Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Planning for "virtual" assets

In the Fall of 2009, we published an issue of our Personal Planning newsletter entitled Death, Disability and the Online World (PDF), in which we made a number of recommendations and suggestions on the issue of dealing with online assets - e-mail accounts, weblogs, and the individual's presence on any of the expanding number of social media sites.

We ended with this:
"These. . . death and disability issues begin to arise when they were not previously anticipated. As time goes on, we can anticipate that online communities and document custodians will come to add new provisions to deal with the online property of deceased or disabled owners. Facebook’s new initiative is a start, but there are still several needs left unaddressed."
More and similar:
PINs that Needle Families - Wall Street Journal - 7-23-11
South Florida Estate Planning - 7-27-11 - includes materials from his presentation

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Debts of the decedent

At Bankrate.com, Steve Bucci answers a "debt advisor" question from a reader who had accumulated some $35,000 of gambling debts. The reader's father took out $35,000 in "unsecured loans" - i.e., cash advances on credit cards - and had begun paying off those advances, apparently with money from the son. The father then died unexpectedly. The reader's mother knew nothing about the loan arrangement.

The father left no assets and no will. The reader's concern is that the credit card companies would try to collect on the debts from his mother, who does have assets. He wonders if he should "continue to pay on these debts". This suggests that it was the reader, not the father, who had been making the payments on the credit card accounts.

Bucci's answer includes these points:
  • If the parents are residents of a community property state - Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington or Wisconsin - then the mother would have a responsibility to follow up on these debts.
  • If they live elsewhere, then she has no legal responsibility for the debt.
  • She may still feel a moral obligation to make good on the debt.
  • She needs to know about the arrangement, because she is likely to be contacted by the creditors, and is likely to be give false information suggesting that she has a legal obligation to continue to pay on the accounts.
  • Both of them should consult with counsel regarding their rights and obligations.
He recommends that "the executor of the estate" make contact with the creditors, explain that the debtor has died, and provide a copy of the death certificate. He overlooks the fact that the father died with no will and no assets. There will not be an estate or an executor (in Michigan, a "personal representative"). But the advice is sound. Any family member can make the contact and provide the certificate.

When a debtor dies, the following applies in Michigan:
  • Any debt which is secured (car loans, mortgages) must still be repaid. If it is not repaid, the property securing the debt can be seized and sold.
  • Any debt which is unsecured must be repaid from the probate assets of the deceased, or from his trust assets.
  • If there are no such assets, then the creditor will not be able to collect.
"Probate assets" refers to any property that was owned by the debtor, in his own name, without any other person as co-owner. If the debtor dies without any probate assets, or without assets passing to others under a trust, then the creditors are out of luck. The death benefits of life insurance policies, money passing under an IRA or other form of pension to a designated beneficiary, or property passing by virtue of joint ownership are not subject to the claims of the creditors of the decedent. The sole possible exception would arise if it can be shown that the decedent took steps to defraud his creditors by moving personal assets into some form of ownership that would not have to respond to his actual and known debts.

More:

About

Family Succession Planning refers to the use of legal documents and recognized strategies to ensure that your property and possessions will pass to your loved ones after you are gone, and to provide for management of your own affairs in the event of temporary or permanent disability.

The practice includes:
  • Wills
  • Intestate succession
  • Real estate ownership - joint tenancy, life estates, LLCs
  • Trusts
  • Conservatorships and Guardianships
  • Powers of attorney
  • Medical directives and patient advocate documents
  • Lifetime gifts to children, grandchildren and others
  • Probate
  • Estate administration
  • Trust administration
  • Asset protection
  • Charitable bequests
  • Retirement accounts (pensions, IRAs, 401(k) plans)
  • Retirement planning
  • Elder law
  • Medicaid planning
  • Medicare issues
Because a small business is most often a family business, Business Succession Planning is also a significant topic that we will address here.

Site editor:
M. Sean Fosmire, Attorney at Law
1440 West Ridge Street
Marquette, Michigan 49855
(906) 226-2524
sfosmire AT garanlucow DOT com

W - L - G - T

"Ghost Hacking" - a new BOLO

A relatively new way cyberthieves steal wealth is by taking over the identities of people after they die, an act known as ghosting or ghost ...