Steve Burkhalter, Probabate Court judge
You can’t predict when you will die, but you can plan for what will happen to your assets when you are gone.
Local attorney Joe Marion said the biggest mistake he sees when talking to people about planning their estate is that they wait too late to get started.
“I have people calling routinely, ‘Mom’s going into a nursing home. What can we do?’” Marion said. “By that time, there’s not a lot we can do.”
With the Baby Boomer generation hitting retirement age, many of them stand to lose it all if they don’t plan properly, according to Marion. A living will, a regular will and designating a power of attorney is all part of estate planning, he said.
Proper estate planning can save families from several headaches such as making sure assets are protected if a loved one goes into a nursing home and making sure assets are divided properly when someone passes away.
With the federal estate tax not kicking in until $5.2 million, most people don’t have to worry about paying that, according to Marion. Georgia is one of the many states that do not have a state estate tax.
By the time someone is 50 years old, everyone — even those who think they don’t have anything to protect — should begin estate planning, Marion said.
Floyd County Probate Judge Steve Burkhalter said the No. 1 mistake people make is not getting legal advice when planning their will or estate.
“Money spent on estate planning is money well spent,” Burkhalter said.
When the inevitable does happen and a loved ones dies, Burkhalter advises people to be well prepared when they come into his office.
What they mean of course is how can we shift assets so we avoid paying for her care and losing what we have. In the age of the nuclear family and dependent worker, where economic insecurity can sweep a family away in a heart beat, it is an understandable desire.
Life-long "rugged individualists", who want stable families and the capacity to build a future, suddenly find life and economics are out of their control. They realize that the desire and ability to work hard are not enough when jobs are non-existent and wages are too low.
It's just that the realization comes too late.
They have already spent their lives spewing contempt on the payroll taxes that fund Social Security, some of Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the workers who paid for and benefit from these social insurance programs. Many don't realize they or their families already benefit from these insurance programs.
They are like the guy in South Carolina who said in a Town Hall meeting, "Keep your government hands off my Medicare." For most Americans, the largest asset they own is Social Security.
But when Mom goes in the nursing home, they call Lawyer Marion to figure a way to get Mom on Medicaid while keeping what assets they have.
If citizens recognized earlier that life blows require social insurance to protect families, higher taxes distributed fairly according to ability to pay would provide better protection. A slightly smaller bank account would mean you were richer. Then Lawyer Marion's callers might find they do not have to impoverish Mom and the children for her end-of-life care. They might actually need a will to distribute assets.
So, fiscal responsibility requires we pay for the protection families need with higher taxes distributed by ability to pay or we eliminate social insurance to match the historically low taxes we are paying. We can choose either but we must decide.
Perhaps, we would all be richer and our children's future brighter with smaller bank accounts and higher taxes, especially the top 1% who accumulated 60% of the growth in the last recovery.
Michael L. Reynolds
Rome, Ga