Chamber Offers Learn at Lunch: Estate Planning

Attorney Amy B. Hartmann, of , will speak about Estate Planning during a Learn at Lunch session organized by the

The event is titled “Top Ten Reasons to Have Your Estate Plan Reviewed—Making the Most of Your Estate Plan," and is open to everyone, chamber members and non-members.

It begins at 11 a.m. Feb. 8 at in the Village. Reservations are required and the fee is $10 for Chamber members and $20 for non-members.

Hartman was a federal prosecutor and then co-founder of the Michigan Children’s Law Center. She will explain why Estate Planning is such a dynamic area of the law. It involves some of the most personal issues any of us ever face. And the great thing is that it gives us the opportunity to control the outcome of so many of them.

How do you want the family business to pass? Do you want the cottage to stay in the family?  Is charitable giving important to you? Do you want to provide incentives to your children and grandchildren to get an education with their inheritances? What steps do you want taken if you become incapacitated to keep you in your home? These are just a few of the issues that arise.

Some important reasons you should have your estate plan reviewed sooner than later include:

• Take advantage of the current estate tax law.  The advantages of the new tax law are due to expire in less than a year.
• Reap the benefits of Michigan’s new trust code.
• Acquire and update your General Durable Power of Attorney so that someone has the ability to handle your financial affairs if you cannot.
• Clarify your health care directives and alleviate your family from facing that burden.
• Know your long term care planning options.
• Update your estate planning documents to reflect the changes in circumstances that happen to all of us.
• Ensure that your estate planning documents work as intended by regular reviews that include updating your trust funding, beneficiary designations and names of the individuals you have designated to oversee your estate upon disability or death.

Submitted to Patch by MaryJo Harris of the Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce.