Replay: Simplifying Estate Planning with Attorney Claire DeLorenzo

Estate planning doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. In this episode, attorney Claire DeLorenzo of Forman Law Group joins the conversation to explain why it’s a crucial step in securing your financial future, how to get started, and what benefits a well-structured plan can bring.

Forman Law Group: https://www.ourlegalwebsite.com/

More About Claire: https://www.ourlegalwebsite.com/claire-delorenzo.html

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:03

Estate planning can be overwhelming, but with the right team behind you, the process can be easier. Speak to your financial advisor about your financial plan. At Measured Wealth, estate planning is one of the pillars of comprehensive financial planning. Start planning today.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

The information presented on this program is believed to be factual and up to date at the time of its recording. We do not guarantee its accuracy and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the topics covered. Discussions and answers to questions do not involve the rendering of investment advice, personalized or otherwise, but are limited to the dissemination of general information. A professional advisor should be consulted before implementing any of the options presented. Measured Wealth Private Client Group is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and only transacts business in states in which it is registered or exempt from registration.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Welcome to Financial Futures, a Measured Wealth podcast powered by the team at Measured Wealth in beautiful Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Each episode, we're bringing you fresh insights on retirement, investing, and everything you need to take control of your financial future. Whether you're preparing for retirement or already living it, we're here to help you make informed choices with confidence. To kick off today's conversation, here's your host, certified financial planner and chartered financial analyst, George Saharopoulos.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

Claire DiLorenzo is joining me today. Claire is an estate planning attorney at Foreman Law Group with locations in New Hampshire and Maine. Today we'll be discussing the benefits and the process for estate planning, and in follow-up episodes, we'll be discussing trust and strategies. Claire, thanks for joining.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Hi, George. Nice to be here. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

All right. So Claire, let's start general overview. What are the typical documents that a normal person should consider having?

SPEAKER_01 1:54

So when I'm looking at someone's estate, obviously people come in with a lot of anxieties, they're nervous. There are six things that I generally consider when I'm looking at an estate. You know, first of all, most importantly, when people come in with young or disabled children, what documents do we need for that? The answer is a will. Then we look at do people need business planning documents? Are we concerned about lifetime planning? So powers of attorney are usually next. Healthcare and financial powers of attorney allow people to put family members or other loved ones in place so that if they're alive but disabled, nobody has to go to court for a guardianship over the person coming to see me. And then usually we get into, you know, is the client a good candidate for a trust? What type of trust are they a good candidate for? Um, what are the concerns that the client has? Or can we just do a simple will? So those are really the big high points. So, you know, guardianship for young and disabled children, number one, lifetime planning documents, number two, powers of attorney, guardianship for young or disabled children. Then we get into trusts, which can address the last three things estate tax planning, you know, after death planning, and long-term care slash asset protection planning.

SPEAKER_03 3:04

Aaron Ross Powell Great. So clearly a lot of important considerations. Walk us through what happens at death if there are no estate documents for the normal person, whether they're single, married, what happens in that um situation?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Aaron Ross Powell Great question. So when a person passes away, there are a few ways that assets can be passed. The easiest way is obviously, not obviously, but is through a beneficiary designation. So, you know, on your bank accounts, on your brokerage accounts, your IRAs, you can add beneficiaries. And when you pass away, those assets go directly to the people that you name in those beneficiary slots. There are other assets that can't be passed through a beneficiary designation, however. Um, they are coming out with beneficiary deeds in the state of New Hampshire. However, real estate usually has to go through a process called probate. When a person passes away and they own something like a business or a home, a deceased person can't own property, right? So it's up to a probate court, a probate court judge to be more specific, to pass assets to the people that the person wanted them to go to if they have a will. If they don't have a will, then assets are passed through something called the laws of intestasy. So with the laws of intestasy, an asset will be passed by a probate court judge without a will to a spouse first. If there isn't a spouse or if the spouse is a second spouse with outside children, then children are a consideration. If no children, the assets will be passed to parents. If the person doesn't have surviving parents, then to siblings. If not to siblings, are there any nieces and nephews from those siblings? If not down that line, then you go to first cousins, then second cousins. So it just keeps going out there, you know, charts you can follow. But you know, probate is not something that most people want to go through in the first place. So maybe we can get to that too.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

Right. I mean, it sounds like the court can really dictate where the assets go, and that might not be what someone's wishes are.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Right. And there are other considerations with probate as well. I mean, you're talking about a public record, you know, all probate proceedings, bar a few exceptions, are usually public record. That means anyone can look up your estate. It's subject to creditor claims. And there's actually a claim period against an estate as well that, you know, it has to be advertised that you've passed away and that your estate is open to claims. Additionally, it takes time. You know, a more complex estate can take anywhere from nine months to two years, depending on the state, the probate court, um, the state of your affairs. And it costs money. You know, you have to, unless you want to try to navigate the system yourself, you are hiring an attorney. They're either charging an hourly rate or they're charging a percentage of the estate. So, you know, it's a generally a process that we advise clients to avoid. But, you know, some people will opt in anyway, and sometimes it can't be avoided.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

So does it further complicate the situation when we're talking about blended families or families with special needs children?

SPEAKER_01 5:59

So it's definitely a I would highly recommend um estate planning be put in place if specifically if there's a blended family or if there is a disabled children. Those are two, you know, big topics for sure. For blended families, you know, the law says that even if you have pre-existing estate planning documents where let's say you bypass your second wife and you go directly to your children, unless you have a prenuptial agreement or a post-nuptial agreement in place, your spouse has the right to claim, or their children have the right to claim, up to 60% of your estate. It's a statutory provision. So it's definitely super important if you have remarried and you have children from a previous relationship that you want money to go to, that you have um these plans in place. And also, you know, prenups, postnups can be a separate podcast. But I've always wondered consideration.

SPEAKER_03 6:51

Always wondered how long does the probate process take?

SPEAKER_01 6:55

It really depends on the state that you're probating in. It depends on the size of the estate, the complexity of the estate, if there's going to be challenges to the estate. In uh Massachusetts, for example, the land courts have been extremely backed up since 2020. New Hampshire and Maine are are getting back to normal wait times, but I'd say nine months is a very reasonable, you know, even in normal estate, there has to be a six-month creditor claim period anyway. So I think nine months to two years is usually what I quote to clients. Um, but of course there are exceptions to that rule.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

Excellent. Thank you for that. And um I gotta ask, what do you think is the reason people delay creating their documents and going through this estate planning process?

SPEAKER_01 7:40

I mean, it's no one wants to talk about this stuff, right? Um it's uncomfortable, it's not something that anyone wants to think about. I completely understand that. I when I meet with clients, you know, I call it, you know, we have to talk about the yucky stuff, we have to talk about the things that nobody wants to think about. But I find that, you know, I really love what I do because um at the end of the day I get to give someone peace of mind, right? They know where their assets are going, they feel good that they've set things up ahead of time for their children or for their family members who don't need to go through court, who don't need to jump through hoops. Um so I think it's one of those high anxiety things, but it's something in the end that gives people a lot of solace. I think it's a great, an important thing to do for sure.

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Yeah, I think peace of mind is key, and I think it's a big weight off of people's shoulders. Feeling relieved that, hey, I finally got this taken care of. Now I can focus on something else. And um But uh you know, for someone who might be feeling a little bit overwhelmed, you know, what when someone and when someone comes to you for estate planning, what's your process? How do you simplify it? How can they be prepared and and make it as easier easy as possible?

SPEAKER_01 8:49

So we person I mean the way that our firm works is a little bit different than than some other firms, I think, and this is not a pitch. Um it's you know, we give the client a questionnaire beforehand, and that way going into the first meeting, um we have an idea of what the client has, what their family structure is, are they a veteran? Like, you know, we have considerations with long-term care planning as well. Um, do they own a business? So having that initial questionnaire is huge. Meeting with the client, I mean, that's when we go through the actual planning of it. You know, what are they, what are the best options for them. And from there, usually we we schedule a signing afterwards. So I walk through everything, you know, how does this work? What does it mean? What do you need? And then the following appointment is usually, you know, we're signing documents. I I can send documents ahead of time if clients would like to review them. But I like to break things down so that I'm speaking in English rather than in legalese. So really the process is, you know, bringing things down to a level that everyone can understand because nobody talks about these things. It's all a big mystery. Um so I like to make sure that clients feel comfortable and and understand things and we move from there, whatever they feel comfortable with.

SPEAKER_03 9:55

And I think having the questionnaire at first, too, can give you a uh a glance at what the assets are, right? Total net worth, and then you can decide whether state tax uh minimization is an objective, or perhaps the client may have an objective for asset protection, which some of these strategies we'll be talking about in a future episode. So at what point do you think people should consider having a power of attorney?

SPEAKER_01 10:24

I think that everyone should have a power of attorney over the age of 18. Once a child turns 18, the parents are no longer entitled to any kind of information financially or health-wise without a power of attorney. So actually I've done a ton in the last month for a client's children who are headed off to college because you know, we get horror stories and and I've had personal experience. Uh client's child gets into a car accident, gets into an accident at school, the parents rush to the hospital, and they aren't even allowed to talk to the doctors on the child's behalf. So powers of attorney are for everyone. Um and and there are a few things that are within those that that I like to see, but generally everyone should have one.

SPEAKER_03 11:08

I I've also seen instances where a client may have an investment account and they're in the hospital. We went through a stretch of COVID for a while, and family members can't access the funds because or talk about the accounts because there's no power of attorney on file. So um that is that is very key. Great, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

And I I just want to say I mentioned health care choice decisions, but um the financial power of attorney is immensely important, especially for accounts like IRA's retirement accounts. You might have, you know, a million dollars in your IRA, you're alive but disabled, and your wife goes to take money out to pay for your long-term care stay. They're not going to be able to access that money unless they have your death certificate. Your wife might be the beneficiary in your account, but that's only if you're no longer living. Without a power of attorney, you know, your spouse, your children don't have access to your point, George, to any of those funds. So super important, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 12:06

Great. Thank you, Claire. So, Claire, I mentioned, you know, having the profile ahead of time, kind of a list of assets, they fill out a questionnaire. The estate tax exemption has been lifted. Right now it's almost 14 million. In 2026, it's going to be 15 million. Does that ever come into play with your clients?

SPEAKER_01 12:29

So um the federal estate tax, less so for sure. I mean it's grown exponentially in the last uh eight years. The uh state estate taxes are still where we get a little bit hung up in Massachusetts and and Maine. Um Massachusetts is two million dollars per person. Um Maine is six million dollars per person. Different from the federal estate tax, which has something called portability, um, which allows spouses to pass double the amount estate tax-free automatically. State estate taxes do not have that portability. So when one spouse passes away, everything goes by operation of law to the surviving spouse. It's not taxed at that point because spouses are allowed to pass as much money between them as they want to. But then you run into a problem on the second death where you know each spouse had four million dollars in Maine, spouse one passes away, the other spouse now has eight, where they could have passed six twice. Now the surviving spouse is passing eight at their death, and they're incurring an estate tax for anything over six million dollars. So that's especially where estate tax money, where we see it now, not in New Hampshire, not in Florida, but Mass and Maine for sure, we still have estate tax considerations, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Okay. And so for portability, you're it's really an option for the federal estate tax. And and correct me if I'm wrong, but the surviving spouse would need to file something on the tax side in order to uh maintain that portability right, correct?

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Right. With the final tax return that you file for the deceased spouse, you reserve the portability exemption. Um that can be done, don't quote me, but within a few years of the death, um portability can be reserved. And so when the second spouse passes away, that doubles the amount that their unified credit I mean, estate taxes, uh we could do a whole podcast on estate tax for a sure. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

Okay. Great. And um actually cu more curiosity than anything, um, are there strategies to help reduce the state estate tax for Mass in Maine?

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Absolutely. I mean, we haven't gotten into trusts yet or gifting or anything like that. The easiest way, so it is an automatic portability, but if each spouse separates their assets into separate revocable trusts, we call them A B trusts, then each spouse can pass the estate tax limit in the state. So you can go from passing two million or you know, only two million at the second death to two million at the first death, two million at the second death, doubling the amount that the spouse can pass estate tax-free or the two spouses can pass estate tax-free.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

This has been great, Claire. A lot of a lot of great information. Um and we're gonna be talking about some of those strategies in the coming episodes. Uh we first want to tackle estate planning in general, talk about trust, and then get into those strategies. But Claire, where can someone get more information about you or your your law firm?

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Sure. Um so Foreman Law Group, we have offices in London, New Hampshire, Concord Bow, on the Concord Bow line in New Hampshire, um, Portsmouth, and York. I'm primarily on the seacoast. Our office number is 603-434-9500. The official name of our law firm is actually Foreman Manorini and Haydom Law Group. If you call the office, please ask for me personally. And my email is a little bit funny, but it is Claire C-L A I-R-E at our legalwebsite.com. We reserved the URL in the 90s, so I don't, it's it's a funny one, but spelled out, O-U-R-Legalwebsite.com.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

And Claire, um, one other thing. I think um I read a little bit about your bio. And do you have um a little background in was it microbiology and cellular and molecular biology, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

So I was a I was a pre-med uh student in undergrad, loved organic chemistry, loved those classes, and when I graduated, I went to work in a lab hoping to, you know, go get my PhD. Quickly realized that, you know, animal research, working with mice wasn't for me. Um, didn't want to be chasing government funding my whole life. So I decided to go to law school. I thought I'd pursue patent law. And then I ended up falling in love with just I loved my real estate class and the estate planning portion of it. I think it's so interesting that there's this whole world of law that's been around for hundreds of and hundreds of years that, you know, nobody really knows about. So uh that's my story and why I got into estate planning. And I was lucky enough to meet Fred Foreman in my law school career. So so I've worked with him c closely since, and he's been a wonderful mentor to me. So I'm very lucky Foreman Law Group is at Foreman Manorini and Hayem is a wonderful place to work, and um and I have I have great resources there.

SPEAKER_03 17:12

Great, that's amazing. Well, Claire, thank you again for joining me today. And thanks everyone for tuning in to Financial Futures, a measured wealth podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app so you never miss an update. Want to learn more or get in touch, head over to measuredwealth.net where you'll find prior episodes, helpful financial planning guides, and more. You can also call us at 603-431-1444, or email us at info at measuredwealth.net. That's info at measuredwealth.net. Thanks again for listening, and remember the future will someday be the present.