Exploring Financial and Estate Planning

Crista Ellis 00:00:00
Welcome to the Parkinson's Foundation's Wellness Wednesdays webinar. The Parkinson's Foundation is a nonprofit focused on bettering the lives of those living with Parkinson's through improving care and advancing research. Importantly, everything we do is in close concert with our community to ensure that our actions are aligned with the needs and priorities of those living with and impacted by Parkinson's disease. Financial and estate planning can seem overwhelming, and many just don't understand what it is and why it's important. Today, we'll learn what estate planning is, what's involved, and how to begin the process of protecting your assets to ensure you and your loved ones are cared for.

Don't leave your future to chance, and today we'll gain the knowledge to make informed decisions.

PD Health at Home is presented by the Light of Day Foundation, whose generosity has made this programming possible. Thank you, Light of Day.

The Parkinson's Foundation provides weekly education and wellness programs virtually through our PD Health at Home series, including Mindfulness Mondays, Wellness Wednesdays, Fitness Fridays, Expert Briefings and our Spanish-language program, EP Salud en Casa.

This next Wellness Wednesday, join us to help demystify Medicare. Our speaker, Renee Harberts, will help individuals understand health insurance and Medicare in simple, plain terms.

That is not Wellness Wednesday; that will be next Tuesday, June 25. Thank you for joining us to get to know Medicare.

And I'd like to invite you to join us this Friday for our live Fitness Friday session that happens to fall on International Day of Yoga. You'll be joining me for a session of gentle yoga for Parkinson's. I'll be sharing a soothing and supportive gentle yoga class that's designed specifically for individuals living with Parkinson's. We'll focus on gentle movements, mindful breathing techniques and relaxation exercises that help promote flexibility, improve balance and reduce muscle stiffness that are commonly associated with Parkinson's. Now, yoga isn't an end-all, fix-all overnight. Movement is something that we need to devote and commit to to feel the benefits of mobility practice.

So I invite you to join me in gentle yoga for Parkinson's this Friday on International Day of Yoga.

To begin our formal presentation, I would like to introduce our presenter for today's webinar. Colleen Ceh Becvar co-founded Trinity Advocacy Group in 2015 at the culmination of a life dedicated to advocating for older adults and their families. As far back as seventh grade, aging was fascinating to Colleen. Growing up under the same roof with her grandmother and great-grandfather surely influenced her curiosity. Serving seniors and their families began formally for Colleen in 1991, and she has enjoyed every dynamic year of what she affectionately calls her life's work.

Shortly before earning her master's in gerontology, Colleen was an appointed delegate to the White House Conference on Aging and continues her advocacy through various advisory councils representing the voice of seniors. Her graduate work sparked a desire to educate others, and so began her years of teaching through written publications and presentations like this one. Ironically, the field of gerontology is quite young, so advancing it through research is critical. Along with her colleagues at Midwestern University, Colleen published original research on elder abuse and neglect, offering seniors and their families real solutions.

Knowledgeable guidance and ongoing support are the heart of Colleen's work and the energy behind Trinity Advocacy Group, LLC. Colleen, thank you so much for sharing your time and your knowledge with us today.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:03:50
Thank you very much. I am absolutely delighted to be here. I'm so grateful for this opportunity, and as the granddaughter of somebody who was diagnosed with Parkinson's, it is such a pleasure to be here to speak with all of you and such an honor to be invited. Thank you very much.

I echo your sentiments, Christa, when it comes to just relax, enjoy, and hopefully enjoy this next hour together. My goal as an educator is always to help people walk away with tasks or with knowledge that they can apply right away.

It is also very important to me that I make this presentation somewhat interesting, because I'm not sure it gets much drier than estate planning. But the interesting thing about what I'm going to share with you today is that, while Trinity Advocacy Group does offer some of these services, I won't be selling those services. But because we do step into these decision-making roles that we're going to be talking about today, it has equipped me to talk with you about estate planning from a non-attorney perspective.

So we're going to talk about what estate planning is and what's involved in estate planning. We're going to talk about the steps that you need to take to begin that process of financial and estate planning. And then I want to elaborate a bit on why it is important for you to consider doing these things because of your diagnosis.

Okay. Christa, just tell me: I can see at the very bottom of my screen the banner that says I'm sharing my screen. Is that showing to others?

Crista Ellis 00:05:54
You're all good, thanks.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:05:57
Super. Thank you very much. Okay, let's dive in.

So today I am offering a non-attorney perspective by design. I work with attorneys all the time, and they do a great job. But sometimes, I find, and maybe you do too, that it can be difficult to understand all of what you need to make an informed decision, and instead you get overwhelmed by some of the terminology. So I've done what I can today to take that terminology and really simplify it.

This is something I do in my daily work when people call me to say, "Will you be my power of attorney? Would you be my trustee?" and other things. I find myself oftentimes clarifying things for potential clients. We've been doing this work now at TAG, Trinity Advocacy Group, for 10 years.

I am, by background, a gerontologist. A gerontologist is not a physician. A geriatrician is to older adults what a pediatrician is to children. A gerontologist has studied aging from multiple perspectives, including the sociology of aging, the psychology, certainly the biology of aging, the ethics of aging and much, much more. So that, plus my 30 years' experience of working with seniors and their families, always as an advocate, makes me a gerontologist.

In my work as a gerontologist, when I am creating a care plan, which is a big part of my job, there are two things that drive every care plan. Whether I'm talking about my clients, or you are thinking about yourself throughout this presentation, and I hope you are, or a loved one who maybe has been diagnosed with Parkinson's, I want you to just keep in mind that those two things that drive every care plan are the level of care that's needed at any stage during your life and the resources to pay for that care.

Maybe that care is in home and you're not paying anybody. That's fine. Maybe that care happens in a care center of some sort, and you're getting better from a recent hospitalization. That level of care is the first component. The second component is the resources to pay for that. So I'm going to cover a lot with you today in the context of estate planning.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:08:47
Okay. Estate planning. What the heck is estate planning, and what's involved? Let's dive in.

I first want to demystify the word estate because I think a lot of people, when they think of this word estate, they think of what's pictured here. It's this sprawling, beautiful mansion. It just sort of exudes wealth, and that's not really what we're talking about at all. Estate just means your stuff.

It's just your stuff. It's all of your stuff. Now, you can have that mansion that we pictured in the last slide. That's fine. That's part of your stuff, but I want you to know the word estate is a legal term for property, for the things that you own. If that's your shoes that you're wearing, the shirt on your back, the toothbrush you used this morning, the car that you drive, the money that you have in the bank, the home that you live in, that's your stuff. That's stuff you paid for. It's things you own, and so that is your estate.

You don't have to have a sprawling mansion, and most people don't, frankly. So this is just stuff. That's what I want you to think of for today when we start talking about estates. How do you protect your estate, your stuff, everything you own?

And what's a plan? Well, the point is, what do you want to do with your stuff? You have to tell people what you want done with all your stuff when you are not in a position to be giving voice to those things anymore. For a variety of reasons, either temporarily or permanently, you can't give voice to those things. So what can you do if you're not in a position to give voice to those things anymore?

Estate planning. And so I'm making you the king and the queen, right? King or the queen. You pick it, however you identify, as a king or a queen or anything else. But the point here, the whole idea behind estate planning, is that you are in charge. You are the king of your stuff or the queen of your stuff, and you own this kingdom of stuff. That's your estate.

An estate plan allows you to declare how you want your stuff to be taken care of. If you're not the person that's orchestrating those things and making those decisions, the next best thing for you to do is write it down. Write it down in documents that tell people, "Okay, I want you to do this with my house. I want you to do this with my personal belongings, all of my pictures and all of my collectibles, and I want you to do this with my bank account. Some of that should go here to this person. Some of this should go to charity." Those kinds of things, okay?

So that's what you're doing. You, as the king or the queen of your own estate, make a declaration through these documents, simply telling people how to take care of your affairs, your stuff.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:12:23
When you start doing this kind of planning, you get to start bestowing these new titles. Those of you who follow the royals, like I do, you saw that when the Queen passed away, everybody got new titles. Similarly, when you start doing your estate planning, you get a title, and your decision-makers also get new titles.

It depends on the document that you are drafting, and I strongly encourage you to work with an attorney. More on that later. But when you are drafting your documents with an attorney, you're going to be known by something other than your first and last name. I mean, you're not going to change your name, but you get a title.

You now are going to be called either a principal, you're going to be called a grantor, or you're going to be called a testator. That all depends on the document that you're drafting. We're going to get to that in a second.

You're also going to bestow new titles on people who are going to be making decisions for you only when and if you are unable to make your own decisions. So you want to get all of this stuff in writing so that people can follow the roadmap that you've left them. When they're following that roadmap, they're going to have special titles too. They're going to be either called your agent, your trustee or your executor. Or, if you're a female, I saw this recently, you could be called an executrix, which I thought was pretty cool.

But more and more, actually, I'm seeing that in some of these documents, instead of being called an executor or executrix, it's now being called, same role, same decisions, a personal representative. I kind of like executor a little bit better. Fancy.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:14:40
But these are the titles. So now you know your titles are over here on the screen, right? You're going to be one of these three things, and your decision-maker, only when you are unable to make your own decisions, will have special titles. And these titles are determined by the laws across our great nation. These are not the titles according to Colleen. These are the titles that are given across our great land.

So when it comes to estate planning, we really have four primary documents. Those documents are titled here in front of you. You've got your power of attorney for health care, power of attorney for property, the trust document itself, or the trust document, and the will. And all of these titles, by the way, are just the names of the documents. The titles I was just telling you about, that will all be referenced within the particular documents. But these are the four documents that you need for your estate plan.

Your attorney may tell you, "Oh, you probably don't need this document. You probably do need this document." That's not up to me. Today, the scope of what I want to teach you is: what is the importance of these documents? What do they do for you?

All of the four documents that I just listed, three of them have to do with your money, with your stuff, with your estate, with your finances, with your bank accounts. So we're going to get to that in just a second. Very important to cover that.

But let's start, shall we, with the power of attorney for health care. Now, your power of attorney for health care document, that's the one where you're called the principal, and you don't have to remember that. You don't have to remember that at all. Your attorney is going to go over those things with you. I'm just educating you today about some of this vocabulary.

What's probably more important to you is: what is that person going to do? What are they there to do for you? And that person is called your agent. So you are the principal in the power of attorney document, and the decision-maker, when and if you cannot make your own decisions, whether that's temporarily because you, God forbid, got in a car accident or are in the hospital post-surgery, maybe it's a temporary decision-maker that's going to be making care decisions.

They're going to make sure your basic needs are met. What does that mean? Food, clothing, shelter, medications. They're going to be advocating for you. They're going to manage your crises. When I say crises, those are things that you need immediately. You are in the emergency room. Decisions need to be made. Your health maybe hangs in the balance. And then end-of-life decisions.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:17:29
Now, they should not be making these decisions in a vacuum. That's what you are going to be teaching them in a couple of different ways. The first way is this document, this power of attorney for health care. Across our great nation, you can certainly get these documents for free. Every state in our nation offers powers of attorney for health care documents for free. I don't recommend that.

I'll tell you why. In my experience, I spent five years working at an elder law firm for an elder law attorney, and I learned that the documents that an elder law attorney puts in place have far more protections for you than what is called the statutory documents, the documents you and I can get for free online. I really think it's in your best interest, and I only want the best for you and for my clients, so I always recommend best practice. That would be to work with a certified elder law attorney who will draft a very robust estate plan for you.

So your power of attorney for health care is going to help make these decisions based on what your document says. They're not going to make care decisions that they might make for themselves. They're going to make care decisions that you would want for yourself. Their job is not to substitute what you want for yourself. Their job is to get to know what you want for yourself and then make sure that the powers that be, the medical doctors, the nurses, whomever, the pharmacy, whoever they're talking to, Medicare, whatever that is, give voice to what you want for yourself.

Extremely important document.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:19:45
Now, let's talk about the other three documents. I told you a moment ago the remaining three documents have to do really with your finances and your property and your estate and all, you know, you can use a lot of those words interchangeably. I'll tell you about the differences in these documents in just a moment. But your power of attorney for property, just like your power of attorney for health care, that decision-maker's name is an agent. The decision-maker's name for the trust document would be called your trustee, and the decision-maker for your last will and testament is called your executor, okay?

All three of those positions, and there are three separate documents that do three separate things, we'll talk about that in a second, but they all have the same authority depending on the assets that they're managing. They all can negotiate agreements. They all must secure your property. They have to manage the assets under the permissions that you give them. They can move money around. They can sign contracts and approve expenses.

They can hire and fire people to help you, be it an attorney, a CPA or others. They should be opening your mail and processing that for you. Again, this is all when you can't do this for yourself. They need to be filing your taxes and keeping you compliant with Uncle Sam, and they just are going to be paying bills for you on a regular basis.

Okay. Those are some general duties that all three of these roles, all three of these documents, address.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:21:39
Now, two out of these three documents actually are very similar, and that is the power of attorney for property and the executor, or your will. The duties as a power of attorney for property are nearly identical to the role of the executor. The difference is this: when you name somebody to manage all of your assets with your power of attorney for property document, they can only do that during your lifetime. The moment you pass, that baton must move somewhere else. That person loses legal authority at the time of your passing, and that baton is picked up by your executor.

Okay. So all that bill pay and all of those things, your power of attorney may be doing all those things and paying the mortgage and whatever you need them to do during your lifetime. And the moment you pass, their authority is over. Okay? That is picked up by the executor, and those duties then move to your will. That's when your will becomes the governing document, and your power of attorney for property has no more authority. It expires.

So I want to clarify a little bit more about these roles. The power of attorney for property and your will, that person can be the same person. Let's say you have an adult child and that person is your power of attorney for property during your lifetime. When you pass away, you want that same person to manage everything after you die. You want them to settle your affairs. They know the bank accounts anyway, et cetera. So you're going to have them manage everything. That's fine. You can certainly do that.

But it's important for you to know that your power of attorney and your executor, your power of attorney for property, or your agent under the power of attorney for property, and your executor, they can only manage the assets that are in your name alone. Another way to say that is they can only manage assets that are titled only in your name. Well, Colleen, how do I know how they're titled? Look at the statement that comes with your assets.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:24:36
On your slide here, you can see in the middle of the page that this would be an example of a bank statement. You can see that John Jones, this statement is in his name alone. Therefore, his power of attorney for property, or his agent under the power of attorney for property, attorneys correct me all the time on that, I should be saying agent. So the agent under the power of attorney for property document or the executor of the will would have the responsibility and the legal authority to be able to manage this asset. That means write checks from that account. That means ask for statements. That means stop payments, all of those things, because it is in your name alone.

And I mention all of that, and I'm very specific about that titling, because it's a very different scenario when it comes to our next estate planning document. Our final estate planning document is the trust document. The trust document is a really cool document. I like it because it's such a creative and versatile document, and it is really the only document that bridges the authority of the decision-maker during your lifetime and after you die.

So this is the only estate planning document that allows the trustee, in this case, that's the name of the decision-maker, to make decisions for you with the resources that the trust, and I'm going to talk about that in a minute. The resources in that trust document are handled and managed by your trustee during your lifetime and after your death. It's a really interesting document. It's a really cool document. I like it because it's so creative. It's so versatile.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:26:28
On the left-hand side of your screen, you can see that that trustee can do all of those things I just talked with you about a few minutes ago. Remember, this is something that your trustee can do. Everything on the left-hand side of the screen, your trustee, your power of attorney for property and your executor are going to do all of these things, negotiate the agreements all the way down to paying bills.

But your trustee can also, through your trust, and you design this with your attorney, set strict and creative parameters for whoever is going to benefit from the assets in your trust. So there are pet trusts, where you can design a part of your trust that X amount of dollars goes to Fluffy every month during your lifetime and after you die, because maybe your pet outlives you.

I've seen a lot of interesting things in pet trusts, that the pet needs to be cared for in the way that you want them to after your passing. We had a pet trust one time here at Trinity, and the cat had to have very specific liver from a very specific butcher. The decedent left money in her trust to be able to pay for that and all of the veterinary care.

Another thing is, I've seen where a trust has said, "Well, my granddaughter can have her inheritance only if she marries a Catholic," or only if she doesn't marry a Catholic, maybe. But you can put those things in the trust document. Or I just received a trust very recently where the children will benefit from this trust until, and we will be that trustee and make sure that the children get whatever they need until they reach the age of 30, at which time the children then become their own trustee.

It's a private document versus your will. When you pass away, your will becomes a public document, but a trust remains private. That's why a lot of people like to use a trust, because a will, for example, when you die, is filed with the court system. It is a public document, although it's not easy to find for those of us who are not attorneys. But the point is the same, that people can see who you've left your money to and your stuff to. Whereas a trust document is only distributed to the people who will benefit from it. So it's a private document.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:29:40
It avoids court involvement. Courts are very reluctant to get involved in trusts, and the whole idea behind a trust is to keep courts out of your decisions.

It controls the flow of money over time. During your lifetime, maybe you are the only beneficiary of the trust, and you've got, say, $100,000 in there, and you want to use all that $100,000 in there. Your trustee makes sure that happens during your lifetime. But when you die, let's say you never touch that $100,000. Well then, your trust says how that $100,000 is going to be distributed after you pass away.

Most importantly, a trust allows you to retitle your assets in the name of the trust. Remember a minute ago where I showed you John Jones's bank account? When you decide to draft a trust, if you and your attorney decide that makes good sense, you can retitle your home in the name of the trust or all of your bank accounts, like you can see here. So John, this now is not just titled John Jones. This is titled John Jones Trust, and John Jones is his own trustee.

Now this tells me and you and everybody else in the world that this account no longer belongs to John Jones. This belongs to John Jones's trust. And so a trust is a mechanism for you to give away the ownership of your assets to a trust, and you protect those assets.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:31:23
When it comes to John Jones, or the trustee, your trustee cannot look, and it's none of that trustee's business, what is in your name alone. Your trustee can only look at bank statements or a house, maybe, that you have protected in the name of the trust. They can only access information about the assets that are retitled in the name of that trust.

A lot of people go through this effort of drafting a trust, and then they never retitle their assets, which is kind of a waste. Not kind of; it's a waste of time and money, your money, and your time and your attorney's time. So if you go through the effort to design this very versatile and creative document, your next step is always to take that trust, it's just a document, to the bank, at the advice of your attorney, and retitle certain assets, as many as you and your attorney think are a good idea, into the name of that trust.

Then your trustee can only focus on those documents. Everything that is in your name alone is your business or your power of attorney's business. Okay? Likewise, your power of attorney and your executor, remember, they can only look at things that are in your name alone. They have no jurisdiction or authority to touch the funds in your trust. That is a separation of responsibilities.

Okay. So, just as a recap, and this is a pretty busy little chart, but I want you to have it anyway, this just sort of captures what we just talked about. You’ll see all the way on the left, the documents named are the power of attorney for healthcare, power of attorney for property, the trust and the will.

And your title, remember, you get a brand-new title. Your title for your powers of attorney documents: you are the principal. You are the person making all the decisions about how you want your healthcare treated and how you want your finances treated. In the trust document, you are called a grantor because you are granting assets to the trust. You are the grantor. And when you are drafting your will, your last will and testament with your attorney, you are called the testator. So those are your titles. That’s what you’re going to be called within your documents. Don’t commit this stuff to memory. Just use it so you’re familiarizing yourself with these things.

Your decision-makers, those are the people that you have knighted, K-N-I-G-H-T-E-D, knighted them in your authority as the king or queen of your estate. You have made your decision-makers, you’ve named them in these documents and they have new titles. In the powers of attorney for property or healthcare documents, your decision-maker has the title of agent. In the trust document, they are called your trustee. And in the will, as I mentioned, they are your executor, executrix or your personal representative.

The scope of their authority is, for your power of attorney for healthcare, only your care. Your power of attorney for healthcare cannot write checks for you, cannot sign contracts for you. They are limited to your care. Likewise, your power of attorney for property has no jurisdiction to make any healthcare decisions for you, and they can only govern assets that are in your name alone. So if your name is John Jones and your bank accounts have not been moved to the trust or are jointly held with somebody else, your power of attorney for property cannot touch those. So it’s only the assets titled in your name alone. That’s the only thing that they can touch versus your trustee. The assets that are titled in the name of the trust are the only assets that your trustee can access at all.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:36:18
And then after you pass away, your executor can only manage and distribute and handle your final affairs for assets that are in your name alone. Now, I wanted to also memorialize for you when that authority ends, but I didn’t put on here when authority begins. But let me just address that very briefly for your powers of attorney.

Powers of attorney documents can begin either at the time that you sign them, or you can make them only valid once certain criteria is met. And we see this happening more and more. A lot of times, people get a little worried about, “Oh my gosh, if I sign these documents, my children are just going to take over,” or, “My spouse is going to take over.” Not true. Legally speaking, they don’t have the authority to do that because if you’re making your own decisions, these documents are helpful, but they don’t mean anything. They’re really here not just to memorialize what you want, but to give your decision-makers the information so that they can make decisions when you’re not able to make them for yourself.

The powers of attorney for healthcare and for property start whenever either you say they start, or if you have — I’ve seen things like two physicians need to state that I am unable to make my own decision and my cousin needs to agree. I actually had that happen. And the same thing with trusts. Sometimes you can say that certain criteria needs to be met before this person, this agent, this trustee, steps in.

Their authority ends, as I mentioned, at the time of your passing. Now, sometimes we’ll see with the power of attorney for healthcare, sometimes we’re seeing that authority ends upon my burial. That’s what the document will say, which allows that person to either have you cremated or whatever those end-of-life decisions are for you, but they can implement those. The trustee, their authority ends when the money’s gone, when they’ve distributed everything to the charities of your choice, to your beneficiaries. And then the same thing with your executor. Their authority ends when the money is gone and all of your final affairs have been managed according to the roadmap you set up in your documents.

I want to just talk a moment about myth-busting about decision-making, which is basically what I just said a moment ago. I just don’t want you to think that in putting these documents together, you lose all voice. On the contrary, you can and should continue to make decisions as long as you are able and want to do so. These folks are here to help carry that torch for you according to your wishes. And the best way for you to communicate those wishes is to document your estate plan through these four documents.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:39:38
When it comes to financial planning, I may not have to tell you how expensive the cost of care can be sometimes, depending on where you’re receiving that care. But I would strongly encourage you to have a financial team that coaches you through some of the decisions you’re going to need to make. And these are the three financial professionals that are going to not just keep you on the right side of the law, but help you manage your best interests and your financial goals.

So, I always recommend a certified elder law attorney, a certified public accountant. This is not somebody that you, you know, when you start getting into trusts and things like that, you’re going to want a CPA or a certified public accountant to help you with your tax filings. And then finally, a financial planner. If I had to pick which one of these folks to start with, pardon me, I would always start with a certified elder law attorney. Or if you have these other professionals already in place, either a CPA or a financial advisor, they’re going to have recommendations for you. Any one of these professionals can refer you to reputable other professionals that they know.

Just think about that. They’re going to teach you what buckets you can use to pay for care. These folks are fluent, especially your certified elder law attorneys, in asset protection. Because if you are wanting to leave money behind after you pass for legacy, for inheritance purposes, or you’re married or in a civil union and you want to leave money to somebody else, that’s legacy. You need to know how to do that legally and still qualify for government benefits because there are options where you can transparently do that.

There’s also public benefits. What about insurance? And this doesn’t just mean Medicare. This means your private insurance, your life insurance. There are life insurance vehicles now that can be used and converted to what we would call long-term care insurance policies to actually help pay for your care during your lifetime. They’re doing some pretty amazing things in the financial realm because people are living longer. So there are some creative options. And then, of course, letting you know how to best use your income and your savings to help not just preserve it, but also the best way to spend it down to reduce the tax implications. They just have the best advice for you. So I would encourage you to get a hold of those folks.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:42:23
So, estate planning and you. I was asked to talk about why estate planning is important for people with Parkinson’s, and you know, I don’t know that estate planning is more important for people with Parkinson’s. I think that’s your decision. What I can tell you as an advocate is that I want what is best for my clients and for all of you.

In my experience, without an estate plan, the decisions that you have the opportunity to write down, you know, what your wishes are, you leave those in the hands of people who don’t know you, who maybe don’t love you, who maybe don’t know what’s important to you. When you’re already vulnerable and you need somebody to speak on your behalf, I want you to have some sort of compass, some sort of roadmap that you’ve given people, and that’s what an estate plan is for.

So you have to decide if you want to give voice to your priorities. And if the answer is yes, then I urge you to consider an estate plan. Do you want to provide for your loved ones or for charities? Do you want to protect your assets from the high costs of care? Do you want to feel empowered, for yourself and your loved ones, to help make those decisions about how to manage your affairs when you are not able to do so, either temporarily or permanently? If the answer to any of those is yes, then that is what an estate plan is for. And if the answer to all of those is no, then that’s okay. I’m not judging that. I just want you to know that then the people that are making those decisions for you are obligated by the law to do that, and it gets pretty sterile. My experience shows me most people, like all of us, we’re individuals. And so I don’t want the law to be making decisions for you about what’s most important.

Also, do you think it’s important to have somebody that’s going to make those care decisions for you? And I just put a refresher up here on this slide that shows you what that care, that person, that power of attorney for healthcare is going to do for you and what that power of attorney for finances, your trustee and your executor will be responsible for. So do you think it’s important to have somebody giving voice to these things when you’re not able to do so? Then make a decision to go and find out more about how to protect yourself.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:45:24
And I have these next few slides about best practices and what I want you to do if you decide that this is for you. What are the next steps? How do you get started? My strong recommendation, as you’ve heard me say, is to get a certified elder law attorney. And I’ll tell you why.

First of all, I used to think that an elder law attorney was somebody that fought for people against elder abuse. And while that’s not untrue, that’s more personal injury. Really, the discipline of a certified elder law attorney is to understand what financial vehicles they can help you protect your assets in and access Medicaid or veterans benefits or other benefits to be able to pay for the long-term care that you may need.

And let’s be clear, you’ve got a chronic and progressive disease. I hope that the Parkinson’s Foundation and others who are doing the important work of research give you a cure during your lifetime. I hope that happens. I would have wanted that for my own family members. But if that doesn’t happen, then it’s likely that you’re going to be paying at some point for somebody to assist you to do the things that you cannot do for yourself. That’s the discipline of a certified elder law attorney, to make sure that they are helping you protect your assets and helping you access those financial options to pay for your care.

So, how do you find a certified elder law attorney? Because not every estate planning attorney is an elder law attorney. Just because they have lots of clients who are older adults does not make them an elder law attorney and certainly not a certified elder law attorney. So these two resources are going to help you, through just a simple zip code search, find certified elder law attorneys anywhere in our great nation in your area.

Sometimes people say to me, “Colleen, I can’t afford an attorney.” No problem. Every state in our great nation has an American Bar Association. So look up what those affordable options are in your area. An alternative to that is every county in our nation has what’s called an Area Agency on Aging. So get a hold of the Administration on Aging. Find out who in your county is the Area Agency on Aging, and they’re going to put you in touch with affordable legal services right in your area.

But I don’t want to diminish the fact that it is worthwhile, if you do have the resources, to spend it on a solid estate plan.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:48:13
The other thing I want to encourage you to do is decide what is most important to you. I teach attorneys and consumers about this all the time. The documents that we just got done talking about are excellent. They’re a great start, but I will tell you, it’s impossible to memorialize everything that you want and think through every hypothetical and get that into a document. It’s impossible to do.

These three tools that I have here for you are my very favorite tools to help people sort through what is most important for them. This middle one is called the Conversation Project. It’s a free workbook and, pardon me, it’s available in multiple languages. It’s awesome. I use it, I teach it, and it takes you through some pretty uncomfortable questions, but it’s going to help you just decide what’s important to you. And then these other two resources, one is a Hello game that kind of gets the conversation started, and the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging has published a document that will also help you sort through what it is that you should be thinking about as you start drafting these documents.

I also get the question sometimes, what if I don’t have anybody to step into these decision-making roles? That doesn’t mean that you don’t have family, or maybe you don’t. That just means that maybe you don’t have anybody that you trust or anybody that you want, or you’re a very private person, or you think that you need somebody who lives close to you. If you don’t have somebody to step into those decision-making roles, I urge you to get a hold of Aging Life Care Association. Again, a simple zip code search. That is the professional association that governs care management across our country.

A lot of people don’t even know that this profession exists, but care managers are really there as your frontline person that is going to take you through some pretty tough decisions, and they might be able to step into that role for you as a power of attorney, as a trustee, etc. If the aging life care professional or care manager in your area, that agency, is not able to do that, I again defer to the Administration on Aging, to the county that it is in, the Area Agency on Aging in your county. Contact them. They are going to have an information and referral service that’s going to be able to tell you who in your area will serve in that role.

More than anything else, I have to just encourage you to do something. Take one step in this direction. Do not bury your head in the sand. It’s not a fun topic. I hope I’ve made it somewhat interesting for you, making you royals and everything, but it’s not a fun topic. I know that. And I know you’re grappling with this diagnosis, and sometimes it’s hard to look at a future, or maybe you’re already feeling disabled in many ways or your loved one is. But take a step in this direction. Sit down with a certified elder law attorney. Commit to yourself to get online today and find out who these professionals are in your area, or pick up the phone. Call your Parkinson’s Foundation Helpline and have them help you discover some of these other resources that may be available to you.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:52:22
That’s my time. I am certainly here to answer any questions for you. My name is Colleen Ceh Becvar. I’m a gerontologist and proudly own a company called Trinity Advocacy Group and Guardians, located in Illinois. And I just want to open this up for conversation. Krista, I kick it back to you.

Crista Ellis 00:52:44
Thank you, Colleen, for offering this information in a way that I haven’t quite seen it given to the community in this way. It’s been very beneficial for me as a young adult to consider these topics in a digestible way. We received so many questions from our community, and you just continued to answer them ongoing through the presentation.

So I want to acknowledge the effort that you put into this presentation and the natural ability that you had to answer the questions without even knowing that the questions were there yet. So thank you.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:53:27
Thank you, Krista. Thank you so much. Is there anything that came through that still needs to be answered or that I might answer?

Crista Ellis 00:53:36
We have a few moments, and I’ll try to fire off as many as I can with the time that we have together today. So we did receive a few questions around the same topic. Still some confusion around the difference of needing a will and/or a trust. Should we choose a will and a trust? Do we need a will and a trust? Do we choose will or trust? Just wanting to revisit the topic of will versus trust. Which one is better?

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:54:06
So, that’s really a question for an attorney based on your goals, your financial goals. What I will tell you is that if you had to pick one, the will, you’re always going to have assets and stuff in your own name, period. So if you don’t have a will, it’s going to go into the court system.

But the other thing is, if you have assets in aggregate, meaning add them all together, if those assets exceed $100,000, and I want you to think about the value of a vehicle if it was sold, the value of your home, the value of your bank accounts, all of that. If all of those things combined is over $100,000, I think most attorneys are going to recommend that you have a trust because, if it’s over $100,000, at least here in Illinois, that $100,000 is that threshold. Then if you don’t have things to protect that and you don’t have a will or a trust, it’s going to go into probate and you can just avoid that. So that’s a big reason for a trust. But that’s a conversation you definitely want to have with an attorney, definitely. Because not all attorneys are going to recommend that you have a trust. It depends on your specific goals.

Crista Ellis 00:55:36
Right. And would this be the elder law attorney?

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:55:40
Yes. Absolutely.

Crista Ellis 00:55:42
Okay. Great. Thank you for clarifying that for us, Colleen. I appreciate it.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:55:46
Can I make one more comment about an elder law attorney and a trust? A lot of times, the trust that just an estate planning attorney might put together is going to be called what’s called a revocable trust. An elder law attorney is going to help put assets in a very specialized type of trust that protects the assets from the overreach of the government. That’s another reason why I encourage you to have a consult with a certified elder law attorney.

Crista Ellis 00:56:22
Thanks, Colleen. I appreciate the way that you offer comprehensive and practical responses to these questions. It’s very helpful for us to take away from our time together. We have three more questions and two minutes left in our hour, so we’ll see what we can get to for our viewers today. Someone writes in, “My adult children are listed as beneficiaries on our accounts. Is it necessary for my wife and I to create a will?”

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:56:50
So, that’s a great question. And now we’re getting into that second or third layer of things. When you have bank accounts, when you have assets and beneficiaries are listed on those assets, then those will go directly to your children because you’ve said so. So the bank or whoever, wherever that asset is held, they must honor that.

There are alternatives to a will, and that might be a transfer on death instrument. You may have a lot of different options for that. So, there again, what is in your best interest based on your financial goals? You may not want to transfer that asset to your loved ones because of tax implications depending on the size of that asset. So that’s where I’m recommending your dream team, those three financial professionals, or your certified elder law attorney, a CPA and a financial advisor, just to have those folks weigh in on that.

Crista Ellis 00:58:07
And to follow up on this topic, just thinking about who counts as beneficiaries, could you describe what this person is? Do they own, are they family only? Just getting a little bit more clear on what a beneficiary or who a beneficiary is.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:58:25
A beneficiary can be anybody that you decide you want to bequeath or give your assets. So I gave you an example a little while ago of a pet, right? You can give Fluffy great care through setting up a trust and some instructions and a bank account. Charities can be beneficiaries. People or individuals can be beneficiaries. It’s whoever you want.

If you have children and you do not want them to inherit your money for whatever the reason, or one of the children, I’ve seen that happen, you specifically exclude them from your estate plan. You can do that. Families have all kinds of histories, so it doesn’t have to be next of kin. But if you don’t have an estate plan and everything ends up in the court system, it will absolutely go to your family because that’s the law. So think about that. If there is somebody that you don’t want to inherit, that’s another good reason to get your affairs memorialized.

Crista Ellis 00:59:38
We have one more question that came through, so I’d love to just take one more minute of your time.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:59:44
Happy to. Thank you.

Crista Ellis 00:59:46
One of our viewers is curious if the same attorney can do all of these documents, or do we need different attorneys to file and walk us through this estate plan, this financial plan?

Colleen Ceh Becvar 00:59:59
Right. If you go with a certified elder law attorney, you will only need that certified elder law attorney, which is another good reason to go to one because they have that comprehensive picture. Part of what their specialty is is these financial pieces, leveraging government benefits, helping you move assets in a way that best supports your goals. Yeah, it’s a comprehensive plan that they will put together for you.

Crista Ellis 01:00:30
I love when you can bridge the skills and knowledge and wisdom from one single group or groups of persons that makes it so easy to access for us. So, bringing in that elder law attorney once more before we close. Colleen, thank you so much for your time. Curious if you would like to share any last few words, wisdom pearls that you’d like our community to walk away with on top of what you’ve already contributed.

Colleen Ceh Becvar 01:00:58
I think, you know, just take that first step, you guys, or maybe it’s your 15th step. Just keep moving that forward because it really is going to give you such peace of mind, I can’t tell you. And you know, it’s progress, not perfection. And thank you so much for having me today. I really am honored to be here.

Crista Ellis 01:01:20
Thank you, Colleen, for your time and for sharing the labyrinth of information in a way that was so easily digestible for us. And I want to thank each of you for joining us today, for offering us questions and to get clearer on what that next step may look like for you.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Parkinson’s Foundation if you have a question that went unanswered or questions come up as you start to integrate the information. Feel free to reach out to our Helpline. Information is on the screen here for you to access at another time.

And before you go, my team and I are deep in review season right now, thinking and curating what the subject matter might look like for the calendar year to come. Thinking of what topics are important to you, as we end the webinar, your Zoom screen will prompt a survey. Our programming is literally fueled by your feedback. So please, it’s with great appreciation that you take the time to let us know what you hope to learn about in future sessions. All right.

Well, take care, everyone. Colleen, again, many thanks for you and all that you do for our community and to all of you around the world. May you be well. See you next time.