Dear Valued LLPH Clients, Friends and Colleagues,
We hope that you and your family continue to be safe and healthy. We at LLPH are working hard, mostly from home, to continue to meet your needs and provide you relevant updates that we hope you will find helpful.
SIGN YOUR ESTATE PLAN WHILE “STAYING AT HOME”
During this time of social distancing it is a good idea to begin or check up on your estate plan. It is always a good idea to regularly review your designations for trustee, executor, and agents under powers of attorney. On March 26, 2020, Governor Pritzker signed
Executive Order 2020-14,
which provides for remote witnessing and notarizing of estate planning and other documents using audio-video communication. LLPH is ready and can help you complete your estate plan with audio-video conferencing.
FUND YOUR TRUST(S)
If you have an existing estate plan, now is a great time to make sure your assets are transferred into your trusts, a process normally referred to as “funding.” Funding is a necessary component of your estate plan that is often missed or overlooked by clients. To make sure your trust is properly funded, you should follow up with your financial institutions to determine if accounts are held in your individual name or in the name of the trust. Accounts that are titled in the name of your trust will pass according to the terms of your trust instead of through the court’s probate process. Likewise, now is an excellent time to review your beneficiary designations – both for retirement assets and life insurance. In light of recent changes in the law, we can help you ensure your estate planning goals are achieved with these assets, as well as your trust being properly funded.
ROTH CONVERSIONS
With the recent dips in the market, now may be a good time to consider converting your Traditional IRA’s to Roth IRA’s in order to take advantage of the lower tax cost of converting, and to take advantage of future growth, as well as distributions, tax-free.
LLPH MOVING TO ELECTRONIC BILLING
Finally, as a result of our response to COVID-19 and measures in place to keep our staff, clients and community safe, March 2020 invoices for all clients will be sent by email only. Additional information will be included with the client invoices, including how to make electronic payments.
Please contact us for more information or for ways we can be a resource to you. Please stay safe and healthy.
