Courtesy of Jonathan Blattmachr and Marty Shenkman for the Heckerling Institute, last month we provide the following: ‘Over the past three decades, life expectancy of male workers retiring at age 65 has risen six years in the top half of the income spectrum, but only 1.3 years in the bottom half. The age for peak financial decision making is age 50. Financial decision making ability begins to decline by age 60 and is significantly impacted by age 80. Even more worrisome is that the same studies indicated that people’s perceptions of their abilities do not decline. At what age are most estate plans crafted? Likely much older. Creating and implementing a plan at an earlier age to protect clients is important to properly protect them […]
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Video for new Book: Your Digital Afterlife
This is a short but very helpful piece about why this is important. Its is worth sharing, and acting upon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0_xV9UfCLXA We will continue to locate sites and resources that make it possible to deal with your online existence efficiently and privately, in case of your passing.
Continue readingEvolving Laws on Digital Afterlife are Immature at Best, per PBS Segment
Here is a worthwhile discussion on PBS with a review of the increasingly problematic but important disposition of your online assets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vvgZjBIB1I0 It points out that a Facebook user dies every three minutes, and that the average person has around 25 online accounts, with passwords.
Continue readingTrust Your Gut, in Life and Estate Planning
Within reason, anyway! It’s complicated, and a new area which embraces experimental philosophy and psychology, but: That’s precisely what psychologist David DeSteno, director of Northeastern University’s Social Emotions Lab, explores in The Truth About Trust: How It Determines Success in Life, Love, Learning, and More, which was recently and elegantly reviewed by Maria Popova at BrainPickings.org. From his book: “Trust begets trust more often than not. Although common sense may seem to suggest that illusions are always to be avoided in favor of hard objectivity, sometimes a softer-focus lens, one capable of smoothing the rough edges, is to be preferred. If you’ve developed a strong sense of trust in a partner, it will function in just that way. When there’s ambiguity about how trustworthy he […]
Continue readingRemember: Federal Estate Taxes are Only for the TOP .2%
Due primarily to increases in the applicable exclusion amount, the number of estate tax returns filed decreased from more than 108,000 in 2001 to just over 15,000 in 2010. After accounting for marital and charitable bequests, as well expenses and debts of the estate, less than half of the estates filing in 2010 owed estate tax. This was before the applicable exclusion amount jumped to $5 million and became indexed for inflation. It is estimated that in 2012 perhaps fewer than 4,000 estate tax returns were filed for taxable estates. With the increased applicable exclusion amount, less than 0.2% of Americans are expected to be subject to the federal estate tax. According to a study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, only 1.6% […]
Continue readingThe Notion of “Legacy” is Evolving. That is Really a Good Thing
In a new article in Aeon Magazine (http://aeon.co/magazine/being-human/what-will-happen-to-my-online-identity-when-i-die/) Patrick Stokes shines a light on the ways technology is shaping our understanding of death, and consciousness. He writes, in part: “………As I was writing this piece, the sad news came through that the political theorist and prominent blogger Norman Geras had died. I didn’t know Geras, but I’d been following him on Twitter for about a year, after he tweeted to take me to task (rightly) about something I’d written for The Conversation website. I’m not sure why, but when I heard he’d died, I went straight to look at his Twitter account. His last tweets? Requests for friends and family to check if his phone was working and to please message him. No grand last words. No […]
Continue readingShould We Honor Your Wishes? Your Demands?
New York was the first of many states allowing the modification (decanting) of “irrevocable” trust agreements. Of course, under the right circumstances, an irrevocable trust can be amended (in NY, and other states) with the consent of the creator. But the decanting statute allows significant changes to the terms of a trust which the creator (whether by a trust deed or via his or her Last Will & Testament) understood to be irrevocable, and in which he or she has no say. In modern usage, then, it may not be possible to revoke a permanent trust (other than by distributing it to the beneficiaries or losing all the money), but we can change it, and that seems a curious twist on the plain meaning […]
Continue readingUnderstanding Knowledge Acceleration
It seems pretty clear that we can’t intentionally slow down the “progress” which seems to have overtaken out ability to conceptualize how quickly it now grows, in volume and quality. If you are in the summer or fall of your career, then perhaps you will find continuing rewards for doing what you are good at. But for our children and grandchildren, these changes mean that the careers they choose may not exist a few years later, and they are likely learning about subjects and ideas that will be out of date before they graduate. The technological and related social and economic changes are not intentionally embraced-we do not adopt them. We essentially become them. Think about how the telephone changed how we live, and now, […]
Continue readingThe Future is Bright: For Starters: The Knowledge Doubling Curve
The more we know, the faster we know more. Knowledge volume undergoes exponential growth, doubling and redoubling over time. Buckminster Fuller created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve”. Up until 1900 it was said that the accumulation of knowledge doubled every century. At the end of World War 2 every 25 years.Today – well anywhere from 1 to 1.5 years to – Nanotechnology they say every 2 years – Clinical knowledge every 18 months. And IBM predicts that in the next couple of years, information will double every 11 hours! The Will Doctor is ENTHUSIASTIC about the future in store for our children and grandchildren-and even for us! More on this to come in future posts, to complement the (rather dry) dynamics of estate and tax planning!
Continue readingThe Will Doctor® Notes the Emerging Discipline of Thanatology: the study of Death
As the baby boomers start thinking about old age, the study of death will grow. Already a specialty with a course of study, there are a few organizations which you should be aware of: ADEC: The Association for Death Education and Counseling® is an international, professional organization dedicated to promoting excellence and recognizing diversity in death education, care of the dying, grief counseling and research in thanatology. Based on quality research, theory and practice, the association provides information, support and resources to its international, multicultural, multidisciplinary membership and to the public. http://www.adec.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home The Center for Thanatology: A publisher, but an interesting site (and museum) for the Will Doctor! http://www.thanatology.org/home.html The process of dying is still little understood, but I learned a great deal from a […]
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