{"id":2443935,"date":"2019-05-08T11:15:53","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T17:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=305448"},"modified":"2019-05-08T11:15:53","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T17:15:53","slug":"financing-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/financing-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Financing death"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Shutterstock
Financial planning includes the titling of accounts, taxes, investments, business, insurances and cash flow. It\u2019s best to make these plans while you\u2019re healthy in order to limit the burden on your family after you die.<\/strong>
Shutterstock image<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you don\u2019t have a joint bank account or a payable-on-death designee, your money is likely to get tied up with your estate after you die. This can be harmful to your family if they need access to cash to pay the mortgage or other debts.<\/p>\n

Mary Ryerson, executive vice president at Alpine Bank in Aspen, has watched grieving families struggle with financial stress. She said one of the easiest ways to avoid this is to set up a payable-on-death beneficiary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose funds can be transferred quickly. When someone doesn\u2019t have that set up, depending on the size of their estate, things can get tied up for a while,\u201d she said. \u201cYou still have to pay bills, eat, pay for funeral expenses and other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryerson is part of a team, organized by Pathfinders founder Allison Daily, that is aiming to help community members create end-of-life plans. The team includes professionals in financial planning, estate law and psychology. Daily said there have been some unexpected deaths in the community that have left spouses and family members unequipped for the financial aftermath. Pathfinders recognized a need to help people make these plans before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your spouse dies, you don\u2019t want to cancel the credit cards right away. It\u2019s stuff like this \u2014 who\u2019s responsible for what debt \u2014 that we need to talk about as a community,\u201d Daily said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to give people some control with this information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making sure all accounts and policies are properly titled<\/strong><\/p>\n

Getting your financial act together is about feeling empowered and feeling that you and your family members have choices, according to Danielle Howard, a certified financial planner in Basalt who is part of the Pathfinders team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all going to pass away; we need to be proactive about planning ahead of time,\u201d she said. \u201cWith financial planning, I look at it from a holistic perspective, digging into titling, taxes, investments, business, insurances and cash flow \u2014 it\u2019s an incredibly comprehensive, robust process.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean it has to be complicated, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how much you have \u2014 what matters is what you want to accomplish with it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about creating awareness of the assets you have and how to utilize them, and about making things as smooth as possible in an unfortunate circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n

One important area is life insurance. Some people purchase policies and forget about them, but it\u2019s critical to make sure the beneficiary designations and ownership is set up correctly, Howard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will provide much quicker access to funds,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Determine the intention of investment and bank accounts<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou will want to have a discussion with an attorney to ensure that some of your bigger assets are titled properly,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd if you own a business (especially with multiple owners), it\u2019s important to do this planning for the business as well as your family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of your wealth \u2014 or lack thereof \u2014 it\u2019s important to set up your accounts properly so they are aligned with your wishes. If you can\u2019t afford to talk to a professional advisor, the Pathfinders team can help.<\/p>\n

These experts can help determine all the legalities of an estate, such as whether any accounts or policies taken out before marriage exclude a spouse. If you haven\u2019t gotten around to changing the titling of those accounts, there could be a sister or stepchild showing up to collect funds you never intended them to inherit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m amazed at how often it\u2019s contentious,\u201d Ryerson said.<\/p>\n

Unintended consequences<\/strong><\/p>\n

The estates of descendents without a will can turn into chaos. Sally Potvin, a former CPA on the Pathfinders team who has continued to volunteer her time to help community members navigate the financial complexities of end-of-life planning, is working with one case for which a judge is trying to determine heirs from a list of 165 relatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can get crazy,\u201d she said. \u201cTo save your relatives, as a gift to them, put it in writing so they don\u2019t have to be harrassed. They have no idea that people might be coming out of the woodwork. So much of this is money-driven when it shouldn\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through both personal and professional experience, Potvin helps people organize their finances and prepare for unintended consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo make it easy on your family, make a list of everything,\u201d Potvin said. \u201cLet them know what you want to have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

For couples with children younger than 18, this includes setting up guardianship for your children, said Aspen Estate\/Trust attorney Jeanne Doremus, who is part of the Pathfinders team. Furthermore, if your parents are still living and you are married with no children with an estate of at least $200,000 in assets, your parents have a legal right to the amount above $200,000. It is important to title your assets properly, if you want your asset to go 100 percent to your spouse.  <\/p>\n

Create a \u201cno decision\u201d zone<\/strong><\/p>\n

Howard said she gets questions from clients asking whether they should pay off the mortgage or other debts immediately after a death.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, don\u2019t do anything,\u201d Howard said. \u201cYou need to assess what you have, where it\u2019s at and how it can be utilized for cash flow needs now or down the road. Give yourself some time. Figure out the immediate needs, but you want to be very careful about what bills you pay and whose names they are in because you may or may not be responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Colorado law, there is a legal designation of priority of creditors. If you are unsure if you have enough assets to pay all of the debts, you should not pay any debts until you can determine what debts have priority over other debts. You may need to have someone guide you through that analysis, Doremus said.<\/p>\n

The funeral home files for a death certificate and also communicates that death to the Social Security administration, taking one thing off survivors\u2019 plates. However, what if you had a joint credit card account with the deceased person?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many online checklists say you should call everyone immediately when someone dies, but If you are using a credit card with your name on it, but from an account opened under the name of the decedent, the credit card company may close your account leaving you without access to credit,\u201d Potvin said. \u201cMy dad died on July 1 and Social Security had already sent him a check. They ended up taking it back after he died \u2014 imagine if he hadn\u2019t kept much money in that bank account? We could have ended up bouncing checks.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Financial planning includes the titling of accounts, taxes, investments, business, insurances and cash flow. It\u2019s best to make these plans while you\u2019re healthy in order to limit the burden on your family after you die.Shutterstock image If you don\u2019t have a joint bank account or a payable-on-death designee, your money is likely to get tied […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 22:33:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}