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Coronavirus Update: Now is the Time for Estate Planning

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Silver linings are difficult, but not impossible to spot at the moment. One bright spot: the free time we’re faced with provides a perfect opportunity to take care of your long-delayed estate plan. Why not get it off your plate and off your mind? 

Estate planning attorney Dan Ruttenberg offers the following estate planning tips: 

  • Review and update all of your beneficiary designations — Forgetting to update beneficiary designations is the most common mistake. It’s especially important in this day and age, when blended families are common. Designations will overrule whatever instructions you have included in your will, so even a well-thought-out estate plan can be destroyed by an incorrect beneficiary designation. In short, you don’t want your insurance money or retirement benefits going outright to children at 18 or a past spouse.
  • Establish a trust — A living trust will help you avoid the time-consuming and costly process of probate, while also giving you the best access to the assets in the event of a disability.
  • Clearly Direct Where and How Your Assets Go — Unfortunately, many families have been torn apart by money after mom and dad have passed. Don’t give your children room to argue about who gets what. Make it clear and legally binding.
  • Select Appropriate Fiduciaries – Among the most important decisions you can make are who will serve as a trustee, guardian, executor, attorney-in-fact, or any other trusted position needed under your circumstances.  Are they trusted and respected by the successor beneficiaries? You must carefully consider who will run the show if you can’t.
  • Talk with an estate planning attorney — Each family is different and has its own set of complications, but an experienced estate planning attorney can help guide you through completing a plan and achieving your goals.

Daniel H. Ruttenberg

Daniel H. Ruttenberg is a principal with the firm. He is a member of the Bar in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, and is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Maryland. Mr. Ruttenberg received his Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in Accounting and Finance from the University of Maryland. He earned his Juris Doctor with Honors from George Mason University School of Law and his Master of Laws in Taxation with Distinction from Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Ruttenberg is the author of “The Tax Court’s Execution of the Family Entity: The Tax Court’s Application of Internal Revenue Code Section 2036(a) to Family Entities,” North Dakota Law Review Vol. 80:41 (2004). For the past six years, he has served as Vice President of Devotion To Children, a charity which provides access to high-quality educational and childcare programs for children from low-income families, aged six and under. Mr. Ruttenberg served as the Director of the Fairfax Bar Association (FBA) for seven years. During this period, he was also elected president – the youngest in FBA history. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Fairfax Law Foundation. Mr. Ruttenberg received a SmartCEO Magazine Power Player award in 2013 and 2014, and was named a Top Lawyer by Northern Virginia Magazine in 2015, 2013, 2010 and 2009. Most recently, he was selected as one of the 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 “Best Lawyers in America” by Best Lawyers.

His practice areas include: planning for businesses, general corporate law, estate planning and estate administration.

The post Coronavirus Update: Now is the Time for Estate Planning appeared first on SmolenPlevy.


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