March 31, 2025 • 37 mins
Losing your parent is a profound event. While one will certainly suffer the emotional impacts, there are also important financial actions to take immediately. Protecting your parents’ legacy by managing their finances after their death is one of the most critical ways to honor their legacy. Chris Boyd, Jeff Perry, and Russ Ball discuss this sensitive issue and offer their own personal stories, thoughtful
advice and lessons. Chris also details about inheriting an IRA from a loved one and the
various rules surrounding beneficial accounts in general.
For additional information on this topic, please click the links below:
https://www.library-messages.com/c9de15f9-d73a-4df0-953d-174013937f10/resource-
center/estate/a-checklist-for-when-a-spouse-or-parent-passes
https://www.wealthenhancement.com/s/blog/what-to-do-after-a-parent-dies-
MCILZXAWMCNVEJHHPLEXZJDK5G54
For more information or to reach Chris Boyd or Jeff Perry, click the following link:
https://www.wealthenhancement.com/s/advisor-teams/amr
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to something more with Chris Boyd.
Chris Boyd is a certified financial planner practitioner
and senior vice president financial advisor at Wealth
Enhancement Group, one of the nation's largest registered
investment advisors.
We call it something more because we'd like
to talk not only about those important dollar
and cents issues but also the quality of
life issues that make the money matters matter.
(00:22):
Here he is, your fulfillment facilitator, your partner
in prosperity, advising clients on Cape Cod and
across the country.
Here's your host, Jay Christopher Boyd.
All right, joining me today is Jeff Perry
and Russ Paul.
We are all from the AMR team at
Wealth Enhancement Group.
Thanks for being with us.
(00:42):
And today, you know, we had occasion where
we had a client who was talking to
us about the passing of a parent and
the thought occurred to me that this this
is not unique.
We run into circumstances like this with some,
you know, frequency.
Not, you know, not all the time, of
(01:02):
course, but, you know, where a family member
dies and there's a need for thinking about
some of the planning and issues that come
out of that.
And we thought we'd talk about that today
on our show.
Try to give you some helpful, thoughtful things
to consider as you embark on that kind
(01:24):
of a circumstance.
Jeff, do you want to just comment a
little bit about this?
I mean, you've been through it, too, I'm
sure.
So I have.
It's been five years next month since my
mother passed.
And, you know, I think, first of all,
we should address kind of the emotional thing.
I think there's a tendency when we have
(01:45):
a loss of that significance to, you know,
want to start taking care of the details
and getting into whatever the things, you know,
many of these things we're going to talk
about today.
But it's important that you allow yourself time
to grieve.
You allow yourself to have those emotions and
that you surround yourself with emotional support and
(02:06):
not just throw yourself into the logistics and
the details.
Well, that's a really good point.
I think far too often people are prone
to just try to maybe it's nervous energy,
busy energy, but they tend to jump right
into it and want to resolve everything instantaneously.
I think it's because they're trying, you know,
they know they can't fix the situation.
(02:26):
They know they can't bring mom back and,
you know, your dad back, whatever.
And I know you've been you lost your
dad.
So you have a reference to this as
well.
So we kind of focus on what we
can control.
Right.
And so we can control about doing paperwork.
We can control about checking on the house
or checking on the surviving spouse if there
is one or whatever it is.
(02:47):
And so we just throw ourself into that
and we don't allow ourselves to really kind
of settle into what's happened and, you know,
the emotional side of it and taking care
of the family members and, you know, the
emotional side of it, not just the details,
but the details are important.
And I know we're going to focus on
those.
But yeah, I just wanted to have my
opening thoughts about That's a great point.
I think and I think it's too often
(03:08):
we run into circumstances where people that in
that nervous energy or whatever.
Yeah.
They just and sometimes it's anxiety, right?
Sure.
Well, maybe I you know, do we have
enough to cover these issues?
Is there cash?
Is there liquidity?
We got to get the life insurance moving.
We got to move the IRAs or, you
(03:31):
know, whatever.
They start jumping right in and thinking, oh,
let's let's get into crisis mode and address
these things, right?
And really, generally, those things that we're going
to discuss and some that you've mentioned, they
are not an emergency.
I mean, there's no like, we need to
do this today.
It's good.
(03:52):
It's good to get organized.
It's good to move forward.
But none of them are an emergency.
So give yourself some, you know, give yourself
some leeway, some grace to take care of
the important things first and certainly get organized
and move forward and get the details done
and do the planning.
But don't put extra anxiety on yourself.
(04:13):
And I do think, you know, this maybe
prelude, you know, does lead to the idea
that it's important to do some for planning
and forward planning in advance of some of
these kind of circumstances when it comes to
the estate planning, when it comes to having
liquidity reserves, having some some important documents, maybe
(04:35):
some guidance for whoever's coming in behind you,
you know, to know what there is, where
to find it, you know, some of those
kind of things.
But, you know, I think that's really a
part of that thought process is the preparations
that one can do for their family members.
(04:57):
Well, it's an excellent point, Chris, because, you
know, the two the two ends of this
situation is someone who does a lot of
planning communicates the plan to the executor, to
the trustee, whatever it would be, to the
family members.
And so everybody kind of knows what the
plan is, knows where the documents are, knows
who the attorney is, know who the financial
advisor is.
(05:18):
And so it's that's one scenario, which is
actually a gift you give to your family
to to be prepared for your for your
own death and to be clear on what
you want, how you want things handled and
have liquidity.
So there's no one stressing about how the
light's going to stay on at that house
or mom's house versus the other the other
(05:39):
scenario, which we see probably as frequently as
the plan scenario is that no one knows
anything.
No one knows if there's a state plan.
No one knows the passwords to any of
the online accounts.
No one knows if there's a safety deposit
box.
And that creates a huge amount, a lot
of anxiety, avoidable anxiety, avoidable.
(06:01):
Yeah, that's why I say it's a gift
to your family.
If you if you do the proper estate
planning and you include family members where appropriate
and really take that off of that burden,
if you will, of putting that onto your
family members when they're already in some type
of grief, it is common for one partner,
(06:27):
spouse, you know, to be more engaged.
And it is common for one spouse to
be less engaged in the financial life.
It's not to say that's always the case.
We run into some families where it's very
much mutually involved.
And, you know, Jeff, you talk about how
you and your wife have regular a review
(06:49):
of things together.
And so there's a there's a good familiarity
with all this stuff.
Yes.
But I think, you know, not everyone has
that.
And oftentimes when it's the surviving spouse who
is left with the I don't I don't
deal with this stuff.
(07:09):
It's foreign to me.
He she did all of that.
It can be very stress filled because now
it's suddenly I have to learn something I've
been putting off for, you know, all these
years and never really wanted to know because
that was their thing, you know, so it
can add stress.
But it is, I think, important for there
(07:31):
to be some involvement to the point where
there's at least sufficient awareness of some of
these things.
And the more you can do some of
that, even on the periphery, the better you
are when the time comes that you step
into that role of I now I need
(07:52):
to be more involved, it's not as uncomfortable,
maybe, or overwhelming about, you know, we've been
dealing with volatile markets lately.
Well, that's something that if you've never done
it before, suddenly it becomes really anxious, ridden
in a time when you're like, do I
(08:12):
have enough?
Will it will be able to make ends
meet?
And so, you know, all the things that
people do in this time when they are
grieving.
So, yeah, just try to share some of
that.
Not only the hey, this is where my
important documents are kept and here's a letter
of instruction, you know, who to call when
(08:34):
something happens, which is a really good idea.
That'd be great.
Right.
You know, but OK, so, Jeff, Russ, I
think you wanted to add something.
Am I right?
Well, I guess just to Jeff's point, I
think there's such a level of overwhelm, whether
it's a spouse or a parent or especially
(08:55):
if it's a sudden passing, you know, there's
so much going on.
You have to call family members, you start
getting letters, you you know, and then you
have to think about funeral arrangements and these
types of things.
And especially if it's, you know, one person
or a couple of people, it's it's a
lot.
It's a lot to deal with, let alone
(09:15):
the financial.
And the immediacy of it is, oh, we've
got funeral arrangements.
We've got to come up with an obituary,
exactly, eulogies and all the things that go
into that immediacy of.
The passing and all the logistics involved on
top of the emotional grief.
Yeah, it's a lot to a lot to
(09:37):
deal with.
So so so usually the financial can take
a backseat to that.
It doesn't need to be addressed until after
that has been done.
Although I do see, by the way, it
seems like people have a longer period from
the time of one's passing to.
It seems more common to me that culturally,
(09:59):
you know what I mean?
Yep, I see it like a celebration of
life, you know, within a week or so.
Suddenly, you know, people are going weeks and
months between the time of passing to some
of those very common.
We're going to a service on Saturday and
(10:20):
the lady has been deceased for probably two
months.
Yeah, yeah.
Isn't that interesting?
Well, in that case, you might be needing
to deal with some of the financials a
little sooner, right?
Not in that instance, but most instances you're
dealing with this, you know, get through the
(10:42):
grieving, the immediacy of all of that.
Then let's turn our attention to some of
the financial implications.
Now, we can talk about maybe some of
the things that are common things people want
to deal with.
I mean, probably the first and most obvious
is you need to obtain a death certificate
(11:03):
that's usually provided through the funeral home in
the process.
They usually provide.
They do.
And one piece of advice from not only
myself, but other people that I know have
gone through this order more than you think
you need.
Yeah, there's a cost for a death certificate.
(11:24):
You may not be aware of this, but
an actual embossed or whatever they are, you
know, death certificate.
There's a charge to obtain those.
Some people tend to be a little bit
hesitant to say, oh, how many do I
really need?
But so, you know.
Yeah.
Don't order one, you know, just to think
you can photocopy it because many institutions require
(11:47):
an original.
Right.
So who might be examples of people that
would require a death certificate?
Jeff?
Well, certainly any governmental agency, you know, depending
if you're applying for survivor benefits on a
pension, perhaps, or maybe you're going to look
at survivor benefits on Social Security.
Any governmental, the Veterans Association, Veterans Administration, they
(12:11):
would be they'd want originals.
And I think there's some, you know, brokerage
firms and other financial institutions that want to,
you know, and just your life insurance.
Oh, definitely.
Yeah.
And there's two types of by the way,
there's two types of death certificates.
One has the cause of death and all
the details and one does not have that.
(12:34):
So good point.
Circumstances, maybe you don't necessarily need that information.
That's right.
So if that's one of your concerns about,
you know, sharing death certificates, there is a
short version, a long version.
And I believe that the you know, the
governmental agencies certainly will take a short version.
A life insurance may require a long version
(12:55):
depending on the cause of death and depending
on the policy type.
Right.
Yeah.
Not sure.
Good point.
That's a tidbit I hadn't even thought of.
Yeah.
I think there's a temptation to maybe be
hesitant to inform the pension company and the
(13:15):
Social Security that there's been a passing because
it's like there's income coming in that might
be changed or disrupted, but guess what?
It's the law and Social Security is one
of those mandated when there's a death certificate
filed, it automatically goes to Social Security Administration.
(13:38):
So there's not a lot of people 300
years old.
Well, I'm not saying there's not flaws in
the system.
I couldn't resist.
I know.
Or data entry mistakes.
Right.
Yeah.
But yes, you have to report these things
in a timely manner.
And, you know, we do see in the
news some stories that people who passed away
and, you know, people don't report it.
(13:59):
And things get Social Security fraud and it
does happen.
But if you go to a funeral home
and report, you know, and ask for a
death certificate, which it's going to get back
to so you may as well do it.
Right.
And yeah.
And just you don't want to be in
a position where you have to pay back
substantial sums if you, you know, delayed very
(14:21):
long.
You know, I mean, things don't necessarily happen
instantaneously, as we said.
But you don't necessarily want to be in
arrears for six months or a year or
whatever, because that gets clawed back and you're
you know, you end up having to repay
that money and you don't want to have
spent it and need it and, you know,
(14:42):
all that kind of thing.
So.
OK, so in terms of life insurance, I've
been on the other side of this as
a life insurance agent early in my career
when we've had a death claim and delivering
a check to a family.
These days, I think mostly it comes in
the form of some kind of an account
(15:04):
that's an interest bearing account that you can
write checks against or whatever.
But, you know, same same concept, that notion
of having those resources that have been planned
for.
And and I find that at least in
the past, when I've been involved in this,
it seemed to happen generally pretty quickly.
(15:26):
Russ, did you have life insurance involved in
your family story that was it something that
happened quickly in terms of getting the death
benefit?
Well, you know, you need the like Jeff
said, you need a death certificate.
So that took a little while.
And then if the submitted and then it
did take it wasn't immediate.
And I know some insurance policies offer like
(15:49):
advance.
Oh, yeah.
But there's usually some cost associated.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it's definitely not ideal, but it did
take some time, probably two or three weeks,
I would say.
So, yeah, everything sorted.
Yeah.
Getting a death certificate and everything.
I hear that and I think, well, that's
pretty quick.
Well, like if you need the access to
(16:12):
the funds right away, if there wasn't proper
planning done to get accounts in order and
to get beneficiary designations on file, you know,
it can change the dynamics.
But it felt like a long time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When you're when you're in that moment trying
to deal with it and plan for paying
some bills and stuff, probably create stress.
(16:34):
Banking is another topic that's challenging because it
depends.
Yeah.
But on one level, you kind of want
to keep those accounts open as funds come
in.
And I guess if you have a joint
account, that can be much more efficient.
(16:55):
On the other hand, you know, if you're
getting checks made payable to a deceased person,
how do you process those?
Well, I think it's really important that you
keep the bank account open.
And, you know, even if there's money going
out, it's the bank account can tell you
a lot about the person's life and what
(17:17):
their obligations are.
A lot of people have auto pay set
up for every bill that they have.
So if nothing else, you're gaining information about
what what you have to take care of
if you're the executive for, you know, in
this case.
That's a good point.
Auto pay, right?
Yeah.
(17:37):
These kind of things can be huge.
I went to an FBA talk recently and
I think we'll try to get the presenter
as a guest sometime on our show.
And she was talking about, you know, digital
footprint and all this kind of thing.
And I mean, your automatic banking is one
example, and she was talking about a widower
(17:58):
who he hadn't been paying the bills because
it wasn't one of the bills he was
used to paying and suddenly turned off, you
know, and it's like, oh, yeah, that was
paid out of her account, you know, that
kind of thing.
So you can imagine circumstances like that where,
you know, if you're not keeping those accounts
(18:20):
active, but better to be, you know, this
is, again, for planning, make sure your accounts
are joint accounts or in a trust or,
you know, some mechanism that is appropriate for
at your passing that can make those funds
accessible readily, not require probate.
(18:40):
You know, that kind of thing.
One of the issues to the bank accounts
and other accounts is passwords.
Yeah.
You know, more and more everything we do
is online and passwords are something that people
either have one and they keep in their
head or they use a Google password or,
you know, some other type of password management
(19:02):
system.
Right.
They write them down on a sticky note
somewhere that you'll never find.
So it's because I can relate to that.
Yeah, sure.
It's a tricky question, though.
I mean, we're inundated with protect your passwords,
however, right.
And then we're asking you, don't forget to
(19:22):
share your passwords in case you pass away.
Right.
And don't don't write down words, but share
your.
Yeah, right.
So it's possibly the virtues of one of
those programs that helps to remind you, remember
passwords, but does someone else know how to
get access to that?
And do they know that you're using it?
Right.
Yeah.
So it's a it's a delicate issue, but
(19:44):
it is it is a burden that you're
putting on your executor or your heirs or
the people that you're asking to take care
of, you know, maybe a surviving spouses that
you have access not just to the funds,
but to the actual information that you need.
Right.
To manage.
Well, we'll come back and do a deeper
(20:04):
dive on digital assets and planning for that
on another show, because I think that's a
very full topic in and of itself.
So going back to, you know, when a
parent passes, you know, one of the obvious
things is to make sure that the home
is secure.
Right.
Who has keys besides you or do you?
(20:26):
Right.
But, you know, but making sure that you
have that kind of limited, you know, as
to who can access things.
I was surprised that who had keys after
my mother passed virtually virtually everyone.
Yeah, well, and particularly if you have multiple
(20:49):
family members, it would be natural for maybe
multiple family members to have keys, but if
you are the executor of the estate, you
might want to have limits on who has
access to what who's taking what from the
home so that it goes by plan, you
(21:09):
know, what's that?
Change the locks.
Change the locks.
Yeah, probably.
Probably the right answer, because you don't know.
No, it could be lots of people that
aren't family as well.
Could be a repair person that had a
key for a moment and no one got
it back.
Yeah, could be.
Who knows?
Secure the property and also the property, the
(21:31):
valuables inside the property.
Yeah, right.
You know, that's also important to consider, especially
if you don't know who has access and
turn off the water.
Yeah.
Oh, good point.
Yeah.
Laughing because I'm I'm notoriously been bad with
that on our own house with the change
(21:52):
in seasons, much better now after learning a
lesson.
What about things like Medicare or the Veterans
Administration?
How how does one go about that?
(22:12):
You know, that becomes another topic to think
about.
Make sure you get these, um, uh, particularly
if there's outstanding costs with regard to medical
expenses late, late in life.
Find and, you know, identify legal documents.
(22:35):
If there is a will, it may be
the guidance of how things are handled for
settling in a state.
Um, and I think what's funny about this,
Jeff, is that far too often people really
don't know what they don't know when it
comes to the settling of an estate.
There's there's a lot involved and we tend
(22:57):
to think, well, I can do this.
You know, it's it's not that big a
deal.
And sometimes that's true.
But there's oftentimes there's things that get overlooked
in that process and there may be reasons
it's advantageous to to deal with it.
Give you an example of something that came
up recently.
The idea of some widow we were talking
(23:19):
with.
If it was a widow or widower.
But anyway, a family we're talking with and
the residents of the house, there was never
anything done to address the do you remember
who this was?
I forgot who it was.
Well, but just the step up in basis
that would be benefited on the house at
(23:41):
the first spouse's passing.
There's never been any steps to make that
notation, make that, you know, materialize that the
virtue of how are we going to get
that benefit of a step up?
And this is was there any appraisal being
(24:01):
done at that time?
Was there a filing of an estate tax
to address these kinds of issues?
Were brokerage accounts changed so that the basis
of investment assets that were jointly owned adjusted
to to include half of that step up
(24:23):
in basis or whatever?
So there's a variety of different circumstances.
So it's hard to speak generically about this.
But these are things that oftentimes people don't
know to do.
But if they don't, it can undermine the
end of paying more taxes is ultimately what
it means.
And they may be benefited by actually seeking
(24:45):
counsel from a professional lawyer who does a
state settlement, you know, kinds of the wills
and trusts.
Just that issue alone would probably save.
And depending on the size of the asset,
the cost of the woods, you know, the
typical household could tip could cost you more
by not getting professional advice.
(25:07):
Yeah, it's a good example, right?
So find those documents, identify who the relevant
person is, who's going to essentially be used
to call it an executor, executrix.
What do they call it now?
Representative, personal representative and identify that and get
that process started, which is a lengthy process.
(25:27):
It requires public notifications and inviting contests.
And it's a judicial process.
So it takes takes time.
What are some other things that people need
to think about?
I have I wrote down one that pretty
interesting to notify the credit bureaus and credit
agencies.
So there's no idea.
(25:49):
Yeah, like the credit fraud.
Yeah, exactly.
That's one I haven't thought of, but it's
the important one.
Yeah.
Sadly, I've read some articles on that.
Russ, you're absolutely right.
And sadly, most of the cases of fraud
are related to the decedent.
Right.
You know, to that point, you got to
(26:10):
cancel credit cards that aren't being used anymore.
You've got to go through the process of,
you know, turning off the electricity or moving
it to a different name or whatever it's
going to be.
But these are things often many of these
considerations, you know, changing the the title to
your IRA, to the beneficiary.
And these are things you probably should do
(26:33):
after you've had that consultation with the attorney
in case there are some decisions that, you
know, this could have implications of the options
of how you might handle some aspect of
the estate, whether it's, you know, whether when
you know what at what level do you
(26:55):
consider the the value of the estate and
what date?
Well, some of these decisions could impact that
prospect as an example.
So that was a good one, I think,
CARS.
CARS is a tough one because it's, you
know, even people who have family trusts, you
(27:16):
know, they've done some work.
So they've they want to avoid probate.
They want to keep it private.
They want an ease of transition and all
the reasons that someone might do a family
trust.
Yeah.
And they put their house into it.
So that makes it easier.
They put their brokerage account into it and
then they kind of move on in life
and say that was done and then they,
(27:37):
you know, get a new car, right?
Or they buy a boat or a mobile
home, you know, an RV or something that
isn't insignificant in value and does have to
go through a process of who gets it.
But if it's, you know, if it's not
in the trust in my scenario here, it
has to go through probate.
And there is a simplified version of probate,
(27:59):
you know, not a full blown probate.
If it's just a simple vehicle, maybe and
not a lot of assets.
It's pretty quick, right?
Right.
But maybe not.
Maybe this person has a lot of toys
or extra things and it can create, you
know, in the other example, I'm kind of
going backwards here, but people create trust and
never fund them.
(28:21):
You know, they go through the whole legal
process.
That's that's actually a great one to bring
up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Elaborate on that, because I think that's often
the case.
People go to the lawyer, they get their
binder, put it on the shelf, kind of
like you do with your tax return.
And then you realize, you know, nine months
later, you're supposed to have been doing these
these estimates on your tax return.
(28:45):
Well, there's things you got to do with
your estate plan.
Yeah, exactly.
They get all the great advice and their
lawyer spent hours and hours protecting their future
and their heirs.
And, you know, they they walk around and
say, we have a family trust.
And even if the lawyer was very, you
know, most lawyers are very good at articulating
like this is step one.
(29:07):
You still have to do right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And here's, you know, I know attorneys who
give their their clients worksheets like here are
the items that should be in this trust
and here's who to contact like I have
a brokerage account, a Schwab.
OK, we'll contact your financial advisor and they
can help you put this asset into the
trust and so forth.
(29:28):
But they just think they're done when they
left the lawyer's office, like your tax example.
And so, you know, 10 years later, they
pass away, unfortunately, and the loved ones know
that they have a trust.
But they have a plan.
There's nothing in it, but they didn't fund
the plan.
So I didn't execute the plan properly, essentially.
(29:50):
Right.
So two two scenarios play out.
One is they have a will and the
will says everything goes to the trust.
But that's still probate because you have a
will cost and time and effort.
Or the will says a whole different scenario
than the trust.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What's going to happen to.
Right.
Yeah.
You know, beneficiaries ABCD and the will and
(30:12):
beneficiaries ABCD EFG and the trust and there's
no assets in the trust.
So therefore the will is going to rule
the day.
And beneficiaries can be very different when it
comes to the plan in the the trust,
the estate plan from perhaps other types of
assets like IRAs or the life insurance or
(30:33):
annuities.
These all have beneficiary designations.
Sometimes they do.
It does.
It's like desirable to include the trust.
Sometimes it's not desirable to include the trust.
So these are things that usually your estate
plan will include some guidance as to how
the estate plan intends for these to be
handled, but you still have to update the
(30:56):
beneficiary designations to make it work in in
concert with what the estate plan was.
And other times people will just do things
kind of differently.
And then you've got these sort of two
different plans kind of happening.
(31:16):
I'm going to just touch on one quick
thing because it's on my mind.
We were talking about it just before coming
in, and that is inherited IRAs.
These are sometimes when you it's different from
a spouse receiving an IRA.
Typically, an individual like a child from a
parent, you have a different kind of IRA.
(31:40):
It's an inherited IRA.
It's it doesn't roll over into your own
IRA.
It's its own animal.
And similarly, when you have a distribution from
it, which you will have presumably for every
year after.
Well, actually, it depends, right?
It depends if your parent died after starting
(32:02):
their required beginning date.
They're they're they're benefit.
They're requiring these solutions.
Then you continue to have to have distribution
requirements and they now have to be done
every year.
And you but by the end of the
10 years, typically you have to have the
(32:25):
whole amount out.
There are some exceptions to this different rules
for different circumstances.
Maybe you're a sibling who inherits an IRA
and you're within 10 years.
That's a different tax treatment.
But in any case, in this scenario, we're
saying typically you have a 10 year withdrawal
treatment, and if the distribution requirements have begun,
(32:48):
you have to keep doing them and in
past years over the last several years.
The IRS hasn't enforced that.
But this year they are.
So if you have an inherited IRA, be
sometimes called a beneficiary, a beneficiary IRA.
If you have one of those and your
parents were subject to RMDs, you're subject to
(33:09):
RMD, make sure you're taking advantage of that.
And the calculation of that is a little
different.
It's not the uniform table.
It's a single life table and it just
works differently.
So get some help if you need it.
But don't overlook it.
Probably more to talk about there.
But yeah, you could accelerate the RMD.
You could you could take all the money.
(33:33):
Oh, absolutely.
Good point.
Yeah.
The IRS is happy for you to pay
the tax on that at any time immediately.
But that you have to do it within
the 10 years for most instances.
If it's a certain kind of trust, it
might be five years, depending on the circumstances.
And, you know, so there are a few
(33:53):
examples of a five year payout period.
And then there are some rare, unique examples
where you can do it over the old
rules, like a lifetime stretch distribution, lifetime of
the beneficiary of the beneficiary.
Yes.
But those are rare now for new deaths,
(34:14):
you know, that kind of thing.
So what was it, 2020 when that changed?
People who had inherited IRA before 2020, you
still may benefit from the stretch IRA rules.
Talk to a professional if you need help.
And again, that's a good example of the
kind of reason why you listen to the
(34:34):
show and the kind of help that good
financial counsel can provide.
We try to help you with some of
that on our show.
So please share that with others.
Good lessons learned, we hope.
And we hope you will share it and
like and helps people find the show.
Share it with a friend.
Makes a difference.
(34:55):
And we hopefully you don't want to be
that person who says late in life.
How'd you how'd you come to do this?
And the answer would be, I listened to
something more.
And why didn't you share it with me?
Right.
Right.
So it's speaking of sharing, Chris, in the
show notes, I'm going to attach a checklist
as well as a article by Wealth Enhancement
(35:18):
Group that Russ brought to our attention that
might be a little bit more information for
you.
So the checklist.
Tell about that checklist.
It's a checklist of things that you would
think about doing if the parent died.
And it would, you know, a lot of
them, a common sense that you're going to
know about, you're going to think about.
But some of them aren't so common.
(35:40):
It might just save you some time and
save you some stress in a very difficult
situation.
You know what, Jeff?
We also have a recent checklist about a
parent that's aging.
We do.
Why don't we include that, too?
Just if it's helpful, people might be dealing
with different stages along the way.
This might be a tool that could be
(36:00):
a resource as well.
Yeah, we have a lot of resources and
feel free to reach out to us.
We can provide these resources pretty quickly via
email to you.
If you're watching a video and maybe don't
have access to the show notes.
Please reach out to us.
We're happy to help.
Let's just review that.
You can find us on YouTube through the
Wealth Enhancement Group's YouTube channel.
You can find us on something more with
(36:21):
Chris Boyd dot com, our Web page.
And of course, you can find us through
whether it's the audio podcast, wherever you like
to listen to podcasts, you can find us
there.
Please share that wherever you like to listen.
Share it with others.
Thanks, everybody.
Until next time, keep striving for something more.
Thank you for listening to something more with
(36:43):
Chris Boyd.
Call us for help, whether it's for financial
planning or portfolio management, insurance concerns or those
quality of life issues that make the money
matters matter, whatever's on your mind, visit us
at something more with Chris Boyd dot com
or call us toll free at eight six
six seven seven one eight nine zero one
(37:04):
or send us your questions to A.M
.R. dash info at Wealth Enhancement dot com.
You're listening to something more with Chris Boyd.
Financial talk show, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services and
Jay Christopher Boyd provide investment advice on an
individual basis to clients only.
Proper advice depends on a complete analysis of
all facts and circumstances.
The information given on this program is general
financial comments and cannot be relied upon as
(37:26):
pertaining to your specific situation.
Wealth Enhancement Group cannot guarantee that using the
information from this show will generate profits or
ensure freedom from loss.
Listeners should consult their own financial advisors or
conduct their own due diligence before making any
financial decisions.
Welcome to something more with Chris Boyd.
Chris Boyd is a certified financial planner practitioner
and senior vice president financial advisor at Wealth
Enhancement Group, one of the nation's largest registered
investment advisors.
We call it something more because we'd like
to talk not only about those important dollar
and cents issues but also the quality of
life issues that make the money matters matter.
(00:22):
Here he is, your fulfillment facilitator, your partner
in prosperity, advising clients on Cape Cod and
across the country.
Here's your host, Jay Christopher Boyd.
All right, joining me today is Jeff Perry
and Russ Paul.
We are all from the AMR team at
Wealth Enhancement Group.
Thanks for being with us.
(00:42):
And today, you know, we had occasion where
we had a client who was talking to
us about the passing of a parent and
the thought occurred to me that this this
is not unique.
We run into circumstances like this with some,
you know, frequency.
Not, you know, not all the time, of
(01:02):
course, but, you know, where a family member
dies and there's a need for thinking about
some of the planning and issues that come
out of that.
And we thought we'd talk about that today
on our show.
Try to give you some helpful, thoughtful things
to consider as you embark on that kind
(01:24):
of a circumstance.
Jeff, do you want to just comment a
little bit about this?
I mean, you've been through it, too, I'm
sure.
So I have.
It's been five years next month since my
mother passed.
And, you know, I think, first of all,
we should address kind of the emotional thing.
I think there's a tendency when we have
(01:45):
a loss of that significance to, you know,
want to start taking care of the details
and getting into whatever the things, you know,
many of these things we're going to talk
about today.
But it's important that you allow yourself time
to grieve.
You allow yourself to have those emotions and
that you surround yourself with emotional support and
(02:06):
not just throw yourself into the logistics and
the details.
Well, that's a really good point.
I think far too often people are prone
to just try to maybe it's nervous energy,
busy energy, but they tend to jump right
into it and want to resolve everything instantaneously.
I think it's because they're trying, you know,
they know they can't fix the situation.
(02:26):
They know they can't bring mom back and,
you know, your dad back, whatever.
And I know you've been you lost your
dad.
So you have a reference to this as
well.
So we kind of focus on what we
can control.
Right.
And so we can control about doing paperwork.
We can control about checking on the house
or checking on the surviving spouse if there
is one or whatever it is.
(02:47):
And so we just throw ourself into that
and we don't allow ourselves to really kind
of settle into what's happened and, you know,
the emotional side of it and taking care
of the family members and, you know, the
emotional side of it, not just the details,
but the details are important.
And I know we're going to focus on
those.
But yeah, I just wanted to have my
opening thoughts about That's a great point.
I think and I think it's too often
(03:08):
we run into circumstances where people that in
that nervous energy or whatever.
Yeah.
They just and sometimes it's anxiety, right?
Sure.
Well, maybe I you know, do we have
enough to cover these issues?
Is there cash?
Is there liquidity?
We got to get the life insurance moving.
We got to move the IRAs or, you
(03:31):
know, whatever.
They start jumping right in and thinking, oh,
let's let's get into crisis mode and address
these things, right?
And really, generally, those things that we're going
to discuss and some that you've mentioned, they
are not an emergency.
I mean, there's no like, we need to
do this today.
It's good.
(03:52):
It's good to get organized.
It's good to move forward.
But none of them are an emergency.
So give yourself some, you know, give yourself
some leeway, some grace to take care of
the important things first and certainly get organized
and move forward and get the details done
and do the planning.
But don't put extra anxiety on yourself.
(04:13):
And I do think, you know, this maybe
prelude, you know, does lead to the idea
that it's important to do some for planning
and forward planning in advance of some of
these kind of circumstances when it comes to
the estate planning, when it comes to having
liquidity reserves, having some some important documents, maybe
(04:35):
some guidance for whoever's coming in behind you,
you know, to know what there is, where
to find it, you know, some of those
kind of things.
But, you know, I think that's really a
part of that thought process is the preparations
that one can do for their family members.
(04:57):
Well, it's an excellent point, Chris, because, you
know, the two the two ends of this
situation is someone who does a lot of
planning communicates the plan to the executor, to
the trustee, whatever it would be, to the
family members.
And so everybody kind of knows what the
plan is, knows where the documents are, knows
who the attorney is, know who the financial
advisor is.
(05:18):
And so it's that's one scenario, which is
actually a gift you give to your family
to to be prepared for your for your
own death and to be clear on what
you want, how you want things handled and
have liquidity.
So there's no one stressing about how the
light's going to stay on at that house
or mom's house versus the other the other
(05:39):
scenario, which we see probably as frequently as
the plan scenario is that no one knows
anything.
No one knows if there's a state plan.
No one knows the passwords to any of
the online accounts.
No one knows if there's a safety deposit
box.
And that creates a huge amount, a lot
of anxiety, avoidable anxiety, avoidable.
(06:01):
Yeah, that's why I say it's a gift
to your family.
If you if you do the proper estate
planning and you include family members where appropriate
and really take that off of that burden,
if you will, of putting that onto your
family members when they're already in some type
of grief, it is common for one partner,
(06:27):
spouse, you know, to be more engaged.
And it is common for one spouse to
be less engaged in the financial life.
It's not to say that's always the case.
We run into some families where it's very
much mutually involved.
And, you know, Jeff, you talk about how
you and your wife have regular a review
(06:49):
of things together.
And so there's a there's a good familiarity
with all this stuff.
Yes.
But I think, you know, not everyone has
that.
And oftentimes when it's the surviving spouse who
is left with the I don't I don't
deal with this stuff.
(07:09):
It's foreign to me.
He she did all of that.
It can be very stress filled because now
it's suddenly I have to learn something I've
been putting off for, you know, all these
years and never really wanted to know because
that was their thing, you know, so it
can add stress.
But it is, I think, important for there
(07:31):
to be some involvement to the point where
there's at least sufficient awareness of some of
these things.
And the more you can do some of
that, even on the periphery, the better you
are when the time comes that you step
into that role of I now I need
(07:52):
to be more involved, it's not as uncomfortable,
maybe, or overwhelming about, you know, we've been
dealing with volatile markets lately.
Well, that's something that if you've never done
it before, suddenly it becomes really anxious, ridden
in a time when you're like, do I
(08:12):
have enough?
Will it will be able to make ends
meet?
And so, you know, all the things that
people do in this time when they are
grieving.
So, yeah, just try to share some of
that.
Not only the hey, this is where my
important documents are kept and here's a letter
of instruction, you know, who to call when
(08:34):
something happens, which is a really good idea.
That'd be great.
Right.
You know, but OK, so, Jeff, Russ, I
think you wanted to add something.
Am I right?
Well, I guess just to Jeff's point, I
think there's such a level of overwhelm, whether
it's a spouse or a parent or especially
(08:55):
if it's a sudden passing, you know, there's
so much going on.
You have to call family members, you start
getting letters, you you know, and then you
have to think about funeral arrangements and these
types of things.
And especially if it's, you know, one person
or a couple of people, it's it's a
lot.
It's a lot to deal with, let alone
(09:15):
the financial.
And the immediacy of it is, oh, we've
got funeral arrangements.
We've got to come up with an obituary,
exactly, eulogies and all the things that go
into that immediacy of.
The passing and all the logistics involved on
top of the emotional grief.
Yeah, it's a lot to a lot to
(09:37):
deal with.
So so so usually the financial can take
a backseat to that.
It doesn't need to be addressed until after
that has been done.
Although I do see, by the way, it
seems like people have a longer period from
the time of one's passing to.
It seems more common to me that culturally,
(09:59):
you know what I mean?
Yep, I see it like a celebration of
life, you know, within a week or so.
Suddenly, you know, people are going weeks and
months between the time of passing to some
of those very common.
We're going to a service on Saturday and
(10:20):
the lady has been deceased for probably two
months.
Yeah, yeah.
Isn't that interesting?
Well, in that case, you might be needing
to deal with some of the financials a
little sooner, right?
Not in that instance, but most instances you're
dealing with this, you know, get through the
(10:42):
grieving, the immediacy of all of that.
Then let's turn our attention to some of
the financial implications.
Now, we can talk about maybe some of
the things that are common things people want
to deal with.
I mean, probably the first and most obvious
is you need to obtain a death certificate
(11:03):
that's usually provided through the funeral home in
the process.
They usually provide.
They do.
And one piece of advice from not only
myself, but other people that I know have
gone through this order more than you think
you need.
Yeah, there's a cost for a death certificate.
(11:24):
You may not be aware of this, but
an actual embossed or whatever they are, you
know, death certificate.
There's a charge to obtain those.
Some people tend to be a little bit
hesitant to say, oh, how many do I
really need?
But so, you know.
Yeah.
Don't order one, you know, just to think
you can photocopy it because many institutions require
(11:47):
an original.
Right.
So who might be examples of people that
would require a death certificate?
Jeff?
Well, certainly any governmental agency, you know, depending
if you're applying for survivor benefits on a
pension, perhaps, or maybe you're going to look
at survivor benefits on Social Security.
Any governmental, the Veterans Association, Veterans Administration, they
(12:11):
would be they'd want originals.
And I think there's some, you know, brokerage
firms and other financial institutions that want to,
you know, and just your life insurance.
Oh, definitely.
Yeah.
And there's two types of by the way,
there's two types of death certificates.
One has the cause of death and all
the details and one does not have that.
(12:34):
So good point.
Circumstances, maybe you don't necessarily need that information.
That's right.
So if that's one of your concerns about,
you know, sharing death certificates, there is a
short version, a long version.
And I believe that the you know, the
governmental agencies certainly will take a short version.
A life insurance may require a long version
(12:55):
depending on the cause of death and depending
on the policy type.
Right.
Yeah.
Not sure.
Good point.
That's a tidbit I hadn't even thought of.
Yeah.
I think there's a temptation to maybe be
hesitant to inform the pension company and the
(13:15):
Social Security that there's been a passing because
it's like there's income coming in that might
be changed or disrupted, but guess what?
It's the law and Social Security is one
of those mandated when there's a death certificate
filed, it automatically goes to Social Security Administration.
(13:38):
So there's not a lot of people 300
years old.
Well, I'm not saying there's not flaws in
the system.
I couldn't resist.
I know.
Or data entry mistakes.
Right.
Yeah.
But yes, you have to report these things
in a timely manner.
And, you know, we do see in the
news some stories that people who passed away
and, you know, people don't report it.
(13:59):
And things get Social Security fraud and it
does happen.
But if you go to a funeral home
and report, you know, and ask for a
death certificate, which it's going to get back
to so you may as well do it.
Right.
And yeah.
And just you don't want to be in
a position where you have to pay back
substantial sums if you, you know, delayed very
(14:21):
long.
You know, I mean, things don't necessarily happen
instantaneously, as we said.
But you don't necessarily want to be in
arrears for six months or a year or
whatever, because that gets clawed back and you're
you know, you end up having to repay
that money and you don't want to have
spent it and need it and, you know,
(14:42):
all that kind of thing.
So.
OK, so in terms of life insurance, I've
been on the other side of this as
a life insurance agent early in my career
when we've had a death claim and delivering
a check to a family.
These days, I think mostly it comes in
the form of some kind of an account
(15:04):
that's an interest bearing account that you can
write checks against or whatever.
But, you know, same same concept, that notion
of having those resources that have been planned
for.
And and I find that at least in
the past, when I've been involved in this,
it seemed to happen generally pretty quickly.
(15:26):
Russ, did you have life insurance involved in
your family story that was it something that
happened quickly in terms of getting the death
benefit?
Well, you know, you need the like Jeff
said, you need a death certificate.
So that took a little while.
And then if the submitted and then it
did take it wasn't immediate.
And I know some insurance policies offer like
(15:49):
advance.
Oh, yeah.
But there's usually some cost associated.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it's definitely not ideal, but it did
take some time, probably two or three weeks,
I would say.
So, yeah, everything sorted.
Yeah.
Getting a death certificate and everything.
I hear that and I think, well, that's
pretty quick.
Well, like if you need the access to
(16:12):
the funds right away, if there wasn't proper
planning done to get accounts in order and
to get beneficiary designations on file, you know,
it can change the dynamics.
But it felt like a long time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When you're when you're in that moment trying
to deal with it and plan for paying
some bills and stuff, probably create stress.
(16:34):
Banking is another topic that's challenging because it
depends.
Yeah.
But on one level, you kind of want
to keep those accounts open as funds come
in.
And I guess if you have a joint
account, that can be much more efficient.
(16:55):
On the other hand, you know, if you're
getting checks made payable to a deceased person,
how do you process those?
Well, I think it's really important that you
keep the bank account open.
And, you know, even if there's money going
out, it's the bank account can tell you
a lot about the person's life and what
(17:17):
their obligations are.
A lot of people have auto pay set
up for every bill that they have.
So if nothing else, you're gaining information about
what what you have to take care of
if you're the executive for, you know, in
this case.
That's a good point.
Auto pay, right?
Yeah.
(17:37):
These kind of things can be huge.
I went to an FBA talk recently and
I think we'll try to get the presenter
as a guest sometime on our show.
And she was talking about, you know, digital
footprint and all this kind of thing.
And I mean, your automatic banking is one
example, and she was talking about a widower
(17:58):
who he hadn't been paying the bills because
it wasn't one of the bills he was
used to paying and suddenly turned off, you
know, and it's like, oh, yeah, that was
paid out of her account, you know, that
kind of thing.
So you can imagine circumstances like that where,
you know, if you're not keeping those accounts
(18:20):
active, but better to be, you know, this
is, again, for planning, make sure your accounts
are joint accounts or in a trust or,
you know, some mechanism that is appropriate for
at your passing that can make those funds
accessible readily, not require probate.
(18:40):
You know, that kind of thing.
One of the issues to the bank accounts
and other accounts is passwords.
Yeah.
You know, more and more everything we do
is online and passwords are something that people
either have one and they keep in their
head or they use a Google password or,
you know, some other type of password management
(19:02):
system.
Right.
They write them down on a sticky note
somewhere that you'll never find.
So it's because I can relate to that.
Yeah, sure.
It's a tricky question, though.
I mean, we're inundated with protect your passwords,
however, right.
And then we're asking you, don't forget to
(19:22):
share your passwords in case you pass away.
Right.
And don't don't write down words, but share
your.
Yeah, right.
So it's possibly the virtues of one of
those programs that helps to remind you, remember
passwords, but does someone else know how to
get access to that?
And do they know that you're using it?
Right.
Yeah.
So it's a it's a delicate issue, but
(19:44):
it is it is a burden that you're
putting on your executor or your heirs or
the people that you're asking to take care
of, you know, maybe a surviving spouses that
you have access not just to the funds,
but to the actual information that you need.
Right.
To manage.
Well, we'll come back and do a deeper
(20:04):
dive on digital assets and planning for that
on another show, because I think that's a
very full topic in and of itself.
So going back to, you know, when a
parent passes, you know, one of the obvious
things is to make sure that the home
is secure.
Right.
Who has keys besides you or do you?
(20:26):
Right.
But, you know, but making sure that you
have that kind of limited, you know, as
to who can access things.
I was surprised that who had keys after
my mother passed virtually virtually everyone.
Yeah, well, and particularly if you have multiple
(20:49):
family members, it would be natural for maybe
multiple family members to have keys, but if
you are the executor of the estate, you
might want to have limits on who has
access to what who's taking what from the
home so that it goes by plan, you
(21:09):
know, what's that?
Change the locks.
Change the locks.
Yeah, probably.
Probably the right answer, because you don't know.
No, it could be lots of people that
aren't family as well.
Could be a repair person that had a
key for a moment and no one got
it back.
Yeah, could be.
Who knows?
Secure the property and also the property, the
(21:31):
valuables inside the property.
Yeah, right.
You know, that's also important to consider, especially
if you don't know who has access and
turn off the water.
Yeah.
Oh, good point.
Yeah.
Laughing because I'm I'm notoriously been bad with
that on our own house with the change
(21:52):
in seasons, much better now after learning a
lesson.
What about things like Medicare or the Veterans
Administration?
How how does one go about that?
(22:12):
You know, that becomes another topic to think
about.
Make sure you get these, um, uh, particularly
if there's outstanding costs with regard to medical
expenses late, late in life.
Find and, you know, identify legal documents.
(22:35):
If there is a will, it may be
the guidance of how things are handled for
settling in a state.
Um, and I think what's funny about this,
Jeff, is that far too often people really
don't know what they don't know when it
comes to the settling of an estate.
There's there's a lot involved and we tend
(22:57):
to think, well, I can do this.
You know, it's it's not that big a
deal.
And sometimes that's true.
But there's oftentimes there's things that get overlooked
in that process and there may be reasons
it's advantageous to to deal with it.
Give you an example of something that came
up recently.
The idea of some widow we were talking
(23:19):
with.
If it was a widow or widower.
But anyway, a family we're talking with and
the residents of the house, there was never
anything done to address the do you remember
who this was?
I forgot who it was.
Well, but just the step up in basis
that would be benefited on the house at
(23:41):
the first spouse's passing.
There's never been any steps to make that
notation, make that, you know, materialize that the
virtue of how are we going to get
that benefit of a step up?
And this is was there any appraisal being
(24:01):
done at that time?
Was there a filing of an estate tax
to address these kinds of issues?
Were brokerage accounts changed so that the basis
of investment assets that were jointly owned adjusted
to to include half of that step up
(24:23):
in basis or whatever?
So there's a variety of different circumstances.
So it's hard to speak generically about this.
But these are things that oftentimes people don't
know to do.
But if they don't, it can undermine the
end of paying more taxes is ultimately what
it means.
And they may be benefited by actually seeking
(24:45):
counsel from a professional lawyer who does a
state settlement, you know, kinds of the wills
and trusts.
Just that issue alone would probably save.
And depending on the size of the asset,
the cost of the woods, you know, the
typical household could tip could cost you more
by not getting professional advice.
(25:07):
Yeah, it's a good example, right?
So find those documents, identify who the relevant
person is, who's going to essentially be used
to call it an executor, executrix.
What do they call it now?
Representative, personal representative and identify that and get
that process started, which is a lengthy process.
(25:27):
It requires public notifications and inviting contests.
And it's a judicial process.
So it takes takes time.
What are some other things that people need
to think about?
I have I wrote down one that pretty
interesting to notify the credit bureaus and credit
agencies.
So there's no idea.
(25:49):
Yeah, like the credit fraud.
Yeah, exactly.
That's one I haven't thought of, but it's
the important one.
Yeah.
Sadly, I've read some articles on that.
Russ, you're absolutely right.
And sadly, most of the cases of fraud
are related to the decedent.
Right.
You know, to that point, you got to
(26:10):
cancel credit cards that aren't being used anymore.
You've got to go through the process of,
you know, turning off the electricity or moving
it to a different name or whatever it's
going to be.
But these are things often many of these
considerations, you know, changing the the title to
your IRA, to the beneficiary.
And these are things you probably should do
(26:33):
after you've had that consultation with the attorney
in case there are some decisions that, you
know, this could have implications of the options
of how you might handle some aspect of
the estate, whether it's, you know, whether when
you know what at what level do you
(26:55):
consider the the value of the estate and
what date?
Well, some of these decisions could impact that
prospect as an example.
So that was a good one, I think,
CARS.
CARS is a tough one because it's, you
know, even people who have family trusts, you
(27:16):
know, they've done some work.
So they've they want to avoid probate.
They want to keep it private.
They want an ease of transition and all
the reasons that someone might do a family
trust.
Yeah.
And they put their house into it.
So that makes it easier.
They put their brokerage account into it and
then they kind of move on in life
and say that was done and then they,
(27:37):
you know, get a new car, right?
Or they buy a boat or a mobile
home, you know, an RV or something that
isn't insignificant in value and does have to
go through a process of who gets it.
But if it's, you know, if it's not
in the trust in my scenario here, it
has to go through probate.
And there is a simplified version of probate,
(27:59):
you know, not a full blown probate.
If it's just a simple vehicle, maybe and
not a lot of assets.
It's pretty quick, right?
Right.
But maybe not.
Maybe this person has a lot of toys
or extra things and it can create, you
know, in the other example, I'm kind of
going backwards here, but people create trust and
never fund them.
(28:21):
You know, they go through the whole legal
process.
That's that's actually a great one to bring
up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Elaborate on that, because I think that's often
the case.
People go to the lawyer, they get their
binder, put it on the shelf, kind of
like you do with your tax return.
And then you realize, you know, nine months
later, you're supposed to have been doing these
these estimates on your tax return.
(28:45):
Well, there's things you got to do with
your estate plan.
Yeah, exactly.
They get all the great advice and their
lawyer spent hours and hours protecting their future
and their heirs.
And, you know, they they walk around and
say, we have a family trust.
And even if the lawyer was very, you
know, most lawyers are very good at articulating
like this is step one.
(29:07):
You still have to do right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And here's, you know, I know attorneys who
give their their clients worksheets like here are
the items that should be in this trust
and here's who to contact like I have
a brokerage account, a Schwab.
OK, we'll contact your financial advisor and they
can help you put this asset into the
trust and so forth.
(29:28):
But they just think they're done when they
left the lawyer's office, like your tax example.
And so, you know, 10 years later, they
pass away, unfortunately, and the loved ones know
that they have a trust.
But they have a plan.
There's nothing in it, but they didn't fund
the plan.
So I didn't execute the plan properly, essentially.
(29:50):
Right.
So two two scenarios play out.
One is they have a will and the
will says everything goes to the trust.
But that's still probate because you have a
will cost and time and effort.
Or the will says a whole different scenario
than the trust.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What's going to happen to.
Right.
Yeah.
You know, beneficiaries ABCD and the will and
(30:12):
beneficiaries ABCD EFG and the trust and there's
no assets in the trust.
So therefore the will is going to rule
the day.
And beneficiaries can be very different when it
comes to the plan in the the trust,
the estate plan from perhaps other types of
assets like IRAs or the life insurance or
(30:33):
annuities.
These all have beneficiary designations.
Sometimes they do.
It does.
It's like desirable to include the trust.
Sometimes it's not desirable to include the trust.
So these are things that usually your estate
plan will include some guidance as to how
the estate plan intends for these to be
handled, but you still have to update the
(30:56):
beneficiary designations to make it work in in
concert with what the estate plan was.
And other times people will just do things
kind of differently.
And then you've got these sort of two
different plans kind of happening.
(31:16):
I'm going to just touch on one quick
thing because it's on my mind.
We were talking about it just before coming
in, and that is inherited IRAs.
These are sometimes when you it's different from
a spouse receiving an IRA.
Typically, an individual like a child from a
parent, you have a different kind of IRA.
(31:40):
It's an inherited IRA.
It's it doesn't roll over into your own
IRA.
It's its own animal.
And similarly, when you have a distribution from
it, which you will have presumably for every
year after.
Well, actually, it depends, right?
It depends if your parent died after starting
(32:02):
their required beginning date.
They're they're they're benefit.
They're requiring these solutions.
Then you continue to have to have distribution
requirements and they now have to be done
every year.
And you but by the end of the
10 years, typically you have to have the
(32:25):
whole amount out.
There are some exceptions to this different rules
for different circumstances.
Maybe you're a sibling who inherits an IRA
and you're within 10 years.
That's a different tax treatment.
But in any case, in this scenario, we're
saying typically you have a 10 year withdrawal
treatment, and if the distribution requirements have begun,
(32:48):
you have to keep doing them and in
past years over the last several years.
The IRS hasn't enforced that.
But this year they are.
So if you have an inherited IRA, be
sometimes called a beneficiary, a beneficiary IRA.
If you have one of those and your
parents were subject to RMDs, you're subject to
(33:09):
RMD, make sure you're taking advantage of that.
And the calculation of that is a little
different.
It's not the uniform table.
It's a single life table and it just
works differently.
So get some help if you need it.
But don't overlook it.
Probably more to talk about there.
But yeah, you could accelerate the RMD.
You could you could take all the money.
(33:33):
Oh, absolutely.
Good point.
Yeah.
The IRS is happy for you to pay
the tax on that at any time immediately.
But that you have to do it within
the 10 years for most instances.
If it's a certain kind of trust, it
might be five years, depending on the circumstances.
And, you know, so there are a few
(33:53):
examples of a five year payout period.
And then there are some rare, unique examples
where you can do it over the old
rules, like a lifetime stretch distribution, lifetime of
the beneficiary of the beneficiary.
Yes.
But those are rare now for new deaths,
(34:14):
you know, that kind of thing.
So what was it, 2020 when that changed?
People who had inherited IRA before 2020, you
still may benefit from the stretch IRA rules.
Talk to a professional if you need help.
And again, that's a good example of the
kind of reason why you listen to the
(34:34):
show and the kind of help that good
financial counsel can provide.
We try to help you with some of
that on our show.
So please share that with others.
Good lessons learned, we hope.
And we hope you will share it and
like and helps people find the show.
Share it with a friend.
Makes a difference.
(34:55):
And we hopefully you don't want to be
that person who says late in life.
How'd you how'd you come to do this?
And the answer would be, I listened to
something more.
And why didn't you share it with me?
Right.
Right.
So it's speaking of sharing, Chris, in the
show notes, I'm going to attach a checklist
as well as a article by Wealth Enhancement
(35:18):
Group that Russ brought to our attention that
might be a little bit more information for
you.
So the checklist.
Tell about that checklist.
It's a checklist of things that you would
think about doing if the parent died.
And it would, you know, a lot of
them, a common sense that you're going to
know about, you're going to think about.
But some of them aren't so common.
(35:40):
It might just save you some time and
save you some stress in a very difficult
situation.
You know what, Jeff?
We also have a recent checklist about a
parent that's aging.
We do.
Why don't we include that, too?
Just if it's helpful, people might be dealing
with different stages along the way.
This might be a tool that could be
(36:00):
a resource as well.
Yeah, we have a lot of resources and
feel free to reach out to us.
We can provide these resources pretty quickly via
email to you.
If you're watching a video and maybe don't
have access to the show notes.
Please reach out to us.
We're happy to help.
Let's just review that.
You can find us on YouTube through the
Wealth Enhancement Group's YouTube channel.
You can find us on something more with
(36:21):
Chris Boyd dot com, our Web page.
And of course, you can find us through
whether it's the audio podcast, wherever you like
to listen to podcasts, you can find us
there.
Please share that wherever you like to listen.
Share it with others.
Thanks, everybody.
Until next time, keep striving for something more.
Thank you for listening to something more with
(36:43):
Chris Boyd.
Call us for help, whether it's for financial
planning or portfolio management, insurance concerns or those
quality of life issues that make the money
matters matter, whatever's on your mind, visit us
at something more with Chris Boyd dot com
or call us toll free at eight six
six seven seven one eight nine zero one
(37:04):
or send us your questions to A.M
.R. dash info at Wealth Enhancement dot com.
You're listening to something more with Chris Boyd.
Financial talk show, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services and
Jay Christopher Boyd provide investment advice on an
individual basis to clients only.
Proper advice depends on a complete analysis of
all facts and circumstances.
The information given on this program is general
financial comments and cannot be relied upon as
(37:26):
pertaining to your specific situation.
Wealth Enhancement Group cannot guarantee that using the
information from this show will generate profits or
ensure freedom from loss.
Listeners should consult their own financial advisors or
conduct their own due diligence before making any
financial decisions.
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