has been said that there is an opportunity or a benefit in every adversity. One such opportunity or benefit stemming from recent world events is that we all can consider and learn from my friend’s gentle but deadly serious admonition: preparedness, continuing education, financial, and tax literacy are vital and necessary components of personal success, including comprehensive estate planning – but without organization – the systematic and logical organization of documents, assets, and systems, along with access plans, our planning house, set on an otherwise firm foundation, can crack and come crumbling down at some unexpected time when it is needed most. As I conclude this article, I can say now that I know the answer to my friend’s question of so long ago, “what good is education (in estate planning) without organization?” The answer is: it is stupendous, vital, fundamental, and critical to success; but its value becomes limited where no extreme organization exists, due to the state of our lives and world, and the nature of estate planning when it is needed during a time of incapacity or at death. Therefore, after a lifetime as an estate planning attorney, I have concluded that education and organization are synonymous with success in estate, elder law, and special needs planning. Isn’t it time to get organized?
By: Stephen R. Elville, J.D., LL.M. – Principal and Lead Attorney of Elville and Associates, P.C.
Business owners need to do maintenance and updating too! An annual review of books and records, compliance, structure, taxation and tax-related issues, goals and objectives. business succession and continuity, risk assessment, and strengthening and ensuring asset protection are all part of a healthy process. If you are a business owner who does not routinely schedule an annual review of these issues, you are potentially at risk in one or more areas and now is a great time to start. To schedule a business compliance and risk assessment review, contact Stephen Elville and Elville and Associates at 443-393-7696, or via email at steve@elvilleassociates.com; or Mary Guay Kramer at 443-741-3635, or via email at mary@elvilleassociates.com.
Are you taking the time to think about this important business-related issue?
Stephen R. Elville is the principal and lead attorney of Elville & Associates, P.C., a leading estate planning, elder law, and special needs planning law firm in Maryland. Elville and Associates engages clients in a multi-step educational process to ensure that estate, elder law, and special needs planning works from inception, throughout lifetime, and at death. Clients are encouraged to take advantage of the Planning Team Concept for leading-edge, customized planning. The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the practical mission of Elville and Associates. If you would like to set an appointment with Mr. Elville to discuss estate or elder law planning issues, you may contact him at 443-393-7696, or via email at steve@elvilleassociates.com. #elvilleeducation
Test Your Healthcare Decision Making Literacy on National Healthcare Decisions Day Today, April 16th
By: Stephen R. Elville – Principal and Lead Attorney of Elville and Associates, P.C.
Today is National Healthcare Decisions Day. According to the Five Wishes website, www.fivewishes.org, “National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) is a nationwide initiative that encourages adults of all ages to plan ahead of a health crisis.” If you live in Maryland, you should learn about and understand healthcare decision making in Maryland and what it means for you. Go to www. marylandattorneygeneral.gov. To test your healthcare decision making literacy, begin by asking yourself the following questions: (1) Do I have an advance medical directive?; (2) Have I expressed my thoughts, ideas, goals, values, and concerns about my healthcare decision making to my loved ones or other people who will serve as my healthcare agents?; (3) Do I know the location of my advance medical directive, have I made a copy available to my agent(s), and have I made photocopies of the originals?; (4) Do I have a basic understanding of healthcare decision making policy in Maryland, including MOLST?; and (5) Do I understand the digital archive choices that are available to store my healthcare documents and make them available 24/7, along with MIDEO? Healthcare decision making – it’s one of the essential elements of estate planning.
Are you taking the time to think about your healthcare decision making?
Stephen R. Elville is the principal and lead attorney of Elville & Associates, P.C., a leading estate planning, elder law, and special needs planning law firm in Maryland. Elville and Associates engages clients in a multi-step educational process to ensure that estate, elder law, and special needs planning works from inception, throughout lifetime, and at death. Clients are encouraged to take advantage of the Planning Team Concept for leading-edge, customized planning. The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the practical mission of Elville and Associates. If you would like to set an appointment with Mr. Elville to discuss estate or elder law planning issues, you may contact him at 443-393-7696, or via email at steve@elvilleassociates.com. #elvilleeducation
By: Stephen R. Elville – Principal and Lead Attorney of Elville and Associates, P.C.
Tomorrow, Thursday, April 16, 2020, is National Healthcare Decisions Day. According to the Five Wishes website, www.fivewishes.org, “National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) is a nationwide initiative that encourages adults of all ages to plan ahead of a health crisis.” If you live in Maryland, you should learn about and understand healthcare decision making in Maryland and what it means for you. Go to www. Marylandattorneygeneral.gov. Healthcare decision making – it’s one of the essential elements of estate planning.
Are you taking the time to think about your healthcare decision making?
Stephen R. Elville is the principal and lead attorney of Elville & Associates, P.C., a leading estate planning, elder law, and special needs planning law firm in Maryland. Elville and Associates engages clients in a multi-step educational process to ensure that estate, elder law, and special needs planning works from inception, throughout lifetime, and at death. Clients are encouraged to take advantage of the Planning Team Concept for leading-edge, customized planning. The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the practical mission of Elville and Associates. If you would like to set an appointment with Mr. Elville to discuss estate or elder law planning issues, you may contact him at 443-393-7696, or via email at steve@elvilleassociates.com. #elvilleeducation
Is Your Estate Planning Optimized for Income Taxes?
By: Stephen R. Elville, J.D., LL.M., Principal and Lead Attorney — Elville and Associates, P.C.
In today’s Time to Think blog, we ask this question: is your estate planning optimized for income taxes? If not, this is an important consideration since income tax is now arguably the “new estate tax”. How does one go about doing this – optimizing an estate plan for income tax purposes? The process is straight-forward and involves a review of your existing estate planning documents and financial assets, including titling, beneficiary designations, and corporate-related documents. Begin gathering these documents today for a comprehensive review by your estate planning attorney. You’ll be glad you did.
Are you taking the time to think about this issue?
Stephen R. Elville is the principal and lead attorney of Elville & Associates, P.C., a leading estate planning, elder law, and special needs planning law firm in Maryland. Elville and Associates engages clients in a multi-step educational process to ensure that estate, elder law, and special needs planning works from inception, throughout lifetime, and at death. Clients are encouraged to take advantage of the Planning Team Concept for leading-edge, customized planning. The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the practical mission of Elville and Associates. If you would like to set an appointment with Mr. Elville to discuss estate or elder law planning issues, you may contact him at 443-393-7696, or via email at steve@elvilleassociates.com. #elvilleeducation
Elville and Associates’ Waypoint Trust Group – Here to Help and Educate Trustees and Personal Representatives
By: Stephen R. Elville – Principal and Lead Attorney of Elville and Associates, P.C.
Trustees of trusts and Personal Representatives of probate estates sometimes need help getting started – they need direction and guidance as they start the journey of the administration process, or sometimes after they hit the first obstacles and challenges. And some fiduciaries need full-scale professional representation to assist them from beginning, middle, and finally to a successful end conclusion of the administration process, thereby ensuring that they satisfy each aspect of their fiduciary duty to the trust or estate. Elville and Associates’ Waypoint Trust Group assists Trustees and Personal Representatives in all aspects of administration – from inception, through the fulfillment process, and finally to the completion of their fiduciary duty. Elville and Associates’ Waypoint Trust Group is here to help (and educate) Trustees and Personal Representatives.
For more information about how Waypoint Trust Group can help you in the administration of a trust or estate, please contact Stephen R. Elville at 443-393-7696, or via email at steve@elvilleassociates.com.
Stephen R. Elville is the principal and lead attorney of Elville & Associates, P.C., a leading estate planning, elder law, and special needs planning law firm in Maryland. Elville and Associates engages clients in a multi-step educational process to ensure that estate, elder law, and special needs planning works from inception, throughout lifetime, and at death. Clients are encouraged to take advantage of the Planning Team Concept for leading-edge, customized planning. The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the practical mission of Elville and Associates. #elvilleeducation
Help Restore Music to Schools and to the Lives of Children – Support the Elville Center for the Creative Arts
By: Stephen R. Elville – President and Principal Attorney of Elville and Associates, P.C. and Founder of the Elville Center for the Creative Arts, Inc.
William and Jasmine are middle school-age children who live in central Maryland. They are brother and sister and each has a strong interest in music and the arts. Their school had a music program in years past but now that program has been largely defunded and is barely functional – it has all but stopped. There are available teachers willing to teach, and these teachers are so dedicated that they are willing to stay after school. Why? Because there are hundreds of children at the same school who, like William and Jasmine, want to participate in music and learn to play instruments. Yet there are few instruments available to the children at the school, and most of those instruments are either broken, are in a state of disrepair, or are otherwise unplayable.
At the same time, William and Jasmine, like nearly all these children, have no instrument of their own and no ability to obtain music lessons, with their parents unable to afford the $2,000-plus per-year expenditure necessary for instrument rental and lessons. Without access to music, music experience, and music-related cultural events, William and Jasmine, like thousands of children in Maryland, are languishing culturally and in their personal development. This is a Maryland (and American) tragedy that has unfolded slowly over the past 25 years and must be stopped. The Elville Center for The Creative Arts Is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is proactively addressing this problem head-on. The mission of the Elville Center for the Creative Arts is to provide children like William and Jasmine the opportunity to learn music theory and application, experience cultural events related to the musical and creative arts, and to use music and the promotion of music-related activities to transcend social and economic divisions. The Elville Center partners with local and regional businesses and school music programs to give the gift of music to children of all ages who want to participate in music but don’t have the means to do so on their own.
You can do something to help children and restore music to schools and to the lives of children across Maryland by supporting the Elville Center for The Creative Arts. The Elville Center needs monetary donations, pledges, volunteers to assist with fundraising and event planning, music instruments that can be refurbished, and more. If you have a strong desire to help children and an interest in music, the Elville Center needs your support. Help the Elville Center help children like WIlliam and Jasmine. For more information or to donate, visit www.elvillecenter.org, or please contact Stephen Elville or Jeffrey Stauffer at 443-393-7696, or via email at steve@elvilleassociates.com or jeff@elvillecenter.org.
A Time to Count Your Blessings
By: Grace Bailey – Elder Law Paralegal
In a time of hopelessness, adversity, and confusion, it is best to find the positive things during hard times. The gas prices are incredibly low, the spring buds are blooming, the weather is perfect for hiking or strolling, families are spending more time together, and the world is on pause. Take a walk and remember to count your blessings instead of your troubles. You’ll have a healthier outlook and a better composition afterwards.
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By: Stephen R. Elville – Managing Principal and Lead Attorney of Elville and Associates, P.C.
Many couples and individuals consider the support and guidance their chosen fiduciaries will need to receive and have access to from their estate planning attorney after their deaths for the administration of their trust or estate as the most important element of the attorney-client relationship in estate planning. Elville and Associates understands this fundamental concern and duty, and through its Waypoint Trust Group provides trustee services, trust and estate administration services, trustee assistance and support services, and trust protector services for new and existing trusts. Elville and Associates is committed to supporting surviving fiduciaries and beneficiaries, and to planning for the generations. What could be more important?
The Time to Think Blog – are you taking the time to think about this issue?
Stephen R. Elville is the managing principal and lead attorney of Elville & Associates, P.C., a leading estate planning, elder law, and special needs planning law firm in Maryland. Elville and Associates engages clients in a multi-step educational process to ensure that estate, elder law, and special needs planning works from inception, throughout lifetime, and at death. Clients are encouraged to take advantage of the Planning Team Concept for leading-edge, customized planning. The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the practical mission of Elville and Associates. If you would like to set an appointment with Mr. Elville to discuss estate or elder law planning issues, you may contact him at 443-393-7696, or via email at steve@elvilleassociates.com. #elvilleeducation
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The Imperative Need to Update Your Estate Planning to Reflect Your Goals – with an Educational Component
By: Stephen R. Elville – Principal and Lead Attorney of Elville and Associates, P.C.
In yesterday’s Time to Think blog, we talked about providing for the possibility of a trust protector, a special fiduciary that adds dimension and flexibility to an estate plan. This brings to mind the issue of also providing for the possibility of other contemporary planning approaches into our estate planning and making sure we understand what those modern choices are. To relate a brief story, recently clients who we will anonymously call John and Mary, recently came in to update their estate planning documents due to a recent change in their life circumstances. They did the right thing and their instincts were correct. John and Mary’s wills, powers of attorney, and advance medical directives were from 2004, simple documents drafted by a local general practice lawyer. Upon review, analysis of the old estate planning documents compared to today’s more leading-edge contemporary estate planning documents showed that the older documents lacked at least 12 to 15 points worthy of potential revision and modernization, not only to keep pace with changes in the law, but for purposes of adding scope, dimension, and flexibility to the planning. Through this process, John and Mary were able to educate themselves and their children about important new issues and properly update their planning. The point here is clear – updating estate planning documents on a routine basis is important, and that process should include a client education component involving a recognition of needed changes through review, analysis, and comparison in coordination with your planning goals.
Are you taking the time to think about this planning-related issue?
Stephen R. Elville is the principal and lead attorney of Elville & Associates, P.C., a leading estate planning, elder law, and special needs planning law firm in Maryland. Elville and Associates engages clients in a multi-step educational process to ensure that estate, elder law, and special needs planning works from inception, throughout lifetime, and at death. Clients are encouraged to take advantage of the Planning Team Concept for leading-edge, customized planning. The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the practical mission of Elville and Associates. If you would like to set an appointment with Mr. Elville to discuss estate or elder law planning issues, you may contact him at 443-393-7696, or via email at steve@elvilleassociates.com. #elvilleeducation
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