Articles Posted in Estate Administration

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Brendan-mug-shot-e1595015692932-281x300By Brendan Daly

I last saw my father on February 25th at his condo in Rhode Island. We had a wonderful day together—he showed off his new Subaru in a slightly harrowing ride, where he coasted through stop signs (aka the “Rhode Island slide”)—and I took my leave of him as he stood at the door waving while I drove away. When Dad didn’t make the 7:30 Monday morning Mass, his friends knew something was wrong, and I soon received a call at work that he had passed away at home.

I couldn’t process this news because I had just seen him. He looked healthy and was in good spirits. I inspected his bike to ensure it was safe for his planned rides with the “Old Spokes Club.” And he had just bought a new car. My father was the most frugal person I’ve ever known, and he would never have purchased a new car if he thought he might soon depart this world. He even left a plate of cooked spaghetti on the kitchen counter that he planned to eat for dinner–after attending to his last chore of taking out the trash. So none of us, including Dad, expected his sudden passing.

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AdobeStock_255174366-300x134Death planning is a very personal topic, and one which most people find discomfiting. It’s hard enough to consider your own mortality as an abstract concept. It’s even harder to think in very specific—even graphic—terms about what will happen to your remains after you’ve shuffled off this mortal coil.

A growing number of people are seeking alternatives to the traditional burial, which typically involves embalming, concrete vaults, and other processes and products that are not friendly to the environment. An article in Scientific American put some astonishing numbers to the resource costs of this type of burial:

According to National Geographic, American funerals are responsible each year for the felling of 30 million board feet of casket wood (some of which comes from tropical hardwoods), 90,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete for burial vaults, and 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid. Even cremation is an environmental horror story, with the incineration process emitting many a noxious substance, including dioxin, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and climate-changing carbon dioxide.

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Prince, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Bob Marley, Billie Holiday, Barry White, Sonny Bono, Tupac Shakur, Amy Winehouse, John Denver, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin.

Certainly, an impressive who’s who list of music royalty that sadly left this world far too soon. However, this wildly talented group also had another thing in common – they all died without a proper estate plan (specifically a Will) in place – or in some cases, no estate plan at all!

These are not isolated cases. According to a Gallup Poll, more than 1/3 of Americans with an annual household income of $100,000 or more do not have a Last Will and Testament, and a staggering 54% of all adults have no Will!

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emptybench-300x200Dealing with the aftermath of a loved one’s death is exhausting and complicated. Every day we work with grieving families who are wearily trying to untangle their newly acquired financial responsibilities.

We’d like to think that your loved one had estate planning documents that instructed you about their specific wishes and instructions for burial and funeral arrangements. And that they left you an organized system of important documents.

But we are not naïve. Statistics show that many Connecticut residents have not even prepared their Last Will and Testament. Our hope is that if you are reading this blog, you are one of the lucky ones and your loved one has left behind something you can work with.

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New Car GiftWhen you die, someone is going to benefit from the use of your car. Wouldn’t it be nice to decide now exactly who that person should be?

You can do that today – it’s easy!  When registering a vehicle, you can designate a transfer-on-death (TOD) beneficiary, not unlike what you can do with a bank account.

How to designate a beneficiary

Simply complete the area reserved for this purpose on the reverse side of your registration certificate. If you do not have a registration certificate, or if you are registering a new vehicle, complete the Official Registration, Form H-13, and designate the Owner in Box 1 as “John Doe, Transfer on Death to Jane Doe.”

When you die, the transfer-on-death beneficiary need only bring a certified copy of your death certificate to the nearest Department of Vehicles office to have the registration transferred. Continue reading

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Bidding on a homeYour spouse just passed away, and everything your spouse owned had a joint or beneficiary designation. All of your spouse’s assets go to you without having to go through probate first.

End of story, right?  Not exactly.

Did you know that you still have to file paperwork with the probate court?  At the very least, a Connecticut estate tax return must be filed, even if no tax is due.  Not filing can cause problems for you down the road, and here’s why. Continue reading

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AdobeStock_267044407-300x200If you’re confused, or unfamiliar with trusts as part of an estate plan, you’re not alone! Some people need to have a trust, others do not.

Then there’s the probate process. Does having a trust impact the probate process? Should you have a trust to avoid the probate process?

To answer your questions about trusts and probate, read on!

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Responsibility wooden sign with a street backgroundYou might get the news from an unexpected phone call.  Maybe you knew it would come someday, but were surprised when the day finally arrived.  Or perhaps no one told you, and you learned about it after stumbling upon your deceased parent’s trust.

No matter how it happens, the news is the same: You’ve been appointed a Successor Trustee.

How did you become trustee?

There are primarily two scenarios: Continue reading

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Helpful tipsSo your duty as executor has kicked in. And the word “probate” keeps popping up.

Not sure what probate is? You’re not alone.

Most people don’t know much about the probate process in Connecticut unless they’ve had firsthand experience with it, for example, when a family member dies and his or her estate needs to be administered.

The Connecticut probate court oversees an orderly transfer of title of the decedent’s (deceased person’s) assets from the decedent’s name to his or her beneficiaries. It also makes sure that all the assets are accounted for and all the bills are paid. Continue reading

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Of all the things we do in taking care of our aging parents, dealing with their household stuff might be the most cumbersome. After all, when the end finally comes, it’s up to us to sort, store, sell, toss, donate, and clean everything until the home is empty.

This is no small task, especially in a time of grief. Where to start?

Here are some options for dealing with your parents’ items that won’t be finding a new home with family members. Remember that the more time you have, the more money you can make for the estate. Continue reading

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