Liz Weston

Q&A: In estate planning, finding the right trustees can be a challenge

February 18, 2025 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: My partner of 37 years and I have shared a revocable living trust for much of that time. It has become necessary to update our successor trustees, since one has passed away and the second is our age. It has been pointed out that we ought to name younger people who are more likely be around when the need arises. This is becoming the hard part. Both of us have a single sister but they are also seniors, so not the best long-term choice. Nieces and nephews live out of state and are not the ideal choice, either. I am wondering about designating this task to an accountant or attorney firm but have absolutely no idea how to make this happen.

Answer: Yours is a common issue for “solo agers” — people who don’t have reliable adult children who can take over in case of incapacity or death.

Naming someone younger does increase the odds the person will be able to serve when the time comes, but nothing is guaranteed. That’s why Los Angeles estate planning attorney Burton Mitchell urges his clients to focus first on naming the best choices, rather than eliminating people because of age or geography. He also recommends naming multiple alternates. Circumstances change, and your first choice may not be available when you need them.

You want successor trustees who are trustworthy, dependable and honest. They don’t have to be relatives: Friends or professionals may be good choices if they’re willing to serve. Jennifer Sawday, an estate planning attorney in Long Beach, urges you to ask first before naming a tax pro, attorney or financial advisor, since many are unable or unwilling to serve in this capacity for clients.

Professional fiduciaries may be another option, or you can look for professional or corporate trustees. Your local bank may offer trust administration services, for example. These options obviously would be more costly than a friend or family member. Sawday recommends consulting a knowledgeable estate planning attorney who can recommend trust officers or professional fiduciaries for you to interview.

Even if you opt for a professional to handle the financial side, you may prefer to have a friend or relative serve as your healthcare decision maker should you become incapacitated. In that case, geography may matter, since the person may need to get to the hospital quickly or spend an extended period advocating for you. Even here, though, it’s more important to name the right people, rather than necessarily the closest ones. You want someone who understands your priorities and who will fight to ensure those priorities are honored. Someone older who understands the concept of a “good death” may be more appropriate than someone younger who doesn’t. (Katy Butler’s book “The Art of Dying Well” has helpful information for this choice.)

If you don’t have enough people in your life you can rely on, there’s still time to turn that around. As a fellow solo ager, certified financial planner Carolyn McClanahan recommends building a mixed-age community. McClanahan says this means making “care deposits” starting in your 50s by volunteering and mentoring younger people.

“If you come from a place of giving, when you get older, that tribe is willing to look out for you,” she says.

Q&A: Tapping into a Health Savings Account while on Medicare

February 18, 2025 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: I’m on Medicare but I also have a health savings account with a fair market value of over $9,000. Am I able to spend this on prescriptions, eye care, etc.? I hate to waste this money. My wife passed away and it’s been sitting there for a while.

Answer: You can’t contribute to an HSA once you’re on Medicare, but you can certainly spend the money you’ve accumulated.

As mentioned in previous columns, HSAs offer a triple tax break in that contributions are deductible, the account grows tax-deferred and withdrawals are tax-free for qualifying medical expenses. Those expenses can include dental and vision costs as well as Medicare premiums.

If anyone other than a spouse inherits the account, the HSA becomes taxable so you’ll definitely want to spend that money while you can.

“Your aunt is so cool!”

February 10, 2025 By Liz Weston

Beverly Beyette Graber, who died Dec. 20 at 91, knew how to get people to tell their stories.

She had plenty of her own to tell. When she was eight, for example, word came that the Japanese had attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor. Her father, the future Brigadier-General Hubert Beyette, had been bird hunting that day with his good friend Dwight Eisenhower. The two men had served together on the American Battle Monuments Commission after World War I. Beverly recalled how Eisenhower lifted her onto his knee and told her, “Remember this day, Beverly, because the world is never going to be the same.”

Then there was the time that she covered the 1968 Democratic National Convention for the San Diego Union newspaper. When violent confrontations broke out between protestors and police, Beverly’s editor ordered her to take shelter at her hotel. She seethed at the restriction. But the hotel was the Conrad Hilton, so Beverly was right on the scene when the protestors famously crashed through the hotel’s plate glass window into the lobby.

These are just two of the many wonderful anecdotes Beverly could tell from a long and interesting life. But Beverly always spent more time listening than talking. Whether she was interviewing a celebrity or meeting a stranger at a party, she was skilled at drawing people out and making them comfortable enough to tell their own stories.

To her nieces and nephew and their families, she was Auntie B: the fun aunt, the interesting woman that you couldn’t wait to introduce to your friends. You knew what their reaction would be. At first, they might notice her different-colored eyes, one blue and one brown. But that quickly became the least interesting thing about her. She was elegant, but not stuffy. Well informed, but not a know-it-all. She was open-minded, curious, engaged. She felt like a contemporary, not a woman decades older than you. By the end of the evening, the judgment would be unanimous: “Your aunt is so cool!”

Beverly was the youngest of three daughters born to Hubert W. and Jessica Idanthea (Moffatt) Beyette. Her early years involved several moves as her father was sent to different postings; she also served a brief stint at a much-hated boarding school. Once the general retired to Coronado, California, Beverly convinced him to let her enroll in the local public high school, where she thrived. She then attended San Diego State, where she belonged to a sorority and helped edit the yearbook.

Beverly started her journalism career writing about weddings and tea parties. In the 1950s, female journalists were typically confined to the society pages. By the 1960s, though, she was a full-fledged feature writer for the Union, writing about everything from the San Diego Zoo’s new incubator to the Beatles’ first visit to the city. (She declined to mention in the article that Paul McCartney complimented her legs during their press conference, but that became another good story to tell.) She married her first husband, banker John Bennett, and they had one son, Brett.

In the 1970s, she was hired as a features editor by the Los Angeles Times, but quickly realized she’d rather be out gathering stories than editing them. Among the many luminaries she interviewed were two presidents and their wives (the Reagans and the Carters), Rosa Parks and Angela Davis. After taking a buy-out from the Times, Beverly continued to freelance travel stories to the paper until 2019. Her last byline, an obituary she wrote in advance for former first lady Rosalyn Carter, was published in 2023.

Beverly also co-wrote a best-selling book, “Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior,” with psychiatrist Jeffrey M. Schwartz. First published in 1996, “Brain Lock” was updated 20 years later and is still in print.

Beverly traveled extensively, first with her parents in post-World War II Europe and later with second husband Gerald S. Graber, an acclaimed historian and author of books about the Nazis and the Armenian genocide. After Graber’s death from cancer, Beverly continued traveling with friends and family, including trips with her beloved son Brett to Japan, Hawaii and Thailand.

Beverly spent a month with us in Paris in 2014 while my husband, her nephew, was on sabbatical. One day while we were out on separate errands, the access code to our apartment building was changed without warning. I fretted about our 80-year-old aunt being locked out, but when she encountered the unbudging door she simply continued strolling around the neighborhood, confident that someone would fix the issue and that she would gain entrance again eventually. As my sister-in-law Bonnie Weston put it, Beverly was “a travel companion who made plans gone awry seem part of the adventure.”

It’s a testament to Beverly’s spirit that her leaving us at age 91 feels like a plan gone awry. We wanted, and expected, more time with this extraordinary woman.

Q&A: Does insurance cover a home in a living trust?

February 10, 2025 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: All of our insurance policies list my name and that of my husband. After the recent devastating Los Angeles fires, I heard from friends that we should add the name of our living trust to our home insurance policy because our house is in the trust. Otherwise, they say, some insurance companies may not cover loss or damages to it due to the discrepancy in the names, even if the trust has both of our names as trustees. Would you please confirm this?

Answer: Yes. If your home is in a trust, your insurance policies should list your trust as an “additional insured.” Insurance companies vary in their contract language, but you don’t want to find out after the fact that you aren’t covered.

Q&A: Benefits of Medicare Advantage HMOs

February 10, 2025 By Liz Weston

Dear Liz: You mentioned that Medicare Advantage Plans have networks that can change from year to year, as well as other disadvantages. This is not true for our Medicare Advantage HMO, according to my experience. The HMO has its own doctors and hospitals, but I have not noticed them pulling any surprises. And they do look after your health much better than the traditional Medicare that some of my friends are on. My friends’ care is entirely in their own hands, and some are getting very old and would benefit from the care that my HMO provides.

Answer: You’ve highlighted one of the key advantages of a Medicare Advantage HMO, which is coordinated care.

There are two main types of Medicare Advantage plans, the all-in-one private insurance alternative to original Medicare. With PPOs — preferred provider organizations — people are generally allowed to see medical providers outside their networks, although those visits will cost more. With HMOs — health maintenance organizations — you’re expected to stay in the network for most care, and you often need a referral to see a specialist. You could pay up to 100% of the cost if you use a doctor or hospital not in the HMO.

In exchange for those restrictions, people get a primary care provider who coordinates all of their care. That’s in contrast to PPOs or original Medicare, where a patient may have many providers who never talk to each other.