Pennsylvania Trusts and Estates Blog

From www.consumeraffairs.com

The office of Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna reached a settlement with an Arizona company accused of violating a three-year-old state law intended to crack down on 'trust mill' schemes.

Under the agreement, The Preservation Group and its founders will offer refunds to more than 60 Washington seniors who purchased living trusts.

"We believe the defendants pushed expensive living trusts on Washington seniors while misrepresenting probate as a time-consuming process that can eat up a nest egg," McKenna said. "This case enforces the law our office requested to ensure that only legal professionals can prepare estate documents."

The AG's Consumer Protection Division accused The Preservation Group, LLC, of Chandler, Ariz., and its owners Kevin D. Boterman and Robert J. Feinholz of violating the state's Estate Distribution Documents Act. The law, requested by the attorney general, prohibits anyone who is not a licensed attorney from marketing living trusts or wills.

Exaggerated benefits
The Preservation Group conducted estate planning seminars throughout Washington from approximately August 2007 to at least September 2008. According to the state's complaint, salespeople promoted the advantages of a living trust while exaggerating the complexity of probate, the court-supervised process by which property is transferred to heirs. They then set up appointments to meet with seniors in their homes.

Seniors who paid $2,195 to $2,995 for living trusts were encouraged to provide details about their finances that the salespeople used to pitch additional insurance and investment products, the state alleged.

At the time of the sales, Boterman and Feinholz were registered to sell insurance in Washington but were not licensed to practice law.

Sales ban
The settlement filed in King County Superior Court doesn't require the defendants to admit any wrongdoing but prohibits them selling estate planning products here in the future. They agree to pay up to $40,000 in restitution to eligible consumers who request refunds, as well as $10,200 to reimburse the state for attorneys' fees and legal costs. A $25,000 civil penalty is suspended provided the defendants comply with the settlement terms.

Properly drafted and executed, a living trust can help someone avoid probate and offer other advantages, but isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. For example, individuals with small estates may avoid probate without a living trust. Joint ownership of assets is another way to avoid probate.

You definitely need a plan to share passwords with your executor. If a digital asset is encrypted or protected by a strong password, the asset is effectively lost. Sharing passwords is a start, but it is not enough.

You may have multiple e-mail accounts, personal or family websites and blogs, domain names, important records, collections of digital photographs, a library of e-books and music, games, films, and online bank and brokerage accounts. To whom do these accounts belong? And how can they be passed on to heirs?

Dennis Kennedy recently wrote an article for the ABA webzine, Law Practice Today, entitled "Estate Planning for your Digital Estate." Kennedy presents a five step plan to help survivors deal with digital assets.

Inventory
Make a written list of your hardware and software. This include desktop and laptop computers, discs, DVDs, external hard drives, smart phones, and flash memory.

List where you store your income tax files, Quicken files, and family genealogy. What programs do you use to post to blogs and websites? If you use online backup, you need to let your executor know your user name and password.

If your banking is paperless, a written inventory prepared by you might be the only way your executor even knows about the account. List all the payees who receive automatic payment from your credit cards and checking account so that another six months of health club payments don't get made. List all subscriptions and memberships.

Identify Appropriate Help
You name executors and trustees to manage your estates, but are they computer literate? You might want to add one more co-executor who knows about digital assets. A twenty-year-old you would never allow to handle large sums of money might be just the person you want to wind up your online presence.

With a large digital estate, you may want to ask whether or not the attorney for the estate os able to manage digital assets.

Provide for Access
We are often told never to write down our passwords and to make them secure by choosing ones with letters and numbers and special characters that no one will be able to guess. That is exactly the opposite of what you need to do to make sure your digital assets are handled appropriately when you die.

Make the password list, and make sure it is stored securely - maybe write it on a paper kept with your will.

Provide Instructions
Your digital manager needs to be told which accounts to maintain, for how long, and which to close. Decisions made for some accounts may be different for others. You may want your websites to stay open for six months, then be closed, and some email accounts closed without delay.

If you are working on a long term project such as a book, you may want to make a list of "do-not-delete" files or folders.

Those thousand songs you bought online are worth a thousand dollars or more. You might want to add them to the no-delete list.

Give the Appropriate Authority
The larger the digital estate, the more you might need to name someone in your will to handle your digital assets, maybe even making that person a co-executor limited to handling online assets. That way the co-executor in charge of your digital estate will appear on probate certificates. Without such documented authority, your digital estate manager may meet stiff resistance when trying to deal with third parties.

As for the digital estate manager, Kennedy gives some good advice:
• Get technical help when you need it.
• Use contact lists, Facebook or other social network sites to notify friends of the funeral date.
• Change all passwords as soon as possible.
• Do not start closing inexpensive accounts right away. Websites are especially cheap to maintain and expensive to reconstruct.
• When deleting from drives, use a program to clean up unused space. Use several passes to make a thorough job of it. Deleting a file makes it inaccessible to the average user, but it remains accessible to motivated hackers.
• Invest in two USB hard drives. Transfer all computer files onto one drive and from that drive transfer all the "good stuff" onto the other. When done, wipe the first USB hard drive clean.
• Make copies of websites before taking them down.
• Edit all shopping accounts by deleting all credit card information.
• When it comes to photos, videos and old email, lean more to saving than to deleting.

Question: What do you get when you cross the Godfather with a lawyer?
Answer: An offer you can't understand.

The nature of our legal system, which is often referred to as a "common law" system, is that it depends heavily on precedent. That means that the outcome in a current case is determined by reference to the outcome in prior cases. Words, phrases, and terms are given meanings that are developed in lines of cases. Thus, so called "legalese," while usually used as a denigrating label, is in fact the technical language of the law.

Do you understand the meaning of these phrases: "Biophilic Design", "microsphere/hydrogel combination system", and "pool boiling curves"? If you don't you are not alone. They come from the technical language of architecture, pharmacy, and nuclear engineering, respectively. These specialized professions employ technical language. As does the legal profession.

There is a movement for Plain Language in legal writing that is very important. Its goal is to eliminate unnecessarily complex language in law, government and business. The improvement of writing clarity should be supported. However, it cannot be expected that a lay person will be able to read and converse freely about the technical aspects of any profession. A physics paper submitted for publication to an academic journal is not readily accessible to the lay reader.

In the law, some writing should be directed at the reader's lay level. A good example is warning labels. It is imperative that a warning label to be affixed to a dangerous machine be clear and easily understood. What is not so clear is that legal documents intended to govern complex relationships and transactions need be or can be written with the same reader in mind. For attorneys the use of traditional legal writing is more efficient because it is most commonly used; therefore, most commonly understood.

Some accuse lawyers of being obscure writers on purposes. Perhaps some lawyers are like that, but many accusations against lawyers for writing "legalese" are unfounded.

If you read a surgeon's textbook giving precise instructions on how to perform a cholecystectomy and you did not understand it, would you think it was a bad textbook? Or would you think that you had a bad surgeon? No, of course not.

Similarly, if your lawyer drafts a will or trust for you and you do not understand all of the provisions, does that mean it's a bad document, or that your lawyer is being an obscurantist? No, of course not.

"Boilerplate" provisions in a contract, will, or other legal documents are sections of routine, standard language. The term comes from an old method of printing. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, "boilerplate" or ready to print material was supplied to newspapers. Advertisements or syndicated columns were supplied to newspapers in ready-to-use form as heavy iron, prefabricated printing plates that were not (and, indeed, could not) be modified before printing. These never-changed plates came to be known in the late 19th century as "boilerplates" from their resemblance to the plates used to construct boilers.

The term "boilerplate" was later adopted by lawyers to describe those parts of a legal document that are considered "standard language," although any good lawyer will tell you to always read the "boilerplate" in any document you plan to sign. Today, "boilerplate" is commonly stored in computer memory to be retrieved and copied when needed.

In a will or trust, sections of boilerplate are often maligned as "legalese." In fact, the choice of boilerplate is crucial. Let me give you a few examples.

Wills should contain a tax clause. A tax clause is a provision that says where the executor should get the money to pay federal and state death taxes. A common boilerplate provision could provide that all taxes are to be paid from the residue of the probate estate. Maybe your will says that.

Boilerplate is often used in a will or trust to provide definitions. For example, the will may refer to children, grandchildren, descendants or issue. Who is included? Is a stepchild included in the class? Is an adopted child included in the class? Are children born of unmarried parents included? If there is a definition in the boilerplate, it may exclude stepchildren as beneficiaries. Is this intended? Perhaps. Then again, perhaps not. This is a case where the definition in the boilerplate goes to the heart of the matter--who is a beneficiary and who gets a share of the estate.

If you name an individual or a bank or trust company as a trustee, can the beneficiaries ever remove that trustee? Thirty years later when the trustee's fees are high, investment performance is poor, and there is inadequate customer service, can the trust be moved? It depends on what it says in the boilerplate.

All boilerplate is not equal. The choice of the boilerplate that is appropriate to the circumstances and is in accordance with the intentions of the parties is very important. There is no standard, across-the-board language for anything. It is all written by someone, the words have meaning, and they are binding.

An inherited Roth IRA is truly a "gift that keeps on giving." It is an exceptional estate planning tool.

When deciding whether or not to convert your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, most people (or their advisors) "run the numbers." The cost and benefits of a Roth conversion is compared to the status quo - maintaining the traditional IRA. Assumptions are made about investment returns, future income tax rates, life expectancy, etc.

In most cases, using reasonable assumptions, the Roth IRA conversion usually looks like the better choice, although the psychological hurdle of paying a big income tax bill now still prevents many IRA owners from doing the conversion. (Maybe it's not just psychological - I suppose income taxes could be lower in the future, although that seems to conflict with the reality principle.)

If the beneficiaries intend to liquidate the IRA right away and spend it, the calculation might be close. But transferring a Roth IRA to your beneficiaries on your death can be a VERY valuable opportunity, if they do not miss it. If the beneficiaries, instead of withdrawing the Roth IRA immediately, maintain the Roth IRA as an inherited IRA and take the minimum required distributions over their life expectancies, then they are getting a terrific benefit.

A person who inherits a Roth - unlike the original owner of the account - is required to take a minimum required distribution each year, beginning in the year following the year of death. The beneficiary must withdraw a percentage of the funds annually, based on his/her age. Comparing the traditional IRA against the Roth IRA for the lifetime of the owner and his/her spouse is not enough. To understand what it means to a beneficiary to inherit a Roth IRA, the projections have to keep going.

The beneficiary has an asset which will grow at a compounded rate tax-free for his/her lifetime and any withdrawals made will be completely tax free. There is simply nothing else like it. No other investment will give this kind of return tax-free. Inheriting a Roth IRA is much more valuable than inheriting any other asset. Any other asset - whether it be stocks and bonds, real estate or cash - will be subject to income tax on its income and growth. Traditional IRA distributions will be subject to income tax.

The younger the beneficiary is when the IRA is inherited, the longer the beneficiary can stretch out withdrawals, giving more time for tax-free compounded growth of the investments inside the Roth. The beneficiary's inheritance could get bigger as he or she gets older. It is like giving your beneficiary a tax-free, lifetime annuity.

Since younger beneficiaries with a longer opportunity for stretching out distributions get the most benefit, consider naming grandchildren as your Roth IRA beneficiaries. If you are concerned about leaving a substantial sum to young children, there are solutions. You can name a Custodian under the Uniform Transfer to Minors Act (UTMA) to receive distributions, and then the custodian can accumulate the withdrawals and use them as needed for the child until the child is 21. If you set up a trust as a beneficiary for the benefit of the minor child, the trustee can hold the accumulated distributions until the beneficiary reaches more mature years - age 30, 35 or any other age you would like to specify. For a trust to be able to be used with the stretch-out of distribution, the trust must be carefully drafted to comply with complex IRS rules.

If you cannot bring yourself to pay the current income tax required to convert your traditional IRA to a Roth, and you have reason to believe your life expectancy is limited, then do the Roth conversion in anticipation of death. The income tax due as a result of the conversion will be paid by your executor as a debt of your estate and will be deductible for inheritance and estate tax purposes. Your beneficiaries will get the benefit of inheriting a Roth IRA - the best asset to inherit.

The question of what a surviving spouse inherits from a deceased spouse is a complicated one. The answer is the typical lawyer's response, "It depends." Some scenarios can help to illustrate the issues. To keep the examples simple, I am going to assume that the husband dies before the wife - forgive me, all you husbands out there.

● Joint property. Any asset that is titled to a husband and wife jointly, joint with right of survivorship (JWROS), or as tenants by the entirety, passes to the wife at the moment of husband's death. It does not pass under the will and title vests in the surviving joint owner immediately.

● Beneficiary designations. Life insurance, qualified plans, IRAs, annuities, and other contract rights are paid to the beneficiary that was designated by the owner. For qualified retirement plans (but not IRAs) there are federal requirements that the beneficiary must be the surviving spouse unless the surviving spouse has consented in writing to the designation of another beneficiary.

● Property owned by the deceased husband alone. Any asset that is owned by the husband in his name alone, becomes part of his estate.

● Intestacy. If deceased husband had no will, then his estate passes by intestacy. The portion of the estate wife receives depends on whether or not the deceased husband leaves living issue or living parents. If the deceased husband leaves no living issue (issue are children, grandchildren, etc.) and also no living parent, then the wife receives his whole estate.

If deceased husband leaves no living issue, but leaves a living parent or parents, then the wife gets the first $30,000 plus one-half of the balance of the estate. The parents receive the balance.

If the deceased husband leaves living issue, all of whom are also issue of the wife (in other words, the surviving spouse is the mother by birth or adoption of all of the decedent's children), then the surviving spouse gets $30,000 plus one-half of the balance of the estate.

If there are surviving issue of husband, one or more of whom are not issue of the wife, then the wife receives one-half of the estate and the issue receive the balance.

● If deceased husband left a will, but the will either makes no provision for wife, or very little provision, or if husband has arranged title of assets so that there is no probate estate, the wife is entitled to elect a statutory forced share. (A spouse who for one year or more before the death of the deceased spouse has "willfully neglected or refused to perform the duty to support the other spouse," or who for one year or more has "willfully and maliciously deserted the other spouse" shall have no right of election, or even of receiving an intestate share.)

If wife makes this election, whether the marriage lasted for one day or fifty (50) years, the elective share is one-third (1/3) of: (1) the property that passes under the decedent's will (2) property from which the decedent was entitled to receive the income if that property was transferred by the decedent during the marriage, (3) property transferred by the decedent during life where the decedent could revoke the transfer and get the property back, or could withdraw or invade the principal of the property for the decedent's own benefit (for example, property in a revocable trust), (4) joint property owned with another to the extent the decedent could have conveyed or revoked the joint account, (5) annuity payments to the extent the annuity was purchased during the marriage and the decedent was receiving payments, and (6) gifts made within one year of death to the extent they exceed $3,000 per beneficiary.

The following property interests are not subject to the election: (a) any transfer made with the consent of the surviving spouse, (b) life insurance on the decedent's life, and (3) retirement plans (although many retirement plans other than IRA's must be paid to the surviving spouse unless the surviving spouse consented to a different beneficiary designation).

Note that a spouse cannot take both an intestate share and a statutory forced share. Care must be taken to determine which options are available to the surviving spouse and which option produces the best result.

● If the husband made a will before he married, then the surviving spouse will receive the share of the estate to which she would have been entitled if the husband had died without a will, unless the will gives her a larger share, or unless it appears from the will that it was made in contemplation of the marriage.

● If husband made a will and was later divorced, the law provides that any provision in that will for the benefit of former wife is ineffective. The former wife has no rights in husband's estate, either as a beneficiary or as an executor or administrator. The will is not revoked, it is interpreted as if the ex-wife had predeceased her ex-husband.

All of the scenarios described above state general principles of law in Pennsylvania. Spouses are free to make contracts with each other agreeing to different dispositions. If the spouses made a pre-nuptial agreement or a post-nuptial agreement, the terms of those agreements will prevail.

"Big Daddy... What is it that makes him so big? His big heart, his big belly, or his big money?"

- Brick Pollitt, character in the play

Last week my husband and I saw Tennessee Williams' play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" at the Fulton Theatre. The theme of truth vs. mendacity runs through the play as a dysfunctional family fights over an inheritance in the Mississippi Delta.

Plantation owner Big Daddy has come home from the clinic on his 65th birthday. In addition to Big Mama, his sons and their families are there to welcome him and to tell him he is dying of cancer! Big Daddy favors his tormented, alcoholic, former-football-hero son Brick, married to Maggie the cat. Their marriage is childless and on-the-rocks. Brick has quit his job and taken to drinking after the death of his friend Skipper, with whom it is intimated he had a homosexual relationship. Gooper, the less-loved son, and his over-bearing wife Mae are there with their 5 children (no-neck monsters) and another on the way.

Everyone except Big Daddy knows that he does, in fact, have terminal cancer. The maneuvering begins for the inheritance. What does Big Daddy own? "Close on ten million in cash an' blue-chip stocks, outside, mind you, of twenty-eight thousand acres of the richest land this side of the valley Nile!"

As the family quarrels and postures, trying to gain control of Big Daddy's estate, we are given lessons in human nature, family dynamics and estate planning:

1. Make your will now. Big Daddy couldn't decide whether to leave the plantation to older son Gooper, whom he hates, or younger son Brick, whom he loves but knows is an alcoholic. "I didn't make up my mind at all on that question and still to this day I ain't made no will! - Well, now I don't have to. The pressure is gone. I can just wait and see if you pull yourself together or if you don't." The audience knows he is in fact dying - so it looks as though he will die without a will. Don't wait until there is a crisis situation to make a will. If drafted in response to a crisis, the disposition of your estate may not be the result of thoughtful, careful consideration but a knee-jerk reaction influenced by the situation.

2. Is blood thicker than water? Should it be? Big Daddy's hesitation over leaving the plantation to Brick is two-fold: 1) he is an alcoholic and Big Daddy doesn't want to "subsidize a [@#$%&*] fool on the bottle," and 2) Brick has no children so that Big Daddy's legacy will not continue past Brick's generation. An estate plan can address questions such as 1) do I need to control distributions to a beneficiary who is incapable of handling money, 2) do I want to provide for future generations or 3) are there beneficiaries other than family members I want to consider.

3. Even with an estate plan, don't think there won't be sibling rivalry. Even if your kids get along with each other and you, they may have spouses. Gooper and Mae pretend to be the dutiful, attentive son and daughter-in-law, when in truth they are driven solely by the desire for material gain. Children who keep their animosity damped down while you are around lose that inhibition when you are gone. No matter what Big Daddy does, it appears that the sequel to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof will be Cat and the Will Contest.

4. Don't try to use your money to control people. They may be nice to your face, but behind your back they will hate you. Who could expect Big Daddy's statement to Brick as to who will inherit the plantation, "I can just wait and see if you pull yourself together or if you don't," to produce anything but Brick's disdain for his father.

5. Provide for your spouse. What about Big Mama? It becomes clear that Big Daddy hates her, although he puts on a show of caring for her. What does she get when Big Daddy dies? No one seems to think she will inherit - it's only the two sons. If you are married, make sure your spouse is providing for you adequately. If your spouse dies without a will in Pennsylvania, you do not inherit the whole estate. If there are children, you get the first $30,000 and one half of the remaining amount with the kids getting the other half.

6. Bring out the skeletons. There are repressed ideas in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that are finally revealed at the climax of the play. But in many lives, hidden secrets are never exposed. Don't assume you know and understand everyone in your family. If there are difficult situations or problems, your attorney needs to know.

The biggest lesson of all? In Big Daddy's words, "You can't buy back your life when it's finished."

Where do you live? It depends.

Domicile is "the place where a man has his true, fixed and permanent home and principal establishment, to which whenever he is absent he has the intention of returning". A person can have only one domicile, no matter how many residences he owns.

Your state of domicile determines (1) to which state you pay state income taxes, (2) where your will is probated and where your estate will be administered (3) to which state your estate pays inheritance and estate taxes and (4) which state's laws govern the enforcement of judicial orders.

The state of domicile also determines spousal rights in property. Most of the states, like Pennsylvania, are common law states. Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin are community property states. A move to any of these states requires special planning.

It is very possible for more than one state to claim that you are a domiciliary. When this happens all of the states that have claims can assess income tax and inheritance or estate tax. Some states are parties to agreements to resolve these issues as they affect death taxes, but many are not. The battle over Howard Hughes' estate went on for years, with Texas, Nevada and California all claiming him as a domiciliary. In perhaps the most famous estate tax domicile case, the estate of Mr. Dorrance, the founder of Campbell's Soup Company, was taxed by both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in each case as if he was domiciled there. Each of Pennsylvania and New Jersey collected about $17 million. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld this result.

Since domicile depends on where you intend to return, it is a subjective concept. Nevertheless, many objective actions can give indications of your intention. There are lists available for actions that should be taken to give evidence of your intention to change your domicile. You don't have to do everything on the list. None of these things, except the requirement for physical presence in the new domicile, are absolute requirements. However, you have to do enough of them, especially the more significant ones, to convince the tax authorities that you have truly moved your domicile. Here are some actions that show intention to change domicile:

• Buy or lease property in the new domicile state, furnish it as a permanent residence, not a vacation place.
• Spend more than 183 days per year in the new state - this is the most important requirement. In some states this is an ironclad rule for tax purposes. For example, if you maintain a residence in New York and spend more than 183 days per year there, New York considers you a resident for tax purposes regardless of your intentions.
• Obtain a driver's license in the new state.
• Register your cars in the new state.
• Register to vote in the new state, and vote.
• Go to doctors, dentists, lawyers and other professionals in the new state and have your records moved from the old state to professionals in the new state.
• File your federal income tax return with the appropriate IRS service center and show your new state as your address.
• File a Declaration of Domicile if your new state has such a procedure.
• Move bank accounts and safe deposit boxes to the new state.
• Send notifications of a change of address to family, friends, business associates, professional organizations, credit card companies, brokers, and insurance companies
• Use the new state as a home base. When you travel, leave from and return to the new state.
• Keep your family heirlooms, furniture and keepsakes in the new state.
• Change legal documents to reflect residency in the new state.
• Update your estate plan and have your estate planning documents identify you as a resident of the new state.
• Join organizations such as clubs, religious groups and become active with local charities in the new state.
• Apply for a homestead in the new state if applicable.

Not only must you adopt a new domicile, but your old domicile must be abandoned. In your former state of domicile:

• Have your name removed from the voter registration list.
• Turn in your driver's license.
• Pay income tax as a non-resident if applicable.
• Mark your last state income tax return "FINAL" and use the new state's address.
• Spend as little time in the old state as possible.
• Close accounts in the old state.
• Change all club membership, religious and social affiliations to "non-resident" status.

Timing of the change in domicile can be important. If you sell your business or your home in the old state, where you are domiciled at the time of the sale can impact how the gains are taxed. If you are creating trusts, the "resident state" of the trust will often depend on your domicile at the time you create the trust. This means a trust could remain taxable in the old state even though you move your domicile to the new state.

If you stop filing taxes in your old state, this doesn't mean that they have no claim on you. Remember that if you don't file a return for a year, the statute of limitations never starts running. There is no limit to the number of years they can go back and assess tax. Consider filing a non-resident return.

Be consistent. If you want to be a Floridian to escape Pennsylvania income tax, don't register your car in Pennsylvania to get lower insurance rates. Use common sense. Does your neighbor who has lived in Florida all her life have her car registered in Pennsylvania? Of course not. Does she belong to a church or synagogue in Pennsylvania? No. Just imagine yourself explaining that to a tax auditor.

In this age of photocopies, e-mail, faxes, word-processing and pdfs, a signed original may seem old-fashioned. But sometimes you actually need an original signed document with a real signature. An original will is very important.

There is always only one original will. If you sit down at a table and sign 5 wills, only the last one you signed is your will. Making a new will automatically revokes all prior wills.

It is common practice to make photocopies of the executed will. Can you probate the copies if you can't find the original? It depends.

There is a conflict between the policy of the law to carry out the decedent's wishes as expressed in a will and, on the other hand, to protect against fraud. Since the person who made the will is no longer alive and cannot tell us what happened to the will and whether or not he or she destroyed it; the law takes special precautions.

When a will cannot be found, a presumption arises. A presumption is a rule of law by which finding of a basic fact gives rise to existence of presumed fact, until the presumption is rebutted. In the case of a missing will, the known fact is that the will is missing, which gives rise to the presumption that it was destroyed with the intention of revoking it. In order to have a copy of a will probated, therefore, the proponent of the will must adduce evidence to overcome that presumption.

To overcome the presumption, evidence must show that (1) someone other than the testator destroyed the will, (2) the decedent did not have access to it and, therefore, could not have destroyed it, or (3) that the decedent made statements up until the time of death that he had a will. The proponent of the copy of the will must also prove by the testimony of two witnesses that the will was executed by the decedent when he or she had testamentary capacity, a diligent search did not turn up the will, and the contents of the lost will are as presented in the copy. Providing actual proof of any of these circumstances can be very difficult and often impossible.

Since the original will is so important, where should you keep it?

I recommend keeping your will in a safe deposit box at your bank so long as no one has access to the box who could benefit by the destruction of the will. I recommend that you drive immediately from the lawyer's office to the bank to put your freshly signed will into your safe deposit box.

In Pennsylvania, a decedent's safe deposit box can be searched, in the presence of two bank officers, for a will. A will and cemetery deed can be removed. This is so even if no one else's name is "on the box," meaning that no one is designated as deputy or attorney-in-fact on the card maintained by the bank. Also, when the box is searched after death, an original will can only be turned over to the named executor, which provides some additional safeguards.

For clients who do not have a safe deposit box and do not wish to rent one, the will can be kept with other important papers at home. Most folks in this category have a safe, strong-box, or "fire-proof" box. I always caution folks that there is no such thing as "fire-proof" - these boxes are fire-rated to withstand high temperatures for a given period of time, say one or two hours, and this is often inadequate for a fire which stays hot long after it appears to be "out." These boxes are nice little ovens.

If the will names a bank or trust company as executor and/or trustee, often the bank will offer safe-keeping services and hold the original document. This is also a good solution to the problem of where to keep the original will.

Some folks let the lawyer who wrote the will hold it in "safe-keeping" for them. This is usually a service provided by law firms at no charge. Sometimes the law firm's motivation for offering the safe-keeping service is to make sure that the family has to come to that law firm to retrieve the original will and, thus, that firm gets first crack at the business of settling the estate. In fact, some lawyers just assume that is the case, taking over the estate settlement, and the executor and family members don't even realize that they have a choice.

Whatever the law firm's motivation for offering to hold your will, this could provide the needed safety. It is a good option so long as the executor and family members understand that the will is being held in safe-keeping and that the executor is free to interview other law firms and make an informed decision about what lawyer or law firm is going to be attorney for the estate. This gives the executor the opportunity to compare fees and the expertise of other lawyers before making a decision.

It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.
-Schiller

When a person dies intestate, that is, without a will; the law determines who are that person's heirs. The general rule for an adopted child is that the adoption severs the parent-child relationship between the adopted child and his or her natural parents including severance of all inheritance rights.

Thus, under Pennsylvania law, for purposes of inheritance by, from and through an adopted person, the adopted person is considered as a natural child of his or her adopting parents; and an adopted child is not considered to be a child of his or her natural parents. Pennsylvania provides a limited exception to this rule. A child who has been adopted may inherit from his or hernatural kin (but not natural parents) when the natural kin has maintained a family relationship with the adopted person. The comment to the statute when it was enacted says that "[t]he exception recognizes that family relationships frequently continue for grandparents and others where an adoption may have occurred after the death or divorce of a parent."

Here is an example: John and Katie are married and have a son, Buddy. John dies. Katie remarries. Her new husband, George, adopts Buddy. John's parents, Buddy's natural grandparents, are very much involved in his life, are frequent visitors and maintain a family relationship with Buddy. Under the Pennsylvania Statute, if John's parents die intestate, Buddy, even though adopted, would inherit from them.

What about step children? If they are not adopted, they do not inherit from their parent's spouse. This can create some unfortunate results. Let's say Amy has a child, Josh. Amy marries David who is not Amy's natural father. They live together as a family for years, but David never adopts Josh. That means that Josh is not Dave's heir. If David dies without a will, Josh has no rights to Dave's estate as an heir.

In these days of blended families, where the children can be yours, mine, and ours, it is extremely important that parents make wills that spell out the rights of their children. It can completely destroy a family if only some of the children in a household inherit and others are cut out because of these rules of inheritance.

What if a will or trust directs distribution to a person's children. Does that include adopted children? In construing a will making a devise or bequest to a person described by relationship and not by name (e.g. "my children" or "John's issue"), any adopted person shall be considered the child of his adopting parent or parents. In construing the will of a testator who is not the adopting parent, an adopted person shall be considered the child of his adopting parent or parents only if the adoption occurred during the adopted person's minority or if an earlier parent-child relationship existed during the child's minority.

Why the age limit? You can adopt and be adopted at any age. Mrs. Dowager left a will providing for distribution to her children and grandchildren. Mrs. Dowager's 65 year old son, Libertine, is unmarried and has no children. However, he has a lady friend, Floozy age 45. Libertine adopts Floozy. If Libertine dies, Floozy is Mrs. Dowager's grandchild by adoption. However, since the statutory rule of interpretation provides that in interpreting Mrs. Dowager's will, an adoption has to occur during a person's minority (under age 18) to be given effect, Floozy would not inherit any part of Mrs. Dowagers' estate. (And that's probably the way Mrs. Dowager would have wanted it.)

Many loans among family members are interest free. Be careful. If you loan money to a relative or friend, there may be income and/or gift tax consequences if there is no interest or if the interest is below the market rate.

For loans of $10,000 or less, you don't have to worry about any of this. Such a loan may carry little or no interest, and there are no income tax consequences or reporting requirements.

For loans of $10,001 to $100,000 (all loans between the borrower and lender are added together for this threshold), the forgone interest to be included in income by the lender and deducted by the borrower is limited to the amount of the borrower's net investment income for the year. If the borrower's net investment income is less than $1,000, it is deemed to be zero.

What does the borrower's net investment income have to do with it? One of the purposes of these rules is to prevent taxpayers from shifting income to kids or other family members who are in lower tax brackets. For example, Dad loans his 19 year old Son $100,000. Son invests it, receives interest, dividends, and capital gain income which Son reports on his own 1040 and pays no income tax. Then Son repays the $100,000 to Dad. The effect of this has been (1) Dad has made a gift to Son of the income and (2) the income has been taxed at lower brackets, in fact, at zero.

If, on the other hand, Dad lends Son $100,000 to buy a house, or to pay for college, and Son uses the loan proceeds for the intended purpose, then there has been no income-shifting. No income is being generated by the loaned funds. Interest will be imputed to this type of gift loan only to the extent that the son has investment income.

The IRS publishes applicable federal rates (AFRs) monthly. There are interest rates for short, mid, and long-term loans. Short-term rates are for demand loans and term loans of 3 years or less; mid-term is for 3-9 years; and long-term is over 9 years. For example, the short-term AFRs for January 2010 are short-term 0.57%, mid-term 2.45%, and long-term 4.11%.

For demand loans, the difference between the interest calculated using the stated rate and the applicable federal rate is generally treated as income to the lender and a gift from the lender to the borrower on December 31 of each year that the loan is outstanding. A demand loan is payable in full at any time on the lender's demand.

For term loans, a lender who makes a below market rate (BMR) loan is treated as having made a gift of the difference between the amount of the loan and the present value of all the scheduled payments, using the applicable federal rate on the date the loan is made. When making a term loan it is usually best to state an interest rate. The Lender may forgive interest payments as they come due. The forgiveness of the interest is a gift and the lender must, nevertheless, include the amount of the interest in income.

The Lender can forgive $13,000 of interest and principal payments using the annual gift tax exclusion. If the loan is from a married couple to a married couple, maybe Mom and Dad to Son and Daughter-in-law, up to $52,000 (4 x $13,000) in interest and principal payments could be forgiven each year with no gift tax consequences. Mom and Dad have interest income to report on their 1040. Son and Daughter-in-law are treated as having paid interest. If the loan was used by Son and Daughter-in-law to buy a home, and if the loan is secured by a mortgage on the home, the interest will be deductible for them as interest on their primary residence mortgage.

For any of these arrangements, make sure the terms are in writing. This accomplishes two things: (1) the terms of the arrangements are clear to the lender, the borrower, and other family members and (2) the loan documentation can stop the IRS from claiming that the transfer of cash was a gift. This is very important. Without written documentation that the transfer is a loan, the IRS can argue that there was no loan at all; it was just a gift. Plus, if the borrower can't make good on the loan, you would need to have this documentation in order to deduct it as a non-business bad debt.

Undocumented loans can become particularly contentious when the lender dies. Documentation establishes whether the loan is to be repaid to the estate or was a lifetime gift. Many times, a family lender, especially to children or grandchildren, does not expect a loan to be repaid after the lender's death. If this is so, it is necessary for the lender to state in his or her will that the balance of principal and accrued interest on the loan is forgiven. Otherwise, the loan will have to be repaid, or will be a set-off against the borrower's distributive share of the estate. Simple documentation can avoid this set-up for a sibling fight and the expense and time that usually ensues.

So you're getting married? Did you invite the IRS to the wedding? On the list of things to do from hiring the hall, choosing the caterer, and mailing the invitations, don't forget a visit to your tax advisor.

The first thing you will learn about is the marriage penalty. The marriage penalty is a holdover from an earlier era when single income families were the norm. Since the tax code was written to tax household income instead of individual income; a married couple, both with similar earnings, pays more tax than the total tax of two single taxpayers with the same incomes as the married couple. This higher tax is what is referred to as the "marriage penalty."

The penalty manifests in two ways: 1) the standard deduction for a married filing jointly return is less than twice the single standard deduction; and 2) the combined income can push the couple higher into the tax brackets. Often the first tax return a couple files after marriage results in a big tax due because of under-withholding or underpayment of estimates. Even if you get married on the last day of the year, for tax purposes you are considered married for the entire year.

The marriage penalty does not apply to all married couples, it depends on the husband's and wife's respective incomes. Tax laws in more recent years have actually eliminated the marriage penalty for tax payers in lower tax brackets. So here's the good news: there's no marriage penalty built into the tax rate schedules in the 10% and 15% tax brackets.

Having decided to combine their lives, newly weds now combine their income. The decision as how to report this combined income on tax returns should be a topic of discussion with the tax advisor. Many credits and deductions are based on the total income reported on the return. When two taxpayers get married, their combined income may now be too high for certain tax credits. For example, a single mom qualifies for the Earned Income Credit. She marries a man making a good salary, and now their combined income on a joint return is too high for the Earned Income Credit.

Worse, the woman has a low amount withheld on her earnings because she expects to get the Earned Income Credit. After the marriage, she finds out the amount withheld is not enough to cover her share of the tax.

A single person can deduct up to $3,000 in excess capital losses against ordinary income, but the amount doesn't double to $6,000 for a married couple - it remains $3,000.

A single person who actively participates in renting out real estate can deduct up to $25,000 of losses against his or her earned income if his or her modified adjusted gross income is $100,000 or less. This deduction is the same for a married couple as it is for a single person.

While filing a joint return results in a lower tax for most couples, they don't have to file joint returns. They can file as "married filing separately." Married filing separately is not like filing two single returns. In our example, the earned income credit can't be claimed at all on a married filing separate return. Some other credits and deductions , such as the Child and Dependent Care deductions, American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning credits, the student loan interest deduction and the up to $25,000 of rental real estate losses are not allowed on a married filing separate return.

On the plus side, newly married couples may have increased limits for tax-deductible IRA contributions. If the couple's income meets certain limits, they could qualify for more of a deduction. In some scenarios, one spouse also may "borrow" from the other's earnings to meet the limits.

Likewise, if a spouse claims medical expenses or other itemized deductions that are limited by their adjusted gross income, filing separately may be the way to go because the single income produces a lower limit. However, if the spouse wants to claim credits or deduct his or her IRA contribution, the couple probably needs to file jointly.

Sometimes only after the wedding, you find our that your spouse has debts, back child support, defaulted student loans, unpaid income taxes, you name it. All of these things can be offset against taxpayer refunds. You might find your tax refunded scooped to pay your spouse's debts. This can be a nasty surprise. There is a procedure, the Injured Spouse Allocation, whereby the debt-free spouse can get his or her share of the refund, but it takes months to actually get the money.

Everyone's situation is different, so it is important to consult with a tax professional before making any important decisions, especially the decision to marry.

The income tax, property tax, estate tax and asset protection planning advantages of Florida domicile make Florida the ideal place to live, whether you are still working or are retired. Florida obviously wants to be considered a tax-favorable haven for its residents and wants to attract new residents - both retirees and working people.

Florida's homestead exemption which provides an exemption from a forced sale is among the most protective in the United States. It provides no limit to the value of homestead real property that can be protected from creditors. This is how O. J. Simpson can own an expensive home in Florida despite a huge unpaid civil judgment against him. Various World.com and Enron executives bought lavish homes in Florida.

Florida has no individual income tax. (It does have a corporate income tax.) Florida has no estate or inheritance tax. (Since the Florida estate tax "picks up the federal state death tax credit and that credit has been eliminated from the federal estate tax; Florida estate tax is zero. Unless there is a change, the state death tax credit and Florida's estate tax will be back. in 2010.) It has a 6% state sales tax. Some counties charge an additional sales tax.

Florida did have an intangibles tax but that was repealed in 2006. The intangibles tax applied to stocks, bonds (excluding Florida municipal bonds), mutual funds, and notes receivable. Retirement accounts, life insurance or annuities were exempt. The rate was .5 mills, and there was a $250,000 exemption per resident. ($500,000 per couple).

In 2007 the Florida legislature passed a Reform Bill that proposed to create a new "super-homestead" exemption. After a legal battle, a Constitutional Amendment appeared on the ballot to increase the exemption from the tax and "portability" of the Save Our Homes exemption. The amendment passed on January 29, 2008. This tax savings is available only to Florida residents.

The Amendment increases the homestead exemption from $25,000 to 50,000 but only for taxes other than school taxes and just for homes valued at more than $50,000.

Since 1995, Florida has had a property tax law that capped the increase in assessment value of residents' property at 3% per year. The actual value of the properties often far outstripped the 3% per year growth. The gap between the assessed value and the actual fair market value of the home is called the Save-Our-Homes (SOH) differential. Many residents fear moving from their homes because they don't want to lose the tax advantage of paying taxes on their much lower assessed value. The new constitutional amendment allows up to $500,000 of value from the gap between the assessed amount and the fair market value to be applied towards the tax base of .any new home purchased in Florida within two years. In other words, the SOH differential is "portable." This benefit is available only to residents.

For snowbirds who have a principal residence in a northern state and also a home in Florida, the new Florida Constitutional Amendment may be bad news. Not only do they not qualify for the 3% cap or the portable SOH benefit, but the gap in the real estate taxes they are paying compared to their homesteaded neighbor is likely to increase. The taxing authorities whose budgets are reduced because of the new tax breaks for homesteaders will need revenue. A likely source is to increase the tax rate on non-residents. This will probably lead to more northerners deciding to change their domicile to Florida.

In the meantime, what is the State of Florida doing for revenue? Reduction of property taxes benefits homeowners, but hurts education. Empty-nesters are moving in, but families are moving out. Instead of an anticipated increase of 30,000 pupils, the state has seen virtually no increase. Non-residents can pay twice the property tax of their resident neighbor with the same house. Attorney Jerome Lanning of Birmingham, Alabama, is suing to seek relief from the disparity, and when the case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, things might well change.

Writing your will is not a do-it-yourself project. Words are important. The words that are not in your will can be as important as those that are. That is one of the reasons you should not try to write your own will. Even pre-printed forms and computer programs can lead to problems. Take the case of Mr. Tate, recently decided in Somerset County.

Mr. Tate dies leaving an estate consisting of $700 in household goods. He also owned certificates of deposit, a checking account, money market account, life insurance policy dividend and cable refund with a total value of $39,300.

Mr. Tate died leaving a will that was apparently prepared by a local notary (practicing law without a license) who used a pre-printed form and filled in the blanks. Mr. Tate's will said: "I give, devise and bequeath all my personal property, jewelry and furniture, to my niece, Valarie Nichols." . . . "I give, devise and bequeath all the remainder of my estate, which I may own at the time of my death or to which I may thereafter become entitled, to my friend, Janet Geisel."

So what's the problem? The question is who gets the $39,300 - Valarie Nichols or Janet Geisel? Why is this a question? Because personal property, as understood in the law, means any kind of property other than real property. Thus, bank accounts, certificates of deposit and other cash items are personal property.

The will says all personal property goes to niece Valerie Nichols - which would mean she would get all of the assets - bank accounts, certificates of deposit, etc. Janet Geisel, the other beneficiary disagreed. She said that since the decedent had no real estate she would get nothing and that what the decedent meant was tangible personal property should go to niece Valarie and everything else should go to friend Janet.

Had the will included one more word, "tangible," there would have been no dispute. "Tangible personal property" is a well defined class of property under the law.

The first point I want to make is that if there has to be a lawsuit over a $39,000 estate, how much do you think is going to be left for any beneficiary? If writing your own will means you need a court to interpret what you meant, you have made a serious mistake.

What do you think? What did Mr. Tate intend? And how do we know? We can't ask him.

In this case, the court applied a doctrine of construction called "ejusdem generis" to reach its holding. "Ejusdem generis" is Latin for "of the same kind." As applied to Mr. Tate's will, this phrase means that "where general words follow enumerations of particular classes or persons or things, the general words shall be construed as applicable only to persons or things of the same general nature or kind as those enumerated." In other words, since the will said "all my personal property, jewelry and furniture" the general words "personal property" should be interpreted to mean property of the same type as jewelry and furniture.

So Janet Geisel gets the $39,300. . . . minus the costs of the lawsuit. It reminds me of the plumbers fees: $50 per hour; $75 per hour if you help; $100 per hour if you try to fix it yourself first. This is only one of innumerable such stories. In my experience, almost every self-written will contains at least one ambiguity or problem that must be interpreted (by a judge) when the estate is being administered.

Have you ever noticed that wills written by attorneys are often much longer than those from "kits?" That is because the attorney adds many clauses and definitions that are added to clarify and protect the testator's intent. Do-it-yourselfers are usually thinking about what they want to put into a will and are not focused on important words, phrases, and clauses they may be omitting.

Moral of the story: Writing wills is not for amateurs. You may think you are being clear, covering all the possibilities, and complying with all the legal requirements. And maybe you are - but there is no way you can know for sure that what you have written will accomplish what you want or create a dispute.

Let's take a boat to Bermuda
Let's take a plane to Saint Paul.
Let's take a kayak to Quincy or Nyack,
Let's get away from it all.
- lyrics by Tom Adair and Matt Dennis

Do you have a house at the shore? A condo in ski country? Time share in Florida? In just how many states do you own real estate?

Every state in which you own real estate will be involved in the settlement of your estate unless you arrange your estate plan to avoid this complication.

Real estate law is state law. Only the courts of a particular state have authority to resolve issues about title and ownership of real property located in that state. If you are a resident of Pennsylvania when you die and own a condo in Florida, settlement of your estate will require a domiciliary probate in your county of residence in Pennsylvania and an "ancillary probate" in Florida. An ancillary probate is required in each state where real property is owned in the name of the decedent.

Not only are there probate proceedings required in the other states, but there can be inheritance and estate tax due to those other states as well. That's a lot of probates, a lot of fees, and a lot of lawyers.

The first thing your estate plan should do is eliminate the need for these probate proceedings in various states. The simplest way to do this is titling real estate in other states in joint names - first with a spouse, and then with intended beneficiaries such as children. This simple device means that the real property will pass to the surviving joint owners on your death, and no probate proceeding is required. Changing the title to include joint owners requires the preparation and recording of a new deed. It may also require the consent of a mortgagee if there is a mortgage on the property. While this is a simple procedure, there are downsides to joint ownership. Any sale, mortgage, lease or other transaction involving the property requires the unanimous consent of all owners and a joint tenant's interest is exposed to claims of his or her creditors.

Another solution is to transfer title of out-of-state real estate to a revocable trust. The title to the shore home is then held by a Trustee, not by the individual. When the individual dies, the trust continues; and there is no need for a probate since the owner did not die (the trust lives on). No title question will arise. This technique has the added benefit of retaining complete control of the property in the hands of the creator of the trust.

Sometimes these properties are transferred to entities like corporations, limited liability companies and partnerships. Again, since the decedent did not hold the title to the real estate, but rather, the entity which has a continuing existence held the real estate, there is no need for an ancillary probate.

Most of these techniques do not remove the property from the taxing jurisdiction of the state where the real estate is located. Your executor can expect to file state death tax returns and perhaps pay tax in these other states.

There is a special federal estate tax planning technique available for residences which can be used for the primary residence and/or a secondary residence. It is a Qualified Personal Residence Trust ("QPRT"). In addition to solving the ancillary probate problem, and possibly addressing the sharing of the residence by the family after Mom and Dad are gone, this technique also offers substantial estate tax savings. A QPRT is an irrevocable trust which provides for the occupancy of the residence by Mom or Dad for a period of years. At the end of the term, Mom and Dad's right of occupancy ends and the beneficiaries become the new owners. When the trust is created, a gift is made; but the value of the gift is steeply discounted - hence the estate tax savings.

What if your get-away place is an island villa in Kokomo, Antigua, or a pied-a-terr in Paris? You'll need to consider the foreign county's probate and estate tax systems in your estate plan. Your attorney will need to work with counsel in the foreign jurisdiction to co-ordinate an estate plan that will include that property too.

What, in the end, do we leave behind? Money? A house? Investments? All these are but fleeting and will come to nought. The only thing that lasts is the wisdom of a life - values, beliefs, lessons learned from life, dreams, and hopes for future generations. These things should be left to your children too - in an ethical will.

We all want to be remembered. And surely we will be, whether we leave a writing behind or not. Yet what will be remembered and for how long? How often do you search your memory for some saying of your grandfather's? Or try to remember how your Uncle described his experience in the coal mines? Or in World War II? Don't you wish you could read their words and tell their stories to your own children and grandchildren?

Psychologists point out that writing down your values also helps you to clarify them. It helps you to focus on what you value the most, how to cultivate it and preserve it for future generations. You learn a lot about yourself when you write an ethical will. You must subject you life to self-examination and face up to failures as well as successes. As Rabbi Rammer, editor of So That Your Values Live On puts it: "I have learned that ethical wills have the power to make people confront the ultimate choices that they must make in their lives. They can make people who are usually too preoccupied with earning a living stop and consider what they are living for."

While ethical wills have gained wide popularity in recent years, they were originally a Jewish tradition, with roots in early Biblical times. Recall Moses' address to the people before he died; Joseph's blessings of his sons where he described their respective characters and their futures; and King David's prayers for his son. Perhaps the most famous of ancient ethical wills is Moshe Nachmanides' (Ramban's) letter to his son called Letter for the Ages. There is also the letter of the Vilna Gaon written at age 27 giving his wife and mother instructions for the education of the children.

How do you go about writing an ethical will yourself? There are many useful books on the subject. One of the best known volumes is Ethical Wills: Putting Your Values on Paper by Barry K. Baines. The author is a physician and hospice director. Baines defines an ethical will as "a vehicle for clarifying and communicating the meaning in our lives to our families and communities." Baines discusses the history of the practice of leaving an ethical will, its enormous benefits to the dying and to their families, and how to make them.

Other resources are So That Your Values Live on: Ethical Wills and How to Prepare Them by Jack Rammer and Nathaniel Stampfer, and Women's Lives, Women's Legacies: Passing Your Beliefs and Blessings to Future Generations: Creating Your Own Spiritual-Ethical Will, by Rachael Freed.

Some legal scholars have objected to calling such a personal statement a "will" lest it confuse people and they think they do not need to write a real will which disposes of their property. Instead, some refer to it as a "Personal Legacy Statement," but the term "Ethical Will" seems to have stuck.

Here's a partial list of common themes seen in more modern ethical wills which are listed at www.ethicalwill.com: Important personal values and beliefs, important spiritual values, hopes and blessings for future generations, life's lessons, love, forgiving others and asking for forgiveness.

Humorist Sam Levenson wrote an "Ethical Will and Testament to His Grandchildren and to Children Everywhere". Here it is as reprinted in So That Your Values Live on: Ethical Wills and How to Prepare Them by Jack Rammer and Nathaniel Stampfer:

I leave you my unpaid debts. They are my greatest assets. Everything I own -- I owe:

1. To America I owe a debt for the opportunity it gave me to be free and to be me.
2. To my parents I owe America. They gave it to me, and I leave it to you. Take good care of it.
3. To the biblical tradition I owe the belief that man does not live by bread alone, nor does he live alone at all. This is also the democratic tradition. Preserve it.
4. To the 6 million of my people and to the 30 million other humans who died because of man's inhumanity to man, I owe a vow that it must never happen again.
5. I leave you not everything I never had, but everything I had in my lifetime: a good family, respect for learning, compassion for my fellow man, and some four-letter words for all occasions: words like help, give, care, feel, and love.
Love, my dear grandchildren, is easier to recommend than to define. I can tell you only that like those who came before you, you will surely know when love ain't; you will also know when mercy ain't and brotherhood ain't.
The millennium will come when all the ain'ts shall become ises and all the ises shall be for all, even for those you don't like.
Finally, I leave you the years I should like to have lived so that I might possibly see whether your generation will bring more love and peace to the world than ours did. I not only hope that you will. I pray that you will.

An ethical will may be the most cherished and meaningful gift you can give to your family.