With family gathering, the holidays can be the time to plan

With Christmas being tomorrow and New Year’s Eve only a week away and with, hopefully, family in the picture to celebrate, we thought this would be a good time and season to help set a course for a productive New Year.

In doing so, we’d like to lay out, based upon our collective client experiences, those planning items and activities that we feel are both personally and fiscally valuable, but also critical in order to map out the future. In short — PLAN!

With immediate family members present, particularly those not living nearby, use this time as an opportunity to review your health and financial issues and wishes with them. Very few people like surprises and these are two areas where people can be unpleasantly surprised and unprepared if they have little or no knowledge of your desires.

So, let’s start with health issues and concerns.

Do family members know of your health issues and how you want to have them dealt with? Have you appointed anyone to make decisions for you if you can’t make them for yourself? In that regard, do you have or are you still considering an Advance Directive for Health Care and a Health Care Power of Attorney? By the way, this document is just as important for the 18year-old as it is for the 80year-old.

Do you have or have you planned for a medical support system in the event of a situation needing that assistance? Trust us: With one of us immobile due to foot surgery, this is an important consideration. We’re all one fall away from a potential disaster. PLAN for it (and not just with Scotch and prescription drugs!).

Do you still want to have the same people you once chose as an executor under your will or as an agent under a power of attorney to continue to serve in that role? Have they pre-deceased you? Oh, yes, that happens all too often. Who are their backups, if any? Are they still aware of your wishes and desires? Do these documents still reflect your desires?

We usually suggest looking at these estate planning documents once a year (New Year’s Day for example) to see if anything has changed. Get in the habit of asking yourself these questions as we find time keeps slipping away from us, particularly as we get older.

In a worst-case scenario, which might necessitate some form of assisted living or skilled nursing placement, have your documents in a row. When’s the last time you’ve looked at your estate planning documents (even assuming you have any)? Has anything changed since the last time you created them? Still married to the same spouse? More kids or grandkids?

Is there someone you favored in the past whom you no longer favor, but still have them in your will? Are you now part of a blended family where previously, due to death or divorce, you weren’t?

If long-term care needs are a possibility and you may need Medical Assistance to pay for this care, do you know where your bank and investment information is? Remember that there is a five-year lookback as to gifts you may have made that may cause a delay or penalty period for receiving assistance. You will have to provide five years of statements if you do make a Medical Assistance application.

In addition, gather up all of your personal identifying documents, including your Medicare card, Social Security card, driver’s license, birth and marriage Certificate, and so on. If you are in relatively good health but aging and are concerned about protecting assets, consider the creation of an Asset Protection Trust.

Look at your beneficiary designations for your IRA, 401(k), 403(b) plans and your life insurance policies. These assets do not pass under your Will. As a result, the beneficiaries you may have originally selected may now not be consistent with your overall plan.

Are you charity-minded, either as to family or organizations? For 2024, you can up gift up to $18,000 to any individual without having to file a Federal Gift Tax Return. You can also use some Required Minimum Distributions from your qualified plan monies to give to charities, reducing your income tax by making these Qualified Charitable Distributions. Note, however, in doing so, you may be creating a future problem as it relates to a possible Medical Assistance application. Seek good advice.

The theme running throughout this column, for Wordle fans, is PLAN! (OK, we added an exclamation point for the fifth letter). It’s time if you haven’t done so to get moving in that direction for the New Year. You decide, so someone else doesn’t have to do it.

Happy & healthy holidays to yinz all.