Alexis here for our first Q&A – thank you to all of you who have sent in questions. Today I only have time to answer two. Keep sending your questions and I will do my best to answer all of them here in this newsletter. If you want me to not identify you by name at all, let me know that too and I’ll keep your question anonymous.

Q from Melinda B (Manhattan Beach, CA).: My mom wants to put my name on the title to her house and her bank accounts so that if something happens to her I can take care of everything easily. Is this a good idea?

A: Absolutely not! In fact, if your mom puts your name on her accounts and her house you could both regret this decision later on. A client of mine had a bank account that she had put her granddaughter’s name on for similar reasons and the granddaughter was sued by a business creditor for failing to pay out her lease on a piece of business equipment and the creditor won a judgment and satisfied it by removing $43,000 from my client’s bank account, which they were able to do because granddaughter’s name was on the account. Not good. Luckily, I’m working with grandma now and costly decisions such as that will be avoided in the future.

Q from Sam F.(Palos Verdes, CA): My parents have taken care of everything and put their assets in a trust; I really don’t know exactly what I’ll inherit when they die, but it could be a few hundred thousand dollars or more. Is there anything I have to do now to my own trust to prepare for that?

A: Hi Sam. There is nothing you need to do to your own trust, but you should absolutely talk with them to find out HOW they are leaving you your inheritance. The issue isn’t how much, so you can tell them you don’t expect to receive anything and hope they spend it all, but that if you do receive anything, the whole family would benefit if you received it in a lifetime asset protection trust. This means that you could control what you receive from your parents, but that you wouldn’t own it, so if you get sued or divorced, it can’t be taken away. That’s a good thing! And, when you die, it won’t EVER be subject to estate tax. Not even if you take it and grow it to $10,000,000. Now, that’s really good! So talk to your mom and tell her to talk with a Personal Family Lawyer as soon as possible and get that changed.

That’s all I have time for today folks. I’ll answer some more questions in a couple weeks. Send em’ in.

Always dedicated to your family’s well-being,

Alexis

PS – If you are a client of Martin Neely & Associates, you should be getting your letter about our new Inner Circle Membership programs in about 10 days. In this letter, you’ll learn all about how you can get a free estate checkup for your parents.