Trusts can be either testamentary or inter vivos (living). A testamentary trust is part of your Last Will and Testament and does not activate until your death. A testamentary trust can easily be changed at any time up to your death.  Living trusts, on the other hand, can be more complicated.

A living trust can be revocable or irrevocable. Changing an irrevocable trust requires exceptional circumstances and court approval if it can be done at all. A revocable trust though can be changed at any time.

Although some people do it, simply making margin notations and initializing the change is not an effective way to make even a simple change.  A better way to make minor changes is to create a trust amendment. This allows you to make a few simple changes all on one piece of paper and then “amend” that to the original trust document. For more complicated or extensive changes, a trust restatement may be a better option. This essentially replaces the original document with a new one that includes your changes, but retains the original date.

Be sure to check with your estate planning attorney to decide whether your trust can be changed and, if so, how.

The new Google tool, known as the “Inactive Account Manager” allows an account holder to tell Google what should be done with an account that has been inactive for three, six, nine, or 12 months. As the account holder, you have the option to option to instruct Google to delete all account contents or to designate a beneficiary to access the account. Along with Google e-mail, the tool is available for YouTube, Blogger, Drive, Google+ and Picasa accounts.

While the Google tool is certainly helpful, most people have more digital assets than they realize – many of which are not covered by the new Google tool. To ensure that your digital assets are properly incorporated into your estate plan, be sure to sit down and discuss the subject matter with your estate planning attorney.

Prior to the dramatic increase in the lifetime exclusion limit for the gift and estate tax, many taxpayers were forced to use creative estate planning tools to avoid exorbitant estate and gift taxes. One tool that was commonly employed was the creation of an ILIT. An ILIT allows the creator to create a trust that then becomes the owner of a life insurance policy. For example, if you purchase a $5 million life insurance policy and then transfer it into the trust, you have effectively transferred $5 million in assets out of your estate for gift and estate tax purposes. When you die, the policy then pays out to the trust and the beneficiaries of the trust receive the proceeds.

Now that the lifetime exclusion limit has been increased to just over $5 million, many taxpayers are wondering whether or not they still need an ILIT. Because an ILIT is an irrevocable trust, modifying the trust is not an option absent court intervention. Although you may be able to cancel the life insurance policy and terminate the trust, you  should sit down with your estate planning attorney and discuss your options first, because there are other benefits to an ILIT that may justify leaving it as is.

All gifts made by you during your lifetime are potentially taxable. By the same token, all assets still owned by you at the time of death are potentially taxable. Both estate assets and lifetime gifts, however, are subject to the lifetime estate and gift tax exclusion limit. As of 2013, the lifetime limit has been permanently set at $5 million (adjusted each year for inflation) per taxpayer. In order to know where you stand with regard to the lifetime exclusion, you must know the value of gifts made so far.

Some non-cash gifts can be easily valued while others are not so easy to value. Stocks, for example, can be valued by looking at the relevant market price on the day the gift was made. Assets such as family heirlooms, artwork, collectibles, and real property though often require an independent appraisal to set a value. For a high value asset, in inaccurate appraisal could potentially cost your estate, and therefore, your heirs, a considerable amount of money. Be sure that you take the time to locate the right appraiser for the job.

A PPM is essentially an extension or addition to your Will. Although you can make specific bequests within your Will itself, there are reasons why you may wish to use a PPM instead. If, for example, you have an extensive collection of some sort, valuable art pieces, or family heirlooms that are too numerous to practically include in your Will, a PPM can be beneficial. A personal property memorandum allows you to list personal property items in great detail and then designate who is to receive the item upon your death. It is important to keep in mind, however, that state laws differ with regard to whether or not a PPM is a legally binding document. People often choose to include one, even if it is not legally binding, simply because it often decreases the chance of conflict or arguments among family members over who was supposed to receive a specific item. When you express your wishes in your own handwriting, family members often honor those wishes even if they are not legally required to do so.

The other benefit to a PPM is that it can be easily changed if you need to add an item or change a beneficiary whereas a change to a Will requires you to go through the formal requirements of execution all over again.

The executor of your Last Will and Testament should be someone who has the time, ability, and desire to fulfill the role. Even a simple estate can take months to probate. The larger and more complicated the estate, the longer it will take to probate, meaning that your executor will be required to devote a considerable amount of his or her time to the process.

Along with the time commitment, your executor is required to oversee a number of important tasks, such as:

• Locating, inventorying, and valuing all of your estate assets
• Preparing and filing all the legal documents required to initiate the probate process
• Notifying beneficiaries and creditors of the estate that the probate process has begun
• Reviewing and approving or denying all claims made against the estate
• Defending the estate against challenges filed to the Will or other estate planning documents
• Preparing and filing all taxes associated with the estate
• Transferring all property to the beneficiaries at the end of the process

Although most executors retain the services of an estate planning attorney to assist in the probate process, the executor is ultimately responsible for much more than most people realize.  Given the duties and responsibilities of an executor, shouldn’t you take the time to choose wisely?

• Review Your Will – As you have likely realized, everything changes when you have a child. While there may be additional changes that you need to make in your Last Will and Testament, at a minimum you will likely need to add baby as a beneficiary as well as nominate a guardian in the event something happens to you.
• Prepare a Power of Attorney – Eventually, you will probably leave your child with a caregiver while you are away on business or vacation. Take the time now to create a power of attorney that can be used to give a caregiver the authority to consent to emergency medical treatment if the need ever arises.
• Increase Insurance – Now may be the time to increase both disability and life insurance policies to ensure that enough income is available to support your child if you become disabled or die.
• Create a Trust – Your child cannot inherit directly from you in the event of your death. Creating a trust is an excellent way to ensure that your child’s inheritance is well-managed and protected until he or she reaches the maturity level necessary to handle the funds.
• Address Special Needs – If you have a special needs child, it is never too early to create a special needs plan that will ensure continued support from state and federal programs even if your child inherits funds from you.

Life expectancy charts tell us that the average woman lives about five years longer than the average man. Sometimes, a woman outlives her husband by many more years,  making proper retirement and estate planning even more important.

A woman must be sure that enough assets and/or income will be available to support her during her golden years.  Beyond that,  it is equally important to have an estate plan in place that decides what will happen to assets upon death. Early planning can ensure that both of those concerns are addressed; however, if you wait until your husband dies to take an active role in estate planning, it could be too late. For this reason, all women should sit down and discuss both retirement and estate planning with both their spouse and their estate planning attorney. If you find yourself widowed, it is equally important to review your existing estate plan on an annual basis to make sure that changes in the law, the economy, or the tax code do not call for changes in your estate plan.

The annual gift tax exclusion allows each taxpayer to gift up to $14,000 per year in assets to as many beneficiaries as he or she wants. Those gifts are not subject to gift taxes nor are they counted toward the lifetime exemption limit. A married couple may also combine their gifts, which effectively doubles the amount that can be gifted to each beneficiary each year. If you choose to use the exclusion, you may be required to file IRS For 709.

To appreciate the value of the gift tax exclusion, imagine that Mary and Bob have three children and an estate valued at $12 million. Without making use of the annual gift tax exclusion, $7 million of their estate could be subject to estate and gift taxes. At the maximum rate of 40 percent, that means they could lose $2.8 million to taxes. On the other hand, if Bob and Mary gifted $14,000 in assets to each child over the course of 20 years, they could transfer $1.68 million in assets without incurring estate and gift taxes. By doing this, they save $672,000 in gift taxes.

• Practical – what happens if you become incapacitated tomorrow? Does your spouse/partner/child know the answer to that? Who is in charge of your finances? Who can make medical decisions for you? On an even more basic level, where are the documents kept that can answer these questions? For these practical reasons, a family meeting is in order.
• Emotional – losing a loved one is often the most emotional time in a person’s life. Imagine getting hit with unexpected estate planning decisions at the same time.  What about trying to make funeral arrangements while grieving? You can save your loved ones from additional emotional stress and strain by filling them in on your estate plan ahead of time.
• Legal –your estate plan includes numerous legal decisions that your loved ones are not required to know about, but knowing might make it easier when the time comes to implement the plan.

Although it may be uncomfortable, a family meeting to discuss your estate plan is a good idea. You may want to have the meeting at your estate planning attorney’s office so that he or she can answer any questions that arise.