Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Estate Planning In A Second Marriage

Excerpt from: Huffington Post (click for full article)

 

Love may be lovelier -- but it is also a whole lot more complicated the second time around.

Record numbers of us will, one day, be in a second marriage. The pool of eligible second marriage candidates is vast as a result of both the high divorce rate and increased longevity.

But before saying "I do" (again), there are a few legal issues that merit consideration.

How should the new spouse be provided for in the estate plan? The competing interests here are typically one's adult children and the new spouse. There is an expectation that assets accumulated in the first marriage will, in some measure, inure to the benefit of the children of that marriage. On the other hand, the new spouse may not have sufficient assets to provide for retirement needs in the event that he or she is widowed.

Historically, the compromise solution was to provide that the estate be held 'in trust' for the lifetime benefit of the surviving spouse. During widowhood, the surviving spouse received income from trust assets. Some trusts also provided for distributions of principal, in the discretion of the trustee. Then, upon the survivor's subsequent death, the trust terminated and all remaining assets reverted to the adult children of the first to die.

Forbes: Life Events that Should Prompt an Estate Plan Review

Excerpt from: Wealth Strategies Journal 2.0 (click for full article)

 

Forbes has compiled a list of life events that should prompt you to review your estate plan.  It includes classic events like marriage, divorce and child birth, along with events like sudden changes in wealth and when planning a significant charitable gift.

For the entire list, see Deborah L Jacobs, "When to Change your Estate Plan," Forbes.com (January 4, 2012).

Soon To Be Wed, Couple With Disabilities Sue To Live Together

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

As they prepare for their wedding, a New York couple with special needs is headed to court to fight for the opportunity to live together once they become husband and wife.

Paul Forziano and Hava Samuels are getting married this weekend. But the couple — who live in separate group homes three miles apart in Manorville, N.Y. — don’t know if they will be able to live together even after exchanging wedding vows.

A lawyer for Forziano and Samuels says that administrators at the group homes where the two currently live have said they will not allow the couple to move in together after their nuptials.

Now the couple and their families have filed a federal lawsuit. At the very least, their attorney is asking the court to require that the group homes allow Forziano and Samuels to spend more time together during the day and evenings while their case proceeds.

“They just have a business model. They want to spend their money certain ways and if it doesn’t fit, well then the individuals lose out,” the bride’s father, Norman Samuels, told News 12 Long Island about the group homes.

What Classic Sitcoms Taught Us About Gay Rights

Excerpt from: The Daily Beast (click for full article)

 

Before Hillary Clinton, Rob Portman, and President Obama were championing gay marriage, Sophia Petrillo, Julia Sugarbaker, and Mrs. Garrett were equal-rights crusaders. Over the past decade, TV audiences met Will and Grace, cried with Kurt on Glee and were introduced to The New Normal. But long before those comedies hammered home the point that being gay is OK, a handful of progressive classic sitcoms interrupted the laughs to preach to audiences about loving thy neighbor no matter who they love.

As the Supreme Court takes on the second day of arguments in landmark same-sex marriage cases, here’s a topical look back at what The Golden Girls, Designing Women, and more taught us about gay rights.

ABA AMICUS BRIEF SUPPORTS REPEAL OF DOMA

Today the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments and review the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act with the case, United States v. Windsor, et al.  The Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities sponsored the American Bar Association's amicus brief in the Windsor case.  The brief was drafted pro bono by a team of lawyers, led by Harry Sandick, at the firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.  Yesterday, the Court heard arguments in Hollingsworth v. Perry, No. 12-144 to determine whether the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the State of California from defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

The ABA Windsor brief asks the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the "serious obstacles" that Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act imposes on lawyer's clients who are same-sex couples legally married under state law.  The brief describes Section 3’s impact on the federal rights and responsibilities of these clients in areas that include retirement and estate planning, health care, taxation, military benefits, ethical obligations and immigration. The brief advises that Section 3, which defines marriage as only between one man and one woman, results in unprecedented and discriminatory burdens on legally married same-sex couples that are inconsistent with the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.

The brief also cites the ABA’s advocacy over the past 40 years to eliminate discrimination against gays and lesbians. To read the full brief, click here.

James Brown’s Legacy Protected by S.C. Supreme Court

Excerpt from: Lawyers.com (click for full article)

 

Despite challenges by the children and wife he left behind, as well as by the state of South Carolina, James Brown’s plans for the inheritance of his money will stay in place. In February the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that an irrevocable trust set up by the Godfather of Soul – which cut out any wives and left most of his estate to an educational trust fund – could not be set aside.

Eliminating Joint Tax Filing Could Help Innocent Spouses

Excerpt from: Tax Resolution University (click for full article)

 

A Forbes article by contributor Peter J. Reilly titled “Time to Eliminate Joint Filing?“ proposes whether joint filing is really beneficial to couples. In recent years, Reilly has come to think that joint returns for married couples are not such a great idea especially at a time when the federal government is deciding its definition is of marriage through the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Other reasons for doing away with joint filing have to do with innocent spouse cases Reilly has read and written about. He advocates the individual income tax stating “We have an individual income tax. Let it be on individuals and leave it at that.”

His argument for getting rid of joint filing is supported by data from Yale University Professor Anne Alstott’s article titled,”Updating the Welfare State: Marriage, the Income Tax, and Social Security in the Age of the New Individualism.” Alstott’s comprehensive report studied the taxing of couples.

The IRS considers couples to be individuals who are joint and severally liable for their tax liabilities. If a spouse makes a mistake on the tax return, the IRS does not hesitate going after both parties to collect taxes, penalties and interest even if the couple has since divorced and the divorce decree states one to be responsible to pay them.

What helped you most after your MS diagnosis?

Excerpt from: About.com (click for full article)

 

I remember the time immediately following my diagnosis with multiple sclerosis (MS). It was a weird time, a time when everything was different because I now knew that I had MS. However, it was disorienting to think that I also had MS before I was aware of what was causing my symptoms and that the only difference was the knowledge that I now possessed of my condition.

When I think about what helped me the most, it wasn't a doctor. It wasn't a book (in fact, all of the books that I could find at that time were dismal, with dire predictions of imminent disability and planning for inevitable deterioration).  What helped me the most was my fiancé (now husband). More accurately, it was a specific moment that I kept going back to, and still do, to this day, almost a decade later.

The moment that is seared into my brain has nothing to do with anything he said to me after this proclamation. Instead, one of the most memorable and treasured moments of my life had to do with the expression of sheer confusion that came over his face. He simply didn't understand what I was saying. He couldn't fathom how I possibly thought something like MS could affect his feelings for me or his confidence that our future together would be wonderful. It is that look on his face that I will hold in my heart forever, because he was right. MS has presented several challenges, but hasn't stood in our way of loving each other deeply.

United We Stand: The Impact of Disabilities on Marriage

Excerpt from: The Jewish Press (click for full article)

 

There is undoubtedly an inordinate amount of stress placed on a marriage when a child has a disability, and we have seen marriages unravel before our eyes due to complications and stress that simply can’t be managed. When this happens, the consequences of divorce can be enormous and exponential: the financial pressures, stress of single-parent caregiving, impact on the child with a disability who has an even harder time managing change; as well as effects on the typically developing children who are already coping with having a sibling with special needs.

Yet we have also seen couples who parent a child with a disability with marriages that are incredibly strong: couples who “have each other’s backs,” who understand the unique pressures they each face and provide support to one another as they meet them. We have seen couples with an extraordinary level of emotional closeness that is fostered by the all-encompassing challenge that is caring for a child with special needs.

What are some of the challenges that these marriages face? What are the family dynamics that can contribute to the stress in a marriage when there is a child with special needs? And most importantly: what are the strategies that many couples have successfully utilized to transform some of those challenges into strengths?

United We Stand: The Impact of Disabilities on Marriage

Excerpt from: The Jewish Press (click for full article)

 

There has been much made in the media about the stress on marriage and the high rates of divorce affecting couples who have a child with a developmental disability. Yet at the same time, counter studies have been published that refute many of these claims – reporting that this data has been exaggerated and that these families do not have a significantly higher divorce rate.

Which of these assertions is true?

In our experience working with families, we can certainly understand both perspectives.

There is undoubtedly an inordinate amount of stress placed on a marriage when a child has a disability, and we have seen marriages unravel before our eyes due to complications and stress that simply can’t be managed. When this happens, the consequences of divorce can be enormous and exponential: the financial pressures, stress of single-parent caregiving, impact on the child with a disability who has an even harder time managing change; as well as effects on the typically developing children who are already coping with having a sibling with special needs.

Yet we have also seen couples who parent a child with a disability with marriages that are incredibly strong: couples who “have each other’s backs,” who understand the unique pressures they each face and provide support to one another as they meet them. We have seen couples with an extraordinary level of emotional closeness that is fostered by the all-encompassing challenge that is caring for a child with special needs.