ELDER LAW, WEALTH PRESERVATION STRATEGIES, ESTATE, TAX AND CHARITABLE PLANNING
Home Publications Estate Planning - Making Informed Choices Our LifeChoices Maintenance Program Links About Us Contact Us	Our LifeChoices Maintenance Program Explanation of our LifeChoices Maintenance Program For our Living Trust Clients Estate planning, like life, is a work in progress. It is lifecycle planning. It is important to focus on the life of an estate plan, rather than on the documents of the estate plan. We first look at what is important to our client, and client's family, and then how to preserve and build the estate. Only after reviewing these matters do we look at tax savings. It is important that we keep the estate planning priorities firmly in place, where planning for a client and the client's beneficiaries remain a top priority, and where we always ask, from a client's prospective, "what is life like for me and my family under this plan." Our office wants to insure that our clients' estate plans work over time. It is our desire that the revocable living trust plan we design together continues to meet its purpose as life shifts and transitions to new levels. As you know, nothing in life is static. Laws change. Your financial and personal circumstances change. Our craft is enhanced by continuing education and experience. For example, as to legal changes,in the past few years, the estate tax laws have been dramatically modified and Maine's "Living Will" (medical directive) was revamped to meet society's demands. As well, specific new requirements were added to the law of Durable Powers of Attorney. And Medicaid rules and regulations change sporadically. The reality is that although a living trust-centered estate plan can greatly reduce the need for additional legal and professional services on the disability or death of a trustmaker, there will still be the need for significant assistance from an attorney, CPA, stockbroker, financial planner or other professional advisors, especially for taxable estates and sub-trusts established for beneficiaries. A well-maintained plan will go a long way in reducing the emotional and financial cost to a client and the client's beneficiaries. Some of us have annual medical checkups, meet with a financial advisor regularly, have a maintenance contract on the heating furnace, buy yearly car and homeowners insurance -- all plans to assure continuity and security in our lives. To add to that continuity and security, our office has developed a maintenance program to help insure that our clients' living trust documents are up-to-date and are on the cutting edge of estate planning law, and that the client's successor trustees are educated to understand the benefits of the estate plan and their role and responsibilities in taking over. We call this "LifeChoices Maintenance Program." Specifically, the purposes of this program are to: Keep funding of a client's trust up-to-date Make sure a client's ongoing life goals are being met in the plan Review our client's financial circumstances on a regular basis and adjust the plan accordingly Educate our client and the client's trustees (and beneficiaries) about trust functioning, trustee's duties and responsibilities and the benefits of maintaining assets in trust Amend the trust as necessary for (a) changes a client needs to make, and (b) law and language changes we want to make to keep our client's documents current and meaningful We want our clients to be able to focus on the value of the overall process instead of the cost of "it" (the documents). As a member of LifeChoices, clients receive: Amendments to documents as needed at no extra cost No charge for phone conferences and word processing Ongoing Funding support Yearly or bi-yearly fiscal and planning reviews, as needed Annual successor trustee training workshops Educational newsletters Specialized workshops Review of a client's estate plan with family members or successor trustees upon disability or death of a trustmaker A paid membership in DocuBank. DocuBank is an organization that transmits health care directives to any hospital within minutes of hospitalization, 24 hours a day, anywhere in the world. A member receives an "Emergency Card" to carry with him or her, instead of one's healthcare directive. The truth about estate planning is that it usually doesn't work - unless there is a commitment to maintenance, updating and on-going education. With your active participation, LifeChoices is there to insure that your estate plan works. New clients automatically become members of LifeChoices for one year. Thereafter there is a small yearly annual fee. A client may terminate his or her participation in the program at any point. For those clients who are not members of LifeChoices, they are billed separately for services rendered at the then current hourly rate. In implementing this program, we are committed to providing clients with the best possible service, while insuring smooth management and cost efficiency for our office. Advanced planning services (Charitable Remainder Trusts, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, etc.), and estate administration services after death, are not included in this program. It is our hope that and expectation that the participation of clients and their successor trustees in LifeChoices will insure a smooth transition at less cost upon disability or death.
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©2008, Law Offices of Roberta S. Kuriloff. Send questions or comments to roberta@kurilofflaw.com.