Pennsylvania Estate Planning Lawyer & Attorney : Jakubik Law Firm : Serving Philadelphia, Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy

It is always a good idea to review the various aspects of your family's financial plan, including your estate plan, on a regular basis. I know that this is often easier said than done. In addition, it is usually a good idea to consult your accountant, financial advisor and attorney before making major life decisons, such as getting married, adopting a child (or on the birth of a child) or getting divorced. Here is a fairly comprehensive list of life events that warrant such a review, courtesy of tax lawyer Charles Rubin:

• Birth of a child or grandchild;
• Marriage of self or heir;
• Divorce;
• Death of a spouse or child;
• Major change in the tax laws;
• Major change in financial circumstances, such as a substantial inheritance;
• Change of domicile to a new state or country;
• Acquisition of out-of-state or out-of-country property;
• Major illness;
• Acquisition or sale of a business or real estate, including major liquidity events;
• Major charitable gifting;
• Acquisition of life insurance or significant annuity policies;
• Significant gifting to friends or family members;
• Or in the absence of any of the above, the passage of 4-5 years since the last review.

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The Wall Street Journal earlier this week published a rather interesting article that detailed an increased effort by large donors to colleges and universities to impose greater restrictions on the uses to which their gifts may be put. Not surprisingly, the article also describes the angst that this is causing college administrators and development officers.

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The USA Today recently ran a very interesting article on what appears to be a growing trend in the country toward more use of lifetime transfers of wealth. What is especially encouraging is that such wealth transfer techniques as charitable trusts and inter vivos, or living, trusts, are finding greater use among those outside the reaches of the very high net worth families. As I have commented previously, any family wealth plan should, to the extent feasible and advisable, incorporate lifetime gifts and other lifetime transfer techniques. The USA Today article would suggest that more people are thinking about their family's future and their own legacies, and are doing proper planning to achieve those goals. And that, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing.

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Friday's Wall Street Journal published a fascinating article about what those in the philanthropic world call "stretch" donors - folks who make charitable gifts and bequests that are beyond what would be expected given the donor's financial circumstances. Such donors choose to forego purchasing vacation homes or funding their own retirements or children's education funds in favor of making substantial philanthropic gifts. It appears, according to the Journal article, that the incidence of such "stretch" gifts is increasing, and the average age of the donors is moving lower. My initial reaction upon reading the story - especially the part about the Mississippi neurosurgeon who decided to give away 99% of his net worth, and now faces uncertainty with regard to his own retirement, as well as his 3 year old's college education - was that, in most cases, these folks were terribly irresponsible for putting their own "feel good" philanthropic notions ahead of their own familes' security. As I continued to think about it, though, I realized that, as with so very many things in life, its not as simple as all that, and first reactions can be wrong.

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