Chris Sargent's Archive

Links of Interest

by   |  10.11.11  |  links of interest

1) Business opportunities are everywhere.

2) When you are wealthy and famous, you can be criticized for not being philanthropic enough.  Or, maybe you are philanthropic enough.  It’s all a matter of perspective.

3) Buying the world’s oldest car.

4) A touch of nostalgia.

Live Before You Die

by   |  10.06.11  |  real life examples

One story about connecting the dots.

One story about love and loss.

One story about death.

Fair vs. Equal

by   |  09.28.11  |  wills

Interesting article from the WSJ on unequal inheritance shares.  There is discussion of fairness vs. equality, some reasons why unequal shares might be reasonable, and how to minimize the potential for legal challenges to the will.

Personal finance blog Squirrelers notes that the decision to bequeath equal shares isn’t necessarily a simple one and probably deserves more than just a cursory though.

The Three Questions

by   |  09.27.11  |  wills

My boss Dan Garrett has been working with people to plan estates in the most tax-efficient manner for over 30 years.  He says he has three questions he always asks clients at his first meeting with them.

  1. What do you own?
  2. How do you own it?
  3. After you’re gone, what do you want to happen to it?

The answers to these questions aren’t necessarily as easy as you might think at first blush.

What do you own?

Most people generally know what they own.  The issue is gathering all that information in one place, which becomes important if someone else (a non-involved spouse, power of attorney, executor, child, etc.) needs access to that information .  There are quite a few books and electronic documents that could be called “life organizers”.  Another alternative is the Provide and Protect website, which is sort of an online organizer that’s tied to a network of estate planning attorneys. More »

Summer 2011 Legacy Newsletter

by   |  09.25.11  |  Legacy newsletter

Our latest print newsletter, Legacy, is out and should be hitting your mailbox in the next day or so.  Here is the Summer 2011 Legacy electronic version (PDF).

You probably noticed a change in the format of the print version.  We talk about good stewardship with donors very often.  We try to practice good stewardship with our resources, too.  For the past several years, we mailed out Legacy inside a clear plastic sleeve, so as to present the newsletter in a very interesting and attractive way.  But economics realities dictated a change and so this month’s newsletter is the first with the new mailing format – a more cost-effective way to print and ship the newsletter.  We would be interested to hear your thoughts about the new look.  Feel free to comment below, or to email me  at chris.sargent (at) acu.edu, or call us at 800-979-1906.

Debts After Death

by   |  09.20.11  |  financial planning, real life examples

CNN/Money has an article on banks and other creditors trying to collect on outstanding loan balances from family members of the deceased.  While creditors certainly do have the right to collect on outstanding loans, how and where they try to collect and from whom they try to collect can be a point of contention between companies and grieving members of the deceased’s family.

This article got me to thinking: are there situations in which a spouse or surviving family member might be liable for the debts incurred by the deceased?

Actually, yes, but only a few. More »

The Story She’s Part Of

by   |  09.13.11  |  legacy planning, real life examples

“I don’t feel like I’m dying,” she tells me.  “I’m at peace with this.”

June is 81, and the doctors tell her she has pancreatic cancer.  She was diagnosed something over a year ago and the cancer cells have moved from her pancreas to her arteries to her lungs.  She has a pretty aggressive chemo treatment – 6 hours in the hospital, every other week for six months.  This new regimen is the fifth such treatment in her battle.

And it is a battle.  Her feet hurt, her arms tire, her back aches.  Fatigue is a constant problem for her, the hardest symptom for a woman used to keeping up with women half her age or younger.  But June hasn’t given in yet, or given up.

She’s sitting at her kitchen table with her husband of 61 years, Al.  It’s a good Saturday morning.  No pain, no fatigue yet.   The remains of breakfast (blueberry and banana nut muffins) sit in pans on the table.  A half-full blue ceramic coffee mug sits next to her Bible.

“‘Do not worry about your life’,” she quotes to me.  “‘Or about what you will eat or drink, or about your body’.  That’s my favorite verse now.  I’m still worry-free and depression-free.”

More »

Bankruptcy Isn’t About Money

by   |  09.06.11  |  legacy planning

One of the questions we ask people when we are talking about heritage or legacy planning is, “How much money does it take to harm a child?”

The answer, invariably, is “not much” or something along those lines.

Economics blog Marginal Revolution pointed me to this working paper from Vanderbilt University, who did a study on bankruptcy rates of lottery winners.  The study focuses on comparing those who won between $50,000 and $150,000 versus those who won smaller amounts.  The primary finding of the study is that people who are awarded large amounts are just as likely to eventually have financial difficulty (bankruptcy, in the extreme) as those who win smaller amounts.  All the larger amount does is delay the financial reckoning.  This shows, as MR notes, that bankruptcy isn’t really about money at all. More »

Heritage Planning

by   |  08.30.11  |  legacy planning

The best way to introduce the concept of heritage planning is to ask you to do a simple mental exercise.

If you could look 50 years into the future and witness a gathering of your entire family, what would you like to see going on?  What kinds of conversations would you like to hear?  What would you want your family to feel?

Now think about the financial and estate planning you have done to date and ask yourself this question:

How far will that planning get me towards the picture of my family that I’ve just envisioned?

More »

Prime Directives

by   |  08.23.11  |  estate planning

Article summary: the differences between, and uses for, power of attorney, medical power of attorney, and living will documents.

 

These three papers are part of what we call your essential documents (the other being your Will).  These documents specifically allow other people to make certain medical or financial decisions for you, in the event you are incapacitated or otherwise unable to decide for yourself.  The catch, of course, is that the power these documents provide has to be granted in advance of the incapacitating event.

Put another way, you should probably have these documents drawn up before you are diagnosed with a mental or terminal illness, or have a catastrophic incident. More »