Pregnant and hungry, an Oahu mom brought her 2-year-old daughter and husband to Safeway to buy food on October 26, 2011. They bought two deli sandwiches on special for $5 and ate them while shopping.

At checkout, they forgot to pay for the eaten sandwiches with their other groceries and were detained by Safeway security.

Safeway officials proceeded to hold the couple for FOUR HOURS in a break room at the store. Reportedly, police officers arrived after about 2 hours, and they waited another 2 hours for a Child Welfare Services worker to take their 2-year-old daughter into PROTECTIVE CUSTODY. Both parents were taken to jail, where they later bailed out for $50 each.

The incident sparked much debate in the blogosphere and on the radio about whether or not parents should permit their children to eat unpurchased food while shopping. I am not interested in continuing that debate here. What I would rather do is share with you what you need to do to avoid ever being in a situation like this one. Get a Kids Protection Plan.

Child Welfare Services is the government’s plan for you. If you want a different set of rules to apply—if you want to maintain any semblance of control over who watches and raises your children, even in short-term scenarios, then you need to formulate and implement a Kids Protection Plan. Nominate short-term first responders and get the right legal documents in their hands so they can take custody of your keiki in an emergency.

If you don’t already have a plan in place to protect your children in the event that something renders you unable to parent, then you need to develop one now! Call us today to schedule your Family Wealth Planning Session, and we’ll focus on helping you create a plan to safeguard your children when you are unable to protect them yourself.

Living Plans for the Young

There are a couple essential documents that everyone needs, whether you have a family with children or are a single professional.

Durable Power of Attorney

The first thing everyone needs is a durable power of attorney. There are many varieties of the durable power of attorney. The most popular variety goes into effect only when a doctor concludes and certifies that you are without capacity to make legally binding decisions. Without a durable power of attorney, your spouse, parents, siblings, live-in partner, or other loved ones would have to petition a court for the right to handle things for you. That’s an additional hassle they won’t want or need if they’re faced with your incapacity. All you need to do to set up a financial durable power of attorney is select a friend or family member that you trust to act as your “agent,” and contact our offices. We can handle the rest for you!

Advanced Health-Care Directive

Another document that everyone needs is an Advanced Health-Care Directive. Giving loved ones the authority to handle your financial affairs in case of incapacity isn’t enough. Someone needs to be in charge of making medical decisions on your behalf in the event that you cannot make or communicate your own medical decisions. Leaving the burden of tough decisions to a group is unfair. Moreover, you need to designate one person who is capable, willing, and emotionally strong enough to carry out your wishes and look out for your best interests.

Your Advanced Health-Care Directive also spells out what types of medical treatment you want or don’t want in the event that you are incapacitated and suffer from a terminal illness or are in a persistent vegetative state. In either of those cases, it’s only fair that your wishes be followed, but that can only happen if you’ve expressed your wishes and desires before becoming ill. It’s also important to share your wishes with your physician. That way everyone is on the same page.

Professional Advice

Life planning is not something that you want to tackle alone. There is simply too much at stake, especially when professionals like us are available to help you create and implement a plan that is appropriate for your situation, whether you need only the documents listed above or a full blown estate plan with a will and revocable living trust.

We also had a summer intern from Columbia (the school not the country), who managed to make it into the office before noon several times over the course of his tenure with us. After he left, we found his checkbook on his desk, so we are planning to shut down the office for a few days and take a much-needed vacation on Tommy the Intern.

Ok, we probably will just mail it to him.

My family and I did get to take our first *real* vacation together (not funded by Tommy). We had a California extravaganza–Disneyland, Legoland, San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. It was fantastic!

As you know, there are a lot of small businesses here on Maui, and we’ve been getting questions about why business owners would put their business in a trust. Read on…

Estate Planning and Business Succession
What do businesses and people have in common? Business entities, like people, have their own legal existence. That just means that business entities can enter contracts, buy and sell goods, sue and be sued, and do just about anything else that a person can do.

The similarities end, however, when the discussion turns to continuity. A business entity, unlike a person, can exist perpetually. Sure, businesses can be wound up and their existence terminated, but they can and often do outlive their founders–at least, that’s the hope of many business owners.

The Living Trust Solution
Without a plan in place for what will happen in the event of death, all assets owned by individuals, whether businesses, cash, stocks, or real estate, may become subject to the court system. In the case of assets like cash, being subjected to probate simply means that attorney fees will eat up part of the estate.

In the case of a business, the probate process can very well mean a total loss. That’s because probate takes a long time, and if there is no succession plan in place, then a business may not be able to operate lawfully and may have to be wound up.

It goes without saying that if you own a profitable business, you want to pass it along to those who matter most in your life. A living trust is a great mechanism for people–business owners and non-business owners alike–to pass on their assets without involving the court system, at a significant cost savings, and with a high degree of privacy.

In the case of business owners, there are some specific benefits to using a living trust:
-The ability to pass ownership of your business without the need for court involvement, so that operations never skip a beat.
-The ability to specify a succession plan in accordance with your business’s governing documents (e.g. operating agreement or partnership agreement).

Tailoring living trusts is a big part of our legal practice. We are here to serve your needs and provide a customized solution to your estate and succession planning needs, so that you never have to worry about what will happen to your loved ones, your assets, or your business in a worst case scenario.

What you can deduct…

What you have to claim…

And with all the recent changes to the laws, it’s almost impossible to know if you’re doing the right thing.

We’re hoping this will help.

Here’s the straight scoop on how the new tax law affects your estate plan:

A Quick and Dirty List of What Changed

On December 16, 2010, Congress passed a new tax law that changes how your estate should be planned:

• The estate tax has been restored retroactively to Jan. 1, 2010.
• You can pass $5 million through your own estate without having to worry in 2011. That amount will be indexed for inflation after 2011. Anything over the $5 million mark is taxed at a maximum of 35 percent.
• If you die in 2011, your surviving spouse can add any of your unused exemption to theirs – a new concept of portability. In calculating the total exemption (up to $10 million), the amount that’s portable is not indexed for inflation, but your surviving spouse’s own exemption amount is.
• The gift tax still applies, but the amount you can give away in your lifetime has been raised from $1 million to $5 million starting this year. This amount will be indexed for inflation as well, and you and your spouse can combine your lifetime limits for a total of $10 million. If you plan to give away more than $5 million, the tax rate on the excess will remain at 35%.
• Generation-skipping transfer tax has been reinstated starting this year. This tax is applied on top of the estate or gift tax to any assets you pass on to your grandchildren or to a trust you establish for their benefit. The $5 million exemption applies to this tax as well. The excess will be taxed at 35%. Portability does not apply to the generation-skipping transfer tax.

Interesting note: When considering income tax on inherited assets, remember that the cost basis for the assets is adjusted to the fair-market value on the date the owner dies. This will help limit the capital-gains tax that your heirs have to pay if they sell the asset.

So, What Do You Do Now?

Keep in touch with your estate planning attorney (or hire one if you don’t already have one) and talk to him or her about the changes now and in the future (this law is only for two years).

When you start planning your estate, make sure you have your hands on records showing what your assets cost when they were purchased. If you can’t prove what the assets originally cost, the IRS is going to assume that the cost was zero and your heirs could be stuck paying capital gains tax on the total sales amount. For the sake of your heirs, keep all your purchase records in one place, preferably with your estate planning documents.

If you’ve been chosen to be the executor of someone else’s estate, document every conversation and always follow up verbal communication in writing. If the family disagrees with what you recommend, you may be better off doing what they want to do. Just make sure they sign documentation releasing you from liability and indemnifying you from any losses they take as a result.

If you have an estate plan or are thinking about planning your estate and would like an opinion on how to deal with the most recent changes to the estate tax laws, call us to schedule your Family Wealth Planning Session today. We can identify what needs to be done to ensure that you have the right plan in place to take full advantage of all the recent changes. Our Family Wealth Planning Session is normally $750, but this month I’ve made space for the next two people who mention this article to have a complete planning session with me at no charge. Call today and mention this article.

Mele Kalikimaka and Happy Holidays! I hope this note finds you significantly better prepared for the holidays than me. My parents arrived on island Saturday and are staying until APRIL, so now that the calvary has arrived (read: backup child care!), I am definitely having a happy holiday!

As though you don’t have enough to think about already, this month’s article is about protecting the identity of your children. Identity theft is a topic close to my heart, because years ago, when Mark and I were applying for our first mortgage, I learned that someone had created multiple aliases using my social security number and was opening credit cards like crazy.

What was most shocking to me at the time was how difficult it was for me to get the banks to stop the cards or even put a hold on them. I remember on Christmas Eve 2001 getting yet another letter from the same bank asking Margaret Depina to verify that the charges on the account were not hers (even though I, Meg Obenauf, had sent at least four lengthy affidavits). I felt like screaming, “There is no Margaret Depina!!!”

I tend to be somewhat tenacious (I am sure Lindsey remembers the Identity Theft Binder), so by working with the three credit reporting agencies to clear up my credit report; and the Northeastern University Police and the U.S. Secret Service to investigate, we were able to prosecute successfully. It turned out C.L., aka Margaret Depina and MANY other names, had also defrauded the university where she worked as a receptionist (and I had worked as a teaching fellow). She received a one-year vaca at her local federal detention facility.

But this article is about your kids…

Protecting Your Child’s Identity

The holidays are upon us, and unfortunately, so are the opportunities for being victims of fraud.

Most of us are savvy enough to know we should shred our credit card bills and anything else with identifying information on it.

But have you thought about protecting your child’s identity?

Child identity theft is a fairly new problem but it’s happening more and more. And according to the FTC, 5% of the victims were under the age of 18.

To keep your child from becoming a victim of identity theft, keep these tips in mind:

1. Don’t disclose personal information if you don’t know how it’s going to be used.

Never give your child’s personal information out over the phone, through the mail or online, especially with regard to any kind of sales promotion. Never carry your child’s Social Security card or number in your purse or wallet.

If your child is old enough to use the Internet (and they start really young these days), watch what they’re doing. Social networking sites have led to an increase in the amount of personal information children are providing about themselves online. And predators are out there watching and waiting.

Just as you warn your child about talking to strangers, warn them about posting their home address, date of birth or phone number online.

2. Request that your bank require photo identification.

This is for all transactions for your accounts or accounts in your child’s name.

3. Don’t apply for credit cards through offers received by mail.

If you have opened a credit card account with your child as a joint account holder (typically a teenager), you will more than likely begin to receive credit card offers in your child’s name. If you do, don’t assume that it’s a mistake.
If you receive an offer in the mail for your child, check with the three credit reporting agencies periodically to make sure that fraudulent accounts haven’t been opened in your child’s name.
Contact 888-5OPT-OUT or 888-567-8688 to opt out of receiving prescreened credit offers in your name or your child’s.

4. Shred all paperwork.

Just as you would shred paperwork with your information on it, shred anything with your child’s information on it. The same protections that you employ for yourself should be applied to your child.

5. Contact the Social Security Administration

Call the Social Security Administration and request an earnings report in your child’s Social Security number and name to make sure that someone isn’t out there working under your child’s identity.
If you take these steps and your research turns up fraudulent information, take the following steps to begin to correct the problem:

• Contact the Social Security Administration and advise them of the fraud.
• Contact the three leading credit report agencies, TransUnion, Experian and Equifax and advise them of the problem.
• File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

As parents, our chief concern is and will always be protecting our children. When your kids are 50 and you’re in your 80’s, you’ll still be worrying about their safety and well-being.
If you are interested in taking additional steps to protect your children, give us a call. There are legal documents you need to have in place to make sure that your children are protected in the event you’re not there to care for them.
Have a great holiday season!
Meg

The Family Wealth Inventory and Assessment is designed to help you focus in on the important information and questions that are necessary to get your legal and financial house in order.

We ask you to fill it out and return it to us in advance of our appointment so that we can have the most productive time together.

1. Print the Family Wealth Inventory & Assessment worksheet.

2. Fill in as much as you can.

3. Make an appointment with us to discuss your plan.

4. Return the Family Wealth Inventory & Assessment worksheet to us at least 3 days in advance of our appointment.

Click the link below to download the assessment.

Single Estate Planning Worksheet

Married Estate Planning Worksheet

Life Partner Estate Planning Worksheet

It’s the perfect combination of efficiency and warmth.

The planning process itself begins with an initial meeting that is an opportunity for you to meet with your attorney, so that you each can determine whether there is a good fit between you and our firm.

During this initial meeting, Meg will walk you through exactly what your loved ones would have to do and where your assets would go if something happened to you.

You will then be able to determine if there was anything about your current plan (or the state’s plan for you) that you wouldn’t like, and you’ll get clear on what you would want to happen if something happened to you.

Assuming there is a good fit between you and our firm, Meg will help you to choose the planning level and fee that is right for your family (we have three different planning levels to accommodate your needs – our fees begin at $1500, and they are all-inclusive, so there are no surprises) and you and Meg will then design a plan that will give you the peace of mind of knowing your family will be taken care of in the event the unthinkable happens.

Sometimes, depending on the level of planning you choose and the complexity of your situation, a second design meeting is needed or a Whole Family Wealth Audit meeting is offered to review your more complex financial matters.

Once your plan has been designed to your satisfaction, you will return to our office about 4-6 weeks later to sign your planning documents. At this point, your family and your assets will be totally protected in the case of your death or incapacity.

In most law firms, the relationship ends there.

But we see the signing of these documents as the beginning of our relationship with your family. This is where our law firm is very different.

After you sign your legal documents, we don’t just send you on your way and wish you luck for the future. Instead, we create an electronic record of all of your legal documents so you can easily access them anytime you need to in the future and then schedule a legacy meeting with you. This is one of the most important meetings of our process because it’s where we:

1) Ensure your assets are all owned in the right way (you can have the best set of legal documents, but if your assets are not owned in the right way, it’s all been a waste);

2) Make sure everyone you’ve named to take care of your kids, the money you are leaving behind or you if you cannot care of yourself knows just what to do, if and when something happens;

3) Capture and plan for your intangible assets – the values, insights, stories, and experiences – you would never want lost.

And this is where we make sure you understand everything we’ve put in place for you and your family.

Then, we still aren’t done! We meet with you at least every three years to review your plan and make sure it stays up to date. If that’s not included in the planning you are doing, the set of documents you get are very unlikely to work when your family needs them.

By now you’ve seen that Obenauf Law Group is something special, and because you love your family, you know your family deserves the kind of protection, guidance and love we provide for a lifetime. It’s mportant that you know how we work, because we do things a bit differently at Obenauf Law Group than at other law firms. And our clients love it.

Schedule Your Personal Family Wealth Planning Session

Call our office at 244-3905 to schedule your personal Family Wealth Planning Session and ask to speak with Lindsey, our Client Services Director. Lindsey will schedule the most convenient appointment time available for you to meet with Meg Obenauf. We see clients on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday during business hours and Thursday and Friday evenings, to make planning as convenient for you as possible.

When you schedule your personal Family Wealth Planning Session, we block 2 hours on our calendar so we can focus entirely on you and your family during this time. We will send you a package of information to complete before our time together, which will help you begin the process of getting your legal and financial life in order. During our meeting together, we will guide you to gently look at what would happen for your loved ones and with your assets if something were to happen to you. And then, we’ll look at what you want to happen and help you create a roadmap to get that plan in place as easily as possible. Clients routinely say “wow, if we had known how easy this would be, we would have done it years ago!” after meeting with us.

Our Family Wealth Planning Session is $750 and if we create a comprehensive plan for you, that planning fee is applied to your legal fees for your lifetime estate plan. In some circumstances, we will waive the planning session fee and instead you can secure your appointment time with a credit card number.

In such cases, so long as you keep your appointment, nothing will be charged on your card unless you decide to proceed with a comprehensive estate plan after the Family Wealth Planning Session. In such a situation, if you must cancel within 1 week of your appointment, your credit card will still not be charged unless you fail to reschedule your appointment within 30 days of your cancellation. If you cannot keep your appointment and you choose not to reschedule, your credit card would be charged.

We understand that this policy of securing your appointment with a credit card may seem unique. So is our law firm. We provide our very best service to those families who are looking for a long-term relationship with their trusted advisor. We expend most of our energy providing an exceedingly high degree of service to our existing clients and limit the number of new clients we see each week. We only take referrals from trusted Professional Planning Partners. As a result, we must secure your appointment time so that if something comes up and you can’t attend your appointment, we will have enough
advance notice to open the slot to a waiting family.

What to Do Prior to Your Personal Family Wealth Planning Session

About 3 days after scheduling your appointment, you will receive a Mailer with your Family Wealth Inventory & Assessment and other important information that you will want to review prior to your personal Family Wealth Planning Session. We must have your Family Wealth Inventory & Assessment returned to our office 3 days prior to
your Session either by mail, fax or electronic mail or we will need to reschedule your Session. Feel free to call the office at any time if you need assistance completing your worksheet or have any questions at all.

If you have existing estate planning documents, please make sure that we have your existing documents in our office at least a week before your meeting so that we can review them prior to meeting with you.

What to Expect the Day of Your Personal Family Wealth Planning Session

On the day of your meeting, please expect to spend up to 2 hours with Meg. The initial meeting with Meg has two purposes:

1. To identify whether there is a good fit between you and your attorney and

2. To educate you about the law and what would happen if you died with your current (or no) plan in place.

By looking at what would happen under your current plan, you can identify what you would want to happen differently and then together with Meg’s guidance make the decisions that are necessary to give you the peace of mind of knowing your family would be taken care of in the way you want if something happened to you.

Assuming that you and your attorney determine that there is a good fit between our firm and your family AND that you identify specific ways you would want things to happen that are different than what would happen if something happened to you, you and Meg can design a plan for your family right away.

What Happens Next?

Once you and Meg have completed the design of your plan, you will meet with our plan coordinator who will review your assets for the purpose of ensuring that everything you own will be titled for maximum protection and then schedule a meeting for you to sign your planning documents approximately 4 weeks later.

We have a process of reviewing your documents with you that makes your plan so easy to understand that you will know for certain that we understood exactly the way you want things to happen when something happens to you and that your loved ones will be in excellent hands with our firm. Once you sign your planning documents, your assets and your family are protected as discussed during your design meeting.

We see that as only the beginning of our relationship. You may make changes to your planning documents at no charge for up to 90 days after you sign your documents.

At our final meeting during the planning stage of our relationship, we verify that all of your asset transfers are moving forward on track whether we are taking the lead or you are taking the lead with our guidance. We review your asset spreadsheet with you and ensure all of your questions are answered. Of course, if they aren’t or they become cloudy later on, we are always available to answer your questions at any time in the future. And, there’s no charge for that.

What Happens After I Sign My Estate Planning Documents and Take Them Home?

After the planning phase is complete, the maintenance phase of your plan will begin. At no additional charge, we review your plan at least every three years and keep you informed about changes in the law and about other issues that affect your family and your wealth. And, if you participate in one of our Family Wealth VIP Membership programs, you will have an opportunity to review your plan on an annual basis, and we will provide your family with a number of other valuable services. Call us today to learn about the Membership Programs. Finally, we are always here for you and we don’t charge you for phone calls, faxes, or emails. We welcome your communications!

You’ll be amazed at how easy and painless the entire planning process will be for your family.

Call us today! 244-3905

When lawyers do not take the time to listen and consider a family’s personal circumstances, the result is that your Will & Trust Documents do not end up reflecting what your family really wants to happen. And usually there is no review or updating, so the plan quickly becomes outdated and does not work when your family needs it most.

So even though you may pay less up front to get a standard set of documents (or even documents that are customized for your family), things end up much more expensive in the long run. Plus, you leave your family at risk of having to deal with an expensive, unnecessary court process during a time of tremendous grief.

Obenauf Law Group is right for you if you want to know that your plan will actually work when you and your loved ones need it the most. If all you want is a set of legal documents, there are plenty of online resources you can use to create them. Or you can go to a traditional estate planning lawyer.

If what you want is to know you’ve got a plan in place that will make things easy for your loved ones no matter what happens when, we’re the right fit for you.

Here are some of the ways we are different from most estate planning lawyers:

1. All of our fees are fixed fees agreed to in advance, so there are no surprises. At our initial meeting you will choose the level of planning and fee that works best for your family, so there will never be any surprises.

2. We keep you informed and make sure your plan works. We don’t just prepare a set of legal documents for you and send you on your way. We make sure your assets are owned in the right way, we make sure your kids’ well-being is properly planned for, we ensure everyone you’ve named in your plan knows what to do if anything happens to you.

3. We review your plan at least every 3 years and annually through our Family Wealth VIP Membership program. We foster a lifetime, ongoing relationship with our clients. Throughout your life, things change. You change; your assets change; your family changes; the law definitely will change.

4. We have a whole team in place to answer your quick questions and to make the planning process incredibly easy and painless for you and your family. We have a process for helping you make sure that your assets are titled in the right way, both now and over your lifetime.

5. We help you get your legal and financial house in order by helping you make smart choices about things like buying insurance, saving for college, and retirement planning so you never spend more than you have to
or get taken advantage of by unscrupulous salespeople.

6. Legacy Planning. We believe that planning is about much more than just the transfer of your financial wealth. With all of our plans, we include a process to help you transfer your most important personal wealth to your loved ones, including your intellectual, spiritual and human assets – who you are and what’s important to you.

Before you engage an estate planning lawyer to help you plan for the well‐being of your money, your family and your life, there are questions you need to ask. You need to ensure that the estate plan you put in place will really work when your family needs it and won’t end up just a pile of worthless paper after you are gone.

Don’t let a set of legal documents become false security that keeps you from doing what’s best for your loved ones.

If you are a parent of children who are counting on you, your estate plan must begin with ensuring your children would always be taken care of by the people you want, in the way you want, no matter what happens.

At Obenauf Law Group, one of our areas of greatest focus is in planning for the well-being and care of the children you love.

Without advance legal planning for the care of your children, if the unthinkable happens to you, here’s what could happen:

Yes, these things scare us too. That’s why we offer a Kids Protection Plan with every estate plan we do for families with young children.

What is a Kids Protection Plan®?

If you are in an accident, your Kids Protection Plan® will make sure your children are never taken into the custody of Child Welfare Services or the care of anyone you wouldn’t want because the police don’t have clear instructions from you. And your Kids Protection Plan® will ensure your children are raised by people you choose, not someone chosen by a Judge who doesn’t know you.

To get started with your Kids Protection Plan®, contact us.