The Legal Advice Thread...

[boozeman]

I know enough of you fuckers are attorneys.

I need some legal advice.

Especially probate advice and I would like to get you guy's guidance.

I was told by my father's attorney that it was best to drain liquid assets leading up to the end.

In other words, keep only enough liquid assets to power you through what is completely necessary.

He also said to gift away stuff, like vehicles, gold coins whatever.

I need some advice from you people.

 

[roughneck266]

Thats what we did when my dad was getting near the end. My Grandmother also basically did it before she decided she wanted to go into an old folks home. In her case, we were told basically whatever she owned when she went in there would end up being the property of that home.
Done correctly, it can help avoid a long probate and possibly the government taking a big ass bite out of it. Obviously I am not an attorney, so keep that in mind. I hate you're having to go through it buddy. I stinks from start to finish.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Just sorry you're having to go through this, booze.

 

[Irving Cowboy]

Just sorry you're having to go through this, booze.

This.

We went through this when my mother passed in 2020. She didn't have much in the way of assets, we owned her condo and she had a car that she could no longer drive so she gave it to our oldest son since he was starting his family. I'd say 90% of everything else she had we gave to the DAV or Goodwill and kept all of the receipts in case the government came calling. The only stuff we kept was stuff related to the family and we wanted to keep it in the family.

Just my .02

 

[boozeman]

Just sorry you're having to go through this, booze.

It is not as bad as you are thinking. He is already comfortable in the place he is in now until we can get him in a VA facility. For 89, he is hanging in there.

The hard part is figuring out his finances. He has two accounts with a good bit of cash in them, plus an assload of coins and shit I have to get appraised.

When my mother passed, she had virtually no assets other than a vehicle.

This is different. And the worst part is that his will is jacked up. He said at the lawyer yesterday that one of his beneficiaries should get $25K. His will that was done a decade ago has 25% of his liquid assets going to this person. Getting that changed is of course a priority.

 

[Cotton]

Sorry to hear, brother.

 

[boozeman]

Sorry to hear, brother.

Thanks man. It is more anxiety than sadness. Yesterday I basically cleaned out his apartment and donated most of it to Goodwill. The concern are how to deal with his assets. I need to decide to start having him gift out money now rather than have it in a bank account.

Where are our lawyers? @Cowboysrock55 @Smitty

 

[Smitty]

I'm not an estate attorney so I don't have a ton of insight on best solutions for passing assets along. Does he have any debt? What are the values of his major assets?

If it's household items then I'm not sure it really matters.

If he has a bank account with $500k then we might need some planning. But this is getting into tax and inheritance issues that I just don't practice.

The best advice I could possibly give you would be to spend a couple hundred bucks and go see an estate planning attorney with him. If he has money in bank accounts (like inheritance level money) then this is the best money he could spend for his heirs anyway.

 

[boozeman]

Thanks @Smitty. He has very little to no debt that I am aware of. Yes his accounts are around the range you mentioned. I am going to have to get a financial planner involved for sure.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

I'm not an attorney, but sounds like the real problem is this willed amount (% VS $) to this person?

I'm not getting why cash itself is a problem.

 

[boozeman]

I'm not an attorney, but sounds like the real problem is this willed amount (% VS $) to this person?

I'm not getting why cash itself is a problem.

The attorney stated that gifting money now is better than waiting until the will is executed due to the tax hit. It makes sense sort of.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

The attorney stated that gifting money now is better than waiting until the will is executed due to the tax hit. It makes sense sort of.

Yes, has he been giving the 16k/year you can give with no tax at all?

Are you in a state with an estate tax?

 

[boozeman]

Yes, has he been giving the 16k/year you can give with no tax at all?

Are you in a state with an estate tax?

Nebraska does not have estate tax but the federal estate tax will apply.

 

[Smitty]

I think you can actually give way more than 16k without tax ramifications, but the 16k is the yearly limit without it needing to be reported, because after that, it starts counting towards the cap of like $1.0 million, which, if you surpass that amount lifetime, you do need to pay taxes on.

But again, don't quote me.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

I think you can actually give way more than 16k without tax ramifications, but the 16k is the yearly limit without it needing to be reported, because after that, it starts counting towards the cap of like $1.0 million, which, if you surpass that amount lifetime, you do need to pay taxes on.

But again, don't quote me.

You're right. (Though I checked and to correct myself, it's 18k in 2024.) But the lifetime exclusion is like 13 million now. Too high for most of us to worry about.