Ask Liz Weston

Get smart with your money

Estate Planning

Q&A: Providing for a disabled child

By

Dear Liz: The letter about the disabled daughter was horrifying, but the father isn’t the only villain here. Surely the mother knew what kind of man she married. Shouldn’t she have made provisions for her daughter in her own estate plans?

Answer: Ideally, yes. No parent should assume a spouse will “do the right thing” for their kids. Even if the surviving spouse doesn’t marry the proverbial wicked stepparent who walks off with the whole estate, the survivor could be defrauded or compromised by dementia or other cognitive problems. Estate planning attorneys phrase it this way: You may trust your spouse, but do you trust your spouse’s next spouse?

Parents who have disabled children, or who hope to preserve a portion of their estate for their kids, should discuss their situation with a qualified estate planning attorney and make the appropriate provisions in their wills or living trusts.

Q&A: Disabled daughter left out of will

By

Dear Liz: When my husband’s brother passed away last year, he left a sizable estate to his second wife of five years (the mother of his children died 10 years ago). He left nothing to his two adult sons or young grandchildren. But the most troubling part was that he left no provision for his 29-year-old daughter who has disabilities and was still living in her childhood home.

Within months, the wife demanded that this young woman leave the property. The stepmother’s comment was, “Not my child, not my problem.”

We helped our niece move to our home and apply for Social Security disability and Medicare. She now is able to see doctors about her condition. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen a doctor, which was probably in her teens when her mother was still alive.

A wheelchair has been ordered that will enable her to go out. She has a bank account and had to be taught how to use a credit card at the store and ATM. She started classes in early September to get her high school diploma. Her brothers are stunned that she is able to do all of these things.

I am thrilled for her and the progress she’s making, but I am furious with my late brother-in-law and the attorneys who completed his will. The attorneys were aware of this young woman and her needs, yet did not counsel her father to make provisions for her.

Answer: Your fury is understandable, but it’s not a given your brother-in-law got bad advice. It could well be that the attorneys counseled him about his options for caring for his special-needs daughter, and he simply ignored them. Given his long history of ignoring his daughter and her needs, that wouldn’t be surprising.

Thursday’s need-to-know money news

By

Today’s top story: How not to inherit Mom’s timeshare. Also in the news: Why bundling insurance doesn’t automatically mean savings, why your financial advisor has a financial advisor, and 12 documents to prepare now for your heirs.

How Not to Inherit Mom’s Timeshare
Limiting liability.

Will You Save Money Bundling Insurance? Not Always
When bundling isn’t saving.

Why Your Financial Advisor Has a Financial Advisor
Even experts need experts.

12 Documents to Prepare Now for Your Heirs
Making a difficult time easier.

How not to inherit mom’s timeshare

By

Timeshare owners James and Barbara Ruh enjoy their annual vacations in Hawaii, but they don’t want their daughters to be obligated to take over the contracts when they die. So the Ruhs, who are attorneys with offices in Santa Barbara, California, and Edwards, Colorado, created a trust to hold their timeshare interests.

The daughters, who are co-trustees with their parents, can keep the timeshares, sell them or abandon them after the parents’ deaths, Barbara Ruh says. The trust is designed to prevent the timeshare resort developer from going after their daughters for any unpaid or ongoing costs.

“If our daughters do not want the timeshares, they will not be liable individually for any fees,” Ruh says.

In my latest for the Associated Press, a variety of options to assure nobody’s getting an obligation they don’t want.

Thursday’s need-to-know money news

By

Today’s top story: How to write a will that won’t trigger a family feud. Also in the news: Bundling insurance doesn’t always save money, Millennials are doing just fine with their finances, and deciding if you can afford to have kids.

How to Write a Will That Won’t Trigger a Family Feud
Keeping the peace during a difficult time.

Will You Save Money Bundling Insurance? Not Always
The pros and cons of bundles.

Don’t Believe the Hype About Millennials and Money
They’re doing just fine.

Are You Too Broke to Be a Parent?
Making important financial decisions.

How to write a will that won’t trigger a family feud

By

Creating an estate plan is a gift to the people you leave behind. By expressing your wishes, you’re trying to guide your loved ones at a difficult, emotional time.

All too often, though, well-meaning people do things destined to create discord, rancor and resentment among their heirs. What looks good on paper may play out disastrously in real life, says estate and trust attorney Marve Ann Alaimo, partner at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur in Naples, Florida.

“People want to think everybody will be nice and do right,” Alaimo says. “Human nature is not always that way.”

In my latest for the Associated Press, four things you can do to reduce the chances of family discord.